Highpointers of Odin

Hunter Mountain winter trip

2012-01-23T06:23:00.002-05:00

Park at end of Sprucetown road - likely a bit easier drive than Diamond Notch road.

Day 1

Park @ 2100ft

.85 to Red/Blue junction

~.5 to Diamond Notch Lien-To (supposedly in a nice location)

Lien To @ 2600ft

Westkill: ~5.6 mi, 1300ft R/T (daypack)

Total 7 mi

Day 2

Hunter: ~8.2 mi, 1500ft R/T

(Optional) SW Hunter: ~1.0 R/T bushwack

All with daypack (return to lien-to)

Total 8-9 mi

Day 3:

~1.35 mi out to parking lot

(Optional) Rusk: 3.6mi, 3hr R/T from parking lot.

http://catskillmountaineer.com/HWK-rusk.html

October ADK Trip - Day 4

2011-10-09T08:00:00.000-04:00

I woke up without pain, but a quick test of my ankle did not leave me with much hope. I could put weight on it, but it clearly was not at 100%. My ambitious plan of Table Top-Phelps-Algonquin-Iroquois was not going to happen. I weighed my options. Rest, see if it gets better. Do just Table Top-Phelps. Either one left me with the intimidating 8.5 mi walk to my car, plus hiking could make it worse. The weather was supposed to hold out till Tuesday, and I had planned to pretty much wrap up the trip as soon as it turned.

I trusted my gut and decided to leave. I knew I had to be both 100% mentally and physically dedicated if I were going to put in another epic day, and I just wasn't there. I could always be back at that spot within a day to hike again, no big deal. This wasn't going to be my finish to the 46 list or anything. Still, it felt pretty shitty leaving on a nice day with at least one more nice day in the forecast.

The walk out was long, almost 9 miles. Avalanche pass was nice, and had only sustained a bit of damage. I felt like I was going super slow but I was still passing people. Thankfully, my ankle could move left/right without pain, just not down. I was careful where I placed it but still super wary whenever there was any sort of impact.

Lake Colden was really nice. We didn't get to see it on the way in. This is where the two lien-tos were which I wouldn't mind staying at. One could hike Marshall from them, and get up Algonquin, albeit from the steep route and as an out-and-back.

Lien to #1

Lien to #2

It took 5 hours to get to the car. To add insult to injury my car stereo wouldn't turn on, so I had to drive the 6 hours home in silence. NY Thruway came to a stop for no apparent reason, and I had to drive the Parkway and Turnpike in dark. By the time I got home my ankle was pretty sore, but I got out on my own accord, and the trip until that point was pretty awesome. In retrospect it was just a freak sort of injury that would only have been avoided if I hiked like an old person at 1/4 mi/hour, which is never going to happen.

October ADK Trip - Day 3

2011-10-08T08:00:00.000-04:00

I hit the trail just before 8 AM, backtracking to the Uphill lien-to to find the start of the Redfield and Cliff herd paths. The start is rather obvious, marked with a cairn, directly across from the lien-to. Another few minutes takes you to some kind of metal scrap which marks the split. Left for Redfield, right for Cliff.

I hit Redfield first. It was longer, weaving in and out of the brook for the majority of the way.

The path was quite obvious and I topped out after 1:15.

Cliff

Algonquin range, Colvin

Round trip 2:15

Cliff was shorter. The initial trek was so crazy muddy. Most of the placed rocks/logs looked strewn about, probably from the hurricane. True to its name, there were 5-6 rock pitches which I'd rate as Class 2+. Meaning if there weren't tree branches/roots to grab onto, they'd be Class 3. I left my hiking poles and pack at the base of the first to keep it speedy. Someone had told me not to be fooled by the quick elevation gain - the trail continued on for a solid 25 minutes on relatively flat ground before reaching the true summit. All of the herd paths are marked by some kind of sign. So just don't stop as long as there is a trail and you haven't seen a sign. I get the impression a lot of people are fooled by the first false summit.

Round trip 1:35.

I was back at the lien-to at 1 PM, same as the others who were staying in the lien-to, who had gone to Marcy at dawn and also hit Skylight. They had initial plans to do Haystack. But one of their group mates had invited two rookies, including some chick, and I get the sense they held them back. This is when we had a chat with the ranger, and I packed up and headed out of there. My plan was to get down to the Marcy Dam area to put myself in striking distance of Table Top/Phelps and Algonquin/Iroquois.

I was really getting in the zone mentally and physically, just passing Lake Arnold by Colvin, when tragedy (yes, tragedy) struck. My left foot was on a rock which was loose and slid forward. My foot tilted down and I felt a sharp pain in my ankle. It went away after 10 seconds or so, but I immediately felt a damper both physically and mentally.

I continued down the trail pretty easily and stopped at the Avalanche lien-to around 2:30. There were 3 other guys there but they made room for me. They were all pretty cheery. One had done a bunch of the 46 in winter and we chatted a lot about hiking. One was a chef and made the nicest hamburgers I've ever seen. Hand ground meat, green chile with pork and caramelized onions as toppings. This picture doesn't do it much justice.

When I lied down to go to bed, the angle must have agitated my injury from earlier, and I immediately was in a lot of pain. I kind of writhed around for a bit, trying futility to get it comfortable, before bringing it up to the others. They wisely told me to go put it in the stream and gave me some Ibuprofin. The walk down to the water was incredibly painful, and I could barely put weight on it. I felt like an old man and pretty much knew the trip was done then. The cold water felt amazing on it though. After 10 minutes or so, I headed back up to the lien-to, debating on what to do. Maybe I could hike to Marcy dam, hitch a ride on a gator, somehow get back to my car on the other side of the mountains, maybe call someone to come pick me up and drive me car home. When left unchecked, one's mind can pretty easily delve into fatalistic scenarios. Thankfully, I was able to pass out pretty quickly.

October ADK Trip - Day 2

2011-10-07T09:00:00.000-04:00

In the morning, we awoke to find all our food undisturbed and our conscious self gleefully unaware of how many spiders we had swallowed during the night. Our plan was for Marcy and Skylight, with Gray potentially thrown in. We left the lien to around 8:45 and trekked up to Lake Tear of the Clouds.

From there, we decided to head up Skylight first. The trek up was actually quite icy. The summit was open and airy, offering 360 degree views. It was a bit windy though.

Marcy

Haystack/Panther Gorge

Redfield

From there, we went back down to the col and started up Marcy. I was feeling good in typical fashion - always better every 2nd day - and jetted ahead

Looking back

I got to the summit and took in the views again. Surprisingly, it was less windy on Marcy. The day was already noticeably warmer.

Much different than last time.

From there I proposed we split the trip. John wanted to get home as early as possible Saturday, so he'd head down to the camp with Kevin and Ryan and move to one of the lower ones. I decided to head on to Haystack and hit Gray on the way back.

So I headed over Marcy - it's so much better to do a traverse rather than an out-and-back. Especially when last time you covered the trail, it was socked in with no views. Reminded me of the first and second times Steve and I had hiked Katahdin.

Compare to last time

I jetted over to Haystack, and immediately the trail emptied of people. The treeline seemed lower, and soon I was at the base of Little Haystack.

The climb was a pretty awesome rock scramble. It also afforded views of some good fall colors.

From near the summit of Haystack, I saw another couple summit Little Haystack.

Upon reaching the summit, I was pretty psyched and took this awesome self-portrait.

The hike down into Panther Gorge still offered a lot of above treeline scrambling.

All in all, I think I'd place the Haystack hike as my favorite in the Adirondacks so far. The combination of rock scrambling, above treeline, solitude, weather and views were pretty awesome. Gothics would be a close second.

The hike down was crazy steep. It also had the first obvious damage from Irene (aside from the mud, which was everywhere).

Yes, this is a trail with a giant tree in it. The perspective is poor but it's pretty steep downhill as well.

The flat walk through the gorge was pretty damaged as well. It didn't start to clear until it turned uphill. It was less steep than I thought - although the gain was 1200ft or so, I cruised up it at a faster pace as it was clear. On the way up I ran out of water - I had drank 3L so far that day in the heat.

At the col, I met 4 guys and borrowed one's water filter. I mentioned I planned to go up Gray, and somehow talked them into it as well. I had saw the turnoff for it right before Lake Tear on the way up. We dropped out packs and flew up it in 20 minutes. There were 3 or so rock pitches which were fun to climb.

You could see Marcy from the summit. Supposedly, at the beginning of the year one can bushwack through to the Marcy trail, but towards the end of the season it's overgrown.

From there, we headed down to the lien-to and got back at 5 PM. I found two new lien-to mates already sleeping. They woke up and told me the rest of my group had left at 3 PM. They were planning on doing a sunrise Marcy summit. I left them be and hung out most of the night with the guys from earlier before retiring to sleep.

I'd place this day in my top 5 for hiking ever, along with Massive, Mansfield, Gothics, and Katahdin.

October ADK Trip - Day 1

2011-10-06T01:00:00.000-04:00

It was time for a successful trip, one that didn't get cancelled and one that involved actually stepping foot on a mountain. The crew would be Todd, John, Kevin, and rookie Ryan. Many of the other regulars were sidelined due to injuries, school, and work. We would aim to make them jealous by heading to Mount Marcy on a crystal clear weekend in October. I hoped to continue on solo afterwards and hit several other peaks in the area, including my first ADK trailless summits.

We departed from NJ at 1:15, picked up Kevin at Rutgers at 2:30, and made it to the Upper Works trailhead by 7:30. Upper Works is nice as it is free and less utilized than the northern Marcy trailheads, but it is a bit longer hike in. We set off just before 8.

I had maps but not mileages - as an aside, I will complain that my Catskills map is light years ahead of any I've seen for the ADK (and I've seen them all). It is 4.5mi/800ft gain to the first Flowed Lands lien-to. I wasn't really impressed by this lien-to. It was directly on the trail, and over the course of the weekend probably 10,000 people would pass it. But right outside it did offer some nice views.

I wanted to hit the Feldspar brook lien-to, much higher up in elevation and closer to Marcy. This was at 7.7mi/1600ft gain. The two other lien-tos on the way in we passed were just OK as well. The one that was brand new, by the Marshall herd path was a bit nicer as it overlooked a marsh. If you wanted to stay in this area, the two lien-to's just past the turnoff for Marcy are amazing. They both have amazing views of Lake Colden.

We continue on up the Opalescent creek trail. Initially we stopped at the Uphill Brook lien-to, but this one didn't impress me either. It was pretty muddy, no view, in the shade at 2pm. I did get some good information on the trailless peaks in the area from a pair leaving the lien-to, one of which had just finished his 46. I went ahead to scope out the Feldspar brook lien-to and found it a little better. More room, drier, in the sun. Somewhat surprisingly, in the 30 minutes I was gone my trail mix, which I had accidentally left on top of my pack, went missing. I suspect the fox that was lurking around. I convinced the group to move on and we were there by 3pm.

There were already a couple differences in the park from prior years. Although it was a Thursday, we had already seen a ton of people, way more than a normal October trip. The weather forecast was warm, and it was Columbus day weekend, but still the number of people was surprising. There ended up being 5 people in the lien-to and at least 6 tenters outside. The next night, at the same area, there were 5 different people in the lien-to and 8 different tenters. Everyone had bear cans. I had been guilted into buying one, but had never actually seen anyone use one, but it was kind of happy I had one. The rangers were also out in force. We did have a small fire, built with ground wood. The next day, the ranger came to the lien-to and threatened to write us a $200 ticket for it, in addition to a $100 ticket for washing dishes in the river. So for whatever reason they are actively enforcing the rules now, at least in the Marcy area. Lessons learned - bring bear cans, no fires, clean out food scrap from dishes on land before cleansing downstream.

Our cabin mate for the first night was a character. Following a trend of most people I met on the trip, he was terrified of bears, to the extent he carried a 45 (I don't think that's legal). He said he wouldn't use it with us around, as he was worried about accidentally shooting us (thanks). Even better was the fear of spiders though. His plan was to sleep in a hammock, but it did get a bit brisk at night, so he moved into the lien-to. As soon as he did, John found a spider in his sleeping bag, and we talked about spiders for an hour or so. The next day he said he got about an hour of sleep.

September Adirondack Trip - Cancelled

2011-09-02T06:00:00.000-04:00

In continuing the "things going wrong" theme for 2011, the September Adirondack trip has been cancelled due to most of the park being closed in the aftermath of Hurricane Irene.

This blog has a ton of information on the closing.

Although the western part remains open, that does not particularly interest me at this time. Those are mostly checklist peaks for the ADK 46, and I don't really want to bring new people on a trip there.

Delaware Water Gap Canoe/Kayak Trip Planning

2011-06-11T06:00:00.000-04:00

Due to a crappy weather forecast, I made the decision to cancel our somewhat-annual Delaware Water Gap Canoe Trip. In looking into alternatives in the area, I found out the following.

If you look at the Delaware river on a map, you'll basically see two large green sections.

The lower part, from Milford to the Water Gap, is the area we're familiar with. You'll notice it's pretty wide. This area is state-owned. You're allowed to stay at designated campsites only. These campsites are only accessible by boat.

The upper part, from Hancock to Millrift, is called the "Upper Delaware." This area was kind of tough to find information on, but I think I figured it out. It's actually privately owned, but protected land. There are no state campsites. There are, however, privately owned campsites which kayakers can pay for. The crappy part is they're also drive-in sites with RV-hookups, full bathrooms, etc.

Here's a list on the NPS site about outfitters in the Upper Delaware.

Here's the only outfitter I could find in the north who even mentioned overnight trips.

With that being said I think the Upper Delaware is almost exclusively for day trips, the Lower Delaware is much better for overnights.

Yosemite

2011-05-24T14:00:00.000-04:00

I visited Yosemite with my sister recently. We didn't do any hiking, just toured the valley like everybody else. The weather was perfect and some pictures came out great.

El Cap

Half Dome

Yosemite Falls, reflected (this took a few tries)

All pix

Spring Adirondacks Trip

2011-05-13T01:00:00.000-04:00

The actual spring trip turned out to be a complete disaster, hopefully leaving us with several lessons learned. Rather than delve into a lengthy discussion, I'm just going to summarize these, in rough order from most important to least important. As the closest thing to a group leader, I'll take responsibility for the first three (the most egregious mistakes).

1. Finding the trailhead

We parked at the wrong trailhead, which caused us to take the wrong trail, which led to the wrong lean-to, which put us nowhere near the peak. We had good directions with mileage markers, but instead we just parked at the last area before the road was closed. In actuality, we were supposed to continue on another 2 miles, but we assumed the road closure was the start of the private road. This all could have been avoided if we zeroed our tripometers before the start of the dirt road.

2. Maps

The start of the Seager hike is not on the high peaks map, but the peaks are. Because of this we didn't fully realize what happened till we found a different map at the lien-to.

3. Splitting up

The second day we ended up in 3 groups heading to the right lien-to. We've done this before, but without maps and due to some route confusion we got on separate trails. Without the walkie-talkies, we would have had to get very lucky to all regroup.

4. Rest

When we got to the wrong lien-to, it was noon. There was time to move camp to the correct lien-to. But since most of us had been up since at least 1 AM and had full packed 6 miles, the group voted to stay put that day. With the early start time it is important that everyone start to adjust their schedules a few days before so that they are ready to go on day 1.

5. Prep work

In addition to the rest part, no one really read the planning post before the trip began. Thus most of the group was in the dark about what was actually supposed to be going on.

In all fairness, there was a couple at the lien-to who made the same mistake we did with the wrong trailhead. They had no less than 3 different maps explaining the area. They had no idea what was going on. I looked at the maps for 5 minutes and figured it out. Though they chastised us pretty hard, in my opinion they were way dumber than us.

On a side note, the lien-to was pretty sweet, though I really see no reason why anyone would really visit it.

Spring Adirondacks Trip Planning

2011-05-12T06:00:00.000-04:00

We'll be heading to the Seward Range to try and hike (4) 46ers. These are the westernmost peaks and considered rather remote. All of the peaks are herd paths, not maintained trails, but from pictures and descriptions seems easy to follow without map/compass, though I'll have my GPS and a map anyway. There is a maintained trail which goes through the valley by the peaks which has 3 camps with lien-tos on it.

A good write up of a similar itinerary is http://www.adirondackjourney.com/Seward_Range.htm.

Leave 1 AM Friday, book time on the drive is 7 hours. Arrive and start hiking by 9am.

Preferably stay at camp 2, which is midway between the two trails to the peaks we'll be taking (all lien-tos are small black dots). This lien-to is 5.4 mi in on a flat trail. Alternatively, other lien-tos are at 4.5 and 6.3 mi. We should be at camp, set up, and have a short rest by 1 PM.

From there, attempt Seymour mountain. Can't find official trail length, appears to be about 2k ft of gain, 6 mi round trip.

Day 2 - awake somewhat early. Seward/Donaldson/Emmonds are strung out on an out-and-back. Looks like another 2k ft gain to Seward, from there the drops between the peaks are 300-500 ft. Can't find official distances, appears to be about 4 mi to Seward, 5 mi to Donaldson, 6 mi to Emmonds (one way). Can bail out, turn around at any point.

Weather forecast for nearby town - high 65, low 40, 30% chance of rain. Supposedly it's the start of black fly season.

An Intro To Backpacking

2011-04-03T22:02:00.000-04:00

As we're ever recruiting people to join us on trips I thought it would be helpful to write up something for people who haven't been backpacking before. This will be aimed at people going on NY (Catskills or ADK) trips with us. However, I'll try mention stuff you need to know to make it apply more broadly.

Our ADK trips work well as a first backpacking trip. First, the weather and hikes are generally not life threatening. And second, because you'll be with a group of people that think they know what they're doing.

Assuming you have no specific hiking gear there are a few big ticket gear items you will need. I recommend you attempt to borrow these big items instead of purchase them. You don't know if you will have any interest in ever doing another trip, and it is always nice to have used an item at least once before you buy one (so you know what features were useful or needed). There is usually gear available to be borrowed, but you should actually confirm with someone that you have dibs on whatever gear you need.

Before I begin to discuss specific gear you need, let me stress that backpacking is quite different from normal car camping. Don't think that just because you have an item that it will work for backpacking. Keep in mind you have to carry everything you will use over several miles of rough terrain. Because of that, every pound and even ounce will make a difference. A sleeping bag that will work fine for car camping may not work at all for backpacking.

Tents
In NY we stay in a lean to which is a three sided permanent wooden structure. Because of this, we don't use tents. However, we do sometimes bring tents as a backup in case the lean to is filled. I don't think I've ever actually had to use a tent in NY. So for our NY trips a tent is not needed. For other trips though, your main concern with tents is that they are light. Backpacking tents are small and only will fit one or maybe two people. They will weigh something like 3-5 lbs.

Pack
As far as packs go you will likely need two. A larger full pack which will hold everything, and a smaller day pack which will only carry what you need for the hikes to the summit and back to where we are sleeping. The size of packs are measured in liters or cubic inches. I use an 85L (5200 in³) pack as my main pack, which is quite large and heavy (5 lbs) as far as packs go. As you don't need a tent on our NY trips you will be able to get away with a rather small pack, perhaps 50L. There is really a lot to be said of packs. If you are looking to buy one, do a lot of research ahead of time.

Day Pack
A day pack is the smaller book bag like pack that you will use to carry food, water, and a few other items with you on your hike to the summit and back. There are dedicated hiking day packs that are reasonably priced, but an actual book bag will make a fine daypack for your first hike.

Boots
You likely won't be able to borrow boots, so you want to make sure you have a good pair. As with everything else with backpacking, lightness is key. There is a wide range in boot heights from full 8 inch high down to sneaker height. As an overview, higher boots will give you better ankle support and do a better job of keeping your feet dry, while at the same time being heavier (and often more expensive). I like full 8 inch boots, however, many people hike in lower boots. Getting the right pair of boots will be the main factor in if you get blisters or not. Keep in mind that hiking socks are often a bit thicker (it's a very good idea to be wearing hiking socks when you are trying on the boots), and your feet will swell somewhat while hiking. On the other hand, boots that are too loose will let your feet slide, and that will lead to blisters. A good compromise might be to wear two pairs of hiking socks and get boots that fit well (no sliding) with them on.

Once you have good boots you are not done. They must be broken in. You should wear the boots around prior to the trip to do this. A week or two of daily use should be good. In addition, even if you have broken in boots you should wear them for at least a few days prior to the trip to help your feet get used to them.

Sleeping Bag
Your sleeping bag is another very important big ticket item. If you are hiking in away from your car and civilization you want to be very sure that the bag you have will be sufficient. A bag that is good for backpacking will be of the mummy shape and not the standard rectangle. A mummy bag is in the shape of a body. This is done for two reasons. First, to reduce weight by reducing unneeded material. And second, to reduce the volume of air your body has to heat to stay warm. To be honest neither of these things are absolutely critical, however, all backpacking bags are mummy shaped. So, a bag not being a mummy is a sure sign it's not a good backpacking bag.

Bags have a rating that is supposed to represent how cold they can be used to. For these trips, you will want no higher than +20 degrees. Super cheap bags will typically be rated much colder than they truly are. Keep that in mind to make sure you are getting a bag that will be able to handle sub freezing temperatures. The last bit I'll discuss about sleeping bags is the fill material, which is either down or synthetic. To summarize the pros of down are that it's warm, light, and compresses down very small (letting you use a smaller and thus lighter pack). Its cons are that it is much more expensive, is just about worthless if it gets wet, and requires better care (must be stored uncompressed). A 15 degree 1.5 – 2 lbs down bag is a very nice piece of gear for just about any three season backpacking.

Sleeping Mat
You will lose most of your heat to the ground while sleeping. A sleeping bag will be compressed by your weight and do nothing to keep you warm against the ground. To combat this, a foam pad is used to insulate you, while also providing some comfort. Foam mats are about $20, and there isn't much to say about them besides to get closed cell (won't absorb water). Inflatable mats are better at keeping you warm and more comfortable, while also being more expensive. As with all this gear, it's important to get a backpacking mat and not a car camping one. An inflatable backpacking mat should be no more than a pound.

Other Sleeping Items
Before I leave sleeping stuff I should mention pillows. The standard practice is just to stuff extra clothes into a bag and use that. This works but is not that great. A small inflatable pillow is a better choice if you can find one. You will want long underwear (top and bottom) to sleep in. These will only be used for sleeping, to ensure you have dry clothes to sleep in. They should be stored with your sleeping bag in a plastic bag. Earplugs are nice to have due to the orchestra of snoring.

Rain Gear
Staying dry is important. Not just for comfort, but because being wet makes you lose heat much faster. A poncho is a super cheap piece of gear that will work in a pinch but are pretty annoying to use. You will likely want waterproof pants and jacket. These should be thin and with no insulation of their own. A cheap windbreaker and swishy pants from a thrift store work well for a first trip.

Clothes
With all clothing you want to avoid cotton. Cotton absorbs water and will never dry out. As I said above, being wet will make you lose heat much faster. Just about any other material will be better than cotton. Typically shirts and underwear are polyester, pants nylon, and socks wool. All those materials will have a chance at drying out over night, as opposed to cotton which will be wet for the entire trip. A combo of thrift stores and Walmart should work for finding cheap clothes that will work. For a typical 3 day / 2 night trip you may want 2 shirts (1 long / 1 short sleeve), 1 pants, 2 or 3 underwear, 3 pairs of socks.

Cold Weather Gear
Our NY trips tend to be fairly mild fall weather. That being said, mountain weather is very unpredictable, and you should be ready for any temperature from 70 degrees down to 15 or so. You'll want a hat, gloves, and coat. A standard wool hat will work well; you'll want something that is small and can be slept in. Gloves are a pretty wide ranging topic. Try to find gloves that will be waterproof while also being durable. Frankly I've never had a pair of gloves that I liked all that much. As for a coat, you want something that insulates well, but is also light. In general the coat is worn under the waterproof jacket so the coat itself doesn't need to be water or wind proof. As with sleeping bags, down is the best choice for a coat, but also expensive. Fleece is a synthetic material that will do ok if it gets wet. If I didn't have a down coat I'd probably bring two fleeces (plus water proof jacket) before I brought a bulky synthetic winter jacket.

With clothing, the name of the game is layering. Instead of having a heavy jacket it is better to have several other pieces that can be combined to perform the same job. This gives versatility. If your only waterproof jacket is a heavy coat then what will you do in a warm rain? While hiking you can expect to get quite hot, and wearing a heavy coat in anything but very cold temperatures will cause you to sweat a lot. You can easily end up just as wet from sweat as you would have ended up from the rain. And just because it is warm during the day doesn't mean it will stay warm. 50 degrees and raining during the day down to 30 at night is a range where a coat just won't work. While you may feel ok hiking without anything to protect you from the rain during the day, when you stop and the temperature drops you will be freezing, literally.

Water
Water is pretty important if you want to live. While hiking you can expect to drink at least 3 or 4 liters per day (4 liters is about 1 gallon). 4 liters of water weighs about 8 pounds so you won't be carrying in all your water. This means you need to figure out how to get more water after you hike in. Usually, the lean-tos that we sleep at are right by a small stream and that is our primary water source. Unfortunately, there are some pretty bad diseases in water and you can't drink it without some way to filter or kill them first. The traditional method was boiling or sterilizing drops. A more modern method is dedicated water filters. On our trips there will be several water filters so you won't need to worry about bringing one.

As for carrying water, there are two main containers used by backpackers. The first is the ubiquitous nalgene. These are one liter plastic bottles that are used mainly because they are quite strong and durable. One nice thing about them is that many accessories (like water filters) are made to screw on to the standard wide mouth top. The second common option is a water bladder, which is just a flexible bag that is filled with water and kept in your pack, a tube runs out of the pack. The nice thing about bladders is that you can drink from them easily, even while hiking. Nalagenes will cost about $10 (much cheaper if you wait for them to go on sale), and a basic bladder will probably cost about $50. For people on their first trip, I advise you to just collect a few empty standard plastic bottled water bottles. While these aren't great, they have the advantage of being free, and will work fine. You want to carry a minimum of 2 liters water, so if you use standard 20 oz bottles that means bring 4.

Food
People tend to bring way too much food, and food can be quite heavy. There are many guides out there that discuss good backpacking food, and if you're interested you should read some. To give an overview the goal of backpacking food is to not carry water. Just about any food has a surprisingly large amount of water in it. Carbohydrates and protein both have 4 calories per gram, while fat and oil has 9, and water has 0. The most calorie dense thing you can get is oil. In the event that you don't want to drink oil as your only source of nourishment, there are some standard trail foods that work well. Trail mix, granola bars, or anything that comes dried and you add water to and boil (e.g. noodles, mashed potatoes, oatmeal) are good choices. There are premade freeze dried meals made for backpackers which work well, but are more expensive than just buying the ingredients (Walmart is probably the best price). Sharp cheddar cheese and some sort of sausage that doesn't need refrigerating work well. Powdered drink mix (e.g. Gatorade) is great to have.

As for cooking food, small isobutane stoves are the standard for backpackers. Like filters, on our trips there will be several and newcomers won't have to worry about bringing their own. You will want a cup and spoon/fork to eat with. Make sure your cup can survive boiling water poured into it (you'll be eating from the cup). Plastic sporks from Taco Bell work well. Food needs to be hung in a tree at night to keep it away from animals. Make sure your food is in something that can be hung and and will keep your food dry in the rain.

Miscellaneous
There's a variety of other stuff you will want to have with you. A flashlight is very important. LED headlamps have become a standard item for backpackers. They are much easier to use than a regular flashlight and batteries last > 100 hours. There is a range of quality and price, but a cheap (<$10) one will work fine for a first trip. You will want some sort of camp shoe to wear around at night instead of boots. These should let your feet breath and air out, and it is nice if you can wear socks with them if you need the warmth. I find Crocs work very well for this, and are surprisingly light. Fire starting implements are good to have. Others will have them, but as they are light they are good things to carry with you all the time. Have both a small lighter and matches, again it is very light. Chapstick is nice to have. Rubbing alcohol works well for first aid, drying out feet, and starting fires. If you have long hair a brush and something to keep your hair under control while hiking is nice. Toilet paper is very important. Bring a whole roll in a ziplock bag. Keep it with you at all times (in you day pack while hiking). Plastic shopping bags are light and useful. I usually bring 10 or so.

Car Bag
In addition to stuff for the hike it is very nice to have some items you keep in the car for the ride. From here to ADK is about a six hour ride. In your car bag you will want clean light clothes, shoes that let your feet breath, a drink, and a snack.

Packing
Packing isn't just throwing everything into your pack and hoping for the best. You will want the heaviest stuff as close to your mid back as possible. I like to organize my stuff into a few bags and pack them like that. This has an added benefit of keeping stuff dry in case of rain. Sleeping bag and clothes on the bottom. Food is often heaviest so it goes in the middle. And then rain gear and other odds and ends up top. In addition to keeping stuff close to you, you will want stuff tightened down so that it doesn't sway or bounce. Any bouncing will consume extra energy and wear you out faster. For this style of backpacking the hike into the lean to is usually not that bad. It is typically a few miles on some what flat terrain. So the pack weight isn't as critical as it would be for something where you are hiking over peaks with your pack. You should aim to keep your total pack weight, with water and food and all, to under 40 lbs.

Balsam Lake Day 3

2011-03-06T09:00:00.098-05:00

On Sunday I awoke surprisingly well rested after only twenty eight or so hours of sleep. Before it was even light out I noticed that the sound of snow melting onto the roof had gotten steadier and louder, likely being rain. Even in the light, I couldn't be sure if it was raining or just foggy. I got up and confirmed that it was, indeed, raining. This certainly curtailed any motivation I had to get up and start hiking out. Still, we had hiked in the rain before, and at least it was raining for the end of the trip to the dry car, as opposed to the start to the lean to.

Everything in the lean to was damp from fog and rain drifting in all night. Be that as it may, sleeping with my clothes in a dry bag had kept my socks remarkably dry. Todd and Adam complained about having to wear wet socks, so I traded one of my dry pairs to Todd, for services to be rendered later. I also suggested wearing shoprite bags between socks and boots to prevent their socks from getting wet. I mainly meant when they were getting up to pee and had to put wet boots on, but they both tried it for the hike out.

Todd set out, followed by me, followed by Adam, each spaced by a few minutes. Immediately, I noticed that the snow was much softer than during the hike in. The temperature had risen and had been above freezing for the last day. We were all wearing snow shoes now, but I was still post holing much worse than I had during the snowshoe free hike in. The hiking was very slow, for all of us. Every tenth step I'd sink in up to my knee. The three of us caught up to each other and slowly worked our way down. Amazingly, Todd found my watch dial from the hike in Friday night. Before I had even reached the turn between the 0.5 mile and 0.9 mile trails my bindings on my one snowshoe had come loose. It fell off completely at the turn and I began the first of many pit stops to attempt to correct it.

While I am otherwise quite happy with our MSR Lightning Accent snowshows, I think Todd will agree, the binding have been a weak point. What is particularly frustrating is that when they come loose during a hike, particularly with full pack, it's quite difficult to fix them properly. My right snowshoe was fine for the entire hike, while my left one came off every 5-10 minutes for the 0.9 mile portion. Towards the end I had the idea to move the clips as close to the buckle as possible, as opposed to the middle or other end. In addition I attempted to pull the rubber straps tighter than I had before, hoping that the elastic strain would keep the angled nipple in the hole. While this kept them on for the rest of the hike, it was too short to draw any conclusions. Personally, I don't think the bindings are that bad, I just feel there is a trick to using them that we've been missing, as sometimes they hold without problem all day. I am hoping that this is the trick, but will have to wait until next winter to find out for sure. It's worth noting that when I search for reviews of the snowshoes, I find two things about the bindings. First they all have three forward straps plus the heal strap, while ours only have two. Second, they only get high praise from everyone.

I arrived at the car thoroughly soaked. The steady rain made getting changed into clean/dry clothes kind of futile, but it was still an improvement. Since I had forgotten my normal car clothes I had to wear my sleeping long jons for the drive home. This was nice when we stopped at a subway for lunch and I A: looked like a raving madman, and B: was wearing my skin tight, somewhat skin colored, long underwear. I'm confident that had I not been with other somewhat normal looking people, the police would have been called.

The rest of the drive was made more interesting by the constant torrential down pour. Visibility was no more than 100 feet, and it was one of those situations where if anything had suddenly happened we pretty much would have died. Examples of things that easily could have caused this include the 50% of people that didn't have their lights on. Or, the car that flew by us in the shoulder when two lanes merged, rather than wait 10 seconds and just pass us on the right (or wait for us to move over and let him pass normally), followed by him being no more than a quarter mile away for the next ten minutes. Or, the car that was completely stopped in the slow lane getting loaded onto a flatbed causing a Greyhound to have to quickly swerve into my lane to avoid hitting the car at 70 mph. In retrospect it's somewhat interesting that we were almost certainly in greater danger during this drive than during the hike in where we got lost.

Balsam Lake Day 2

2011-03-05T09:30:00.014-05:00

The next morning, I know I could have easily slept past noon with our late night prior. I put it off as long as possible, but I begrudging started to get up in the morning at 9:30. I was able to convince Adam as well, but Steve was a lost cause. No matter how much stuff I threw on him, he didn't budge in his sleeping bag.

It wasn't snowing any more, but it was quite foggy. It took us a bit to get ready as we boiled water and packed for the day.

I tried futiliy to get Steve to accompany us to Balsam Lake mountain, less than a half mile away, one last time. Then Adam and I strapped our snowshoes on and got moving.

When we wandered out back to the red trail, it became clear what happened the night before. I was following tracks up the mountain, as the trail wasn't blazed in the typical every 25 foot fashion. At a small crest, there were tracks heading uphill to the right as well as to the left over a small stream. We had headed left, and saw a yellow blaze after about 20 ft. I had assumed that intersection was that of the yellow-red trail, but it actually was the intersection for the lien-to trail. we didn't see the lien-to sign which was about 10 feet away on the opposite side of the trail. The actual yellow trail intersection turned out to be a 1/4 mile uphill and clearly marked. The original tracks which headed uphill to the right were a decoy, as the real trail did cross the water. Lesson learned: every trail intersection in the Catskills is always marked with a sign, and look for that before jumping to conclusions as a spur trail can be marked with one of the typical colors.

The remaining trek up the mountain remained steep. It leveled off a bit after the real yellow trail intersection, and not too long after the fire tower came into view. The wind was kicking pretty strong and visibility was nill, so we skipped climbing it and headed on.

The trail curved gently down, through overhanging pine which reminded me of so many trails past.

It then opened up and we made good time heading down, even running a bit and letting momentum carry us. After roughly a mile we hit bottom and intersected blue again. From here, the plans were to find the turnoff for Graham mountain. Though it was a bushwack, I had heard the path was wide and obvious the entire way. Sure enough, after a few hundred yards I saw tracks leading off to the right.

Initially, I followed the tracks that led increasingly uphill, but this quickly turned into a real bushwack. After gaining the ridge, Adam decided to turn back. I headed on for another 100 yards before the tracks died at a cliff. I checked the GPS and realized we were off course, having followed the tracks up a minor peak which someone probably had done on a clear day to get a vantage point from the cliff. I turned around and met back up with Adam, convincing him to just try the other path which I had neglected originally. From there on out, we followed the path of least resistance, whose tracks did ultimately lead us in the right direction. After about a mile, we gained the ridge and the trail got a little harder. There were a few bushwack spots, but for the most part it was clear. I gave us distance updates via the GPS every so often, and at the 1/4 mile to go mark Adam took the lead heading up. At 100 yards left, we paused one last time, before finally gaining the summit. The "TV tower" didn't come into view until the very end. It was a dilapidated structure which unfortunately wouldn't even provide us with any kind of shelter from the wind. We took pictures, wandered around for a few minutes, then headed back down.

We practically flew down the ridge, nearly twice as fast as heading up. We originally planned to stop to eat halfway, but instead powered down the entire slope in one push. After losing the ridge and getting back down to the relatively flat mile lead-up, the fog lifted in a span of 10 seconds and all was much clearer. It was like we were now seeing in high-definition. Optimistically we hoped for a view from the fire tower, maybe even sun.

The trek back up Balsam started to slow us down, but we powered on without break and soon were back at the top. Indeed, it was much nicer, and we climbed the tower. As soon as we cleared the trees, the wind started kicking, but it provided near 360 degree views.

Unfortunately, all views of the "high peaks" were still obscured by clouds, but I think we could make out parts of Graham, all of Doubletop, and maybe even Fir.

Shortly after we were back at the lien-to and interrupted Steve's beauty sleep. It was 4 PM, so he'd been sleeping for 13 hours and still was showing little signs of life. I was a bit tired, but mainly just uncomfortable from my soaking wet socks. The view from the lien-to at this point was actually pretty nice and we were able to see the sun set behind a range. The colors were typical Catskills winter: white, blue, black, grey. We all ate and chatted a bit before slowing fading off around 6:30. I may have made it to 7, but was definitely ready for some sleep and fell into a comfortable slumber easily, undeterred by Steve's incessant snoring.

Balsam Lake Day 1

2011-03-04T19:30:00.057-05:00

Due to me having school, and various other scheduling conflicts, we've been unable to get a winter hike in this season. Since winter was ending we decided to make a trip fit in the schedule we had available to us. This meant leaving Friday afternoon, and being home Sunday. With the four hour drive to the trailhead this would mean we would be arriving in the dark. We've hiked at night a bit in the past so this shouldn't have presented too much of a problem. We had two possible choices for the first night. The primary plan was to hike in about 1.4 miles to the Balsam Lake lean to, which was very close to Balsam Lake Mountain. The alternative plan was to drive to a different lean to which was very close to the road, but was farther away from the summit. We'd only stay at the alternate lean to if we couldn't get to the preferred one for some reason (e.g. road was impassable, or trailhead had other cars).

Todd, Adam, and myself set off at about 8pm from NJ for the about four hour drive to the Balsam Lake Trailhead. I drove, in the neon. The drive to the Catskills was filled with lofty political discussions. The UN should expect a letter from us any day now about solving all the world's ills. There was about 20 miles on the road to the trailhead. I was mildly concerned about the Neon's ability to make it in wintry conditions. The road was in decent condition, and was plowed to the trailhead. Still, the Neon was barely maintaining traction on the steeper sections. Despite that, we arrived at the thoroughly icy trailhead at about midnight and set off after minimum delay.

The night prior the low, in nearby Woodstock, was 3 degrees. This night, the low was supposed to be 20 or so. Because of these low temps the snow was pretty solid, and we were able to hike in without snowshoes. We still post holed ever once in a while, but it wasn't all that bad. The first 0.9 miles were a mild incline. Then there was a junction on the left with the red trail which was a steep 0.5 to another junction, also on the left, to the 0.1 mile spur trail to the lean to. Predictably, I was pretty tired even on the easy portion of the hike. At the first junction Todd and Adam set off and promised to leave a hiking pole at the turn off for the lean to, although I suspected they'd instead leave a booby trap.

I began my slow accent up to the lean to, taking care to keep a lookout for any indication of a side trail. Several times, I turned my headlamp off and was amazed at how dark it was with the new moon. After about a half hour of hiking/resting I figured it was about time to start really looking for the turnoff. Shortly thereafter, I did see a somewhat flat and cleared section on the left that could have been a trail. The lack of footprints or signs convinced me otherwise, and I continued on. A few minutes later, I saw the glow from headlamps up ahead. I, at first, guessed that Todd and Adam had reached the lean to and I could just see it from there. But shortly after that Todd called down and explained that they had missed the turn off. They had reached the yellow trail that meets with this trail after the turnoff for the lean to. I explained that I had just passed something that looked like it could have been the turnoff and headed back down to explore.

I had a pretty good feeling that this would be the turn off as it seemed cleared, and the timing had seemed about right. The three of us examined the area for any indications that this was the turn off, but came up empty handed. It was around this time that I noticed just how ineffective our headlamps were at cutting through the darkness. The combination of steady snow and fog reduced the range of the headlamps to no more than 20 feet.

The three of us debated what to do as Todd put new batteries in his GPS and waited for it to boot up. Adam and I took off our packs and set out to explore the area that I thought might have been the turnoff. Upon leaving the trail we began post holing much worse. I sank up to my waist a few times. While this area seemed cleared it was very hard to tell if it was truly a trail or not. The very limited sight our headlamps provided didn't help either. We stumbled around, more or less blindly, for about 10 minutes, never getting out of sight of Todd's headlamp (and our packs).

We headed back to Todd to find that the GPS had gotten a lock, but that it wasn't of much help as it didn't have the lean to on it. Todd's physical map had the lean to and its coordinates on there. The map gave the UTM coordinates for the lean to, but none of us were sure how to get the GPS to take us to these coordinates. Having used UTM and GPS in the past I was a bit annoyed that I had largely forgotten how to actually use them. The cold, dark, and my tiredness made figuring out the GPS pretty frustrating. I managed to get the GPS to display our current UTM coordinates so we had an idea of how far away we were from the lean to. I couldn't figure out how to get it to actually take us to the coordinates we wanted though.

Not wearing a hat, gloves, or jacket had been fine while hiking, but now that I was just standing around it really began to affect me. It seemed the fog and snow had gotten heavier, although I'm not sure if they really had or I just noticed them more. I don't want to say we were in any real danger. After all, we were no more than a realativly easy mile and half from the car, and it was about five hours until daylight. But at the time it certainly felt like we were in a much more precarious position than we normally would be.

Todd decided to just try to manually navigate to the right coordinates. He started up the trail, which was largely north, and the north-south half of the coordinates got closer to the lean to. We followed him up the trail until the north-south half of the coordinates matched the lean to's, then headed west to make the east-west half match. This worked well enough, and after a short while we arrived at the lean to. We had set out at midnight and it was now 2:20 AM. At the lean to I noticed I had somehow lost my trusty watch dial, and now only had a stylish wrist band. I also noted that there was no way in the world I was getting up before noon the next day.

We settled in, and ate some twizzlers. We weren't in any huge rush to get to sleep, but didn't spend too much time awake either. I'd guess we were asleep by 3:00 AM.

Balsam Lake Trip Planning

2011-03-04T10:19:00.002-05:00

Our next trip will be a bit different. Various life callings have prevented us once again from taking a real Catskills winter trip, so this one is "jammed in". We're going to leave after work Friday and get there late. Hike 1 mile in to the Balsam Lake lien-to. This should be interesting as it will be rather dark and it looks to be 800 or so foot gain.

Next day, hike up to Balsam Lake and then over to Graham. It's not a particularly ambitious plan, so we should be able to get both, enjoy the towers on the summit, and have enough time to gather wood and have a nice fire.

Hike out Sunday and come home.

The only deviation which would be nice would be to get Doubletop in. The passage from Graham to Doubletop looks pretty ridiculous though. I suppose one could hike out Saturday, drive to a different trailhead, hike in to the Doubletop lien-to, and then hike Doubletop Sunday. But I do like trips which are not interrupted by car rides.

Peekamoose Trip Planning

2011-01-26T18:58:00.000-05:00

There's not too many trips we can go on anymore which allow us to stay at a lien-to for two nights without returning to the car and have a legitimate itinerary. This is one of the last, but it's nice because I think it's perfectly suited for winter.

Park at Peekamoose road at the junction of the red trail. Didn't read about this trailhead but it's located on a county road so it should be paved well (i.e. not down a dead end road ending in "Hollow").

4.9 mi/3000 ft up and over Peekamoose and Table mountain to the lien-to should make for a solid day 1.

Day 2, head out and bushwack Lone and Rocky after recrossing Table. Looks about 5 mile round trip. Bonus if the going is good enough hit Balsam cap. Either follow same tracks back or traverse around summit mound, saving 300 ft gain/loss.

Day 3, head back out, crossing Peekamoose and Table again.

The map notes a few overlooks which should be nice, and some of them are traversed numerous times.

Seager Hike Day 3

2010-11-24T08:00:00.011-05:00

We woke up earlier on the third day for the hike out. Rekindled the fire as it gently snowed. I boiled water over it as I had lost a lot of white gas accidentally the night before after starting the fire. We packed up, brought the remaining wood inside the lien to for the next visitors, and headed out.

Inevitably, the sun was out for the longest period of the trip so far we were leaving. Though this was slightly disheartening, it did give us the chance to walk down to some of the water falls we skipped on the way in.

The morning light hitting the river made for a much different experience walking out.

In no time though, we were back to the safety of the car. There was no one else in the lot and we had passed no one on the way.

Though views were sparse, the trip successfully knocked out 3 of the Catskill 35 peaks, bringing my total to 20. It also broke in a new member of our hiking circle, Adam.

Pictures

Seager Hike Day 2

2010-11-23T08:00:00.014-05:00

I didn't set an alarm for the morning and we gradually got up around 8ish. Took awhile getting ready, boiled some water and then set out 9:30. I knew it would be too late for Doubletop, but I had a good feeling about the Big Indian/Fir combo. It would be my first major bushwack, but I had brought along my GPS.

I sped up the col, always having legs in the morning, much to Adam's dismay. The walk up to Big Indian was longer and more overgrown than that to Eagle, but it would provide good practice for the bushwack to come. The trail curved around the summit hump of Big Indian, so I picked one of the more gradual spots and headed up. Later, on the way back I would realize there was a rough trail to the summit, but it was a bit longer and not marked at the turnoff. Pretty soon we were at the summit canister, and I signed in while Adam left his mark near the summit.

From there, we headed down into the valley between Big Indian and Fir. I didn't really know what to expect, but the rough trail degenerated after about 10 foot and it was a real bushwack. I broke trail for most of the way, but I don't think it mattered as Adam got equally beat up. We were able to locate Fir from a vantage point and also got a great view of Slide Mountain, the tallest peak in the Catskills. Though it was ~10 or so miles away, it towered over Fir.

Aside from a brief detour, we navigated well to the valley. It was about 750ft down, followed by another 750ft up over 2.5 miles total. Not particularly steep, but tough nontheless.

As we got closer to Fir, we were both getting a bit tired and hungry. There were more and more small paths, but they all died out and I resorted to the "as the crow flies" final approach.

We were happy to take a break, even though the ground was soaked and there was nowhere to sit. We signed the canister and then set down to eat.

The summit tree looked as if it had been struck by lightning but was still hanging on. After 15 minutes or so, we each felt mildly rejuvinated and headed back. We'd have to go back down and up the valley again before getting to Big Indian. Initially, I tried to retrace the same steps to avoid all the branches, but found this useless and just went back to the straight on approach. We made much better time for whatever reason on the way back. I used our prior path in the GPS to shortcut some of the sections. Either way, I was happy when the canister from Big Indian appeared, as I knew we were close to the real trail.

We took another break before heading back. After the col, we made sure not to start carrying wood so early. I found a few enormous brances which fit together nicely and started dragging them while Adam went on ahead. It took me awhile, but I was happy to get them down as they'd serve as some of our larger pieces for the night. The sun came through the clouds for one of the first times that day.

We still had a lot of smaller stuff left over from the night before, so after gathering and sawing for 45 minutes or so Adam built the fire. The prior night, he had earned the CVP "one match one light award", but today was not to be. Our kindling was wet and he was admittedly lazy, and it took a dousing from my white gas to get it started in the wet conditions.

The rain picked up and we brought all the wood underneath the lien-to overhang. I built a small roof for the fire which worked well for a time.

When the rain stopped, we broke it down and continued to have a pretty big fire for the rest of the night.

Adam feasted upon my recommendation of instant mashed potatoes along with pasta and hot dogs. I just settled on the simple man's meal of potates and ramen. We each had a celebratory Labatt Blue tall boy (I had to give him mine as he forgot any, what a nice guy). The night was full of sounds, perhaps coyotes, which kept us alert for awhile, but inevitably I fell into a sound sleep.

Seager Hike Day 1

2010-11-22T06:00:00.024-05:00

Off again on another Catskills adventure, this time with Adam as again Steve bailed due to "school" obligations. We departed from my house a little after 6 am on a Monday. I had off the whole week of Thanksgiving, but would have to get through some traffic on the parkway before the getaway would set in. The trailhead was much further from the thruway than some of our recent trips and it took about 4 hours to get there. Though Wikipedia stated that Seager was an old mining town with just one current residence, there were a few (maybe 8) houses on the 4-5 mile entrance road. Thankfully, the road was paved up until the last 100 yards or so, and the Protege did not have to do any serious off roading a la Colorado.

The weather was much warmer than anticipated as we set off on the trail. I didn't really know what to expect, as it was that time of year in which you could see a foot of snow. Steve and I had been up Hunter the prior year the week before and had seen a few inches plus 20 degree weather, only to have the next day warm to 45 and melt everything away. The initial scenery along this trail was a mix of good and bad. The route followed a wide river, which had numerous small falls.

But, it also followed old logging trails, as the trail split private/public land. The lien-to was a little over an hour in. We had the cross the river one last time to get to it. I opted to hop along the rocks, while Adam slid across an enormous tree that fell.

The lien-to was a bit different than all we had stayed in before. The front overhang was enormous, which was nice when it started raining later. But it also ended directly where the massive stone fire pit began, providing a nice trap for all the smoke later. The left 1/3 of the front was also walled in, making the insides extremely dark. There was a nice step in the front for sitting.

But just like our last few lien-tos, it sloped gently forward, just enough to annoy you at night. We changed into our day packs and headed up to the col between Eagle and Big Indian. After the col, we shortly entered the cloud.

The turnoff for Eagle was indeed marked with a cairn as I expected, but the trail quickly died. I hadn't brought my GPS, so we wandered a bit up top before calling it and taking a picture by the second cairn, about 100 yards after the turnoff.

We headed back down, no views for the day but alas a good warm up for tomorrow. Pretty shortly after the col we started carrying choice logs down, only to realize later we started way too early along the 1 mile section. This slowed us down a bit, but we were back down around 3pm and gathered wood for about another 1.5 hours.

The area was in a wide valley split by the river. There was a decent amount of wood within close range and we had no problems starting the fire just before the sun set. If Steve were around, we probably would have gone to bed around 6pm, but somehow we were able to stay up till 8:30-9, even though it felt like past midnight. I had lent Adam my 5 degree bag and had made the mistake of bringing my -20. I had to sleep with it open all night, even though it only dropped down to high 30s or so.

Seager Catskills Hike Planning

2010-11-02T17:30:00.002-04:00

Thanksgiving week hike, try to get 4 bushwhack peaks. Eagle and Big Indian are .1 off trail. Fir is ~1.5 mile off trail but considered pretty easy. Doubletop is ~1.5 off trail, considered more difficult, but has a plane crash near the summit.

Day 1

Park in Seager
2.0 mi to Lien-To
.9 mi to Trail Junction
~1.2 mi to Eagle Mountain
~2.1 mi Return back

Total 6.2 miles

Day 2

.9 mi to Trail Junction
1.5 mi to Big Indian Mountain
~1.5 mi Bushwhack to Fir
~1.5 mi return to Blue
~.2 on Blue
~1.5 mi Bushwhack to Doubletop

7.1 mi total so far

Return long way (Bushwhack back to Blue -> Yellow) 4.0 mi
Return short way (Bushwhack down to Yellow) 3.0 mi (more likely)

Blackhead Range Day 3

2010-10-17T08:00:00.007-04:00

Awoke earlier than I thought, around 7:30ish. Amazingly, Steve packed up and was ready to leave with little encouragement.

Of course the weather was perfect as we left. Passed more people on the way out, back at the car in no time. We took a different route home, looping around north, and the views were quite amazing.

The hills dropped off into flatlands which stretched as far as one could see. Unfortunately, wasn't able to take a good pic from the car and there weren't many good stopping points.

Didn't stop for food and thus I dropped into a coma on the way home. Endlessly debated where to stop before settling at quite possibly the worst rest stop on the NJ TP. Held myself over with some frozen yogurt before becoming very angry as there was another rest stop with a much better selection 10 miles later.

Regardless, got home in good shape and was happy to claim these peaks. For me, 17 of the 35 Catskill 3500 are now in the books. Unfortunately, it leaves only 3 trailed peaks left, with the remaining 15 some form of bushwhack. We'll see how that goes.

Blackhead Range Day 2

2010-10-16T08:00:00.002-04:00

The next day I awoke around 8 after 12 hours of great sleep. I roused Steve and discussed the plans for the day. It was no longer raining and blue sky was occassionally seen through the fast moving clouds. I planned to hike the 5 mile each way out-and-back to Wyndham High Point, the northernmost 3500 ft peak. There was a shorter approach on the other side, but not by much, so this would do. Along the way we'd pass by Acra Point and Burnt Knob, two 3000 ft peaks, walking mostly along a flat ridge.

I left before him and sped up to the col the same way as the day before, but this time took a left at the intersection. The weather was brisk with little residual humidity, and I noted how that combined with the fall colors made for the perfect autumn experience.

The trail passed through several different feeling areas; some pine, some pure yellow, some mix.

The ridge occasionally offered views east, but slightly after Acra point there was an overlook of the Blackhead range. Some snow had stuck on the tops the night before, and I wondered if that was a first for the season.

Continuing on, I realized that Burnt Knob was a bushwhack, and decided to give it a go on the way back after Wyndham.

Passed a few other hikers headed in the opposite direction, bound for different sites. One mentioned she had been out the week before and the colors had been even more vibrant then.

The hike up Wyndham was long and gradual. The summit quickly disappeared from view and I kept thinking it had to be soon, but unsurprisngly the last mileage marker had incorrectly labeled it closer than it was. The hike continued to pass through areas with different vibes.

The summit was actually quite nice and I was surprised to find an official benchmark. There were no views of the Blackhead range, but an outlook slightly before the benchmark gave a great view north and east.

Heading back down, I picked up speed and cruised along, much like the week before. I realized I was making great time, having done the 5.4 miles in roundabout 2:20. As I detoured off-trail for the bushwhack up Burnt Knob, I thought that maybe Steve would be heading along the actual trail in the opposite direction about that time. I hacked through the brush to the area which seemed highest, took a picture, and kept moving.

I stopped at the outcropping by Acra to have a quick lunch, but the wind was kicking pretty hard and I didn't stay long. The snow awas still visibile on top of the trio, though. Made it back to the lien-to by 1 PM, much faster than anticipated.

Took the time to gather wood, there was a good bit by the lien-to. Steve was back 3:30ish, having turned around before Wyndham. We cooked, finished gathering wood, and started the fire early, 5:30ish. Initially, it didn't look so good, but we got it going with the dry wood inside the lien-to and the rest was history. A pair of hikers tenting nearby came down to chat for awhile at dusk and we dazzled them with stories of past trips. Ended up staying up rather late, but the wind wasn't as strong this night and I slept more soundly.

Blackhead Range Day 1

2010-10-15T07:00:00.003-04:00

The fall being my favorite time to hike, Steve and I planned to make another trek up north to the Catskills the week after our annual ADK trip. The itinerary was relatively easy to plan, as we'd just repeat the unsuccessful Blackhead range trip from the winter before. He arrived at my house at 7 AM on Friday and we set out to clear weather. The Catskills forecast called for 100% rain, and as we got closer the clear skies gradually disappeared. We arrived at the trailhead to find a drizzle slightly stronger than the week prior in the ADK. I had acquired new boots in the week prior, however, and thus was far greater prepared to weather the storm.

The lien-to was only 1.2 miles away and I made it there relatively quickly. The prior guests had nicely pulled in some wood for us, which would ensure a good fire at least one of the nights.

I wasn't optimistic for that day as the rain was showing no signs of slowing and I knew from prior trips Steve and I would probably go to bed as soon as the sun set.

I did a quick unpack, stole some Twizzlers from Steve and head up the short climb to the col. I had done this three times prior, but this was the first time without snow. There wasn't much of a view, as I soon entered the cloud, but I picked out several recognizeable features from the snow climb the year earlier. I was surprised as the steepness of the climb and the amount of rock, as it was definately the most ever for a Catskills hike. However, it didn't compare at all to the Basin-Saddleback hike from the week before, and I was able to make good time.

Pretty quickly I was on top of Blackhead, though I was unable to take a decent picture with the weather.

It seemed like a light snow/hail was falling, although the temperature wasn't all that could and it didn't stick. The trek down to the Black Dome col first took me across the large, gradually sloping summit area. All three peaks of this day would have similar characteristics, but Blackhead was the only one in which the summit was easily discernable.

I headed down the col, which at this time was calm, though 20 minutes later when Steve passed he would hit quite a bit of wind. The trek up Black Dome was again through mist, somewhat steep but much easier than Blackhead. I was happy to finally be claiming these peaks. I trudged around a bit where I thought the summit was and headed down to Thomas Cole. This was a bit lower than the rest, and at the low point I stashed my pack and trail ran up like I had the week before.

Thomas Cole's summit was not clear. I walked past an unmarked but well maintained trail intersection, and figured that general area was about it. I wandered through the brush to the most obvious high ground and called it a win.

On the way back I realized I was again making pretty good time and hoped Steve had continued on to Black Dome. Turns out he had, and I jumped a foot in the air when he said "Hi" through the woods out of my field of vision. I wandered over to the small rock outcropping where he stood and took a picture of him since his camera was now not functional.

We walked back to the lien-to together, down the trail that intersected the Blackhead-Black Dome col. By this time basically my entire outer layer was soaked. We chatted about gear and waterproofing methods and how the hike would've offered some good views had we not been in the cloud.

Back at the lien-to relatively early, cooked up some dinner but gave up on any chances of a fire since it was still raining. I tried to keep Steve up but knew as soon as he got into his sleeping back all was lost. I had brought along a Backpacker magazine which kept me entertained after he fell asleep at 6:15, but I started nodding off around 7:30. The wind was very strong, but in the lien-to we were well sheltered against it and I fell into a great sleep.

ADK 2010 Day 3

2010-10-09T07:30:00.003-04:00

The next morning, all awoke rather early and we headed out. As usual for a Saturday, we passed countless people heading in for day and overnight trips. All the lien-tos would surely be filled, so I hope they had tents as a backup.

The parking lot looked completely different, as it had gone from just us to completely packed. In fact, several people immediately came over to us, readying to take our spot as soon as we left. We all changed into car clothes and felt instantly better. Chris insisted that I take a baby wipe shower before being allowed to ride in his passenger seat.

Again, according to custom, our next stop was the Adirondack Pub and Brewery. We all chowed down and had a few brews before the final leg home. Several growlers were purchased and several pint glasses stolen. All made the trip home safely, and another year was in the books. Chris and our two new guys performed admirably, with 4 4,000+ ft summits. Steve got in gratuitous amounts of sleep, nachos, and burger. I added another 6 4,000ers to my list, the most of any ADK trip so far.

Pics

ADK 2010 Day 2

2010-10-08T08:00:00.004-04:00

Day 2 started off relatively slowly. Plans called for a 9-10 mile loop encompassing Gothics, Armstrong, Upper Wolfjaw, and potentially a Lower Wolfjaw. I didn't set my alarm, but we were still up and ready to go after a warm breakfast by 9 AM. The dry weather hadn't done much to the trail, which was still relatively wet. The slides were again no fun, but at least this time we all had an idea of their difficulty.

Sans Steve, who lagged a bit behind, we all met up at the col again.

I knew Steve was a slow, steady, and safe hiker who could handle it on his own, so after a quick break we all headed up the Gothics slides.

I was feeling much better today, and ran up most of the inclines quickly to turn around and take pictures of the others.

A little bit of wind hit us on the cables, but nothing like the day before. Jeff and Mr Nap performed admirably on their first big climb, which wasn't necessarily an easy break in. Jeff did call ahead at one point to tell me he had dropped the walkie-talkie on one of the steep sections, however, but I yelled back that it was no big deal and to continue on.

We regrouped at the false summit, which offered excellent views in all directions.

From there, we headed over muddy territory to the actual summit about 200 yards away. Chris and I casually strolled to the summit before being blasted by the strongest winds of the trip so far. We leaned on each other in the 60+ mph gusts as Jeff and Mr Nap took a picture in a mildly sheltered area.

We quickly hustled down to get a minor reprieve from the wind. We could spy Armstrong from here, and headed along the much easier trail. We passed three dudes and I mentioned the lost walkie-talkie to them, not expecting much. The trek up Armstrong was much easier, and the wind was bad but nothing like Gothics.

There were good views of the eastern part of the Great Range from the rock ledge.

The trek down Armstrong, on the other hand, was quite difficult. There were many steep sections, some rock, and a few ladders.

We passed a few others hiking in the opposite direction before deciding to rest at the bottom of the col. Chris treated us to some amazing dried strawberries from his trail mix before we headed up the slopes of Upper Wolfjaw. The summit was a quick 10 yard spur trail, again giving good views, but now of the south and western part of the trail.

At the bottom, I tried to convince Chris to accompany me up the 1/2 mile spur to Lower Wolfjaw to no avail, so I set off on my own again. I stashed the pack at the bottom and found renewed energy as I bounded up the slopes. There was some rock and general steepness, but nothing like Gothics. I felt great and made it up to the summit in 20 minutes. There were no views, so I simply took enough time for a picture and to remove my coat and roll up my sleeves. I decided to try and catch up with the others, so I started to trail run down. The down climbing was a lot of fun, and I spent most of it rock hopping and catching myself on trees. I passed a few other hikers on the way down that I had on the way up and they commented on the unorthodox style. At the bottom of the peak, I picked up my pack, stashed my jacket, and broke out into a jog. The ground was condusive, finally on firm ground and not a river bed. I arrived at the first of two trail junctions. I had somewhat expected to meet back up with the gang by now, but they must've just been slightly ahead. The next stretch was very pretty, with the yellows of autumn in full display, but I was slowed due to the trail heading down a small river. The next intersection came quickly, and I again figured I'd soon meet the others. I passed many hikers on this section, as it was the same trail we had come up on, which was the most common route to Gothics. A 1/4 mile before the lien-to, I finally tripped on a stone and fell down. From here, I'd simply walk.

I arrived at the lien-to just before 2, having covered the ~4 miles from Lower Wolfjaw in an hour even to find only Steve. He had made it to the false summit of Gothics before turning around. I was surprised for him to say that the descent was not as difficult as the ascent. I had convinced everyone else to continue on the loop under the premise that the descent would've been ridiculous. We were joined a half hour later by the rest of the gang. They had taken a wrong turn at the first intersection, likely only 15 minutes before I got there. Chris had followed signs for the interior outpost instead of consulting the map I had given him.

Luckily, they bumped into the three guys we had seen between Gothics and Armstrong who pointed them in the right directions. Amazingly, those guys had also found and returned our dropped walkie-talkie.

We still had a good amount of wood from the night before, but spent awhile relaxing before lighting it around 5 PM. As customary on the final night of the trip, we had a community dinner before staying up as late as possible (which by Saturday night standards was still pretty early). Jeff signed the log book with possibly the most nonsensical entry ever which had no hiking references and wrote each of out names and nicknames in.

Jeff "Pees a lot" H
Dave "Doo-dah man" N
Chris "CVP Fun Guy" V
Steve "Wets his Bed" W
Todd "Someone else's gotta name me" N

PS

I like Ore Bread lean to
New Jersey rules
The Moon Rulez #1

Also immortalized was the CVP Freeservers Dan Connell poll.

Pics

ADK 2010 Day 1

2010-10-07T01:00:00.004-04:00

The official 2010 ADK trip co-hosted by the Verderame clan and the Highpointers of Odin kicked off on Wednesday night. Attending this year would be returnees Chris, Steve, and Todd who would be newbies Mr Nap and Jeff. I arrived at Chris's at 5 PM, just in time to catch the second half of the Phillies' first playoff game. We were lucky that a scheduling conflict with the Yankees pushed the game to a 4:15 start time. It would be over for us each to catch some sleep before departing at 1 AM. Roy Halladay pitched his now-famous no-hitter in his first playoff appearance, ensuring that we did stay up the entire time. I was able to get to bed quickly afterwards, getting the most sleep ever for an ADK trip.

I awoke to noise downstairs around 12:30. Steve had arrived, informing us that he'd woken up at 1 PM the day before in classic Crazy Steve style. We were joined by Mr Nap at 1 AM and headed off, with me and Chris in the Danger Ranger 2 and all others in the trusty Neon.

Chris and I chatted through the trip, listening to some good jams. Mr Nap was introduced to the power of Manowar in the other car, providing endless fodder for the rest of the trip. Me and Chris made a driving change with about 1.5 hours left, and I closed out the drive relatively uneventfully. We missed the trailhead turnoff initially but quickly realized our mistake and still beat the Neon there by 10 minutes.

There was a light rain falling, but the temperature was not too low, hovering around 50 degrees. All got ready in expected fashion. Steve put only pants and a rain jacket on, while Jeff bundled up with more than a few layers. We all set out together on the 4+ mile hike in to the lien-to. Within an hour, all had taken layers off.

The trees blocked some of the rain, so I took my rain jacket off to avoid becoming so hot. I was a little concerned about passing by the ranger station without bear cans, but thankfully they were not around. We crossed a rather large, new bridge crossing the river which would take us to the lien-to.

Along the way, several important topics were discussed, such as the greatness of Manowar and the opposite of "oh man". By this time, the rain was subsiding, but all had already become soaked.

We arrove at the Ore Bed (or, Ore Bread) lien-to and immediately took the entire structure. Thankfully, there was ample supply of nails and a clothesline.

Chris laid down for a quick nap, but unlike the year prior awoke ready to tackle Basin. The same couldn't be said for Steve, who fell into a deep slumber after being awake for nearly 24 hours. The remaining four set out around 11:30 for the peak. The trail was muddy but moderate until it hit the slides. The weather had knocked away the wooden ladders that had been placed at the most difficult sections, providing for an interesting hike. Most of it took place on the gutters as we used the numerous trees and roots still remaining to pull us up.

We regrouped at the saddle as the weather cleared further.

The clouds were moving fast and blue skies were beginning to take over. From here we spied Gothics, whose dramatically steep slides we'd climb the next day. For today, though, our trek would take us to Saddleback, a long 1/2 mile from the Col. The trek was muddy and required some mild scrambling, but we all stepped onto the summit together to excellent views. Clear were many peaks we had hiked prior - Marcy, Colden, Algonquin, and, to the far north, Whiteface.

The others were not as gung-ho as I about continuing on another mile to Saddleback, so we separated parties, each taking a walkie-talkie. 2 minutes after leaving them, I regretted it as the trail dropped straight down the cliff. I had expected it to curve around, but was pinned several times to the class 2/3 trail as the wind blasted me at 40+ mph. I was wearing Steve's daypack, as my usual Go-Lite Speed was lent to my dad. I didn't realize the water bottle pockets were of terrible design and lost a Nalgene during this time. There were 5 pitches of steep down climbing, and after getting to the bottom I tried not to think about the fact that I'd have to reclimb it shortly.

The rest of the trek was nearly as tough. The combination of mud and rock made this one of the toughest miles I can ever remember climbing.

At the start of the up climb to Basin, I lost another Nalgene, though it was in sight. I decided to drop the pack and continue up without it in order to save some energy. This was a good decision, and I was elated by the time I reached the summit. Though it was only 45 minutes after departing the others, it felt much longer. The early rise and toughness of the trek was wearing down on me, but I didn't rest long in order to keep momentum going.

After retrieving my pack, I down climbed to pick up my lost Nalgene. I rested for a bit, trying to psych myself into the difficult terrain I knew was ahead. At the bottom of the cliffs, I spied my other Nalgene, and climbed over to retrieve it. It was a little risky, but I didn't want to lose another one. The up climb pitches were worse going up than down. Again, the wind pinned me precariously several times in this exposed area. I studied the route before committing to it, but I swear some of the moves were still class 3, and I was happy to have gone to the rock gym a few times as it gave me some additional needed confidence.

I raced back over the summit, heading down the now-easy down climb to the col. From there, I checked in with Jeff on the other walkie and found they were almost safely back to the lien-to. Unfortunately, he didn't mention they had some difficulty on the rock slides going down and had slipped a few times. By this time I was in a bit of a mental fog and began descending the slides with less precaution than I should have, hopping down on just slowly walking straight down without my trekking poles, which I had long since put away. This gave me false confidence which would soon come literally crashing down. On the steepest section, on which a ladder had recently washed away, I lost footing and slid down feet first for 30 or so feet. I somehow remained alert and used my feet as a shock absorber against a large log at the bottom, but spun sideways and smacked my arm against a limb. I had to take a 5 minute breather to get back into form, but headed down from there with a little more precaution.

During this time I realized a 6 inch long slit had opened in my boot. This would officially be their last trip. My socks were soaked, but surprisingly not very muddy. The final part of the hike seemed like forever, but I made it back to my trip mates at the lien-to. We exchanged stories, and they were all quite happy they hadn't decided to go with me. Like usual, Chris took command of the fire situation and had already found a good cache. Steve had awoke but wasn't of much good for anything other than Twizzlers after only 4-5 hours of sleep. We cooked a good dinner and lit an early fire, but all crashed pretty early after a long, good day of hiking.

Pics

Colorado 2010 Day 21-22: The Drive from NC Home

2010-09-17T09:00:00.002-04:00

Amazingly, that would be the first day on the trip I wouldn't use the car. From here, my hiking was done, and my trip would take me through Durham for a night at my Uncle's before speeding home. On the way out, I was relieved to not have to take the road I came down on, as the intersection I passed early led quickly to a paved road. The camp hosts had told me that a tour bus had made it up and down the road a few months back, something I found amazing, but after the dirt road debacles in Colorado I was happy to not have to see another one again for the rest of the trip.

The pass over the Blue Ridge Parkway was quite curvy, and I remembered driving it with Steve 2.5 years prior. I had feared for my life then as a passenger, but realized being a driver wasn't much better. As with the dirt roads, I was happy to say goodbye to mountain roads for a time as I hopped on the interstate. Having no clean clothes which didn't smell of mildew, I stopped in another REI and Target to get a nice set before meeting my uncle at his work at Duke. He presented me with four commemorative coins for the trip, which I later distributed to much fanfare between Steve, Chris, and Bets, the only four people who have summited a state highpoint in Odin's name.

We went to a high school football game to watch my cousin who is in the marching band before heading back to their abode and chatting into the night.

The next morning I'd head home through familiar east coast roads. I left around noon, and within a 1.5 was back to the craziness of I95 in Richmond, Virginia. I hadn't encountered congestion like this all trip, as I had escaped the east in the early mornings of a Saturday. The entire way home would be packed like this, though I didn't encounter any real delays other than the DC-Baltimore corridor. I forgot how terrible this was, but past Baltimore I could sense that home was near and my spirits rose.

I pulled into my driveway from the opposite side of the road, ensuring that I wouldn't travel any road twice (other than detours to and from trailheads) on Saturday around 6:30 PM. It had been an eventful trip, seeing me drive 5600 miles through nearly every geographic region. I had hit 10 state highpoints and climbed 5 14ers. I had spent 11 nights with two of my best friends in pristine mountain country. I had met many others in each of the 20 states I passed through, providing many memories. All that said though - it was good to be home.

New states, in order: NJ, PA, WV, OH, IN, IL, IO, MN, SD, WY, NB, CO, KS, OK, MO, TN, NC, VA, MD, DE.

Colorado 2010 Day 20: Mount Mitchell, NC

2010-09-16T07:00:00.004-04:00

Stats

Mount Mitchell, NC
Elevation: 6,684 ft
State Highpoint Elevation Rank: 16
SummitPost | Wikipedia

Our Trip

Route Taken: Mount Mitchell Trail
Round Trip Distance: 11.2 mi, 4,004 ft
Trailhead: Black Mountain Campground
Pics

The next day I awoke early and began the 5.6 mile hike. For most of the 4,000+ ft ascent, my brain was in a fog. I wanted to attribute it to allergies, as physically I felt the same as in OK.

It was nice having the map from REI as there were several side trails up. The forest changed dramatically from the base to summit, but it wasn't until I was in the parking lot of the summit till I saw any sort of views. The day was clear but hazy.

I found a sheltered spot from the wind and called Steve, updating him on the trip so far. I stayed on the summit for a total of an hour, joined by a few others who had taken the road. I wouldn't see anyone on the trail in either direction, so I suppose most opted for this route. I was happy that I could now truly claim the NC highpoint, and in the future hope to do the same to some others that we had previously driven which contained decent hiking routes (most notably Mount Washington).

I sped down, feeling a little better, but not 100%.

I didn't have much in my pack, so with about a mile left I began taking good pieces of firewood and putting them inside. Most were quite long, but I balanced them well, and used two for walking sticks.

Back towards the campsite, I took a shortcut and realized there was enough blowdown right behind the camp hosts for me to have a killer fire all week long if I decided to stay. I took two additional trips back there with my pack and loaded up good.

It took me a few tries to light, as I was lazy collecting good kindling, but another trip found me some dry leaves and the rest was history.

Colorado 2010 Days 18-19: The Drive from MO to NC

2010-09-14T11:00:00.002-04:00

I didn't spend much time there, instead hopping back in the car and speeding off towards Nashville. B had stayed in a hostel there a few months prior and had given it a positive review, so I decided to spend the night in civilization instead of searching aimlessly for another campsite. The drive to Nashville took me back over the Mississippi and into Illinois.

The route seemed indirect, but I confirmed later that it was indeed the only real way to go. The forests in Tennessee stretched forever on the interstate and the drive was unremarkable.

Pulling into Nashville, I easily found the Music City Hostel. After being checked in by the British host, I headed downtown, a 20 minute walk.

The waterfront area had more bars per capita than I had ever seen before. All opened to the street and had someone playing acoustic inside. The road was packed as Nickleback was playing in the arena right off it. There were tons of scalpers, and it was a shame it wasn't someone I had any interest in seeing as I could've gotten a single seat easy. I stopped in one of the bars and had a locally brewed Hefeweisen from one of their 80 (!) taps. It was quite good, but after eating I decided to head back to the hostel.

I spent the rest of the night listening to their jam session enjoying a six pack. It seemed everyone staying there also had a guitar and was into country music. A guy who worked at the hostel and who had moved down from a Philly suburb led most of the jams with a combination of originals and covers, most notably Wagon Wheel. A guy from Brazil wearing cowboy boots played along with a mandolin. His friend also joined in on some tunes, though he only had a stub for one arm, using his good one to strum. I was also joined by an Aussie, Dutch, two Germans, and a few other nationalities I couldn’t figure out. I crashed relatively late for me on this trip, and by the time I hit the pillow I was instantly out.

The next morning I got up early to head to the North Carolina highpoint.

Though Steve and I had visited this prior, we had driven and the summit was closed due to construction of a new monument. I had remembered it being a nice area and wanted to visit again to actually hike in the Blue Mountains. The rest of the drive in Tennessee took me back on the interstate and back to the dense forests. It wasn't until the NC border where the views we interesting.

This area was actually quite hilly, and the curves on the interstate vaguely reminded me of those in CO. I stopped in an REI in Asheville to scope out the wares, picking up a map of the Black Mountain area before heading up the Blue Ridge Parkway. This was another highlight of the trip, as I stopped several times to take pictures on another clear day.

The road was backed up in several spots due to construction which turned it into a one-lane road. I used this time to scope out the road to the campsite. There seemed to be two forest roads descending off the Parkway to it, though the official directions said to take the second, I wanted to scope out the first. Immediately after passing it, I decided to continue on. It was an unmarked dirt road which seemed to drop straight down. A few more miles took me to the second road, which at first glance didn't seem much better. As I headed down the steep, narrow road, I prayed no one would be coming up the opposite direction. I felt better when I began passing the primitive campsites along the road, but after checking a few out found them pretty littered with trash and not much level ground. I decided to continue heading down to the pay site.

After coming to an intersection, the road quality got much better, and I arrived at the site. It was in the late afternoon and there were not too many others there other than the two campsite hosts. I decided to stay here, as it was right on the trail and provided nice facilities. I cooked a quick dinner and scanned the area for firewood. There didn't seem to be any, and I was too lazy to buy it, so I fell asleep pretty much as dark hit.

Nashville
MO - NC

Colorado 2010 Day 18: Taum Sauk Mountain, MO

2010-09-14T10:30:00.004-04:00

Stats

Taum Sauk Mountain, MO
Elevation: 1,772 ft
Elevation Rank: 41
Summit Post | Wikipedia

Our Trip

Route Taken: Drive-Up
Round Trip Distance: N/A
Trailhead:
Pics

I pulled into the highpoint location, realizing that the size and remoteness of the area would have made it fine to either sleep in the car or find a primitive site if I had continued on the night before. Regardless, it was 100 yard walk to the summit marker in the dense forest.

It appeared the only true hiking route started at a private campsite about 10 miles away, so I didn't feel so bad about driving this one. There were no views at the highpoint, though some of the roads around it had some vistas which showed off the rolling hills.

Colorado 2010 Days 16-18: The Drive from OK to MO

2010-09-12T16:00:00.002-04:00

I hopped back in the car and headed over to Black Mesa state park, which interestingly did not include Black Mesa. There was no camping within the Black Mesa reserve, and signs directed me to the state park 10 miles away. I had to drive through an open cattle range again and had to skirt around a few cows on the road. The scenery changed quite a bit in the park, going from borderline desert country to a well forested area.

A few odd rock formations popped up here and there which provided a reminder that this was not on the east cost.

I found a shaded tent spot to myself and walked through the other sites, poaching whatever wood I could find. There were a few RVers scattered throughout the park but were a good ways away from the tent sites. All in all, the area was quite nice.

I got an early fire going and cooked dinner before settling down in the tent. The temperature and wind conditions were very amenable, yet the ground was still unlevel and I spent yet another night sleeping well but ending up on one end of the tent.

OK Campsite
OK - MO 1
OK - MO 2

The next day would simply be one of driving, finally putting some distance east. I left the site while it was still dark. Oklahoma would turn out to be somewhat geologically diverse, with the mesa country of the west leading to smaller, yet jutted mountains in the eastern part of the panhandle.

From there, it was onto the typical midwestern grassland for several hundred miles before I finally was able to hop onto an interstate. This was the only toll road I'd hit outside of the east. Somehow it cost me $9 to travel through OK. Eventually, the very eastern part of the state began to shift into the forest land I'd come to associate with Missouri. MO was immediately noteworthy for its letter roads.

I didn't have any real plan of where to sleep, deciding to rely on the Atlas that Steve had lent me to point me in the direction of a state park. It had correctly labeled the prior night's site, so I figured the same would apply to Missouri. The Mark Twain National Forest seemed to fit the bill, about a 20 mile detour from my chosen path. I expected to find some kind of information directing me to a site, but instead just continued with no real direction outside of a vague marking on the Atlas. It was getting late, but the roads were quite fun, very narrow and hilly with drop offs on each side. There was very little traffic and I sped down them, apexing most turns. Pretty soon I was way past where I should've been, so I stopped at a site off the road which had a few people staying at it. Though it had open spots, it was a private pay site and the owner had already left, so I doubled back and headed down an unmarked dirt road which seemed to be in the general area of where the Atlas's marking was. There were a few houses, and one of the locals pointed me in a general direction of a site he knew. Somehow I remembered his directions, though they took me even further from where I was supposed to be. When I got there, I found a fishing spot with many "no camping" signs. The sun had set and I was quite tired of driving, but didn't want to be woken up in the middle of the night and was determined to find a real site after spending 1.5 hours trying to find one at this point. Sleeping in the car wouldn't do. I continued down a random road before finding a sign for another pay site. The nice lady inside pointed out that just down the road, there was a free tenting site if I wasn't looking for any amenities. I finally pulled into the site, which was actually quite nice. It was in walking distance of a fishing spot, but had about 10 car camping sites scattered a bit off the road. I passed by only one pair of older guys on the way in, who confirmed the sites were up for grabs.

I took one on the opposite end, cooked a quick dinner, and then headed over to chat and steal some of their fire. They mainly talked about their dreams of owning an RV and travelling around. We chatted baseball a little bit before several animal sounds interrupted our conversation. They confirmed the area was ripe with coyotes, and commented that the small cat which had been lurking behind me since I showed up probably wouldn't make it through the night. I said goodnight and headed back to my area. I did awake in the night to several more crazy sounds, and in the morning the cat was nowhere to be found. Whether it made it, I don't know, but it was interesting that the most wildlife I encountered on the entire trip was in southern Missouri.

The next morning I got up early and headed back to the main roads leading to the highpoint. My search the prior day had cut it pretty close on gas, as several of the places I tried to refuel only carried regular and I needed premium. I was able to find fuel via the GPS and then found a spot close to the highpoint. For the next trip, I will spend the time to download the highpoint locations to the GPS, as I spent way too much time trying to find places close to them. Of course, the directions differed from the printed ones I had, but it wasn't too long before I realized it was just incidental changes and all would be OK.

Colorado 2010 Day 16: Black Mesa

2010-09-12T13:30:00.007-04:00

Stats

Black Mesa, OK
Elevation: 4,973 ft
State Highpoint Elevation Rank: 23
Summit Post | Wikipedia

Our Trip

Route Taken: Jeep Road
Round Trip Distance: 8.4 m
Trailhead: Colorado Road
Pics

The highpoint was slightly more than 4 miles away, but had less than 1,000 ft of gain. I felt pretty good as I hopped out of the car and hastily packed my gear. As always I was mildly concerned about the late start, but this would prove to be completely unfounded. As I cruised along the brush, I noticed I was making fantastic time.

The trail had mile markers along the way which I was ticking off in less than 20 minutes. The first 2.5 miles were along straight ground, while the next .75 featured the climb up the mesa. The final stretch was along the top of the mesa, gradually gaining ground up to the stone marker. The trail originally started out an old 4x4 road, but it was clear on the incline that it had been a long time since a Jeep had ever climbed it. It looked like the incline now detoured up a different face of the mesa.

Immediately at the crest of the incline, I realized my boot was separating at the front. These boots were now four years old and were showing wear in a couple spots. Tears on the back no longer rendered them waterproof, but they were extremely comfortable and fit perfect. I had to lift up my leg a little differently to prevent it flapping constantly on the ground, but still continued the breakneck pace.

I stopped awhile at the top to check out the monument and surrounding views. New Mexico was only 1/4 mi away while Colorado and Texas were both within 20 miles. There were some hazy views of peaks in the distance in each of these states. I read a little bit of the log book, which contained mostly trinkets, patches and other artifacts people had left before turning around and huffing back.

I normally don't cut the trails, but a rock slide down the mesa offered an easy hop down the elevation instead of switchbacking around.

As soon as I hit the bottom, my other boot separated as well. He must have been suffering from a broken heart. Quite odd that they'd both separate in the same way within a few miles of each other.

The trek back was then just an exercise in minimizing any further damage to the boots, but I made it back to the car for a round trip of 2:30, roundabout 3 mph the whole way.

The much more difficult hikes in Colorado had prepped me well.

Colorado 2010 Day 16: The Drive from KS to OK

2010-09-12T09:30:00.002-04:00

From there, it was due south on the way to the Oklahoma highpoint. Another 25 miles till a paved road. This part of the drive was not memorable at all.

Passed through very few towns. The narrow, winding road in Oklahoma on the road to the highpoint was fun to drive, as no one was on them at all. The turnoff for the highpoint itself was about 20 miles outside of town and led down another tight well-paved road.

There was an odd, abandoned set of buildings along the way that I guessed may have been built for a movie set.

The airy mesas certainly provided a scenic enough backdrop for one. It was slightly after 2 PM when I made the final turnoff down the short dirt road leading to the highpoint parking.

Pics

Colorado 2010 Day 16: Mount Sunflower

2010-09-12T09:00:00.003-04:00

Stats

Mount Sunflower, KS
Elevation: 4,039 ft
State Highpoint Elevation Rank: 28th
Summit Post | Wikipedia

Our Trip

Route Taken: Drive
Round Trip Distance: N/A
Trailhead: Mount Sunflower Road
Pics

I awoke after 10 hours and headed towards the next exit, which immediately dumped me onto a dirt road which would eventually lead to the Kansas highpoint. After the hikes in Colorado, this was quite the change of pace, but it definitely brought the trip full circle. It was 25 miles on dirt to the highpoint, but the roads were good, weather clear, and my overall mood better than the night before.

The highpoint was actually pretty nice, with a metal monument denoting the height. Certainly nicer than Nebraska's, plus it was free.

The views in all directions showed the vastness of the farm country. I checked the log book and was surprised to find that every day had multiple visitors.

Colorado 2010 Day 14-16: The Drive from Massive to KS

2010-09-10T09:00:00.003-04:00

The next day, we got up and broke the site down relatively early. We packed the car and returned down the uber-scenic road to the interstate.

We passed by the now-familiar exit for Breckenridge and then through the Eisenhower tunnel. Back at the hostel by noon, we checked into our "luxury" suite to find it substantially crappier than what we had imagined. The two rooms were joined by a bathroom with a tub, no shower. B went down to ask for a cot while C ventured out into the community shower in the hallway. It took me two razors (admittedly crappy ones I had bought in the supermarket after forgetting mine) to cut through my shaggy beard. By the time I was done with the shower, every inch of wall had water on it.

We all felt much better though, and headed out into the downtown area. It was C's first time on 16th, so we walked up to Wynkoop the scenic way and then settled in for a great dinner right as happy hour started. We ate out on the deck before heading upstairs to shoot free pool on their quality tables.

C had me look up the Rockies schedule and sure enough, they were playing a home game against the Diamondbacks at 7. We walked over to scope out the stadium and C began haggling with the scalpers. I convinced him to return during the first inning to get a better deal, so we walked over to one of the numerous bars in the area. B won a free shot of some local whiskey after C slipped her answers to some Philadelphia-themed baseball questions. She also stole the rep's sharpie and added our tag to those among the wood trim.

At 7:15, we headed over to the game where Chris worked the dude hard, eventually scoring us 3 $35 seats for $20 total. The scalper was quite pissed and said "You're not from around here, are you?"

The game was a Rockies blowout, and we were treated to excellent views of the skyline as the sun set behind the peaks.

We had a few good brews there, walked around, made enemies with the chicks next to us. After the game, we walked down 16th before making our way back to the hostel.

I awoke to B stating that the earplug had broken off during the night and was lodged down in her ear. I looked it up and convinced her to give it a chance to come out naturally before attempting to pull it out. Chris's flight out was at 1 PM, so we had enough time to walk halfway up 16th and get some breakfast before heading to the car and making out way to the airport. We were stopped on the walk back by the "Tour de Fat", a quirky bike ride which stretched for several blocks.

C was worried we'd be late for his plane but we cruised to the airport in decent time and dropped him off. We had already checked out of the hostel and I didn't feel like paying for parking just for a few hours, so I went to the REI lot. I had to stop inside anyway for more fuel, as I had been burning through the canisters at altitude cooking for two others. We left the car in the lot and walked to CVS, where B bought earplugs and I performed surgery on her ear, deftly pulling the plug out much to her elation.

From there, we walked over to Rock Bottom, splitting some appetizers and a pizza over a few beers. Her flight was out at 7, so we began walking back to the car around 4. For the fourth and final time, I'd make the trek out to the Denver airport, but this time I wouldn't be returning to the city. I sent B packing and headed east into the flatlands.

This part of the trip was not all that much fun, as I had just said bye to my two companions after a great week filled with hikes, jokes, clear weather and just all around good times. In addition, it became pretty clear that I wouldn't be anywhere interesting by the time the sun set. It'd be too late to summit the Kansas highpoint, as it is on private property, but I didn't want to stay in a hotel. Instead, I pulled over on the Colorado-Kansas border at a rest stop in the middle of nowhere and fell asleep in the passenger seat.

Amazingly, I slept pretty well, as the rest stop had the only trees in a 100 mile radius, filled with many noisy birds which drowned out the sound of the passing traffic.

Massive - Denver
Denver 1
Denver 2
Denver - KS 1
Denver - KS 2

Colorado 2010 Day 13: Mount Massive

2010-09-09T06:30:00.004-04:00

Stats

Mount Massive, CO
Elevation: 14,421 ft
Colorado 14er Elevation Rank: 2
Summit Post | Wikipedia

Our Trip

Route Taken: East Slopes
Round Trip Distance: 13.6 miles, 4,450 ft
Trailhead: Mount Massive
Pics

The next day we awoke at 5:30 to another clear day.

We packed up and walked down the road 1/4 mile to the Massive Trailhead. The trail wound around the mountain, staying under tree line longer than any of the previous climbs. At the tree line, we all stopped to put gloves and hats on as the wind was kicking a bit. Views were quite good, as the area appeared to be in a bowl of peaks.

Massive has the most above tree line area of any peak in the lower 48, something which was definitely visible now.

About halfway up to slopes to the col leading us the summit, C dropped back, later radioing me to say he was out of gas and turning around. As soon as B and I made it to the col, we were treated to excellent views of the Massive wilderness stretching into the horizon.

We had spied some people above us but had not yet passed anyone on this trail. The trek to the summit was rocky and slightly exposed at times. We debated what rise was the true summit, eventually heading down all of them just to be sure. At the summit, we met up with a guy from Kansas who apparently had never worked a digital camera before.

We ducked into a nook and had a quick lunch, though the wind up here was definitely strong and we didn't intent on staying long. I posed for one final summit picture before beginning the trek down.

During this time, I was slightly upset after realizing this would be our last hike in Colorado together before splitting up. B and I chatted the length down, making the round trip in only slightly more time than the Elbert trek though it was much longer.

When we got down to the campsite, B decided she wanted to celebrate with beer, though we only had 3-4 Miller Lites left from C's initial stash. Though I had hoped this would be the day I wouldn't have to drive, I gave in and me and her hopped in the car to make the trek back to town. We first went to the supermarket to pick up some food as well. B had a case of Tecate in her hand when some guy stopped her to say "What are you doing buying that here? It's only 3.2%!" Lesson learned: don't trust beer from supermarkets or gas stations, as it’s often required to be less ABV. We headed over to the liquor store, where two drunken ladies fell in love with me after I carried their case to the counter instead of them dropping it instantly. Back to the site, making the trip in a bit over and hour. C had just given up on us and lit the fire. We had vowed to burn all the wood, but even after cutting the large pieces with an elk saw borrowed from our neighbors the day before, it wouldn't happen. We were all tired from the hike and anxious to head back to the amenities of Denver.

Colorado 2010 Day 12: Leadville

2010-09-08T07:00:00.003-04:00

It started raining during the night and still seemed to be when my alarm went off at 5:30. I still had plans to hike Massive, so I set it for 6 only to find that it was now socked in with clouds. At 6:30, the clouds seemed to break, so I got everyone up and we began to get ready. Though I was pretty gung ho, my two companions seemed to be less so, so when the clouds rolled back in I decided to call the day. We had an extra day to burn - it was Wednesday, so we still climb Massive Thursday before heading back to Denver Friday to catch C and B's flight out on Saturday. Our camp neighbors were up too, so I walked over to chat for a bit. Turns out they were state highpointers as well who had hiked the CDT 30 years ago. They were originally from Minnesota, but one now lived in Idaho and they met up once a year to go hiking. They told us all about their trips out west and recent misadventures. The one dude had a sweet Hulk Hogan facial hair and told us at length about his knee problems. After chatting for about an hour, they gave us some elk meat and fruit to cook up later.

It was about 10 when we decided to head back into town again. It wasn't raining, but clouds still covered most of the peaks. We stopped on the way out and took some pictures along the entrance road, as the light conditions were quite good and the views a little different from the clear skies we had been treated to all week so far.

Back in town, we ate at a small Mexican place before hitting some of the stores which had been closed on Labor Day. The Leadville Trail 100 store was still closed, as it appeared to keep some odd hours. We stopped in the grocery store again, seeing our neighbors, who told us they were headed out that day.

Back at the campsite, we lit a fire with some wood poached from other sites before cooking the elk. We put the cooking grill over the fire, took my 4q pot, put some olive oil in it, and then placed the elk in. Seasoning came again from B in the form of black pepper and a half can of beer. It cooked fast and was excellent - not gamey, but closer to steak.

Pics

Colorado 2010 Day 11: Mount Elbert

2010-09-07T07:00:00.003-04:00

Stats

Mount Elbert, CO
Elevation: 14, 433 ft
Colorado 14er Elevation Rank: 1
State Highpoint Elevation Rank: 3
Summit Post | Wikipedia

Our Trip

Route Taken: Northeast Ridge
Round Trip Distance: 9.0 miles, 4,400 ft
Trailhead: North Mount Elbert
Pics

The next morning I got everyone up at 5:30, made a quick breakfast, and broke down the site. We headed down to the Elbert/Massive trailhead, arriving by 7 AM even though we made a wrong turn down a dirt road (thankfully, it was not treacherous). The road into the trailhead was long but littered with campsite opportunities. Had we known about it, we would've stayed here the prior two nights, but regardless our site wasn't that bad and not overly expensive.

I was excited to get moving up Elbert, the highest peak in Colorado at 14,433 ft. It would be my 27th state highpoint. We met a pair of Brits hiking the Continental Divide Trail. They had hiked Elbert the day prior and commented on the strong winds up top. We also chatted with a trio of older gents before they took a picture of us and we set off.

Though we had started earlier than them, the CDTers passed us with full packs at the turnoff for the Elbert trail from the CDT. Before long, we were at the tree line and treated to a glimpse of what was to come.

B had some strong legs on this day and put some distance between me, while I put some distance between C. We all met up about a mile past the tree line. I gave B a water jug and told her to continue on without waiting. C had arrived later than us and stayed to rest a little longer. The views were excellent in all directions - again. The bulk of Massive was to my right, with its 4 or 5 summits above 14,000 feet.

I scoped out the eastern slopes route I had read about in the guidebook, a bushwhack over 2 of those peaks along with a 13k and 12k peak. Though I had hoped to put an attempt on this, I figured we'd probably have to settle on the standard approach. The standard climb up Massive was a few miles longer than Elbert, which was currently kicking my ass. I like to say I do better on the second of back-to-back days rather than the day after a rest. I resigned myself to the summit in site before angrily cursing the sky when I rounded it only to realize the true summit looked to be another half hour away.

As I got closer, though, my spirits rose and the ground leveled out some. B was waiting at the top, filming my approach. Note to B: do not rotate camera when taking a movie. It's on my to-do list to split that into two sections and post up here.

We did a little bit of celebrating at the top before I radioed C to find his location. He had yet to round the false summit, and I told him about it in order for him to save some energy. About 20 minutes later, I saw him coming up the final ridge and went down to congratulate him.

The day was crystal clear and there was no wind.

C and B both sat down to eat while I walked over and started talking to another young guy who I had spied climbing the adjacent ridge to us as we were going up. He worked for Pike National Forest, mostly making ATV trails, and had worked prior in several other forests. Before I knew it, we had been chatting for over a half hour, so I went to check on C and B. They were both napping in the sunlight of one of the rock coves. Though it was no doubt pretty comfortable, I roused everyone and we headed back down.

Like the prior two summits, the descent was more scenic than the ascent, as we were treated to views of Leadville straight ahead, Twin Lakes, and mountains in every direction.

I felt re-energized and kept pace with B, probably because I more used to descending on loose rock than her.

We chatted the whole way down and made it to the parking lot by 3 PM, an 8 hour climb. I walked just outside the trailhead to the campsites across the street and was pleasantly surprised to find them to be quite good. C was down in another half hour, slightly held up by climbing out on the rock above tree line to relieve himself (he had radioed me immediately after to tell of how great it was).

We drove the 100 yards to the campsite and set up. Since it was after Labor Day, there were no fees, and we figured we'd stay there for at least two nights with the Massive trailhead only 1/4 mile away. C was quite delirious, but thankfully took some Ibuprofen and would pep up later. We gathered wood, though the area was quite picked over, and Chris started the fire using some of the hay nearby. At around 7 pm, we saw the trio of older guys who had started the same time as us come down. A long day, for sure, but they still got to the tasks of cooking up dinner and lighting a fire in the site next to us. We three were pretty tired and retired early to rest after another good day.

Colorado 2010 Days 9-11: The Drive from Lincoln to Elbert

2010-09-05T12:00:00.001-04:00

We decided to head out to the Leadville area, which as the crow flies was not particularly far, but required us to truck back to the interstate. The day was crystal clear and we were awestruck again by the views.

The road to Leadville was particularly nice. We arrived in town and stopped in the visitor's center for directions to the local campsites. The receptionist directed us to Turquoise Lake, a basic RV/tent site in the national forest. We headed over and were lucky enough to scope out one of the non-reserved sites which was close to the high-quality bathroom and water pump. We found the camp host, paid for our time and bought firewood. The park was closing in two days, so we'd have to find an alternate site afterwards, but it felt good to settle in here for the time being.

The plan called for us to take a rest day the next day, Monday, before heading over to Mount Elbert and Massive the following days. We chatted about what to do on the next day, and tentatively decided to rent bikes around the Breckenridge area if able.
It was about this time I realized that all of my clothes were absolutely soaked. Turns out, B had poked a hole in our large, 2 gallon water jug way back on our first night to get the water flowing better. Somehow, it had then ended up on my clothes box, tipped on its side, and the rest is history. I was able to dry most of the clothes by leaving them out in the sun, but they'd be stuck with a nice mildew scent the rest of the trip.

After setting up the site, we all hopped back in the car for the 5 mile drive back into town. Leadville is stark contrast to the ski resort town of Breckenridge, as an old mining city. It lays claim as the highest incorporated city at 10,200 ft, picturesque views of Elbert/Massive, and an original saloon dating from the late 1800s.

We walked up the main drag, a four or five block long area with numerous shops and restaurants. Unfortunately most of the shops were closed, it being Sunday, but we'd revisit again tomorrow. We settled on eating at an outdoor cafe. We all sampled a pretty strong local ESB before chowing down on some food.

B had a lengthily discussion with the Chicago-born waitress regarding the true nature of gyros. When all had their fill, we headed back to the site and settled in.

Pretty shortly after, we had our fire going. We were entertained by the "campsite pop" game which C insisted everyone was playing. Chris sang "Fran Fran the Garbage Man" for us several times. I was pretty excited to sleep in, knowing that after two early days I wouldn't budge till much later in the morning. I headed to bed first and slept soundly (big surprise).

I awoke the next morning at 10 AM, having slept over 12 hours. Most of our neighbors were clearing out, it being Labor Day and most of them having to work the next day. We took our time getting ready and organized the car further before heading back into town.

This time, most of the shops were open and we were able to pick up some goods. C found a sweet Colorado license plate at the antique store and -gasp- down booties at the thrift store. Afterwards, he'd pass along his trusty duct taped pair to B in chivalrous gesture. B had now picked up trekking poles, tights, and booties on the trip so far for free; quite a good haul. I got a Leadville tee and Elbert/Massive patch (had to climb them now). C would later go back and buy the same T, in the same color (though they had others) for his dad. Can't wait till me and Franny V show up at the same place wearing it. B picked up another set of postcards.

We had lunch at the 1800s saloon, enjoying some Fat Tires for the first time. From there, we walked along the street again before heading back to the car. We stopped at the supermarket and picked up some food. B was very good at thinking of new cheap eats, and the instant mashed potatoes and soup mix that day were an instant min. She also got some pasta sauce which made ramen almost taste like spaghetti. Back at the campsite, we trekked over to the lake front where we hung out for a long while enjoying the excellent views of Massive.

This day was another crystal clear one and we hoped for the best tomorrow. Before we knew it, the day was getting late and we headed back to the campsite to light another fire. We were able to scrounge some earlier in the day from the abandoned sites, but the host beat me to the best pile by two minutes and took it for himself. Regardless, we still had more than enough to burn and would end up leaving some there.

Pics:
Drive to Leadville
Turquoise Lake 1
Leadville 1
Leadville 2
Turquoise Lake 2

Colorado 2010 Day 9: Mount Lincoln

2010-09-05T08:00:00.002-04:00

Stats

Mount Lincoln, CO
Elevation: 14,286 ft
Colorado 14er Elevation Rank:
Summit Post | Wikipedia

Our Trip

Route Taken: Lincoln Amphitheatre
Round Trip Distance: 4.0 mi, 3,370 ft
Trailhead: Montgomery Resovoir
Pics

We retraced our steps to the main road, before relaxing a bit to review the map. There was another trailhead which led to a steep path up Lincoln down at the end of the main road that we decided to check out. Thankfully, the road remained nicely graded the entire way, as it led past a reservoir. We spied another car at the end of the road and hopped out.

The fellow hiker, and older gent, told us this was a bushwhack gaining close to 4,000 ft over 2 miles. We decided to give it a go and headed up into the woods. I was still a little shook up from the car ride, as I did not want to have to deal with the logistics of a tow and car repair up here, so I resigned myself to be especially wary on dirt roads from here on out. The second resolution was that if I ever made it back to Colorado, I'd fly in and rent a Wrangler. Either way, I tried to focus on the hike, following the various herd paths up.

When we came to the first rocks, our companion decided to check out an alternate path, and we never saw him again (though his car was down by the time we got down).

We snaked our way up some Class 2+ climbing before coming out into a brush field. It was here we probably went the wrong direction, as we ended up on the wrong side of the rock slide.

From a later vantage point we saw a rough trail through the thick brush which led to the opposite ridgeline. We tried crossing the rock field, but the going was slow, and group decided to turn around.

The way back down was a bit slow, but we had great views of both the reservoir and the mine and the end of the road.

The road continued on past where we parked as a Jeep road, and we saw a few Wrangler convoys tackled the first set on inclines. We were back to the car around noon and decided to break for lunch on the beaches of the reservoir.

Another check of the car revealed no puddled fluids, and I felt much better.

Colorado 2010 Days 8-9: The Drive from Grays/Torreys to Lincoln

2010-09-04T15:00:00.001-04:00

From there, it was off to find a campsite. The road down seemed worse than going up, and I had to pay attention to all of the ruts and rocks in the road. After some focused driving, it was then time to hop back on the interstate. I had tough time finding information on campsites online beforehand, so we decided to head back to the Quandary area where we had camped before. The plan called for us to head to the Lincoln group the following day, which was about a half hour south of that area.

We made it to the Quandary turnoff, driving down the dirt road through the valley as we had several days before. This time, we were lucky to scope out the first site the Minnesotans had prior. I backed the car into the spot and we set up shop. The ground was a little uneven and rocky, but we each got a decent area, C and I in one area and B in a sheltered spot in between some trees.

C set out to gather wood while B and I tried to organize the car a bit.

Even with some small efforts by me to keep it organized, the car quickly got out of control when we added two others to it. Currently, to get everyone in, B and C had to sit with various gear on their laps or completely engulfing them. We spent some time combining food and breaking down boxes along with emptying packs and rearranging lesser-used gear in the trunk.

We did a lot of work, but as soon as we got back in the car the next day the same chaos would ensue. I think it was during this time that we noticed B's deodorant had exploded on the back deck. We chowed down on the gourmet mac and cheese we got free as a handout in Denver during the street fair.

As we stood around the car, cleaning up after dinner, a pick up truck drove by quite slow, seeming to scope us out a bit. We all took note but figured they were looking for a site. Ten minutes later, another pick up truck came speeding down the road, stopping quickly in front of us. A thin dude jumped out and said, "Have you guys seen two vatos in a pick up truck go by here?" When we responded yes, he told us they had robbed his cabin up the road, taking his gun and weed. "But don't worry, I'm still packing" he reassured us as he pulled up his shirt revealing a gun in his waist band. I asked him how he had a cabin, and he told us of his mining claim a little up the street. When we offered him a beer, he simply pulled one out of a huge cooler in his bed. He introduced himself as Jeff, a mountain biker-now IT guy who had come out here for a race and never left. This dude was pretty awesome and from there told us stories for about an hour and a half. He explained the mining claims, pointing out a shack up on the hill and told us of the abandoned one we had passed earlier, saying it was "pimpin" back in the day. He also pointed out two mountain goats on the slope, which were pretty sedentary as they still hadn't moved the next day. Jeff also told us stories about his dogs, as they scared away the bears but attracted the mountain lions (that's why he carried a gun). He told us of the time a mountain goat and lion tumbled down the slope after fighting in the night, and the next morning he found both with part of the goat in the lion's mouth. He offered us firewood, told us we could stay in his cabin whenever, and even go down into his gold mine if we wanted to. Basically, this was the coolest local ever, and I was beginning to think he'd stay all night. He then decided to take off, cracking a beer for the road and speeding off, saying we may see him in the night looking for the truck.

Chris got our fire started as night had fallen. We chatted for a bit before slowly retiring. All in all, a great day to kick off the three of us together 1,800 miles from home.

I tried to raise the troops the next morning at 5:30, but Chris as expected put up some resistance - "it's not even light yet!" - so I decided to give in and sleep another half hour. At 6 we got up slowly, broke down the camp, and ate some oatmeal. B had brought dried apples and blueberries which mixed in great.

The plan for the day was to get to the Lincoln group, four 14ers grouped in a nice loop. The standard approach was from Kite Lake, but numerous reports online had stated that this was a very rough road for a passenger car. Instead, I decided on an alternate trailhead which would add about a mile to the hike. We crossed over Independence Pass and were greeted with excellent views of the large valley. It was still early as we turned onto our first dirt road. The directions to the trailhead had us make multiple turns from here on, but the numerous houses along the wide dirt road gave me confidence that all was OK. We were actually descending at this point, coming down from the 12,000 ft pass to the 10,000 ft trailhead.

The third turn led us down a much rougher road where things started to get interesting. It was a rutted, narrow road with no houses. A few diagonal ruts formed by water runoff cut through, providing more excitement. The water had exposed several rocks, which jutted up precariously and were my primary concern. I initially talked myself into driving down the road under the premise that this was probably the worst part. The drive yesterday to Grays/Torreys hadn't got progressively worse, yet instead just had some sketchy sections. In addition, the drop-offs on each side of this road didn't allow us to K turn - we were committed. The road did get progressively worse, and I winced every time the car dropped down on a rock or into a rut. After a quarter mile or so, there was a blind bend which opened us the road a little bit. I stopped the car and walked down to check it out and realized there was no way the Mazda was making it down. Chris walked me through a 15 point K turn, and we resigned ourselves to heading up this treacherous road. The way up was substantially worse than going down. Some ruts and rocks were inevitably hit, and the speed I had to maintain up the steep incline made the bottoming out that much worse. Finally, I came to the end, but was faced with the toughest rut. Although I tried to give it some gas, the car stalled and the stench of burning clutch filled the cabin. I was a little frazzled but told C and B they'd have to get out to push. The car started with a nasty sound like a dying animal, but started idling OK. I clutched dumped it from 4000 rpm, kept the momentum going up the last few obstacles, and stopped at the fateful intersection to wait for the others to run up. The car was running OK, and a quick check underneath didn't reveal any leaking coolant or oil.

Colorado 2010 Day 8: Grays/Torreys Peak

2010-09-04T08:00:00.003-04:00

Stats

Grays Peak, CO
Elevation: 14,270 ft
Colorado 14er Elevation Rank:
Summit Post | Wikipedia

Torreys Peak, CO
Elevation: 14,267 ft
Colorado 14er Elevation Rank:
Summit Post | Wikipedia

Our Trip

Route Taken: North Slopes, South Slopes
Round Trip Distance: 9.0 mi, 3,600 ft
Trailhead: Stevens Gulch
Pics

Immediately upon walking up to the trailhead we were struck by the ridiculous number of people there. We saw some small encampments of those who had stayed the night before, but it seemed like most were there for a day hike. The trailhead parking was already full, and cars were beginning to line up on the already narrow dirt road leading to it.

The second thing we noticed was that this would be an entirely above tree line hike, with Gray visible in the distance from the trailhead.

We started out, leapfrogging several groups as we each took off layers as we warmed up. The shadows cast to the ridge on the left made for an interesting contrast.

Though I had decided we'd be taking the "easy" way up, I was trying to scope out the Kelso Ridge to see what the Colorado guidebooks defined as Class 3. The ridge was easily visible the entire time, though I somehow did not see the turnoff on the way up.

We continued on over the rock, chatting a bit along the way. At one break, I made the point of announcing that yesterday Chris had been at sea level on the Wildwood beach having a beer. Not the best acclimation, but given the short time we had there, this would be the plan. About 2/3s of the way up we passed a rock outcropping which seemed to be popular for the junior rock climbers.

The final stretch was a bit tiresome for me, as I still wasn't feeling fully acclimated. Just a bit sluggish on the legs and small in the lungs, which, after talking to others, wasn't all that much out of the ordinary. Nevertheless, as soon as I stepped on the summit I was instantly reenergized.

We joined a group of 20 or so others with Chris summiting about 10 minutes after. Delirious from the climb, he had done an admirable job all things considered, and received numerous congrats from several of the other hikers.

We stayed about 20 minutes after before deciding to head down to the col between Grays and Torreys peaks.

As soon as we rounded the corner, the wind kicked up and began blasting us with powerful gusts that knocked everyone off balance. I was fine hiking in a long sleeve wicking shirt and my standard soft shell to this point, but with the wind became quite cold. I rock hopped quickly down the col and found a sheltered spot to wait for C and B.

Here, C decided to head down instead of hiking the 1/2 mile or so to Torreys Peak. A good decision for him, and I must say that he was not at all taken to summit fever like I normally am when so close. Though I had walkie-talkies, we hadn't brought them on this hike, so I entrusted the masses of people to care for him in the event he passed out along the way.

B and I sped up to Torreys, topping off in perfect still weather.

We stayed much longer there, chatting with several locals about hiking, campsites, and Colorado in general. A guy who had just moved over from AZ told us of bars in both locales where people kept their guns visible in their holsters. Sooner or later we had to leave though, so we hiked down the way we came to the col where we left C.

There we met up with part of a group of college kids who we had chatted with on both summits. Turns out the one was originally from Philadelphia, so we spent the entire hike down talking about Philly sports compared to other towns (basically, how much better they are). He was an RA boss at a local college and told us a few stories about the goings on there. The school had given them money to drive out and go on this hike that day, pretty sweet.

In no time, we were back at the trailhead. There, we stumbled upon a sleeping C, who awoke into a great mood.

A good first 14er for him, and a great second hike for us. Though there were a ridiculous number of people there, it would balance out with some of our later hikes, and I get the sense that with the holiday weekend and superb weather, anywhere we'd have gone would've been much the same.

Colorado 2010 Days 6-8: The Drive from Quandary to Grays/Torreys

2010-09-02T14:00:00.002-04:00

We hopped back in the car and began retracing our steps from the day before. The car was wheezing in effort to get to the top of the 11,000 ft pass and get through the Eisenhower tunnel on I75, but then was treated to a clear downhill descent in which I easily hit 90 or so MPH on occasion. Well, partially clear. The 18 wheelers maxed out at about 50 mph up and 30 mph down, creating nice obstacles along the way. In addition, construction forced the constant closure of lanes. In order to maintain awareness I had to blast some music pretty loud, likely to the disdain of B.

Regardless, we made it back to the Denver with plenty of sun left. B and I headed straight for Wynkoop via the free bus on 16th and ate another great dinner on the deck. We then sauntered back down 16th, but most of the touristy type places were closed and we'd have to check back later.

I tired out pretty quickly, so we began to make our way back to the hostel. Along the way, we saw them setting up for "A Taste of Denver," a pretty big street fair. B insisted upon a few Coronas to close off the day, and after my 24oz I pretty much fell asleep immediately (big surprise).

I awoke the next day top find B was already out and about. Like usual I had slept for 10+ hours when given the chance. I corralled her back in and we headed out to the REI to pick up another set of trekking poles and peruse the book aisle some more.

We then headed over to "A Taste of Denver," where we narrowly missed out on winning a year's worth of Dunkin Donuts on the wheel of chance. I did take this opportunity to down about 10 sample iced coffees, though.

We headed from there back to 16th to Rock Bottom brewery, where we sat outside and lounged for quite awhile till we decided it was time to pick up Chris.

Of course, just then the buses decided not to run every minute, and we had to walk nearly the entire distance down the road. When we finally got on the bus, we had to squeeze our way with 10,000 other people. During this time I realized we'd probably be late picking Chris up. Further delaying us once we made it to the car was the massive road closure as a result of the street fair.

Regardless, we sped along the now-familiar road to the airport. When we got to the terminal, I spied Chris from a ways away and yelled out the window to him. He hopped in the car and the three of us were off, together in Colorado for a week of adventure. Everyone was all excited as I recounted all that had happened so far and everyone got reacquainted. We were too pumped to head straight back to the hostel and go to sleep like we probably should have, so we headed out for a short detour around the street fair. Chris worked the fair's currency system to his favor, sweet talking the attendant into cutting him a deal on a beer since it cost 10 tickets but you could only buy in increments of 8.

We left the fair when it closed, only to have me realized I had left my Nalgene with the tie-dye vendor. I was now down to 2 Nalgenes in total, though I somehow started with 6 at the beginning of the season.

By that time, the day was catching up to all of us and we headed back to the hostel. Chris met Uter, who told him he had thrown up several times while hiking since I had talked to him last. He blamed it on lack of water intake, which I know is something that will never happen to Chris, as that guy drinks nearly a liter every two hours.

I had convinced everyone to get up at 5:30 the next day. We had to drive to the trailhead and then faced the Saturday Labor Day crowds. Everyone was up on time and we hit the road slightly after 6.

The trailhead was its own exit off I75, much earlier than the one for Quandary. We headed up the steep dirt road not sure what to expect. Though at times it was a bit sketchy, the Protege deftly handled the rocks and small stream crossings with me at the wheel. In hindsight, this would give me false confidence for the roads to come. Regardless, we made it to the packed trailhead by 7:15. It took me awhile to turn around in the narrow road and find a parking spot, but we still had shown up early enough so that it still was relatively easy compared to what we'd see later.

Colorado 2010 Day 6: Quandary Peak

2010-09-02T08:00:00.006-04:00

Stats

Quandary Peak, CO
Elevation: 14,265 ft
Colorado 14er Elevation Rank: 13
Summit Post | Wikipedia

Our Trip

Route Taken: East Slopes
Round Trip Distance: 5.4 miles, 3,370 ft
Trailhead: Monte Cristo
Pics

I woke up at 6 AM to my watch's alarm and immediately set out breaking down the tent site. While doing so, I noticed that Chris's sleeping mat was no longer visible. The down jacket was still under the rock, but the relentless wind had taken the mat away. I had a suspicion this would happen the night before, but was too elated once I settled down to bed to care. Walking over to the edge of the camp area, I spied the mat hanging on to a small tree limb slightly down the drop off. Pretty lucky, I suppose otherwise I would've had to buy Chris another before he showed up.

B awoke, we cooked a hot breakfast, and then headed over to the trailhead. We arrived at 8 to find several people had already beat us there, not surprising.

We set out below the treeline on our first 14er, a 3.3 mi, 3,375 ft ascent. The trail was not marked, but was easily discernible all the way up. About a mile in we broke through treeline to a beautiful morning.

The wind was still kicking, but temperatures were not that bad and we had clear views in all directions. Walking up the ridge we had a bird's eye view of our tent site the prior night.

I tried to pace us slow but steady all the way up, only taking minimal breaks to drink some water. As we approached the final ridge, the summit was clearly in site, along with tiny specs of people heading up the path like ants.

This was a bit of a slog, but I was feeling good outside a general shortness of breath which would stay with me the entire trip. My legs were solid and spirits high.

We arrived on the summit to find a group of 10 or so other people. All posed for the obligatory pictures with the laminated sign someone found under a rock.

We ate under protection of one of the mini rock fortresses we'd find on most peaks and lounged a bit, as there was no worries of inclement weather.

The descent was more scenic than the way up, as we got to appreciate the views away from the mountain.

I loaned B one of my trekking poles on the way - bad idea, as she realized how useful they were and I realized I'd probably have to pick up another pair back in Denver. I stopped often to take pictures, pretty much just in awe of where I was. To be hiking a 14er in Colorado in perfect late August/early September weather in good health and in good company - quite nice.

We made it back down to treeline, which was where I started feeling tired from the day. My non-native status was further established when one of the middle aged ladies we met on the summit came trail running down, passing us easily along the way. Regardless, we made it back to the car around 1 PM, for about a 5 hr loop.

I was very happy with our performance, all had gone well. Excellent pacing in which we seemed to keep up with all the locals. Good weather, no threat of rain or thunderstorms. Best of all, we had enough time left to head back to Denver and then out on the town.

Colorado 2010 Days 4-6: The Drive from NE to Quandary

2010-08-31T14:00:00.002-04:00

I got back in the car and deftly navigated back down the seemingly innocuous road. I knew to be careful, though, and drove in between the ruts as to not scrape the entire underside of my car. At the intersection of that and the "good" dirt road, the GPS had me turn right into Colorado.

After driving down the road for a bit and making the next turn onto the next dirt road, I was shocked to see the GPS read 25 miles to the next turn. I wasn't able to go faster than 20 mph without the car shaking violently. I debated resigning myself to this fate, but instead changed the GPS to "avoid dirt roads." I only had to endure another 10 miles or so before I was able to hop back on a real road and head on to the interstate. So yeah, if you have an interest in doing the Nebraska highpoint, just double back on the road you came in on from the North.

Although I had originally planned to arrive in Denver on day 5 and was not particularly happy about deviating from the plan as had happened so often before, I was anxious to see Denver. I sped along I80, stopping only in Cheyenne at the Sierra Trading Post store to scope out their wares. I needed to pick up a wool hat as I couldn't find any in stock in Jersey in August - who would have figured? Mine had been lost the year before or during the recent house move. From there, it was due south on I25 to Denver. The Rockies were in sight from Cheyenne on, over 100 miles away.

The sky was a bit cloudy though, and the views would only improve as the trip wore on. I got to the hostel found by B around 4 PM and made reservations for the entire stay. By 4:30 I had found parking for my weary car and walked into town.

If you ever have the fortune to stay in Denver, but are on a limited budget, than I'd highly recommend staying at the 11th Street Hotel/Hostel. It was only 5 blocks from 16th Street, a central artery of shopping/food/entertainment in Denver, and right across from the art museum.

Best of all were the free buses that headed up and down the street. During our time in Denver, we used them often to hop around town. This time, I headed straight for Wynkoop Brewery to enjoy my first purchased meal of the trip. This place was great - evidenced by the fact that I'd be back another two times on this trip - and I left pretty full after enjoying a huge meal and several heffewiesens. I spent the remaining time walking aimlessly down 16th street before heading back to the hostel.

There, I met my sole roommate, a German dude who would later be known as Uter because all who met him instantly forgot his name. He was a nice guy, former exhange student, lived in Vegas, now training for an IT career. We chatted about rock climbing, travel itineraries. There were 8 bunks in the room but they had given us the same one. Plastered all over were signs stating you'd be charged for two if you changed bunks - lame. Either way, I crashed around 9ish and slept great due to the magic of earplugs.

The next morning was even nicer than the last, and I spent the time walking down the riverfront path to REI.

This place was massive, filling an old factory, located right off a junction of two rivers. I spent a long time wandering around, mainly sitting in their book section reading.

B was due in at 3:15, so I headed back to the car 2ish to make the trek to the fabled Denver airport. Though unfamiliar to me then, I would soon become very adjusted to the lore - and the drive - of this ridiculous structure. It's the largest airport by land mass in the states, something like 50 sq miles carved out a half hour outside of Denver in the middle of farmland. All that, and their waiting lot is a solid 10 minutes away from the terminal and has room for 90 or so cars. Luckily, I found a spot, and sat aimlessly staring at the Rockies.

I'm pretty sure Long's Peak was clearly visible, though I've yet to look up the skyline.

B arrived slightly early and we spent a long time catching up, with I filling her in on some of the trip's interesting points to now. We had decided to head out to Quandary peak, one of the easiest 14ers, as a warm up. We could have chosen a lower, easier peak closer to Denver, but I was here to hike a 14er, dammit! We planned to find a high campsite that night for us to try and acclimate as much as possible. We both gawked at the scenery heading along I70, definitely the most scenic interstate I've ever seen.

We then turned off, drove through the ski resort of Breckenridge en route to a small turnoff for Quandary.

We didn't see anything promising for a camp along the trailhead road, just spoke to a guy our age with Pennsylvania tags who seemed equally lost and in awe. I had read on the Summit Post site for the trailhead that there was some camping opportunities down further after the turnoff for the trailhead, so we doubled back and headed down the random dirt road. About a mile down, we spied a nice area, though after checking it out on foot found it to be inhabited by a few Minnesotans who invited us to stay if we couldn't find anything else. We decided to check further down the road, and as we were walking back to the car saw the guy from PA pass us. He was going to steal our site! We hopped in the car and sped after him before having to stop shortly down the road. A bunch of mountain goats were crossing, causing us both to stop. Luckily B came to her senses and snapped a pic before they all got away.

Pulling up to a dam at the end of the road, we spied ample open space, albeit on rocky ground.

We chatted with the PA guy for a bit, finding out he was relocating to CA to take another job at a state park. He had previously worked in Baxster State Park and I instantly began reeling off the stories of when I'd been there in the past and how much I loved it. We all decided to set up in the area, given that it was 6:30 and the sun was setting fast. The valley was absolutely beautiful, but extremely exposed.

We would learn this later when the wind picked up and pelted our tents all night. We organized the car a bit, cooked dinner, and then decided to walk up to the dam.

Both B and I commented on how these little tasks put us out of breath. I hoped that sleeping here, near 11,000 ft, would do us good. As soon as the sun dropped, the temperature crashed 20 or so degrees, and I was happy I brought my down jacket. I had no cold resistance built up after a Jersey summer of 90 degrees and 90% humidity. The wind then kicked up and I had to put my soft shell on top of that.

We stayed up for awhile, even though we had no fire, and finally I convinced B to go to bed. Not too long after I heard her asking about static electricity. I told her it would probably go away in a bit, but still a few minutes later it remained. B then recounted stories she had read just recently about spontaneous combustion and worked herself into a tizzy. I finally got out to investigate and was amazed at how insane the static electricity was. If you touched her tent, bag, or down jacket (which I had brought as a gift from Nicole), it was like a Tesla coil. This immediately had the effect of passing it to me and all of my gear. I think that the whole situation was exacerbated by the dryness in the air and the wind, but it did not seem to be subsiding. I lazily dragged out Chris's sleeping mat out of her tent, which she was sleeping on in addition to her own, and the down jacket and put a rock on them outside my tent. These seemed to be conducting the most.

I then listened as she decided to go to the car, setting off the alarm in the darkness. After what seemed like an eternity, I finally decided to get out of my bag to check on her just as she came back to camp. I was finally able to go to sleep, and slept extremely soundly. Perhaps it was a good thing that we hadn't crashed earlier, as my extreme tiredness in this weather well outweighted any negative effects sleeping for the first time at this altitude may have brought on.

Colorado 2010 Day 4: Panorama Point, NE

2010-08-31T13:45:00.005-04:00

Stats

Panorama Point, NE
Elevation: 5,462 ft
Elevation Rank: 20th
Summit Post | Wikipedia

Our Trip

Route Taken: Drive
Round Trip Distance: N/A
Trailhead:
Pics

I made it to the HP marker at around 12:30 on Tuesday. The logbook indicated there had been several visitors each day recently. I snapped some pictures and got out of there within 5 minutes.

The heat and bugs made it on the verge of unbearable, and I was anxious to get back to a real road.

Colorado 2010 Day 4: The Drive from SD to NE

2010-08-31T07:00:00.002-04:00

The drive to Nebraska was pretty scenic. The first stretch took me through the remainder of the Black Hills. All of a sudden, they ended, and I was on the top of a 2,000 foot rise. The view stretched for miles of South Dakota and Wyoming. This was the start of the National Grassland.

My trip took me into eastern Wyoming, which truly felt like the middle of nowhere.

For 100 miles, I passed two towns. One of which was laughably small, Lusk. It had a strip mall with a bar ("Bitch's Corner"), a police station, and a drive-thru liquor store. After Torrington, the next town, there was a 20 mile stretch of road which was one-lane. I had to wait for a bit in order for the construction crew to wave me on. One-lane detours occured several times on the trip and far outweighed any traffic congestion.

The road to the Nebraska HP, also on private farmland, deteriorated far more quickly than that of IN or IA. I traveled down 15-20 miles of dirt road to get there.

The final mile was brutal, the limit of what my car could handle. The ruts were too pronounced, so I drove with one tire on the middle and one on the side. This kicked up a tremendous amount of bugs, which blanketed the car. I had to roll up the windows as several crickets got inside. A few ruts and rocks presented other challenges. If I had known of the quality of the road, I would've walked, but that would've been a pain as well in the sweltering heat and with all the bugs.

Pics

Colorado 2010 Day 3: Harney Peak, SD

2010-08-30T17:00:00.005-04:00

Stats

Harney Peak, SD
Elevation: 7,462 ft
Elevation Rank: 15th
Summit Post | Wikipedia

Our Trip:

Route Taken: Trail #4
Round Trip Distance: 6.6 mi,
Trailhead: Sylvan Lake
Pics

At 3:30 I had a spot and the skies magically cleared. I got my gear together and started out on the 3.3 mile trek. Immediately passed by the very scenic Sylvan Lake.

It was good to finally get some hiking in. The terrain was excellent, a wide path with plenty of views of the Black Hills. There were so many crazy rock formations to check out.

Passed only a few people on the way in, enough to confirm that I was on the right trail, and made it to the summit area relatively quickly. They had build a nice staircase leading to the lookout tower on top. I noted that without these structures, the final 30 foot would have been a class 5 rock climb, with no discernible alternative.

I arrived at the lookout tower at 5 PM. the sun was still high, but the wind was kicking. This was the highest point between the Rockies and Pyrenees and a new personal height record (granted, one which would not stand very long). It was also HP number 25 - halfway done.

I had a quick snack and then started the descent. My mind started to wander and of course I got going down the wrong trail. Thankfully, the ranger had given me a park map and there were plenty of spur trails which would lead me back to the same trailhead. This afforded me the ability for different scenery. There were several 200+ ft tall rock pinnacles which had plaques commemorating the first ascents along this trail.

The final area also had been ravaged by insects and the park service had cut down many of the trees. This area was kind of bleak and I was happy to get through it quickly. I was back to the campsite around 6:30 with plenty of daylight to spare.

The wind had kicked through the campsite area and ravaged some of the other sites.

I set my tent up to dissect the wind, as I would have to several times on this trip. Cooked a good dinner of dehydrated vegetables and ramen, reviewed Atlas as I often did, and went to sleep around 9. The campsite was around 6,000 ft, which likely helped in my altitude acclimation for later.

Colorado 2010 Days 2-3: The Drive from IA to SD

2010-08-29T16:30:00.001-04:00

Partially due to laziness, and partially due to the fact that I drove 12 or so hours this day, I pulled over at a KOA in Sioux Falls, right across the South Dakota state line. These are probably better for RVers than campers, but the tenting area still had plenty of people. There were a couple motorcycle tourers and two huge vans of teens on some kind of excursion. Even though I had a very disorganized car with a ton of gear in it, they put me to shame. Found some huge bugs stuck in my grill.

I had driven about 800 miles and fell asleep pretty easily as soon as the sun set.

I woke up around 5:30 and was again out on the road by 6. Hopped right on I90 and headed west.

The Arkansas River cuts through SD, cutting the eastern 1/3 off.

Once I crossed this, the scenery was instantly more interesting. There were rolling hills and cattle ranges as opposed to cornfields.

No mention of I90 would be complete without a mention of Wall Drug. They have 500 or so billboards spaced throughout the state, advertising what seems to be the greatest store of all time.

SD is also littered with billboards for Mt Rushmore area attractions for hundreds of miles. Some might wage war against billboards as blight, but after 1,000 miles of farmland, it was a welcome respite.

Around 10:45 I decided to detour through Badlands National Park. Although the clouds were gathering, it was still quite a sight to see the ridiculous rock formations. I spend about two hours driving through, parked in a few areas and wandered a bit down the trails.

I then did the obligatory stop at Wall Drug to check out what the fuss was all about. About 10,000 other tourists had the same idea, and the place was packed. Not much to say other than the place was pretty ridiculous.

Next, I headed over to Mount Rushmore. I arrived right around 2 and spend about 20 minutes wandering around. The sight was quite impressive as you drove up and only got better as you got closer. There is a lot of interesting history surrounding the construction of this monument. The walkway/amphitheater area is very clean and impressive.

Nearby, the Crazy Horse monument is also available to see. It's been under construction for 45 years, with the Native Americans refusing aid from the federal government and insisting on completing the work using only gate fees. I refused on principle to pay $10 to see an incomplete work, choosing instead to just look at the brochure.

It was still drizzling a bit and I was unsure of whether I'd be able to get the SD HP in that day or whether it would have to wait till tomorrow. Either way, I figured I'd go find a campsite and scope out the situation, so I hopped back in the car and headed over to Sylvan Lake at Custer State Park. Though less than 10 miles away as the crow flies, the road drive took near an hour. I paid the ridiculous out-of-state entrance fee and set up shop. Camping information is always something that I struggle to find online for any place that does not include Lien-Tos. I think they banked on that here. You had to pay a park entrance fee and then a campsite fee. Custer State Park surrounds a National Park. I found later that you could pay the park entrance fee and then hike in to the National Park and camp anywhere for free. I suppose there is some benefit to car-camping though, as it would definitely reduce the amount of time I spent getting ready in the morning.

Pics:
Day 1 Drive
Day 2 Drive
Badlands
Mt Rushmore

Colorado 2010 Day 2: Hawkeye Point, IA

2010-08-29T16:00:00.005-04:00

Stats

Hawkeye Point, IA
Elevation: 1,670 ft
Elevation Rank: 42
Summit Post | Wikipedia

Our Trip:

Route Taken: Drive-Up
Round Trip Distance: N/A
Trailhead:
Pics

Hawkeye Point is located about 100 yards from a farmhouse. The owner took donations and built a really nice area.

While I was there, a local came and we chatted about how nice the area was. He was not a highpointer, but he knew of several of the other HPs and was wearing a North Face T-Shirt (white people love performance gear). There was a nice walkway and granite HP marker.

Best though were the 5 flagpoles, each with 10 signs noting the distance to the other state highpoints. Some of them surprised me.

Hawaii only 1,000 miles?

I stayed about 20 minutes and then hopped in the car.

Colorado 2010 Days 1-2: The Drive from IN to IA

2010-08-28T15:30:00.002-04:00

I had originally planned on seeing if I could camp in this area, but due to Google's overestimates I was way ahead of where I thought I'd be at this time. I left the HP at 3 PM and passed through Richmond. I stopped on the way and used my phone to find the Indy Hostel in Indianapolis. I arrived around 4:30 and headed out for a walk to the Broad Ripple downtown area.

I stopped in the Broad Ripple Brew Pub and had a nice pint of a Nut Brown Ale before grabbing a bite to eat and then heading back to the hostel. I then sat on the deck drinking beer talking to pretty much everyone there. One of the younger employees told me his life story of how he had amassed $1.5m of medical debt and couldn't go back to school to become a wedding counselor. I talked about the Moto GP, which was in town for the weekend, to a guy from Philly and Chicago. Then I talked to a guy from Colorado Springs about the upcoming trip. I settled down to bed around 9:30 and slept solid after a long day. I had driven about 650 miles and hit two state HPs, a great start to the trip.

I awoke at 5:30 and took a shower. Even though I hadn't done any hiking, I figured I wouldn't get too many chances for one and it would make the car ride somewhat pleasant. I was off by 6:00. It was pitch dark, as I was on the very western end of the Eastern Time Zone. This was something I didn't really count on, but really where you are in the time zone makes a huge difference as to the sunrise and sunset. Immediately after leaving Indianapolis, I was in the middle of farmland which would stretch to the Arkansas River. This drive was extremely uneventful. I somewhat wish I had cruise control, but keeping a constant eye on my speed kept me alert.

The Illinois HP would have been a nice diversion on this day, especially since it would have only been an hour or so drive's out of the way and then an hour hike. However, it is only open on the first weekend of May-September with "no exceptions", so I was out of like. For another trip.

I crossed the Mississippi for the first time around Moline, IA. On I80 I passed the famous "World's Largest Truck Stop" which B had told me about, but I didn't need gas and was slightly intimidated by the enormity of the structure.

Around Waterloo, IA the GPS differed from Google Maps for the first time. I stopped and consulted the atlas as to the routes. I could take the rural, direct route or the longer, interstate route. I decided to hit the interstate, as rural Iowa was not offering much in the way of variety. They appeared to grow three crops: wheat, corn, and soybeans exclusively. The interstate route would take me through Minnesota (7th state) along I90. A

The roads took a turn for the worse, not unlike heading into Mississippi from Alabama.

Along the way, I was blasted by crosswinds, which conveniently were also powering several wind farms. I arrived at the HP around 5 PM. With the hour savings from switching time zones, this was roundabout 11 hours of driving.

Pics:
Day 1 Drive
Indianapolis
Day 2 Drive

Colorado 2010 Day 1: Hoosier Hill, IN

2010-08-28T15:00:00.004-04:00

Stats

Hoosier Hill, IN
Elevation: 1,257 ft
Elevation Rank: 44th
Summit Post | Wikipedia

Our Trip

Route Taken: Drive-Up
Round Trip Distance: N/A
Trailhead:
Pics

Indiana's HP is buried down several farm roads. A departure from most I would find later in the trip, these were nicely paved.

When I pulled up, I noticed a pickup truck in the parking area. Turns out, it was a local who was picking up trash in the area. He explained that the area was prone to vandalism; in fact, several of the HP signs had been stolen. There were beer cans everywhere and evidence of a small fire. Considering this is on private land not too far from a road, it was kind of surprising.

Colorado 2010 Day 1: The Drive from OH to IN

2010-08-28T13:30:00.001-04:00

After spending about 10 minutes around the HP, I walked back down to the car and sped off. The drive from OH to IN was purely through a rural setting. The further west I drove, the more farmlands seemed to appear. I drove through one notable town, Sidney, which looked straight out of 1940. Crossing into IN, the terrain got ever less exciting.

The 80 miles took me about 1:45.

Pics

Colorado 2010 Day 1: Campbell Hill, OH

2010-08-28T13:00:00.004-04:00

Stats

Campbell Hill, OH
Elevation: 1,549 ft
State Highpoint Elevation Rank: 43
Summit Post | Wikipedia

Our Trip

Route Taken: Drive-Up
Round Trip Distance: N/A
Trailhead:
Pics

Around 1 PM I made my way into the parking lot of the vocational school on which Ohio's highpoint was located. I parked with the mass of cars, not realizing you can essentially drive to the HP, but the 200 yd walk was welcomed after driving for 8 hours. The HP area was nice and clean, with a marker, historical sign, flagpole, and bench.

This was the first new state HP I had done without Steve, although we each had done one individually in the past; me, Vermont, and Steve, Tennessee, both last year. I had to laboriously set up my tripod and use the camera's timer setting to get my pictures.

Colorado 2010 Day 1: The Drive from NJ to OH

2010-08-28T05:00:00.002-04:00

This trip started like most others, leaving before dawn to cruise down the highway for hours. Conspicuously absent was Steve, left to squander time away in NJ due to college obligations. In his stead, I had a car somewhat hastily packed.

I was carrying all of Chris's gear, who was flying in to meet me a week later. There were 7 Staples paper boxes in the back seat. 4 were food, 2 were clothes, and 1 was misc toiletries. The trunk was a mess of hiking gear, beer, and Chris's food. One area I was completely covered was maps - I had a GPS and road atlas (both borrowed from Steve), printed directions, a phone with GPS, and two guidebooks (Highpoint Adventures and Colorado's 14ers), all which would see use at one time or another navigating along my treacherous path.

The drive was easy enough. Starting early affords many luxuries, most notably time and lack of traffic. I put on Led Zeppelin's discography on random and cruised down the PA turnpike as I had several times in the past.

This time, I headed down the I-70 split into the tip of West Virgina (3rd state on trip). The 20 miles of WV were littered with adult superstores and strip clubs. Anytime something is illegal or shunned in one state, you can pretty much count on it being everywhere as soon as you cross a border.

With every trip, one can find fault with Google Map directions. Previously, it had us cross at ferries and detour off of interstates to save 1/100th of a mile of total distance. This trip would be hallmarked by an overestimate of driving time, even though I rarely exceeded the speed limit. Around noon I realized I was way ahead of schedule for the day and would have to find a way to readjust my sleeping plans.

Soon enough I began seeing signs for Bellefontaine, the town containing the Ohio highpoint.

Pics

The remaining 2010 trips

2010-08-25T09:52:00.002-04:00

The trips this year don't end with Colorado and the Adirondaks. Early 2010 was unimpressive, as the lack of a car for Todd, ridiculous snowfall, and other disruptions stalled any attempt at a trip.

Oct 15-17 (Fri-Sun), one week after the ADK trip, we'll head up to the Catskills. Probably a return to the Blackhead range, to finally bag these 4 peaks without the disruption of ridiculous snow.

Nov 5-7 (Fri-Sun), likely head back up to the Catskills for the last of the fall season there. Thinking of parking at Seager to try for a Eagle/Big Indian trip with possibilities for bushwacks to Graham/Doubletop.

Nov 21-24 (Sun-Wed), we're going to head to West Virginia for the first nonhighpoint hike there. 2 day/3 night in the Dolly Sods. We've looked at maps but nothing definite yet.

Nov 26-28 (Fri-Sun), after a short Thanksgiving break, head back up to the Catskills. A light snow should have settled by now. Not sure the mountain specifics, will depend on how prior two trips go. Maybe Bellyere?

Dec 10-13 (Fri-Mon), thinking of heading back to the ADK. Snow should be settled, still will probably be soft but the route will reflect that.

Colorado 2010: Itinerary

2010-08-25T09:51:00.010-04:00

This year's big trip has taken shape. Unfortunately, Steve will not be able to join Todd, as he has finally caught up to everyone circa-2003 and is taking college classes.

You may have thought state highpointing was dead, but it is not. With this trip Todd will leapfrog Steve in his quest for Odin's glory.

I will be leaving the comforts of NJ to drive west to a land called Colorado, collecting the states of OH, IN, IO, SD, and NE in the process. Once in Colorado, I will be joined by my sister Betsy and Chris for 9 days/10 nights of hiking 14ers.

Rough Colorado Itinerary:

Hike: Quandary, 14,265 ft
Start: Monte Cristo Trailhead
Length: 5.4 mi
Elevation Gain: 3370 ft
Estimated Time: 4-5 hr

Hike: Grays, 14,270 ft /Torreys, 14,267 ft
Start: Stevens Gulch Trailhead
Length: 9 mi
Elevation Gain: 3,600 ft
Estimated Time: 6-8 hrs

Hike: Lincoln/Cameron/Bross/Democrat
Start: Quartzville Creek Trailhead
Length: 11.4 mi
Elevation Gain: 5,000 ft
Estimated Time: 8-10 hrs

Hike: Mount Elbert 14,433
Start: North Elbert Trailhead
Length: 9 mi
Elevation Gain: 4,400 ft
Estimated Time: 8-10 hrs

Hike: Mount Massive, 14,421
Start: Mount Massive Trailhead
Length: 13.6 mi
Elevation Gain: 4,450 ft
Estimated Time: 10-12 hrs

Hike: Bierstadt/Evans
Start: Guanella Pass Trailhead
Length: 9.7 mi
Elevation Gain: 3,840 ft
Estimated Time: 10 hrs

Once Colorado is completed, I will then be driving solo back home. Current plans are to hit KS-OK-MO on the way back before stopping in for a stay in the Smokies. If you recall, the last trip up NC was held short due to summit construction. This time, I plan to hike it from the Black Mountain Campground. A successful summit will then lead me to stay with family in NC before heading home, finishing off a hopefully unforgettable three weeks.

Adirondacks 2010

2010-08-25T09:51:00.008-04:00

The 2010 Adirondak trip plans have been announced and we are accepting applications! In case you may not know the fun you may have missed in the past: 2007, 2008, 2009. The last 3 years (since the dawn of Todd) have been surprisingly mild years temperature wise and have all seen successful ascents.

This year's plan promises to top anything seen in that time. We'll be heading to the Great Range, starting in Keene, NY. Four mile hike in to a secluded lien-to/tenting area by water. Details are sketchy but it sounds like there may be some river fording as the bridge may be out (or guarded by trolls). The big dogs willing to get up early and hike and climb long hours will be able to hit 7 total 4000ers over two days. Day 1 will be a steep jaunt up to Saddleback and Basin, a 7 mile out-and-back. Day 2 will be a 14 mile near-loop, collecting Sawteeth, Gothics, Armstrong, Lower/Upper Wolfjaw. This is a perfect 10 mile loop without Sawteeth.

For the novices, there are shorter day trips. Just Saddleback can be hit in 4.5 mi from the lien-to on Day 1 and Gothics can be hit in 5.6 mi on day 2. Note you will have to collect wood earlier if you take the shorter route.

Scenery is supposed to be amazing with lots of rock ledges, ropes, ladders, chutes, cannons, you name it.

The date is firmly set in stone. We'll be leaving very early Thursday, Oct 7th, somewhere around 1 am (AKA Wednesday night). Drive through the night, arrive around 7-8 AM. Depart Saturday around noon, should be back to Jersey Oct 9th around 6-7 PM.

2010 Delaware Water Gap Canoe Trip: Day 2

2010-06-06T08:30:00.002-04:00

I slept great and begrudgingly got out of bed at 8:30. I immediately woke Crazy Steve up by yelling into his tent and he responded by opening up a bag of Twizzlers and complaining about being awake. A few people were already up and the rest of us joined them within a few minutes. Camp broke down quick. Adam's food bag had gone missing and we assumed a coyote took it.

Not much was left of the fire or 70' tree.

After cleaning up a bit, we were off by 9:45.

It was another nice day, with the current moving a little faster and the wind at our backs.

We paddled to about noon, when the lead group pulled off and took a break for lunch. Ryan promptly yakked behind a bush and fell asleep. Billy fired up some freeze dried food. We were joined a half hour later by Chris/Mark and John/Steve, who we had assumed been eaten by sharks. About 10 minutes later the lead group took off, well rested and fed, at a breakneck pace. The canoes of Todd/Mr Nap, Eric/Work Steve, and Joe/Jeff (the surprising wild card) would compete balls-to-the-wall NASCAR style in a race to the finish.

It didn't take long, though, for us to realize that rain was on the way. About an hour in, nearly to the bridge remains, the fog started rolling in. I turned around to see the wall of rain approach. Earlier in the day, Crazy Steve had predicted rain at 2, and at 2:11 the skies opened. We had 15 minutes of torrential rain, which stopped pretty much about the time we touched shore. Ryan said that Matty jumped right into the water to avoid being struck by lightning. Not surprisingly, Crazy Steve named it the highlight of the trip while Mark complained of being freezing cold.

The lead group finished right around 2:30 and all were back by 3.

We packed the cars and headed home. Not surprisingly, every passenger fell asleep. A few of us listened to the Phillies lose in extra innings, while a few of us listened to Horse the Band at the max volume, but all returned safe.

All in all, a pretty impressive trip, considering 15 people got there and back with no hiccups. The second annual trip saw 250% growth, meaning we'll need 37.5 people next year to continue this pace (and get the better group rate).

2010 Delaware Water Gap Canoe Trip: Day 1

2010-06-05T06:00:00.004-04:00

Due to the overwhelming success of last year's canoe trip, the masses started demanding me to set one up again. Word spread quickly and somehow I was signed up for an overnight trip with 14 other dudes. Returning this year would be the "Original Six" of Todd, Crazy Steve, Work Steve, John, Chris, and Eric. In addition, we would be joined by Billy Z, Adam, Ryan, Matty, Mark Rod, Joe and Jeff and chaperoned by Mr V and Mr Nap.

We planned to depart from Chris's house at 6 AM Saturday. Friday, I went over Chris's house to watch the Flyers tie up the series with the Hawks. We did some food shopping first and were later joined by Joe and Jeff. As we talked of who was coming, Jeff asked if Crazy Steve was the guy with the beard. When I said yes, he replied that's good, cause if he wasn't Crazy Steve, then Crazy Steve really must be crazy. Everyone noted they were feeling sleepy as the game progressed, and we fell asleep shortly after it ended before midnight. When Chris announced he was getting up at 5:15 to do "stuff", I decided to brave the heat and sleep upstairs.

I woke up naturally at 5:40 (work rhythm) and went downstairs to start the day. Chris was bumbling around the kitchen and we were quickly joined by Jeff who we mistook as a Hansen brother.

I started packing the car outside and met everyone as they pulled up. I knew there was no way everyone would be over by the planned time of 6. The weather called for scattered rain and I figured someone would bail. Billy Z called and said he overslept and would meet us there. At 6:10, we were joined by the last man Work Steve and piled in the car to go to Super Wawa.

As expected, everyone promptly got out of the cars and we didn't truly get on the road till 6:30. The ride was pretty uneventful. On the way we decided to cut the trip from 34 miles to 28 as the currents didn't seem as strong and the wind was kicking.

We arrove at the outfitters at 8:45. Billy was already there, and the group of 15 was finally all together. Amazingly, we were all able to gather enough cash to pay together and get the discounted rate. Crazy Steve volunteered to take him, Joe, and Jeff ahead with another group as the vans only held 14. Though Chris tried to request our original driver, he was booked up and we were paired with another. As we walked out, Chris called me over to accept the leader's wristband. I now had the authority to command others to do my bidding!

We piled into the van to go backwards to the gap. When we got there, it was another 20 minutes to pack the trailer with canoes, kayaks, and gear and get everyone loaded in. Though tatted up, our driver did not appear to understand when I asked him if the soundtrack was the 3 Inches of Blood power hour. Instead, we had to listen to some generic rock station.

As like our driver last year, he immediately started flying down the curvy roads, seemingly oblivious to the fact that a) he was in a Ford E350, b) was in charge of 12 other people, and c) had a 1,000+ lb trailer. The back of the van was loving life hitting the whoop-de-doos until we pulled up behind a fully loaded down Toyota Corolla doing 25 MPH. They managed to apply the breaks every 10 seconds religiously, regardless of whether they were going uphill or downhill. Chris offered to run up to them and tell them to speed up. Our driver had a plan all along, though. Knowing the route like the back of his hand, he sped into a ranger station that offered 6" of clearance for the canoes, blasted through a stop sign, and cut in front of the oblivious Corolla. We cut them off with barely enough room to spare at the merge. The van erupted in cheers and soon the Corolla was out of sight.

As soon as we got out of the van, the other driver overheard us telling Crazy Steve, Joe and Jeff about the maneuver. He sheepishly had to explain to the other one what it was about and to "not say anything." We scrounged up some cash enough for a $10 tip (thanks Billy) and got ready to depart. First, we had to listen to the safety speech, in which the 2 beers per person per day limit was emphasized. Seeing essentially a cooler per person, our driver came up to me (the leader) and said it didn't really matter as long as we cleaned up our trash. I told him not to worry just as Chris was finishing shotgunning his first beer and throwing it inside an empty canoe (just kidding, he's an environmentalist).

We got out on the water and immediately noticed that the current wasn't flowing as quick and the wind was often blowing against us. I soon became happy that we chose the 28 mile over the 34 as we weren't setting the same breakneck pace. Chris and Mark jumped to an early lead. My dad asked me if we should paddle harder, to which I replied they only had about 15 minutes before slowing down (as was the case every time we took a break). We paddled along, chatting with everyone.

At noon we stopped on a shoal and had lunch for 45 minutes. The weather was looking great and pretty much all took this opportunity to crack their first (or second [or third]) beers.

During this time Chris and I talked and we agreed to camp earlier than last year. Somehow, he remembered a "sweet beach site" and told me that if I see something, "make a decision". I said we'll see about that. Shortly before the "S" turn we pulled up to a sweet beach site. Chris and his dad scoped out the neighboring tent sites and agreed this was where we'd stay.

It was around 2:45, nearly an hour after we had stopped the prior year, which was a site :45 down the river. We were definately making slower time but everyone was together and there was plenty of day left to party. We all docked our boats and set about putting up the tent sites. I chose a spot in the corner on sand. It gets everywhere but makes for a more comfortable sleep. Everyone was pulling out gear left and right. I had thought we'd have a tent shortage but somehow there were 11 tents for 15 people. This crew had emptied out the Walmart camping section for sure (Billy had in fact been there 1 AM the night before).

It was time for a break, so everyone jumped in the water. The current was strong but Crazy Steve, John, and Ryan set out to swim it. Upon returning, they somehow bestowed confidence in Matty, who set out across as well. About 80% of the way across we saw his head bobbing and heard him say, "Help!" I yelled at his now-immobile partner, Ryan, to go save him. Note: this is why they tell you not to swim it, especially alone. Somehow the last canoes of the day were paddling by at the same time and stopped to pick him up. Of course he didn't live this down for the rest of the night.

During this time we saw a bald eagle sitting on the shore a ways down from us. Unfortunately, no one had a camera with a good lens, and we were only left with a distant spec on the frame. This month's Backpacker magazine did name the DWG area one of the top three in the union for Bald Eagle sightings, and we did see one last year as well.

We had already decided on cooking and having the fire down on the rock beach, so we set out gathering wood. There was plenty of rope, hatchets, and saws after our meager tools worked so well last year. The group set off in different directions, but my first task was to saw down a 70' tree conveniently located right next to the camp site. It didn't land as close to my tent as originally though and broke into a few convenient pieces. We still had to push it down the 20' slope to the beach, however. Then Eric wrapped the rope around his waist and pulled it the rest of the way.

Meanwhile, Adam was out proving himself as the new guy. We had just met him through Billy Z and immediately liked him better than the last guy Billy brought on a canoe trip (who drunkely flipped their boat 25 times). He outsmarted us who had been here before by bringing jeans and a long sleeve shirt to hunt off in the woods in. Every 20 minutes he'd come back towing a bundle of wood nicely tied up. For that, he gets the "Wood Gathering All-Star" award (sounds gay).

It was around 6:00 and it seemed we still hadn't gathered anywhere near as much wood as last year. I think it may have had something to do with the ridiculous snow fall we received. It may have brought down a lot of the dead stuff we so easily got with the rope last year. We did have a good bit though and settled down to drinking and cooking.

Around 8:00 John brought out a flare to kick off the fire. The beach time had done a nice job building a teepee in lieu of gathering and it went right up.

More interestingly, though, John put the flare on a piece of wood and pushed it down the river (very safe). Everyone then entertained themselves with throwing rocks at the mini-raft, but no one was able to flip it.

Slowly but surely more wood was thrown on the fire and it gained size. A few of us set out to saw the 70' tree, which was now partially in the fire, into smaller pieces spite of the ridiculous heat.

A few fellas went of to sleep (or in the case of Billy, to Facebook from the comforts of his tent) while others lounged around on the flipped canoes.

Entertainment was provided by the "barbaric" (according to Crazy Steve) throwing of rocks into the fire. After a few peach daiquiris, Joe became annoyed at the green light campers on the other site of the river and started screaming obscenities at them. The boy scouts at the site over had retired early and were missing out on our fire. Indeed, it was quite nice, I will say that being on the beach definitely added to the whole ambiance.

John did his obligatory "jump through fire" using the 2x8 poker as a ramp. Around 1:30 we convinced Ryan to chop the last piece of wood. For the next 20 minutes we watched him hack at it. John yelled "jump on it!" and Ryan nearly slipped stabbing himself with the saw. 5 minutes after he finished, the last of us headed up to the tent site and called it a night.

Hitchhiking On The AT

2010-03-06T02:09:00.006-05:00

Martin Gansberg’s “Thirty-Eight Who Saw Murder Didn’t Call the Police” is a newspaper article about a murder; the article tells how the people that witnessed the murder didn't do anything to stop it. I have never had firsthand experience with something so grim; however, I have had experiences with needing help and not being able to find anyone to provide it. While my experiences may seem trivial in comparison, in a greatly watered down fashion, they share some similarities.

This past spring I set out on the Appalachian Trail, a 2,178 mile footpath that runs from Georgia to Maine along the Appalachian Mountains. I was hiking solo, without any clear goal in mind. While I've done my fair share of backpacking in the past, there were many experiences that were new to me on a hike like this that spanned weeks and months. One of those was the need to occasionally travel into a near by town for supplies, or simply to eat some real food and clean a week's worth of grime off. For the most part my choices of where to go into town were limited. I came across a major road about every week, which is about how often I wanted to resupply.

At this point in my journey, I had only been on the trail for about a week. I had yet to go into a real town for the night; although I did stay in hostel/resupply that is on the trail a couple days earlier. Since I had that rest, my plan was to skip the first town and just push on to the next one, saving money and time. This plan was suddenly shaken up by the weather report someone picked up on a portable radio. Severe thunder storms were called for, and a tornado watch had been issued. The fact that there would be bad storms meant that everyone would be going into town, which in turn meant finding a hotel for cheap would be a nightmare. On the other hand, the idea of dieing in a tornado a week into my trip was unappealing.

The next morning I woke up slightly earlier than usual, packed up my tent, and set out just before dawn. The rain started just as I was leaving and steadily picked up steam throughout the day. By lunchtime the rain had become a downpour that didn't show any signs of stopping. One fact of hiking in the rain is that it is more or less impossible to stay dry. Even if I had the best rain gear money could buy I'd just sweat from the added heat and end up just as wet. It wasn't that cold so I didn't have to worry too much about hypothermia, but if my only set of clothes were drenched in sweat it would have been unconformable to say the least. Constant rain also meant my clothes wouldn't have dried out any time soon, so I would have been stuck with wet clothes for a few days. I think, more so than the threat of tornadoes, this fact in the back of my mind was what made me sure I wanted to spend the night dry and comfortable in town.

In order to make it to town and dry out as fast as possible, I began to hike faster and faster. A result of a fast pace and wet socks is blisters. I knew my pace would cause blisters but it wouldn't matter once I was in town. A few hours later, once the blisters had formed, this didn't seem like such a good trade off anymore. At the seven mile mark I came across the next camping area. At these camping areas are three walled shelters that somewhat protect hikers from wind and rain. They aren't the greatest places to sleep, for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is the ten or so other smelly, soaked, snoring hikers that would have been sharing it with me. With the rain I knew everyone that wasn't going into town would be staying here. I also knew I wasn't going to stay here now. The day was young and I had plenty of time to hike the final two miles down to the road. Still, a wiser man than I would have stopped for a break there to eat some lunch and rest his feet. Since I am not a wise man I decided to push on. The less time I wasted the sooner I'd be in town, right? Besides the final two miles are downhill into the gap that the road travels through; downhill hiking is easy, right?

As I quickly learned downhill hiking is not easy. While not as tiring as uphill hiking, it has its own host of problems. The constant battle with gravity destroyed my knees and feet. Also, as I couldn't help but go faster the problem I already mentioned about wet socks and speed leading to blisters really started to make my life miserable. Finally, most accidents happen on downhills, particularly when a hiker just wants to reach a goal. As I knew this, I had to be extra careful not to slip on the wet and loose rocks. The two mile downhill stretch was some of the slowest hiking on the entire trip, taking me close to two hours to make my way down. For the entire two hours I was miserable, cold, and wet. Even the promise of dry clothes and real food did nothing to lift my spirits. I began to wish I had just stayed at the shelter at the top of the mountain, or at the very least taken a lunch break there.

Eventually though, I did make it to the road in the gap. Any joy I had was quickly tempered by my new problem. While I was on a road, I was still ten miles from the town. There were three ways into town: walk, call a taxi, or hitchhike. Walking an extra ten miles on asphalt was simply out of the question. Not only would it have been brutal, but I'd never have made it before dark, defeating the whole purpose of trying to make it into town. Calling a taxi was the best option, but I had wisely decided that a cellphone wasn't worth the trouble, and hadn't brought one. This left me with the option of hitchhiking. I wasn't adverse to hitchhiking, I had done it before on the trip, and would do it plenty of times after this. The problem though, is that it is extremely unpredictable. Sometimes I could find a ride in five minutes, other times I would literally spend hours with no luck. The biggest factor was the type of road I was on, the traffic, and what types of people would be traveling along it. Generally, other hikers would always pick me up, but they were few and far between. Locals would usually be my only real hope; tourist apparently aren't keen to the idea of picking up strangers on the side of the road.

However, the next biggest factor, and the one particularly relevant to me, was the weather. On bright and sunny days people are much more likely to let me ride in their cars. On the other hand, in driving rain, like that day, people don't want my soggy mess anywhere near their car. The solution to this is to just ride in the back of a pick up truck, which hikers have no problem doing. For whatever reason though, people assume that I would rather stand out in the rain than just ride ten miles in the bed of their truck. Let me state for the record if you are ever driving a truck and see a hiker looking for a ride but don't think they would want to ride in your bed that you are wrong. No hiker ever has objected to any ride of any sort, as long as it gets them into town.

Because of all this I knew that I would be out there for a while. I think that knowing that I was stuck this close to town, but still out in the rain, was the worst part. I was cold, wet, and my feet and legs hurt worst than they had at any point before. I couldn't rest yet though; hitchhiking isn't an easy task. There is an art to successful hitchhiking. I needed to try to look my best; I had to smile and take off my hat and anything I had covering my face so people could get a better look at me. I couldn't sit either; I had to stay standing so people could see me. Also, I needed to keep my pack on because people wouldn't see it otherwise and are much less likely to pick up a random guy on the side of the road than someone who is obviously hiking. Lastly, I needed to find a good spot in the road where there was good visibility but still close enough to the trailhead that people would know I was a hiker.

I set up on a good spot and started attempting to acquire a ride in either direction as I knew there were towns about ten miles in both directions. I don't think I can express just how badly I wanted to sit down and rest. There is something particularly maddening about knowing I just hiked nine miles in pouring rain to make it into town but now I would have to rely on an anonymous stranger to transport me the last stretch. I couldn't just sit down though; while it was still early the possibility of not finding a ride by dark was a real one. Any car that went by while I was sitting might have been the one that would have been willing to take me into town.

I had arrived at the road just before noon; by 2:30 I was still trying to find a ride. I couldn't believe how many people had passed me by. At this point in the trip I had only hitchhiked twice before, both times in good weather. Others told me it would be harder to find a ride in the rain, but I assumed that would mean spending half an hour to forty-five minutes trying. I had to seriously consider setting out back on the trail and hiking in a few miles to camp somewhere. That would have been particularly miserable after thinking about town all day. Plus, the storm was clearly becoming worse, and the danger that didn't seem so bad in the morning was starting to look a lot more serious.

Just after 3pm I decided to give up if I hadn't caught a ride by 4pm. Shortly after making that decision though, I heard voices from the trail. Since it was apparent that I wasn't going to be able to hitchhike, my hope now was that someone in that group would have a cellphone that I could use to call a taxi. After a few minutes they came out of the trail and I asked if they had a phone I could use to call a taxi. They said they had called a taxi and it should be here shortly, and that I could join them. That was good news to say the least, maybe I'd be spending the night dry after all.

The taxi took quite a while to arrive, and when it did I began to worry again. There were five of them, and all of us had full packs with us. It would be a tight fit in a mini van, but it wasn't a mini van at all; it was a station wagon. I knew if I didn't fit not only would I have to pay the full fare myself, but based on how long the taxi had taken to show up there in the first place, I would probably be waiting around for another hour.

There was just enough room for the five of them to squeeze into the seats of the station wagon and their packs filled the back. It didn't look particularly hopeful for me to fit. But hikers are nothing if not resourceful, we rearranged the packs in the back and eventually found enough room for me to squeeze in. So there I was in the back of a station wagon with six soaking packs for about twenty minutes. It was the happiest I had been in a long time though. During the ride I couldn't help but be amused by all the pick up drivers who passed me by, assuming I wouldn't want to ride in the back.

At the time I couldn't believe so many people would pass me by. However, when I put myself in their shoes I'm not so sure I would have stopped either. It's easy to assume someone else will stop. You don't know how long the person has been waiting or how crappy the wait has been. You see a person for a few seconds, and then they are behind you and you go on about your day. However, now that I've been the hitchhiker waiting I would certainly stop if I saw a hiker looking for a ride. I don't think I would have thought much about it prior to this experience though.

A piece of managerial advice I've learned is that when I have a task to assign to someone to do I am better off telling one person to do it as opposed to two. At first it may seem that telling two people to do it doubles the odds that one of them will do it. However, what happens is that both people assume the other will do it, and it is actually less likely to be done. While somewhat counter intuitive, I think this explains a great deal of why people don't help others. When they are part of a large crowd it is easy to think that someone else should do something about it. If you don't help them, someone else probably will. The problem is that everyone is thinking the same thing, and then no one helps. On the other hand when you alone witness someone in need of help you know that if you don't help that person they won't receive any help. It is a lot harder to ignore someone in need when you know that by ignoring them they will go without help. It becomes much easier when you are just another face in the crowd.

I think this helps explain the case of Kitty Genovese; while it certainly doesn't excuse the inaction, it does help to explain why people may have decided to do nothing. I'll admit that I had never really thought about this before, even after my own experience of needing help. The solution to this is to remember that you are very similar to others, and if you aren't doing something to help then others likely aren't as well. I hope that after realizing this effect of being part of a crowd has I will be more likely to offer help in situations where people would otherwise be ignored by the crowd.

Todd - Year In Review

2009-12-30T08:00:00.003-05:00

2009 was an interesting year. No state summits, but lots of other notable firsts. First trip with no summit (Catskills in January). First solo winter trips in February. First out of country peak (New Zealand). First long distance hiking experience (Long Trail August/September). First west coast peak (Mount Carmel, CA). It's going to be a tough year to top. I had 5 total weeks of vacation and took (5) 3 day weekend hiking trips.

Looking forward to 2010, I would like to hike the Long Trail northbound, and continue on into NH as far as two weeks will take me. If we're lucky, we'll get in the Midwest State HP trip and knock out 11 more. I would also like to continue on with the Catskill 3500 quest, in particular that damn Blackhead range, though this will require more and more bushwacks.

Blackhead Range December Trip

2009-12-11T08:00:00.005-05:00

This trip turned pretty quickly into a humbling experience. Left at 4, arrived around 7:30. Steve made me drive since he had wisely stayed up for 30+ hours straight beforehand. Nice day at the trailhead, but very cold. We are the only car. Quickly realize I forgot my outer shell, very smart. Steve says we won't need snow shoes. 100ft later we are in snow shoes.

Plow through to the lien-to in 6-8 inches of soft snow and set up shop.

I leave around 10 AM, Steve says he will follow but I know he will just go to sleep. Hit a nice viewpoint a half hour in, the range is on the edge on the mountains and there is just flatness on the horizon.

2 hours later, I'm trying to wade up waist-deep steep drifts when I realize I can't feel my feet. Trying out the plastic boots turned into complete failure. I can't regulate my body temperature without my outer shell, and my feet are frozen. Make the decision to turn around, likely less than a few hundred feet from the summit. Less than 1 mile in over two hours of hard work. Back to the lien-to in less than 20 minutes.

In sleeping bag around noon to warm up, soon after fall asleep until 3. Tool around cooking until 5, good news is my freeze dried meal I made myself was excellent.

Thanks to Steve for the extra ramen. Melt snow, read guestbook, nonetheless asleep by 5. Steve was pretty much asleep that whole time, though he did class the joint up a bit by waking up and putting on his sweet glasses. Says I won't need my outer shell because it won't snow, then it starts to snow.

We both sleep through till 8 - that's nearly 22 hours for him, and 18 for me. Wake up feeling no more energized to take on the demoralizing climb. Make decision to hike out.

On the way, pass some people going in, albeit via a differnt route. Could have followed them, but no interest after yesterday's failure. Back to car for the trip home. Perhaps the Blackhead range is my current Annapurna, it has foiled me twice so far in winter trips. Last year it was later in the season and the snow had frozen, this year was just far too early and the drifts were too much. Will plan better next time and knock out this trip for real.

December Catskills trip

2009-12-05T06:00:00.002-05:00

For December, I have a rough plan to return to the Blackhead range and hike the trio of peaks there. Last year, I just hiked the requisite winter peak, Blackhead.

As seen from the last trip.

Basic map

Day 1
Drive to TH
1.7 mi to Lien-to
.9 to Blackhead
1.1 to Black dome
.75 to Thomas Cole
.75 back to Black Dome
2.9 to lien-to

Total 3 summits
1.7 mi full pack
6.4 mi day pack

Day 2
4.9 to Windham High Peak (maybe 1000 ft gain? seems like walking along wooded ridgeline, map indicates there are a bunch of vistas though)
4.9 back to lien-to

Day 3
1.7 mile hike out

If successful, this would be 17 of 35 Catskill 3500 peaks for me.

Mount Carmel, Day Two

2009-11-25T07:30:00.001-05:00

We awoke around 7:30 and took our time packing up. I tried to show Bets some tricks to pack her gear better but ended up ripping the tent sack. Either way, we set off on another beautiful day in California. As soon as we got back up to the ridgeline and the sun hit us, I was hot again. Luckily, we were just traveling 2.5 miles or so back to the trailhead, where we were to rendezvous with our parents at 11.

The views again were stunning and I took many pictures.

The well trod trail summoned me on, and I missed the turnoff to go down the ridge.

Route finding skills in CA still need a little work, but the detour offered some cool views.

The trail through the forest fire area looked completely different the reverse way, and we wandered off course several times before rejoining the trail by following the ridge downward.

Nevertheless, we were back at the trailhead around 10 AM. Our parents had arrived early, as we thought. We headed back to Santa Cruz to enjoy the rest of the week off.

Mount Carmel, Day One

2009-11-24T10:30:00.004-05:00

Over the Thanksgiving holiday, my family flew out to California to spend the week in Santa Cruz with my sister. Regular readers of the blog may recognize this as the same impetus for the New Zealand trip. Indeed, she is back from that sabbatical and living, at least for the short term, by the sunny California shore in the heart of the modern day hippie movement.

My sister and I had been conversing for awhile about taking a trip in one of the many state forests close to Santa Cruz, but had not settled on a specific one until shortly beforehand. In my search for a backcountry locale which would offer solitude instead of tourists, I kept stumbling on the Ventana Wilderness. It's part of the Big Sur, a loosely defined continuum of forest land that runs along the coast of California starting about an hour south of Santa Cruz, right after Carmel.

We had the luxury of being both dropped off and picked up by our parents in the rental car. Everyone piled into the car around 8 AM and set off from Santa Cruz. Reading online, it wasn't clear whether we needed a permit to stay overnight in the backcountry, so we drove 15 miles past the turnoff to the Big Sur Station. Here, we were told that you only need a permit for the car camping sites, not the backcountry sites. You only need a permit for a stove, but we had none. Thank you, internet. I did buy a nice waterproof map of the area though, which would come in handy later.

Back in the car, we drove up the beautiful coast to the turnoff at Palo Colorado road. Here, we passed through a small community build in the steep redwood valley. The houses were awesome, perched up on stilts to support themselves as there was hardly any level ground. Many had staircases and walkways reminiscent of the Ewok village in Star Wars. Later, when I looked up these houses on the internet, I found it costs over $1m to live in such a village. A few miles up the road, it widened from one lane, but rock fall was more and more evident. We finally arrived at the trailhead, a clearing around 2,000 ft large enough for a 20 car parking lot overlooking a basin formed by staggered ridgelines. Somewhat surprisingly, we were the only car there.

Immediately upon exiting the car, I was hot. Back in Santa Cruz, we had been relaxing in high mid 60s, low 40s temperatures, but here it felt well into the 70s. Quite a departure from my last excursion to the Catskills in which the daytime temps were in the 20s. I had packed only one pair of clothing to save space in my luggage. Due to internet advice, I was under the impression it was the rainy season, so I had on my trusted rain pants, which offered zero breathability. I had on a long-sleeve wicking T, which quickly came off. For layers, I had my down jacket and soft shell, both of which seemed extremely out of place and didn't get used. Again, thank you internet.

Immediately past the parking lot, there was a large clearing offering even better views.

The entire trip would end up offering pretty good views the entire way. We set out up the ridgeline, which had a few years back been scorched by wildfire.

There was a vague trodden path visible, but for the most part we just kept going up. Despite the heat, we made great time along open ridge, gaining 1,300 ft within an hour.

Despite having both a hand-drawn mapped from the computer, a topo map from the ranger station, AND a handheld GPS (albeit without any maps), I still managed to get us off track several times. After ascending the ridge, we walked along a semi-wooded forest. The turnoff for the side trail leading to the campsite was supposed to be less than a 1/4 mile away. We came to a junction slightly before I thought the turnoff should be, but the trail was so well trod that I figured it had to be it. At the time, I was navigating solely by my traced map and GPS, whereas I should've been navigating by the topo. Note to self: traced maps worthless on unmarked trails in California. At first, it appeared we were heading in the right direction, but it soon became apparent we were looping down on the low side of the ridge back to where we started. Likely, this trail was cut and used after the wildfires destroyed the upper ridges. We turned around after about 2/3 of a mile. When I actually examined the topo map, it was obvious the turnoff was on the other side of a small hill, and it all made sense. We made the trek back to the turnoff, and about a 1/4 mile later found a decrepit old sign, the only one we would see on the entire trail, indicating a turnoff to Apple Tree camp.

The camp seemed further than the indicated .2 mile, especially since I was still wary about making a wrong turn and unsure of what a California definition of camp was. The trail traveled down into a narrow valley. There was signs of a creek at one time, but it looked like water hadn't flowed in a long while. I was hoping we'd have a good supply, as I had already drank around 1.5L in the ridiculous heat. We came across a small clearing with a cooking fire pit. The ground wasn't particularly level, and my ventures down a small side path led to a weakly flowing stream. I put down my pack and ventured down the standard trail a bit more, coming across another campsite with fire pit. This was was equally unlevel, but had the benefit of being next to a flowing stream which seemingly materialized out of nowhere. I figured the white noise of the water would be nice at night, so we set up shop there.

After pitching the tents and grabbing a quick snack, we set out back on the trail. Even though my initial load was light, shedding everything but water and snacks made me feel infitinely better. We quickly were back up to the trail junction and heading up the Devil's Peak. Although there is a visible rock/sand slide directly up the mountain, the trail curved around the side, gaining elevation at an easier rate. I'm pretty sure the book mentioned the slide as a 1/4 mile shortcut, but I had no interest in it.

The trail up the peak was steep, gaining 1,000 ft very shortly, but Betsy led at a quick pace and I was forced to follow. Along the way, the Pacific Ocean gradually came more into view, electrified by the sun.

We arrove at the top to find a nice open expanse, providing even further views of the basin below.

From reading the book, I knew the trails diverged further on, with one path curving around the basin, ultimately topping out on the dramatic Ventana Double Cone some 10 miles later, and a shorter trail heading left to the summit of Mount Carmel. I kept veering off to the left, and ultimately found some trod marks on the ground indicating some semblance of path. This section was less than a mile and only gained a few hundred feet, but was surrounded by pretty heavy brush.

There weren't many views as we cut through. I was thankful I put my shirt on back at camp, as otherwise I would've been pretty scraped up. Along the way, we passed many makeshift camps at viewpoints. I would've loved to see the sunset over the water and the stars come out at one of them, but they were all devoid of water and wood, so our site would do just fine.

We finally came to a clearing and USGS-tagged boulder marking the summit of Carmel Mountain. Climbing the top of the boulder offered near-360 views. Santa Cruz was visible on the far end of the shoreline.

We spent 15 or so minutes lounging around at the top, taking pictures and enjoying the gentle breeze before heading back.

After cutting through the brush back to the Devil's Peak, we posed for some pictures on what appeared to be the highest rock, with the Ventana Double Cone ridge in the background.

We made great time heading down, even though I stopped frequently to take even more pictures of the view.

We made it back to the campsite around 4:00. The steep valley already hid the sun, and we situated ourselves for 15 minutes before deciding to defy park rules and build a fire. By just after 5:00, we had gathered and sorted a good bit of wood. It was clear this campsite hadn't been used in awhile, as it was easy pickings along the ground. We got the fire lit on the first try and sat back to enjoy as the sun set behind the mountain and darkness enveloped us.

Unfortunately, the tree cover prevented any real sky views.

The fire was still going strong by 8:30 when Betsy went to sleep. She had set up here tent about 4 ft away from it, but the gentle wind blew the flame and ashes in the other direction.

Boy scouts take note of that safety precaution. I was determined to burn all the wood, and even succeeded in getting some live branch limbs up. It was around 9:15 when I spread the coals out and headed to my tent. The temperature had dropped some 30 degrees from the beginning of the day, which would ensure a nice sleep for me. Some kind of critter seemed to be pawing at the rain fly once I got settled, but a few flicks of my headlamp and he was gone. Shortly after I fell into a nice sleep next to the sound of the stream.

Hunter Mountain, Day 3

2009-11-08T06:30:00.006-05:00

I awoke in the same fashion as the day after another great sleep to another nice morning.

Steve seemed content to lie in his bag, but I started packing my stuff. While I boiled water he begrudgingly got out of his bag and got ready.

We set out for Hunter around 7:30, amazed at the difference in the trail. We hiked together for the way up, mainly discussing various political issues. The summit was completely different than two days prior. Nearly all of the snow had melted and the tower no longer seemed dangerous to climb. We took a bunch of pictures and scoured the ground for a benchmark to no avail.

I sped off a bit on the way down, but only beat Steve back by 5 minutes or so. We both finished packing the full packs and started down the trail. It looked completely different than on the way up. Steve and I both made the same comment - that the trail seems much steeper on the way down than on the way up. This is often the case, as I'm amazed how quickly you can lose elevation. I was happy to have my trekking poles, even if they are really showing some wear. I stopped about 2/3 of the way down to talk to two hikers who turned out to be the lien-to caretakers. We chatted for about 10-15 minutes before Steve showed up to join to conversation as well.

We hiked down for the next bit together, finally coming to the downed tree which took so much time to circumvent on the way up. I decided to climb down the 6 ft rock ledge instead, quickly hopping down and then guiding both packs. Steve lost footing and slid down immediately, but landed on his feet as if he planned it all along.

From there it was a 15 minute hike down to the car down a very steep path.

We stopped in a restaurant in the circa-1930 town just down the road. The waitress was quite amazed as I ate a 14" pizza while Steve took down a quesadilla (he was upset over missing out on Friday) and a 3/4 lb burger. Feeling much better, we sped home to the flatlands of Jersey after another successful trip.

Hunter Mountain, Day 2

2009-11-07T06:30:00.005-05:00

I had set my alarm for 6 AM, but with the earplugs in I slept right through it. I awoke to a cold, clear morning, and watched the sun glow on the horizon from my sleeping bag.

Around 6:35, I called over to rouse Steve. I heard the other hikers behind us already moving about. I attempted to boil water with my propane stove for quickness sake, but likely the gases separated in the night and I was only able to get it lukewarm. That was enough to melt the water in my bottles that had frozen overnight and make some oatmeal, however. Pumping water was another story. Both pumps seized immediately, with ice visibly forming inside some of the lines. We both would set off for the day around 7:30 with 1L.

The first stretch of the trip was pretty dense with snow. We would be hiking through a notch today, dropping about 1,500ft and gaining 1,800 ft on the way to Westkill Mountain. I got into a zone pretty quickly and sped off. The descent into the notch was pretty much a blur, but I took some time at the base to take some pictures of the waterfalls. I nearly fell in trying to climb out onto a rock for a view of the falls and bridge, but fate only had my boots get a little wet.

Then came the rise up Westkill. By this time, I was warmed up nicely, and made good time with little stops only for water. Marked about 2/3s up the mountain was a cave, which despite the vivid pictures brought to mind turned out to be a pretty unexciting rock overhang. Perhaps I missed it.

This began the start of the east summit, a false summit about 300ft short of the true. The climbing up to the overlook was a little slippery on the snow, but the views were made all the better by the lack of any others on the trip so far.

I set my daypack down and made a quick 10 minute loop to the summit to pose for pictures.

Back at the overlook, I ate a quick lunch and then set off for the return trip. Visible was the northernmost 3500s, Thomas Cole-Blackhead-Black Dome.

I hoped to catch up with a hiker I passed in the morning in the opposite direction who was heading to Southwest Hunter Mountain, a bushwhack supposedly within 1 mile of our lien-to. At the cave, I passed Steve around 11 and told him of what lied ahead. I passed the other hiker slightly after the falls, who reassured me that the bushwhack was very easy. Simply turn at a rock cairn and follow his tracks up. After stopping to chat, I realized how much the temperature had risen since the morning. It was probably in the mid 40s now, but in the notch I could have easily been hiking in shorts and a T-shirt. The trail looked markedly different from the morning, as the inch or two of snow had nearly melted off. Even as I gained elevation, the snow only remained in shady areas. On the way up, I stopped at an overlook I had blazed by in the morning.

I then found the turnoff for Southwest Hunter.

Turns out, this trail follows an old railway which was set up for logging purposes. It was heavily overgrown now, and the snow cover obscured much of the ground. I was at the summit only 25 minutes after the turnoff.

From here, I was back at the lien-to within 35 minutes, around 1:45. All the snow had melted, making it look like an entirely different place.

I easily pumped water for both me and Steve. I read a little bit of my Catskills book before being joined by 5 older hikers I had passed on the way down from Southwest Hunter. We swapped stories for awhile (mainly their group leader telling tales of their bushwhacks gone wrong) before they regrettably had to head down. Time passed quickly and suddenly Steve arrived at 3:30. His return journey had been aided by the power of 3 Inches of Blood. We debated heading up to Hunter for the views, but decided to wait until tomorrow morning on the way out.

We cooked dinner and fell asleep slightly later than the previous night, but still before 7 after a roaring fire.

Hunter Mountain, Day 1

2009-11-06T07:00:00.008-05:00

Steve arrived at my house around 7 AM to drive up to the Catskills. This was a late start for us, but we were only slated to do 5-6 miles of hiking today so there was no need to rush. I had done a pretty poor job of packing the night before, and tossed my lumpy pack into the Neon's trunk. I had packed hastily in the garage rather than bringing my stuff upstairs. No worries, the hike in to the line-to was only 2.2 miles (but about 1,800 ft gain).

The clear skies of Jersey gradually faded to clouds as we drove further into New York. By the time we were in the Catskill region, the tops of the peaks were all obscured by clouds. Driving up, however, we were both surprised to see snow pretty low on the mountain.

The forecast for the day had been very wintery - high 40, low 20, chance of snow - but it turned out it had snowed the night before. We parked at the Devil's Tombstone campground and headed off.

The first mile of the Devil's Path up Hunter is very steep. Slowly, more and more snow appeared on the ground. It was interesting to see the landscape constantly change. In some areas, the snow accumulated on pine trees made it feel much later than mid November.

I felt pretty strong up the incline, despite the fact I had very little warm-up and was carrying much more weight than usual. This would be the maiden voyage for my new "big" pack, an Arc Teryx Bora 85, a noticeable size upgrade from the usual ~50L Go Lite LiteSpeed I had been accustomed to. Still, I arrived at the Lien-To in around 1:45, not a fast pace at all. However, I was able to fully unpack, set up my area, and pack my daypack before Steve came lumbering in 45 minutes later. He was without complaint, however, and had undertaken the arduous task of carrying in Chex Mix and Twizzlers which I would steal later on.

We quickly set out for the top of Hunter, a 1.5 mile hike gaining only about 500ft. Hunter Mountain is the second highest in the Catskills, with ski routes travelling down its northern side. The temperature had dropped considerably since the base and the wind had picked up. I put on my fleece mid layer between my standard wicking long sleeve shirt and outer shell. I was wearing my standard hiking pants with my now indispensible gaiters. At the parking lot, someone had left a fleece beanie, which I was also now using. I had put on my light gloves as well.

The trek to the summit took only 45 minutes before the summit observation deck came into view.

I climbed up the ice-ridden stairs, only to be blasted by wind and granted no view. I had just climbed down when I saw Steve. Examining the map at the locked ski lodge, I noticed the thermometer read 24 degrees.

The few pictures we took look very wintry.

We hiked back down together, making the round trip in only 1:45.

We got back to the lien-to around 4:30. It was already getting dark as I ventured out to see what the nearby stream offered. I was able to pump 3L of water for my Nalgenes and dinner. Lighting my new white gas stove turned out to be not so easy. For one, I had brought the Czech instructions in haste (though I was able to get an idea of what to do from the pictures). Luckily, 5 other hikers showed up at dusk to tent behind the lien-to. I saw a fuel bottle lashed to one of their packs and asked for help. It took awhile, as it was a little finicky likely due to the first use, but after it settled in my water was boiling in no time.

By this time, the temperature had dropped further, likely into the high teens. Steve and I had both brought our down jackets and booties, but he had elected to go with the 20 degree bag while I had brought my 5 degree. The other hikers gathered wood and built a fire while we ate. The billow of smoke poured directly into the lien-to, pushing us further in our sleeping bags. By 6:15 I was pretty confident Steve was sleeping. I put my earplugs in and started to doze off. I heard the one hiker call over and ask if either of us wanted a quesadilla, but another interjected with "they're both asleep". Not too long after, I fell into an amazing slumber which lasted for the better part of 12 hours.

November Catskills Trip - Hunter Mountain

2009-11-05T18:00:00.003-05:00

For my November Catskills trip, I have a rough plan to hike Hunter Mountain over a three day weekend.

Leave Friday, 5-6 AM from my house, arrive in 3.5 - 4 hours.

Lien-To is a steep 2.2 miles/~1,600 ft in. I'm bringing my tent, the guidebook says the lien-to is both popular and in bad shape. Also, I think in the event of cold rain or snow (definately possible) I'd rather be in a tent.

The Lien-To is basically at an intersection of 2 trails and a bushwack.

Hunter Mountain (4,050 ft) is an additional 1.5 mile/~500 ft hike from the lien-to. There is a fire tower up top which the views are supposedly pretty good.

That would make around 5.5 mile first day, though a good amount of gains, and some with a full pack. Probably get back 3ish.

Second day hike to West Kill Mountain (3,890 ft), 4.2 mile each way down a notch. Probably 1,800 ft gain each way. 8.4 miles total.

From the lien-to there is also a .75 mile/200 ft bushwack to Southwest Hunter (3,750 ft) which I'd like to attempt one of the days as it's on the official Catskill 3500 ft list (equivalent of ADK 4000).

Probably get back between 2-4 PM Sunday depending on when I get up and if I attempt SW Hunter then.

Adirondacks 2009

2009-10-08T05:30:00.007-04:00

As with every year, I was hopeful that we could get a lot of new people to go on this year's Adirondacks trip. Also as with every year, most people backed out before the actual trip. Still it was a good group. Me, Todd, Chris, John, Mike, and Billy Z (his first trip).

We left around midnight, and it was a pretty easy and fast drive. We got there in about 5 hours. We found the trailhead and started getting ready. We had some trouble finding the actual trail, it turns out it starts about a hundred feet down the road from the parking area. We began the hike just before sunrise with headlamps. Within about 15 minutes it was light enough for me to turn off my headlamp. It had been raining here, and the trail was quite muddy. The trails would only get muddier as the trip progressed. The hike in was rather easy, although still slow going due to the mud. At some point we realized Billy was hiking with about five layers of clothes on, while I was hot in one.

We started out as a group, but gradually everyone spread out. I was hiking by myself when I noticed a flopping sound coming from my boot. I tried to shake off whatever was stuck to it, without looking down. After it refused to come off I looked down to discover the heel of my boot had fallen off. It was still connected to the boot in the front, but the rear was just freely hanging. I knew I was close to the lean to so I just pressed on. It was similar to snowshoe hiking the way it would drag along and slap up when you stepped down.

I got to the lean to in about 10 minutes and pondered my boot situation. Todd had some duct tape, but it would have to be pretty clean and dry to work, something my boot defiantly was not (and wouldn't be at any point during the trip). I had some boot bands, which are just small bungie cords, and I put one going around the bottom of the boot that held the heel up quite well. This turned out the be my solution for the entire trip.

The lean to was quite nice, right on a stream. It was a smaller lean to, but there was no one there yet, so we would have it to ourselves. Everyone came in and we generally sat around. Todd was ready to hike then, but it seemed everyone else wanted to hang out for a while. Billy began collecting wood and trying to start a fire, at 10am. Todd, Chris, and John got into their bags, at that point our fate of not hiking more this day was sealed. People got up and we all collected fire wood through out the day. We had high hopes that our rope method that had worked so well during our Delaware Water Gap cannoe trip this summer, would again yeild plenty of wood. However, we had much more luck simply collecting dead wood.

The main trouble was simply starting the fire in the constant light rain. As a note for future trips I need to remember to grab one of those free autotraders from Wawa to start fires with. Billy had a magnesium fire starter, which I had always doubted. It proved very effective and easy to use. We began to collect birch bark which worked great as a fire starter, and there was plenty of. At some point we decided we wanted to dig out the fire "pit" which was actually just a 2 foot high pile of old char. John and Billy began the laborious process of digging under the careful direction of Todd. The newly dugout fire pit was quite an improvement.

We all continued searching for wood. While we had a decent amount I was convinced that we would need more. We lit the fire early, around 4pm. People began to boil water for dinner. I had spam for the first time, and it was quite good.

Everyone started a Rummy 500 game, which I had no interest in. I really wanted to get out my soaked boots which I had been futilely trying to dry. Once I got out of them I climbed into my bag for the first time and was quite comfortable. I managed to drift in and out of sleep while they played, but couldn't get any solid sleep until everyone settled down.

In the morning we awoke and everyone made breakfast. I began to contemplate what I would do about my boot. I had small finishing nails, and I tried to use one through the sole to hold the heel up. The problem with that was that the heel was mostly hollow, and I couldn't get the nail into a solid part of it. I didn't have much faith in the nail, but the boot band had worked well the day prior while gathering wood, so I hoped that the combo would hold for the hike to the summit.

After about an hour and half we were ready to start the hike. As soon as I stepped into thick mud the suction effect pulled the nail out of my boot. For the rest of the hike I left the nail in there, for some reason, slowly becoming more and more of a nuisance. There was a rock slide which offered probably the best views of the trip. I spent a little while here, taking pics and debating just trying to work my way up this rock slide rather than bothering with the summit. I decided just to continue with the trail which broke off the rock slide. For me the hike up was slow, but not too hard. The mud made it much slower than it should have been. There was a steady uphill section that was rather hard, but it didn't last that long.

I eventually heard the voices of the rest of the group, and I knew I was rather close to the summit. Soon we met up, and they seemed surprised to see me. Todd went back the 15 or so minutes to the summit with me, while the rest continued to hike down trying to get out of the clouds. We met back with the rest of the group and all made their way down hill. I gradually fell behind, and came across Todd finishing a bathroom break. We continued down and eventually came across Billy, also after a bathroom break. We made our way back to the lean to with plenty of day light left.

We collected some more wood, and ate. We started today's fire even earlier than yesterday. As night set in we made it our duty to burn all our wood, and the fire grew quite large. It wasn't nearly as impressive as the benchmark fire in the Delaware Water Gap, but it was respectable nonetheless. I took the opportunity to strip down to my underwear, using the heat as an excuse.

During the night some people came hiking in, at 2am. These were the first other people we had seen the entire trip, despite our fears at the start that the lean to would be filled. They set up tents in the steady rain, and we all went back to sleep.

We woke up in the morning ate, and packed up. I began hiking as soon as I was ready, sans shirt. As I started hiking I debated waiting to use the bathroom at the restaurant or just go now. After about an hour I decided to just go here and made my way into the woods. During this time the rest of my group passed me. Afterward I began passing many people hiking in. The mud made it very slow going for me, otherwise the hike out was uneventful. The trailhead was packed with cars, which spilled out in the street.

We made our way to the Adirondack Pub and Brewery and I had some nachos and a burger, both quite good. We then drove home having some pretty engaging conversations most of the way.

Long Trail, Wrap Up

2009-09-08T00:00:00.006-04:00

Was it a good trip? Absolutely. 7 days of clear, pristine hiking through the best mountains Vermont has to offer. 3 days of forgettable weather, but good hikes. I learned a lot about what I'm capable of and how my body reacts to prolonged punishment. I had a lot of time to think and dwell on various subjects. I learned to overcome my spastic hypoglycemic tendencies (somewhat).

My gear held up good, and I was happy with what I packed. I could've ditched the tent and some other small items to shave another 4lb. But I would've packed more food if given the chance and just offset that weight in other areas.

It would have been choice to finish the whole trail, though. I would have like to have more time in reserve, around 20 days, as then I wouldn't have felt so rushed. I put far too much pressure on myself early on and was needlessly disappointed when mileages didn't turn out according to my grand plan. Going into town every 4-5 days would have given me a good break, as well.

However, the two days spent relaxing in Vermont after the trail were a lot of fun. We visited the Ben and Jerry's factory, toured the countryside, and had amazing breakfasts and lounged around in the cool hiker atmosphere of the inn.

I plan to take a week off work and finish the last 100 miles over 9 days next year.

Total Stats:

Days: 10

Long Trail Miles: 168.5
Extra Miles: 2.6
Total Miles: 171.1

Elevation Gain (min): 38,160 ft
Elevation Loss (min): 38,860 ft
Total Elevation Change (min): 77,020 ft

Long Trail, Day 10

2009-09-07T06:15:00.002-04:00

David Logan Shelter to The Inn at Long Trail

I woke to a complete fog. I could've sworn I heard a bass thumping throughout the night, but looking on the map, there didn't seem to be a parking lot or housing nearby, so I guess I was hallucinating. I set out onto the trail to cover the final 13 miles. This would turn out to be the most boring miles, as there were not even any peaks to bag. In addition, my stretch of good weather would finally come to an end, as I spent the majority of the day socked in fog.

I took this picture of the Chittenden Resovoir, which was the most exciting moment of the day's miles.

Along this stretch, I did see some huge frogs (toads?) but I was too lazy to try and photograph any. The miles went by slow, as I didn't have the same legs as the day before. I stopped at Rolston's Rest and touched base with Nicole - she was on her way, and it looked like I'd beat her by about 2 hours. Just enough time to check in, take a shower, and chill out for a bit. I finished up the last of my real food - I had to subsist primarily on jerky this day, which I didn't particularly care for, and pressed on.

The Long Trail would throw its final test at me on this last leg. Not only were the miles mostly flat, but they cut threw logging projects, which was a bit demoralizing. The trail was marked as well on this part as it was on roads - i.e., not at all. I detoured down the wrong ATV path, continually convincing myself I was on the Long Trail, till I decided to turn around about 20 minutes in. I backtracked and ultimately found the turnoff. A very frustrating end to the trip, especially when I wanted nothing more than to be done.

I hopped down the semi-rocky trail to the inn and was instantly refreshed. The sun seemed to come out immediately when I stepped out of the roads. I spent awhile talking to the owner about his 50s Jeep Willys and some of the NBers before checking out the room. I showered (without slipping! Must have been someone else) and ate about a pound of the trail mix I had sent myself.

Nicole finally showed up and the rest was history. I looked like an emaciated Ethiopian and devoured all food inside at the attached pub. The sleep was less than fulfilling - I needed the pillows of our queen size bed, not the thin ones on this double - but that would come in time.

Day Stats:

Ending Mile Marker: 168.5

Long Trail Miles: 12.7
Extra Miles: .2

Elevation Gain (min): 1,330 ft
Elevation Loss (min): 1,840 ft

Hiking Start: 6.15 am
Hiking End: 2.40 pm

Long Trail, Day 9

2009-09-06T06:20:00.004-04:00

Emily Proctor Shelter to David Logan Shelter

I had left my watch on during the night, and my sleeping bag muffled the alarm. I still got up relatively early, around 5.45, and was out on the trail quickly at 6.20. I basically walked around in a circle for 10 minutes, trying to find the actual trail until one of my lien-to mates pointed me in the right direction. Even with this slightly inept start, my spirits were high and the day was shaping up to be clear again - the 7th in a row? At this point, I had become so accustomed to nice weather that I hardly noticed, and indeed almost expected it. Quite the contrary from what most of the stories about the Long Trail had mentioned.

I passed the turnoff for Skyline Lodge 1.8 miles in an hour later. Virtually everyone raved about this being the best camp on the trail, but I had decided against pressing on the night before. I didn't want to arrive after dark and simply sleep there for 10 hours and leave. I kept on and made it to Boyce another 2 miles later at 8.45. I stopped at the lien-to to talk to two NB Canadians. They were just waking up and marveled at the fact I had been awake for so long.

I was having major contact issues. That morning, I had lost one and went into my reserves which were stored in the original packaging. I had brought two, and both cases had punctured and been drained of all the solution. One contact was missing, but one was dried and stuck to the side. I put it in my standard case and filled it with saline, hoping that it would loosen up after a few hours. When I tried to put it in at this stop, I dropped it on the ground. I spent five minutes looking for it before it miraculously showed up. All in all, a pretty ridiculous experience which really drove home the fact that I need laser corrective surgery if I'm going to continue with these hikes.

I talked to the Canadians for awhile and set back out on the trail at 9.10. They mentioned they had done a through hike 10 years ago and most of the vistas south of here were massively overgrown, preventing any good views. The rest of the AM turned into a blur as I sped down the Silent Cliff, which offered a glance into the town below.

At the bottom of the Silent Cliffs was lonely VT 125, and then the ski peak of Worth Mountain. I stopped at the summit for lunch around noon. On the way down, I talked to my girlfriend Nicole and hatched my escape plan. I had pressed too quickly for too long and knew there was no way I could continue this pace to finish within my allotted two weeks. I did actually have faith that I could finish, as I expected the trail to be easier, but I didn't want to get home one day and have to go to work the next. I wanted to give myself some recuperation time. She would meet me at the Inn at the Long Trail the next day in the afternoon and we would relax for two nights before going home. This left me with around 25 miles to cover by tomorrow PM - difficult, but with the added motivation of being close to my finish I picked up speed and was able to ignore all of my aches and pains. Adding to this new found sense of vigor, a gracious day hiker offered me a full Snickers bar, which I hastily devoured. The next 5 miles flew by.

Unfortunately, around this time I lost interest in taking photographs. The Breadloaf Wilderness was nice, but rarely offered vistas of anything of interest. I passed the Great Cliffs around 4 PM (I later stopped to take this picture on the other side of the gap).

The descent was tiring, and I wondered if I would have to stop at nearby Sunrise Shelter. That would leave me with 20 miles tomorrow. Amazingly, the trail got even easier as I ascended upwards out of VT 73, and again I was rejuvenized. I averaged around 3 mph on this stretch, flying by Sunrise around 5 PM. I decided to press onto David Logan 6 miles further, even though this would certainly mean hiking in the dark for at least an hour.

The next 6 miles were a blur. I was focused on gaining ground, excited at the prospect of finishing on an easy day tomorrow after putting in my longest day today. My mind replayed scenarios over and over about how nice it would be to shower and have a hot meal. Along the way, I stopped for the last good picture of the trip of what I believe is Round Mountain.

When the sun set, I turned my headlamp on and started to sing loudly to distract myself from my aching feet. The bridges were sore from the beating they had taken on this epic day. I eventually made it to the turnoff for David Logan and excitedly hiked the remaining .2 miles to the shelter. I would spend the last night alone and incredibly sore, but I was elated at this final performance, especially given all the poor omens of the morning.

Day Stats:

Ending Mile Marker: 155.8

Long Trail Miles: 24
Extra Miles: .4

Elevation Gain (min): 4,400 ft
Elevation Loss (min): 5,100 ft

Hiking Start: 6.20 am
Hiking End: 8.15 pm

Long Trail, Day 8

2009-09-05T06:00:00.003-04:00

Stark's Nest to Emily Proctor Shelter

I awoke around 5.15, having had a good sleep inside the hut. Although the temperature had likely dropped into the low 40s outside, inside it seemed to stay around 60, and I was able to just use my sleeping bag as a blanket. I set out along the ridgeline, approximately 6 miles long with about 1,000 ft of gain and 600 ft of loss. This was an ideal start to the morning, and I was able to warm up nicely. The sunrise was not quite as good as that experienced on Mansfield, but was enhanced greatly by the clouds filling up the valleys below.

Camel's Hump rose strongly out of this magic mist.

Near the summit of Mt Ellen offered even more views.

To the west, the clouds loomed unobstructed by the sun's colors.

Even a few hours into the trip, the clouds still sat in the valley. Mount Mansfield came into view behind Camel's Hump, offering a view of the trip's progress so far.

The Lincoln range offered numerous spots for low impact camping along the ski routes. Even though I had seen a nice sunset and sunrise from Stark's Nest, I couldn't help wish I had traveled 2 mi further and spent the picturesque night alone on top of one of these 4,000 ft mountains.

Along the way I passed a sign indicating the start of the Green Mountain National Park. The trail quality seemed to improve every few miles from here on, providing a nice respite from the rocky, rutty, muddy trails that epitomized the prior days. A few hours in, all that was left of the clouds were small wisps.

I could immediately tell it was a weekend by the number of people I passed in the morning. By the time I reached Mount Abraham at 10 AM, I had easily passed as many as on a typical weekday. I chatted with the GMC caretaker on top of the mountain about the excellent weather, and he offered me a beer stashed inside his tent 2 mi further down the trail. I declined, wanting to wait until the trip was over to indulge. I had him take a picture of me, with the southern part of the trail in the background.

I made good time down the mountain to Lincoln Gap, and pressed on to the Breadloaf Wilderness. I was hoping there'd be a trash can at the gap, but alas there wasn't. If I had stuck to the trail, I wouldn't have passed a single one on the entire trip. I had detoured for 1/4 mile on Day 3 along the road walk to Bear Hollow and passed a random trash can on the side of the road, but unfortunately was not so lucky here.

Far easier than the miles behind me, I picked up speed up Mount Grant. Along the way, I was able to spot Mount Abraham from Sunset Ridge. It offered expansive views of the west less than 2 mi from the gap, and thus was likely a popular day trip location.

The next section was about as automatic as a hike as I'd had so far. I daydreamed about random things as I put the miles behind me. After two hard days in which I had only traveled 26 mi, I knew today was shaping up to be a good one. I glanced at my makeshift shelter guide and realized that I had a chance to hit Emily Proctor shelter to make a 20mi day. If I could do that, it would be 37 miles to the Inn at the Long Trail, which could be possible in 2 days given the easing terrain.

I passed Cooley Glen shelter at 2.40 and entered the final 1/3 of the day's trip. By this time, I was slowing down a bit, but I still made book time over the final 5.7 miles - 3.5 hours. One of the downsides of the easier trail was the lack of any exciting parts to break up the monotony. In addition, the views were essentially non-existent. Thus, I degraded into a bit of a mental daze and was looking forward to settling down for the day.

I stumbled into Emily Proctor at 6.10 to find 5 hikers and 4 dogs lounging around. Two were NBers, who left shortly after to press on to Cooley Glen after receiving assurance from me that the trail was not difficult. I expressed amazement that they'd hike until 10, with 2.5 likely by headlamp, but they set of jovially with their two dogs, who were also loaded with packs.

The three remaining hikers were down from the weekend from western Maine. I was in a great mood after getting my miles back up and chatted for a long time. They lit a pretty good fire all things considered and we exchanged funny trail stories for awhile. One of them prepared and ate his first MRE, turning the whole series of event into a comic sketch with comments along the way.

I took of my boots to massage my aching feet, and took this classic picture.

Surprisingly, the blister never really bothered me, even when I popped it the next day. More evident is the massive swelling in my achilles which has removed any natural curvature, giving me a nice cankle appearance. This really only got worse over the remainder of the trip. Looking down a month later as I type this, it still looks pretty banged up. I'm not sure what exactly this was the result of, but I suppose next time I'm on a long trip I'd consider wearing mid-height boots.

Either way, I settled down in the lien-to and fell asleep pretty easily around 8.30.

Day Stats:

Ending Mile Marker: 131.8

Long Trail Miles: 19.5
Extra Miles: 0

Elevation Gain (min): 3,700 ft
Elevation Loss (min): 3,900 ft

Hiking Start: 6.00 am
Hiking End: 6.10 pm