for some cross-country action and more AT hiking. after a long week answering to all sorts of problems with computers, smartboards, projectors, phones, and assorted other tech, i was fairly relieved to hop on the bus with the cross-country team at 2:00 on friday afternoon. our usual coach, rev. tom, had a wedding to do and i was 'volunteered' to fill in. it was a bit of a bus ride, but i had a swell time with three of the runners that i knew well. olivia, justin, and i laughed a lot at lincoln as he made crazy statement after crazy statement--clearly "numbers baffled him!" we got a lot of milage out of his jack's beanstalk-esque 1000 foot tall pine tree. "it was so high up there, you couldn't see the leaves."
the meet was at fall mtn regional high school (put the map on satellite and zoom in a bit for a look at the area we ran in) and their x-c coach met us as the bus pulled into the lot. we got the basic run down of the event and wandered over to the starting line area to wait for the 'coarse jog' around. we watched a couple of teams go off and followed a ways behind. i ran along with the team sporting the bright blue crocs. we made it around, a bit more than a mile and a half and finished circling their track. the actual race would be 2x around and finishing with most of one lap directly on the track.
the boys ran first and olivia, lincoln--he couldn't run yet as he hadn't gotten in all his paper work--and i placed ourselves strategically and cheered when the mascoma boys went past. as the racers spread out we moved a few times to see them. olivia and lincoln ended up at the finish line taking times while i went up the track and spurred them on toward the end. justin ran really well for their first meet, almost breaking 20 minutes at 20:32. devon and henry ran a respectable race as well. i think lincoln was frustrated he hadn't gotten in his consent form as he wanted to race as well.
soon enough the girls were lining up and olivia fit into the middle of the pack. she seemed to not take off as fast as the group, but said she passed a bunch of them fairly soon after they got in the woods. that seemed like a better strategy than burning out early. she looked very steady every time we caught sight of her at a vantage point. she finished strong as well and came off the track with a smile and getting her breath back. it was a fine outing for all even though i elected to skip the traditional stop at mcdonalds.
sunday morning was hiking day, and pam got herself out of bed and into breakfast just after 7:00a. her goal was to get on the trail early and make it to the top of smart's mtn. usually we have just looped the lower section and going to the top would add some distance as well as vertical--about 8 miles compared to 6.5. i thought that it would be wise to take the ranger trail up and the AT down as there is more gradual up on the former. of course that would give us some steep down, but gravity would assist.
to get to the trailhead, we drove over the turnpike road, past dartmouth skiway, and up towards reservoir pond. the parking area was almost full, but considering it was vacation weekend and the sky was nearly cloudless, it was to be expected. packs on the backs, we set out.
the first thing we noticed. and stopped to take a few pictures of, were the huge caps of an extensive and varied mushroom crop. after about the third photo stop pam mentioned aloud what i had been thinking--fungi could be a great thread for this post. i tried to come up with a hiking joke ending in the punchline "why not? i'm a fun-gi!" but gave it up for concentrating on where i was placing my feet to avoid stomping on any. here are four interesting examples...
the purply-blue flower picture is of bottle gentian. pam remembered betty collins telling her that, way back in the 1960's. (it always cracks me up that she thinks she has alzheimer's when she can't remember something.) gentians are woodsy perennials that love wettish feet. fortunately for those who kept an eye out, these had found a moist spot in this dry year.
speaking of moisture and lack there of, as we got higher and higher in elevation, i wondered if the fungi would disappear. things don't rot as fast in dry environments and fungi are part of the 'rotting' system. but, there seemed to be fewer of them, and even at the top i saw them tucked into a shady spot or three. along the way, pam broke out her poles to help coax the legs along, but she did something funky to her shoulder. even though she said she was determined, i thought uh-oh. we did eventually make it and i steered her toward the tent site with a friendly, grassy overlook. she sat down happily to adjust her hair and eat a slice of pizza.
from that vantage point, we could see all the surrounding hills and mtn.s to the south, from cardigan in the east, to just west of moose. we tried to name all the ponds in view, but there were a lot, and it got a tad confusing with some of the bigger ones partially hidden. the picture below shows most of cummings pond at the bottom and firescrew and cardigan mtn at the top. i believe that is ragged mtn in the far back on the right. angles from different perspectives--i.e. standing atop different mountains--can throw you way off.
refreshed, hair in place (for those who have it), and one last picture, we started down. the heat of the day was not too bad up high and in the breeze. much of the time too, we were in the shade. at the ranger-AT junction, we turned off, onto about a quarter mile of steep rock stairs dropping you quickly down to the high valley between the AT ridgeline, where we were headed, and the ranger trail, where we had come up. it can get really wet through here but not this summer. the numerous bog bridges and stone steps were all 'high and dry'.
as we got up on lambert ridge, it got even drier, especially out in the sun on the 'bald spots' where the ledge was exposed. i took a screen shot of the satellite view where you can see the white granite dotting the green. if you zoom in on google maps, the AT is labeled and you can get a good idea of it. it yo-yo's along for quiet a ways. i think maybe this is when i heard pam start muttering, "just two more miles...one step at a time." so far, she had been quite a trooper, even though she crumped her shoulder way back on the ranger trail.
as we were going down after an up, we did have a bit of a surprise that distracted pam from the "never ending" part of things. another hiker had just stopped below me and i thought to myself--that looks like the "lost" toronto guy we had seen last weekend over on moose mtn. sure enough it was same person i mentioned in my last post!
we chatted a bit but i tried not to get too involved as i remember he liked to ramble on verbally. he looked healthy and seemed to be in really good spirits so when pam came along, we gave him a good luck and goodbye.
a bit later pam was making up titles to a new guide book: hiking the AT--one mile a day! a new twist on the old 'dollar-a-day' guides they used to put out. over and above the super slow pace he was setting, about six miles in seven days, seeing him there, pam was mostly relieved of the worry she had for "lost man". seeing him alive and well put a spring back in her own step.
well and good she perked up, as we still had about a mile to descend. i took a couple of pictures of her in fine form at 'the corner' where MOC commonly stopped to eat lunch on our way up on the deep freeze overnight. she usually is not so game about getting close to any edge let alone one with a 60-70 foot drop, but maybe she was feeling frisky and starting to "smell the barn" as they say.
after squaring the corner, we passed over a few final ledgy parts and got solidly into the woods. at one point the trail goes through an opening in an incredible stone wall. every time i cross through that gap, i marvel at whoever the heck built that beauty way the heck up there. one last picture doesn't quite do it justice but it is still in fine shape. trust me, or better yet take a hike and see it for yourself.
after the wall, we could start to hear vehicles laboring up the gravel down below, and then turning a corner i heard grant brook. the car was waiting for us when we popped out of the woods. there was no bus blocking us in, which was a bit of a possibility given the couple dozen teen looking hikers that passed us headed up to the summit cabin for the night.
ourselves, we were headed home eventually, with a trip over to pam's sister's in springfield to pick tomatoes and a swim in lake kolelemook. that would certainly be refreshing!
the meet was at fall mtn regional high school (put the map on satellite and zoom in a bit for a look at the area we ran in) and their x-c coach met us as the bus pulled into the lot. we got the basic run down of the event and wandered over to the starting line area to wait for the 'coarse jog' around. we watched a couple of teams go off and followed a ways behind. i ran along with the team sporting the bright blue crocs. we made it around, a bit more than a mile and a half and finished circling their track. the actual race would be 2x around and finishing with most of one lap directly on the track.
the boys ran first and olivia, lincoln--he couldn't run yet as he hadn't gotten in all his paper work--and i placed ourselves strategically and cheered when the mascoma boys went past. as the racers spread out we moved a few times to see them. olivia and lincoln ended up at the finish line taking times while i went up the track and spurred them on toward the end. justin ran really well for their first meet, almost breaking 20 minutes at 20:32. devon and henry ran a respectable race as well. i think lincoln was frustrated he hadn't gotten in his consent form as he wanted to race as well.
soon enough the girls were lining up and olivia fit into the middle of the pack. she seemed to not take off as fast as the group, but said she passed a bunch of them fairly soon after they got in the woods. that seemed like a better strategy than burning out early. she looked very steady every time we caught sight of her at a vantage point. she finished strong as well and came off the track with a smile and getting her breath back. it was a fine outing for all even though i elected to skip the traditional stop at mcdonalds.
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sunday morning was hiking day, and pam got herself out of bed and into breakfast just after 7:00a. her goal was to get on the trail early and make it to the top of smart's mtn. usually we have just looped the lower section and going to the top would add some distance as well as vertical--about 8 miles compared to 6.5. i thought that it would be wise to take the ranger trail up and the AT down as there is more gradual up on the former. of course that would give us some steep down, but gravity would assist.
to get to the trailhead, we drove over the turnpike road, past dartmouth skiway, and up towards reservoir pond. the parking area was almost full, but considering it was vacation weekend and the sky was nearly cloudless, it was to be expected. packs on the backs, we set out.
the first thing we noticed. and stopped to take a few pictures of, were the huge caps of an extensive and varied mushroom crop. after about the third photo stop pam mentioned aloud what i had been thinking--fungi could be a great thread for this post. i tried to come up with a hiking joke ending in the punchline "why not? i'm a fun-gi!" but gave it up for concentrating on where i was placing my feet to avoid stomping on any. here are four interesting examples...
the purply-blue flower picture is of bottle gentian. pam remembered betty collins telling her that, way back in the 1960's. (it always cracks me up that she thinks she has alzheimer's when she can't remember something.) gentians are woodsy perennials that love wettish feet. fortunately for those who kept an eye out, these had found a moist spot in this dry year.
speaking of moisture and lack there of, as we got higher and higher in elevation, i wondered if the fungi would disappear. things don't rot as fast in dry environments and fungi are part of the 'rotting' system. but, there seemed to be fewer of them, and even at the top i saw them tucked into a shady spot or three. along the way, pam broke out her poles to help coax the legs along, but she did something funky to her shoulder. even though she said she was determined, i thought uh-oh. we did eventually make it and i steered her toward the tent site with a friendly, grassy overlook. she sat down happily to adjust her hair and eat a slice of pizza.
from that vantage point, we could see all the surrounding hills and mtn.s to the south, from cardigan in the east, to just west of moose. we tried to name all the ponds in view, but there were a lot, and it got a tad confusing with some of the bigger ones partially hidden. the picture below shows most of cummings pond at the bottom and firescrew and cardigan mtn at the top. i believe that is ragged mtn in the far back on the right. angles from different perspectives--i.e. standing atop different mountains--can throw you way off.
refreshed, hair in place (for those who have it), and one last picture, we started down. the heat of the day was not too bad up high and in the breeze. much of the time too, we were in the shade. at the ranger-AT junction, we turned off, onto about a quarter mile of steep rock stairs dropping you quickly down to the high valley between the AT ridgeline, where we were headed, and the ranger trail, where we had come up. it can get really wet through here but not this summer. the numerous bog bridges and stone steps were all 'high and dry'.
as we got up on lambert ridge, it got even drier, especially out in the sun on the 'bald spots' where the ledge was exposed. i took a screen shot of the satellite view where you can see the white granite dotting the green. if you zoom in on google maps, the AT is labeled and you can get a good idea of it. it yo-yo's along for quiet a ways. i think maybe this is when i heard pam start muttering, "just two more miles...one step at a time." so far, she had been quite a trooper, even though she crumped her shoulder way back on the ranger trail.
as we were going down after an up, we did have a bit of a surprise that distracted pam from the "never ending" part of things. another hiker had just stopped below me and i thought to myself--that looks like the "lost" toronto guy we had seen last weekend over on moose mtn. sure enough it was same person i mentioned in my last post!
we chatted a bit but i tried not to get too involved as i remember he liked to ramble on verbally. he looked healthy and seemed to be in really good spirits so when pam came along, we gave him a good luck and goodbye.
a bit later pam was making up titles to a new guide book: hiking the AT--one mile a day! a new twist on the old 'dollar-a-day' guides they used to put out. over and above the super slow pace he was setting, about six miles in seven days, seeing him there, pam was mostly relieved of the worry she had for "lost man". seeing him alive and well put a spring back in her own step.
well and good she perked up, as we still had about a mile to descend. i took a couple of pictures of her in fine form at 'the corner' where MOC commonly stopped to eat lunch on our way up on the deep freeze overnight. she usually is not so game about getting close to any edge let alone one with a 60-70 foot drop, but maybe she was feeling frisky and starting to "smell the barn" as they say.
after squaring the corner, we passed over a few final ledgy parts and got solidly into the woods. at one point the trail goes through an opening in an incredible stone wall. every time i cross through that gap, i marvel at whoever the heck built that beauty way the heck up there. one last picture doesn't quite do it justice but it is still in fine shape. trust me, or better yet take a hike and see it for yourself.
after the wall, we could start to hear vehicles laboring up the gravel down below, and then turning a corner i heard grant brook. the car was waiting for us when we popped out of the woods. there was no bus blocking us in, which was a bit of a possibility given the couple dozen teen looking hikers that passed us headed up to the summit cabin for the night.
ourselves, we were headed home eventually, with a trip over to pam's sister's in springfield to pick tomatoes and a swim in lake kolelemook. that would certainly be refreshing!
