A summer of hiking

Looking West from Mt. Abraham towards Saddleback

Another successful hike last Saturday, this time to the summit of Mt. Abraham (Maine) [4037'] with a total of 2950' gain in elevation and about 9 miles round trip.  The majority of the elevation gain was accomplished in the last mile and a quarter of the fire warden's trail so the climb was pretty steep.  See EveryTrail for more details on the climb (with profile).  This time, we only took Puga and Cindy as the "junior" dogs were not really up to it.

We began our training this year with Mt. Wachusett in late April, I think.  That was about 900' elevation gain and only about 3 miles round trip.  We've successively done harder and harder climbs since then (although we gave our legs a rest a couple of weeks ago with Mt. Kearsage South).  I've missed a couple of hikes, but Kim has been on every one.

These days as I'm struggling up the trails to such lofty peaks, I marvel at my sheer insanity seven years ago when I volunteered to go on a two day hike in the Presidential range.  Our plan was to start up the Caps Ridge trail (2720' elevation gain), summit Mt. Jefferson (5716') then go on to bag Mt. Adams before staying overnight at the Madison Springs Hut.  Then on up Mt. Madison the following day.  It was a long time (forever?) since I had done such a demanding hike and, although I had trained assiduously on the stairmaster ahead of time, I had done very little real hiking in preparation.  I must have been mad!

The ascent of Mt. Jefferson, while quite scary at times, went without a hitch.  But by the time we had struggled over to the foot of Mt. Adams, my legs were done.  And I mean done.  So, Kim and I skipped Mt. Adams (sorry!) and made sure we got to the hut in time for dinner.  After dinner, we went on a nature walk and took in the unadulterated night sky.  The following day, we climbed Mt. Madison and had the most unbelievable views.  While the descent might might have seemed easier, my knees could hardly move for the next couple of weeks.

Fast forward to 2011.  Our plan is to conquer Mt. Katahdin later this summer.  It stands at 5268' but with approximately 4000' (ugh!) of elevation gain.  It's one tough mountain by all accounts.

Until this last hike of Mt. Abraham, I was seriously doubting if I could do it.  But now, I know I can and am determined to make all the training worthwhile.  I just hope that the weather is good because I hate hiking on slippery rocks.

Looking North to Sugarloaf and the Bigelow Range beyond

A little fall of rain

What a summer we've had!  Day after day of beautiful sunny days.  We've hardly seen a mosquito in Carlisle for about a month now (with the exception of the one that gets delivered on Fridays).  Incredible.

The photo above is from a point close to the summit of Mt. Albany (1930') looking towards the Caribou-Speckled wilderness. We hiked it last week while staying at the pet-friendly Paws Inn (see left) in Bethel at the end of our Maine vacation.  Since the hike wasn't too strenuous we added another two mile out-and-back to a beautiful pond called Round Pond (see below, right) near the Crocker Pond campground.  Pixie (aka Madison) was an incredibly active hiker on this day: always leading the way, sometimes taking a detour but never tiring or lagging behind.  What a difference we've made to that dog!

While we were up there, we also visited with Kim's cousin Kristin.  That was really nice to get to know them all better.  What a wonderful place Bethel is!  The air really is different up there.

Last night, we had a little fall of rain ("... can hardly hurt me now", as Eponine sings) and it prompted me to check how many rainless days we've had recently.  We were rain-free between July 23rd and Aug 5th.  Then the 7-9th, then the 12-15th.  And the rain we've had has generally been in drops: the total rainfall for August so far has been 0.15" and for July was 2.37", of which about 2/3 fell on just three days (10, 11 and 23).

And temperatures have been high too.  100F was the max for July, 93F so far in August.  But our weather has been nothing compared to that of Europe and, especially, Russia.  Indeed, the period January 2010 through July 2010 is officially the warmest such period ever, when global temperatures are considered.  July itself was either the warmest July ever, or the fifth warmest, according to who you believe.  Here in the U.S., July was only the 17th warmest (of 116 previous Julys).  February, March, April, May and June have all been the warmest, globally, on record.

But you mustn't jump to any conclusions about global warming.  These are just anomalies whose significance has been overblown by the liberal scientists we put in charge of our meteorological agencies.  Right, and the tooth fairy really exists.

Trouble is of course the ground is parched.  Wildlife must be having a hard time of it.  But our tomatoes are doing extremely well (left).  Indeed, we are very much enjoying having BLTs, open-faced sandwiches (kind of like a Caprese), and anything else tomato based (yes, we also have Basil).

Yes, we have no bananas

We eat a lot of bananas in our menagerie.  And when I say "we", I do mean all of us (two humans, three dogs at present).  The dogs get their slice of banana, which they love, at breakfast time.  Well, all except Cindy who's no longer allowed extra calories, including bananas, by order of the vet!

So, there was some consternation when it became apparent that we were banana-less this morning (we forgot to pick some up on our way back from Little Monadnock yesterday).  Consequently, I started singing the old song, which I had always assumed was a quintessentially British song.  But then I looked up the origin of Yes, We Have No Bananas and found, to my surprise, that it's wholly American, albeit with British associations along the way.

We had planned to hike Little Monadnock last year but the trails were too damaged from the ice storm.  So, with Kara and the "muppets", we set off yesterday for the relatively easy hike.  The photo, taken during a short, light hailstorm, shows Kim and the dogs atop Little Monadnock, with Mt. Monadnock in the background.  Unfortunately, Monadnock doesn't allow dogs (although plenty people ignore the rule), so we generally pick one of the other hills in the area.  There are lots!  Besides, at this point in our training schedule, Monadnock itself would be a bit too strenuous.  We last climbed it in 2004 and it's surprisingly tough, especially if you go up the Spellman trail as we did.  Besides, do you see what's on the top of Monadnock?  Snow! 

This (photo above) is not quite the summit, however.  The summit, such as it is, is about a furlong to the west, along the Metacomet-Monadnock trail.  It has no good views, although at this time of year we could see through the leafless trees quite far to the west, or could have done if the weather wasn't so bad.  We stopped for lunch there.  We continued on the four-mile loop, eventually coming down a couple of "roads" back to Rhododendron State Park where we had begun.  We may visit this again in July with Ella when the blossom is out.  On the way back, we passed a rather large beaver pond (see photo).

Next, we stopped at the crossing of a rail trail, which I hadn't really been expecting, quite close to the park.  The trail runs the route of the old Cheshire R/R.  For more information, see my new railroad blog.

And, finally, our second goal of the day: sampling the wares of Lickity Splitz in Winchendon, MA.  I was quite pleased with my maple walnut.  The portion, a "small", was huge.  The maple syrup flavor was excellent.  At first, I thought there was a paucity of walnuts, but they appeared lower down.  Compared with Kimball's, I'd say that it was almost as good.  That's very high praise!

Mt. Bigelow

What a fantastic hike! We planned (and trained) for this all year and it exceeded all expectations. Joining us on this hike were Kara and, of course, Clover (near foreground) and Jigsaw (Kara's lap) (two 8 pound Maltipoos), Larry and Cheryl with Juniper (a 10-yr-old Bichon Frisse - on right of photo) and of course our own Puga (16 pound mutt) and Cindy (19 pound Cairn Terrier) -- both too busy to be in photo.

Avery peak of Mt. Bigelow (in Maine) is officially 4088' but my GPS consistently put it at 4104'. The total length of our hike was 10.6 miles, which took us about 10h 30m (including about 75-90 minutes on the top of the mountain). The elevation gain was 2835'. At one point, the trail goes up very steeply indeed -- 995' in 0.72 miles -- but it was very well laid out with many easy rock steps in places. Nevertheless, it took a fair bit of puff to get up there!

The peak (one of two separate peaks at the top of Mt. Bigelow) was named after Myron Avery, a lawyer and advocate (and first completer) of the 2000-mile Appalachian Trail (since then it has been extended to 2175 miles). Appropriately, Mt. Bigelow is the first point on the AT whence hikers can (on a good day) clearly see their destination, Mt. Katahdin (a further 180 miles). Three "thru-hikers" came through while we ate our lunch: "Blackstone" from Northern VA, and two brothers from Florida. The former had started in April and was planning to finish in ten days time. We wish them well.

The weather (and visibility) were perfect. Mt. Katahdin was indeed visible (though a bit hazy) and the views of Flagstaff lake (the result of damming the Dead River -- see photo below) were spectacular. We never saw a black fly and only saw one or two mosquitoes when we were well down and almost back to the car. The temperature was around 43F when we set out and was probably in the high 60s or low 70s while on the summit. There was only a light breeze and the sun more than made up for any heat lost thereby.


While I'm on the subject, let me do what I can for the reputation of Benedict Arnold. Most school text books pretty much concentrate on the fact of his treason without giving much of the background, and indeed without honoring his earlier successes. One of the major actions he commanded was the (eastern) expeditionary force to capture Quebec in 1775. He led his small contingent of 1100 men up the Kennebec river, thence up the Dead river (passing at the foot of Mt. Bigelow, therefore) into Quebec. He reached Quebec before the western force arrived (using the supposedly easier route up Lake Champlain) and they joined forces. Despite their audaciousness and their excellent wilderness skills, their quest was ultimately unsuccessful. Major Bigelow was one of Arnold's four division commanders in this action and was the first known to ascend the mountain (for reconnaissance purposes).