Day 23-The Word of the Day...WIND!

April 10-13.1 miles

Aiyiyi, today was a cold and windy day! At least the sun was shining. I started out in my puffy jacket, then switched to my rain jacket over my hoody. I really wasn’t sweaty at all today, even though we had two big climbs. 

I left at 8:00am on the nose. Sure Foot was just a little bit behind me. We had to climb out of Deep Gap, but that wasn’t bad. Then we had just a whole bunch of ups and downs...nothing major. 

The May Apples are coming up!

Nice trail (and here it wasn’t so windy).

The wind continued to blow, making for really chilly hiking. Even though the temp was only in the 40s, when we were briefly out of the wind, it felt so much warmer! 

Our first big climb was up to Max Patch. This is an AT famous spot. Great for watching the sunrise or sunset. Today, however, it was windy as all get out, and very cold. Still we took the requisite number of photos. 

Heading up the stairs to the summit. 

Just around the corner is the summit. 

Very windy and cold on top (but beautifully sunny).

We eventually worked our way down there. 

Once we got off the summit, we stopped for some lunch. After lunch the trail was really interesting. There were more different kinds of trail than we’ve seen so far. 

Trail through trees

Trail through rhodie tunnel

Trail coming out of rhodie tunnel to pasture

Lots of stream crossings

Many with bridges like this. 

It was really enjoyable. There was also lots of trillium flowers, and the May Apples were larger. 

White trillium

Red trillium 

Hillside of trillium 

Weird fungi

So strange looking!

We had pretty easy trail to Lemon Gap. Then we started the last climb of the day up Walnut Mtn. The climbing part was just over a mile. It wasn’t too bad, but I was glad when it was over (especially since we had done 13 miles). 

Nearly the top. 

From the top it was just a short .1 to the Walnut Mtn Shelter. There’s not much in the way of tent sites at the shelter. Guthook said there was tent camping sites down past the water source. Well...I guess it looks like people have camped here...but not for awhile. We managed to find reasonably flatish spots for our tents among the greenery. Actually, it’s pretty cushy. We apologized to the plants for squishing them. 


Today was our second longest day at 13.1 miles. We did pretty good finishing in 8 hours. Because it’s so cold, we have retired to our tents just to be warm. The wind appears to be subsiding, but it’s still going to be a sleep-with-the-filter night (Sawyer Squeeze filters will get ruined if they freeze). Hoping for warmer temps tomorrow. 






Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Real Day 95-Just Taking My Food for a Walk

Image
June 21-15ish miles-Pine Grove Furnace to campsite-AT mile 1120 Last night Dusty and I made a “card” for Sure Foot for Father’s Day (except we said Happy Farter’s Day because...well...you can probably guess). I had breakfast at the hostel. The pancakes I had were...solid...kind of hard like a frisbee. But, I also had some yogurt and orange juice. I mean...it was only $5.00, so I can’t complain too much. Strangely, someone had stolen the eggs and bacon (uncooked), and a plate. It was weird... The first part of the day was pretty easy. Getting out of Pine Grove State Park was a flat bike path. We went by Fuller Lake.  Fuller Lake in the fog...eerie.  I met two women who were just out for a short hike. I walked with them until the AT turned off the path.  Barb and Becky. Nice gals! The AT climbed for awhile, but it wasn’t a steep climb. Braids and I caught up to Dusty and Sure Foot at a creek. We were just about a mile from the Green Mtn grocery store. Dusty asked if we were...
Read more

Day 35-A Spot of Beauty, and Adding Pee Bottle

Image
April 22-12.9 miles-Curley Maple Gap Shelter to Cherry Gap Shelter-AT mile 361.4 Today was one of our longer days with two major climbs. I got going at 7:50, and Sure Foot was just a few behind me. Before I left, I heard Tic Tac telling Papa Smurf and Pee Bottle that they should hike together, and she would just go slow what with her shin splint not doing well.  Sure Foot caught up to me before too long, and we continued on. Just after Indian Grave Gap (didn’t see any grave), we stopped for a break. We were 4.6 miles in, and it was about 10:30. While we were eating our snacks, Pee Bottle came walking up the trail. He said he’d been trying to catch us, and that Tic Tac and Papa Smurf were going to get a ride to Roan Mtn (the town), and would wait for Pee Bottle there. It would give Tic Tac some rest, so hopefully she can continue. Pee Bottle asked if he could hike with us. Of course, it’s no problem. He’s a nice guy, and fits in with Sure Foot and I just fine.  And Pee Bottle m...
Read more

129-Back to Mosquito Land...uh...I Mean the Trail

Image
July 25-11.7 miles-Great Barrington to Wilcox South Shelters-AT mile 1535.5 We actually planned to go to the Wilcox North Shelter, but decided we didn’t want to carry extra water for 1.8 miles up and over Mt. Wilcox. But, more on that in a moment.  Roger and Sandy took us back to the trail at 7:30 this morning. We took photos, and said our “see you laters”, then started walking.  Photo courtesy of Sure Foot.  The first bit seemed to just wind around corn fields and along the river.  Oh yeah, it was foggy.  We went out to a road, and across a bridge, just to get to the other side of the river, then seemingly made a u-turn, and went back along the river. All of that was flat.  We finally got back to trail-looking trail, and started the first of a few climbs.  Sure Foot asked if it was Fall already.  This was a crevasse that they were nice enough to build a bridge over.  We reached the first viewpoint of the day, and took a break.  When we ...
Read more