Camping Leads to Hiking

Ah-ha! I'm honestly pretty proud of myself for remembering to post this week and not forgetting until next week :)

In late June last year a good friend (IAM), her father and I went camping at Emerald Lake State Park in Vermont. (For address, phone number and other information: http://www.vtstateparks.com/htm/emerald.htm). Honestly, I love camping - real camping where you learn to pitch tents and light fires - but the most camping my family did was in the back yard. Haha, the kind of camping where the kids run those orange extension cords out to the tent so they can watch TV or play Super Mario on the Nintendo when their parents are asleep back in the house. So anyways, yes this was camping out of your car but it was definitely camping. :)

Not too far away from the campsites, but it may take some more time to get from point A to point B as you go through Manchester, was Mt. Equinox (For address, phone number and other information: http://www.equinoxmountain.com/index.php). There is a gift shop at the base, and from what I gather a restaurant at the summit and on a usual day you can drive from one to the other after paying a toll at the gate. However, they had been doing some work on the building and some structures around the summit so we were told we wouldn't be able to drive completely to the summit - not wanting to loose out toll money they told us that there was an easy foot path that could take us from where we parked to the summit. 'Sounds good' we agreed, we paid our toll to the greedy toll machine, it lifted it's gate and we were on our way.

There are a couple places where you can stop along the way up, they have nice little look-outs and some have picnicking benches. But after a while we reached a point where there was a pull off to the right and a stop sign on a sawhorse in the middle of the road, we assumed that this was where out 'easy footpath to the summit' was so we pulled over and found our trail: the Red Trail.

I take a moment to pause here, if you have followed the link above, or if you are uncannily familiar with the trails at the summit of Mt. Equinox, you will know that this is not our 'easy footpath to the summit.' Nope, this is our (as per their trail map description) "expert 1.2 miles," angle-to-the-left trail. That line of rock that you see cutting through the center of the picture to the bottom right: that's the trail.

Which in all honesty it wasn't that bad, or that difficult of a trail, it's just that we were blindly expecting our 'easy footpath to the summit.' So we all had something easier and shorter in mind when, jean clad, we hopped out of the car ready to walk down the Red Trail. If you have decided to take a trip to Mt. Equinox, I would really encourage you to actually take this trail, just wear shoes with good tread, and clothes that you can move in. And if you are someone that isn't very limber or balanced I wouldn't suggest it, but if you think you can walk up crooked stairs well enough for about 20 minutes I think you could do it :)

Mt. Equinox's Red Trail puts you under the trees and right on the side of the mountain in a very cool way that lets you see both fauna and almost a treeline at the same time. Here I must admit that I have a fondness for finding and photographing mushrooms when hiking, and the Red Trail was full of them, I honestly felt like a kid in a candy store! But back to other things, it was honestly beautiful, the lighting that filtered down through the branches to illuminate the ground in spots was simply stunning. Seeing all of this natural beauty and stillness was definitely a gift from God that day; and definitely worth the surprise of the difficult trail.


The trail passed by some other trail heads and some pretty roasted looking coniferous trees, eventually coming to a lookout spot with a bench where you could look back towards Manchester with your back to the Mt. Equinox's summit.

When you move on again the trails kind of intermingle a little up here and flatten out. We finally wound our way back (in a U-turn from our lookout over Manchester) to the summit. While we were walking on these trails we encountered the most people and it seemed like all of them were coming towards us, finally when we got to the summit, and walked around the construction we saw that the parking lot was almost full - people had been driving around the stop sign that we diligently stopped at. So by obeying stop signs we got to take the beautiful 'expert' trail, and by driving around signs they got to take the swamped-from-construction 'short footpath,' I think we got the better bet.

Unfortunately because of the construction and obstructing trees you couldn't really get any good pictures of the view, but you could see that a good view was indeed offered in a couple directions; so I can't give you any actual Mt. Equinox summit pictures but I can tell you that the trip would be worth it.

On the way back to our car we decided to walk down the road, partly because we didn't know where a trail head was and partly because it would be quicker). It was a pretty steep downhill gradient in some parts, the kind that makes you wish you were a kid and it was a grassy hill so you could just log roll down it. The sky was clear so we could watch as some birds flew overhead, but it was by looking down that God gave us another delight: butterflies. They were everywhere on these purple plants and they stayed still long enough for me to take a few photos before we walked the rest of the way back to our lonely car (I guess no one else had decided to obey the stop sign).

I'm realizing at I type this that most of my hiking trips don't always turn out as planned.
Stay tuned for another fair weather post of a past trip,
G

Hello All!

A lot has happened in the last - almost 2 years. I apologize to my few friends who have mentioned to me that I should start posting on this again.

I actually haven't gone hiking that much since my last post so there's not too much that this blog has missed out on, but I'll try to update it every month or so to keep what fun stuff I have through the winter ;) My hiking consisted basically of some foot trails that did yield some pretty cool photos that I'll get up for you.

I'll have a post up about next week of Mt. Equinox in VT.
G

Winter Wonderland

Next week is the last week of classes, aaand then a week of finals :-/ But I am so ready for the Christmas break! I have been tossing the idea around with a couple friends about going hiking over break and I'm super excited. I would like to take a moment to say that I am entirely unprepared for such an endeavor, but try it I will. I have no idea where to begin with it and no idea where things will go; I'll pass on the information as I learn it, haha. :)

Don't let the cold weather get you down, use it!
G

Sleeping Beauty - Not the Classic Story

I'm really starting to think that I may want to change these to Saturday posts - the weekdays are too full for me right now. :-/ I'm not sure, I'll definitely post if it changes for 'real,' haha.

So I really should have posted this forever ago, but on 10/24 Robinson, Lauren and I headed up to Lake George. Our goal? To hike Sleeping Beauty Mt. ... without getting lost on the way there, or freezing to death, or getting caught in the rain, or staying overnight, or meeting terrifying animals, or ... you get the picture.

So around 9:30 I swung by Lauren's and picked both her and Robinson up, we hit the Northway (I-87), took exit 20 and got onto 149. But not in such a lovely order. We got to exit 20 OK, and then we missed the turn for 149 - so we went at least 12 miles out of the way. I've never been to Sleeping Beauty Mt., which is surprising because it's so close and it is such a nice hike. But since I've never been there, I had no idea where we were going or what kind of roads my Ford station wagon was going to be tackling.

We took a left off of 149 onto Buttermilk Falls Rd. and began an entertaining drive. The first part of the road was nice and paved - my car appreciated it. Suddenly we passed a sign saying 'Dirt Road Ahead,' and then there was the dirt road. OK, so it wasn't that bad. It was definitely better than a lot of the unpaved roads I've been on, but my car is old and I was terrified that something was going to break (it would be just my luck too).

The directions said to 'bear left onto Sly Pond Rd.' and then to 'continue on to Shelving Rock Rd.' These directions are technically correct, but I would argue that the descriptive terms of 'bear left' and 'continue on' should be switched. It definitely made us confused in the middle of nowhere. Eventually we found the little parking lot in Hog Town and we celebrated that my car had made it that far.


From this lot there is an access trail that, in good weather, you can drive down to a closer lot. Since it really wasn't 'in season' for hiking any more, the road was closed and we had to hike it. The path was easy going and was much more entertaining than some other access trails I've been on (I didn't do the length of the access path to the Avalanche Pass trail justice in that post), but, adding 1.6 miles to our trip (one way), it almost doubled the length of our hike.

Reaching Dacy Clearing, the second lot, we turned left and hopped a barrier to get onto the summit trail which is 1.8 miles one way. After a short ways up this trail, hikers come to the stone remnants of a building. None of having been here before, and all of us obviously entertained by the ruins, we stopped and climbed around them for a while. I forgot to mention above that when we started the hike, there was another hiker who started just behind us; he had legit trekking poles and, seeing as it's hunting season, was decked out in fluorescent orange. He had a much faster pace and passed us before we reached Dacy Clearing. When we stopped at the old foundation we must have given him at least a 15 minute lead on us.

At this point, it started to rain. Just a light sprinkle, but we still crossed our fingers and hoped for the best. The trail led us up a series of long switchbacks (when the trail doubles back and travels up the hill in a zigzag motion) and the rain progressed. We continued to slip up the mountain for what seemed like way more than 1.8 miles.

At one point the trail turned left and flattened out, we could see the gray sky and a trail marker was spotted that simply stated 'Summit 0.1 mi ↑.' At the same time, the hiker who had passed us on the access trail passed us again. We exchanged friendly 'hellos' and he went down another trail that would loop him back to Dacy Clearing by the longer route that passed Bumps Pond.

We proceeded the 0.1 miles, saying that it was perfect placement for that sign - we had been seriously starting to hate those 1.8 miles. The trees opened up on our left and the mountain opened up on our right. We were greeted to the summit by an insane view of misty mountains and a slap of cold wind in our faces. We scrambled around the rocky summit, took in the view, shot some pictures and hastily retreated to the protection of the trees.


After lunch and lots of marshmallows, the food of champions, we headed back down. We had initially planned to take the route to Bumps pond, but we were cold and tired and absolutely drenched. This direction was a lot of fun, I'm still not sure how Lauren made it back to the car without twisting an ankle, but thankfully she did. We signed out on the registry, piled back into the car and began the long journey down a wet dirt road.

When I got back home and got to look at my car, it was covered with mud. Now, I'm all for off-roading and I was very pleased to see that my car looked like it had just been through the swamp and back. I'm not entirely sure how it got so dirty - our max speed on the dirt rad was probably 30 - but it did. And I would have loved to have taken a picture, but my Dad cleaned it off before I could. I can only imagine what people on the Northway were thinking when they passed a dirt covered station wagon.

So there is the account of that hike. When you think of Sleeping Beauty, either the Mt. or the story, rain and marshmallows definitely do not come to mind. ;) I'm not sure what's in store for me next with the outdoors, but I will definitely keep you posted. The best I can say about anything is that it's looking like Mom and I might head up to Hadley again this fall.

Happy trekking,
G

Hopping to Hadley

Yay for midterms eating my time!

But anyways, on the 16th, my mom and I headed up to Hadley Mt. again. I'm starting to think that whenever she and I go hiking, there is a strange pull from the house that never lets us leave. At 9:00 we stuffed the car with out ski poles, jackets, gaiters, lunches and gloves, then we climbed in and pulled out of the driveway. Oh wait - did I say gloves? No, we realized 100 ft down the road that we had both forgotten them; so we turned around, parked back in the driveway and went into the house to find our gloves. Five minutes later we were back in the car and 100 ft back down the road. My mom couldn't find her sunglasses, so we turned around and idled in the driveway while she went to look for them. She didn't even make it to the door before she felt them hooked into her back pocket. So, try three, we were 100 ft down the road and we were laughing so hard about how everyone must think we were crazy.

So after our fabulous dance, we headed out to Hadley. Driving down Tower Rd. (the dirt road that the parking lot for the trail head is on) we passed some hunters and mom gave them quite a look, I'm just glad she didn't seem paranoid about getting shot for the rest of the trip! :)

We pulled into the parking lot around 10, and we proceeded to bundle up. I was rocking my gaiters, a three in one jacket, a ski pole and some fleece gloves (I had an extra windbreaker in my pack). My mom was rocking gaiters, a fleece pullover, a fleece vest, a heavy duty wind-resistant jacket, and two ski poles. We sprayed up to protect ourselves from the doom-bugs (aka: ticks) and we headed up the trail.

It had rained a few days the week before and the weather kept telling the high elevation regions to 'watch for snow.' Fortunately we never saw any snow, but we sure saw a lot of water. The trail follows a stream up the mountain for most of the time and it was as high as we had ever seen it. In a few places where it crossed the trail, I got to try out my photography skills ... and my waterproof shoes. Everything went swell and my feet remained dry. :)

Quite a few people passed us as they were coming back down. As with every time I have hiked this trail, they reassure us that the summit is worth it. I guess it's a polite thing to say, but hey - don't we look like we hike often (with mom's fanny pack and my heavy jacket)? ;)

One thing that I just couldn't get over during this hike was the leaves. Not just the colors, but more of the way that the trees changed. Leaf color was so dependent on elevation it was insane! One tree could have no leaves in it's top branches, A few red leaves below that, more yellow below that, and the lots of green near the ground. I know that temperature is a main factor in the leaves changing, but this was fabulous! Or at least I thought it was, being a biology major and all. ;) I hope the first picture and the picture above can do the idea some justice.

Almost at the summit there is a trail that heads off on the right that leads to an old ranger's cabin. We stopped there and had lunch (we bought subway on the way to the mountain) before venturing up to the cold summit. The wind was bitter and the bare rock offered no shelter. I debated climbing the fire tower, and decided to go halfway up. I was willing to subject myself to even harsher wind just for some pictures, but I wasn't going to be too crazy.

I'm not sure what way these photos are facing, I'll have to figure it out.

I must admit, we didn't stay on the summit long, and we were definitely glad to get back into the protection of the trees. But it was definitely a nice hike, and one that I needed. The outdoors is definitely something that calls to you. I'm not sure how to explain it if you don't know what I mean, but it's a call that you need to answer.

So here's to me hopefully remembering to post this coming Friday and to tell you about my hike with Lauren and Robinson.

Peace,
G

I Must be a Hobbit

"For all Hobbits share a love of things that grow." This line is from The Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring (it's in the film, I'll have to check if the exact line is in the book).

My mom and I are heading up to Hadley Mt. tomorrow, given that the rain is polite; I told her that even if it does rain I'll still be happy to go. For the last week I have been stuck in the woods of Troy where the gray mountains can be scaled with the push of a button and the air is heavy with the stink of human. I need to smell the earth, I need to hear my footfalls on the root-laden dirt, and I need to feel the ache in my muscles and the excitement in my heart.

You don't realize how attached to something you have become until you don't have it.
G

Brain Cells

I think that as I learn more in college this year, I am losing the brain cells that make me remember things. :-/ Gah, so I'm posting this now in hopes that I will come back later today and update this into a real post.

Peace,

G