Sunday, January 21, 2007
Hiking with Mikey
"When Dylan gets older, I'm going to have to tell him the story about this hike. About how you dragged me out here when it was 25 degrees and there was a sustained wind of 20 MPH with gusts up to 40..."
This what my friend Mike said shortly after we had begun our 5 mile hike around Sugarloaf Mountain. We knew it was going to be cold, but we figured it would be fine once we got going and our bodies started producing heat.
We drove up that morning through some snowshowers, but by the time we got to the mountain, it was sunny and was starting to look like it was going to be a beautiful day. Aside from the cold and the wind it was. Sugarloaf is a solitary mountain, prone to high winds. We drove a ways up the mountain to find the trailhead. The temperature and the wind became very apparent as soon as we got out of the car.
Fortunately, we were prepared and bundled ourselves up. Mike made a makeshift scarf out of a spare T-shirt he brought. We planned to do a circuit hike around the Northern Peaks. We started off and shortly thereafter came to an rock outcropping with a commanding western view. We climbed up the rocks only to be greeted by a strong gust of cold air that made our exposed skin (just being our skin) ache. It was probably the briefest time I've spent at an overlook.
The trail shortly came to the leeward side of the mountain. The trailblazers had the forethought to run the trail a short distance down from the ridge, so the wind stayed off, making the going more pleasant. We made short climbs and short descents till we had reached White Rocks, another overlook. After a brief break, we continued on until we found another set of rocks which thought must be White Rocks. This happened once more, and I became nervous as to the length the trip. White Rocks was to be about 1/3 of the way out on the hike, and it seemed that we had been out for along time. Then we finally saw a sign that indicated that we were at White Rocks. The trail spurred a short distance out to the rocks. It was another commanding view of Frederick and the valley.
We circled backed found the main trail. We followed the trail back and it began looking very familiar. Then I saw a particular tree which had aided my initial descent and I was certain we were going to the wrong way. We had a decision to make: go back the way we knew, or try to find where the trail had continued on from White Rocks. Fortunately, we made the right decision to go back to the rocks.
On the way, it dawned on me. We were going the opposite direction around the circuit! All this time, we had thought we were going clockwise around the loop, but we were actually going counter-clockwise. We pulled out the map and confirmed it. All of a sudden, the rest of the peaks and valleys that we climbed through made sense and matched the map (there has to be a spiritual lesson here). And we weren't 1/3 of the way done the hike, we were 2/3 of the way done.
We hiked the remainder of the way back to the car. We saw 2 whitetail does bounding through the woods. We crossed a couple of streams. It was very pleasant. It was a beautiful day to be outside. It was a lot more of a workout than the previous hikes I've chronicled. I look forward to the day when Dylan and I can come up here and enjoy hikes like this one.
This what my friend Mike said shortly after we had begun our 5 mile hike around Sugarloaf Mountain. We knew it was going to be cold, but we figured it would be fine once we got going and our bodies started producing heat.
We drove up that morning through some snowshowers, but by the time we got to the mountain, it was sunny and was starting to look like it was going to be a beautiful day. Aside from the cold and the wind it was. Sugarloaf is a solitary mountain, prone to high winds. We drove a ways up the mountain to find the trailhead. The temperature and the wind became very apparent as soon as we got out of the car.
Fortunately, we were prepared and bundled ourselves up. Mike made a makeshift scarf out of a spare T-shirt he brought. We planned to do a circuit hike around the Northern Peaks. We started off and shortly thereafter came to an rock outcropping with a commanding western view. We climbed up the rocks only to be greeted by a strong gust of cold air that made our exposed skin (just being our skin) ache. It was probably the briefest time I've spent at an overlook.
The trail shortly came to the leeward side of the mountain. The trailblazers had the forethought to run the trail a short distance down from the ridge, so the wind stayed off, making the going more pleasant. We made short climbs and short descents till we had reached White Rocks, another overlook. After a brief break, we continued on until we found another set of rocks which thought must be White Rocks. This happened once more, and I became nervous as to the length the trip. White Rocks was to be about 1/3 of the way out on the hike, and it seemed that we had been out for along time. Then we finally saw a sign that indicated that we were at White Rocks. The trail spurred a short distance out to the rocks. It was another commanding view of Frederick and the valley.
We circled backed found the main trail. We followed the trail back and it began looking very familiar. Then I saw a particular tree which had aided my initial descent and I was certain we were going to the wrong way. We had a decision to make: go back the way we knew, or try to find where the trail had continued on from White Rocks. Fortunately, we made the right decision to go back to the rocks.
On the way, it dawned on me. We were going the opposite direction around the circuit! All this time, we had thought we were going clockwise around the loop, but we were actually going counter-clockwise. We pulled out the map and confirmed it. All of a sudden, the rest of the peaks and valleys that we climbed through made sense and matched the map (there has to be a spiritual lesson here). And we weren't 1/3 of the way done the hike, we were 2/3 of the way done.
We hiked the remainder of the way back to the car. We saw 2 whitetail does bounding through the woods. We crossed a couple of streams. It was very pleasant. It was a beautiful day to be outside. It was a lot more of a workout than the previous hikes I've chronicled. I look forward to the day when Dylan and I can come up here and enjoy hikes like this one.
# posted by Martin @ 6:17 AM 
