First Reservoir

After a Saturday filled with nothing we went out today on a loop we had not visited yet. Starting at the American Tower Gate on Rt. 106, we rounded the First and Second Reservoirs for Letchworth Village on fire roads. We bushwacked up "Big Hill" to a shelter I call the Jerry-O Memorial Shelter, but it was already occupied by leaf-burning crasians. H had had enough fun in the cold by that time so we ate our lunch and took the shortest way back to George.

Annual Post-Thanksgiving Hike

And so winter begins here in Harriman between Black Rock and Surebridge Mountain. It was the annual day-after-Thanksgiving hike and we had two new members, Buddy J and Brother S, join us to make it a five-pack. At the trailhead we had to rerun the shuttle to grab forgotten boots and J and H were looking pretty "FRAB" ( Freezing as B***s! ). Damn, was it cold out today. Once we got moving, though, things warmed up some as we got out of the woods and onto the gneiss of the Harriman plains. We ran into a group of over a dozen people led by a leashless-dog lady and a pyro in a poncho. They were looking for the stone shelter we were headed for but were traveling in the wrong direction. Although we made it there first we were unable to keep it to ourselves. The place filled up all around us and poncho guy lit up a smoke and started a blaze in the firepit while the lady with the crazy accent let her dogs stick their noses into our lunch and a little kid threw his snack crackers all over the place. Fortunately we were given some peace when they packed up and left. After a little while we packed up ourselves and headed out across the bald rocks down to the trailhead west of Little Long Pond, completing a very cold but quick four-miler. No leftover turkey in this house, so it's gonna be pizza 'n' beer!

Happy Birthday

Round 3-0 for B.G. Had all the B's up on Saturday night for a lil family celebration for H's 30th birthday. We catered this show with some platters rather than go all out and cook it up. This morning I whipped up a humungous B.I.B. for H and we flopped until 3PM when we went with A & J to the movies to see Walk the Line. A funny thing happened to me on the way home from the theater. We all went to BK for a snack and the counter girl looked at me oddly but didn't saying anything. As we were chowing down, A noticed that I had a good sized piece of popcorn resting visibly on the top button of my shirt. Following BK and my first try at "chicken fries" we all headed across the street to DQ for some soft serve before calling it a day. Nothing like a weekend of bad eating to celebrate getting older. Happy birthday. I love!

Wawayanda Hilton

Here's H making a journal entry at the Wawayanda Hilton rest stop. The trees have almost entirely shed their foliage and the nights now are too chilled for our three-season bags, so the rains of October weekends officially squashed our plans to backpack this section of the A.T. from Rt. 17A in Warwick, New York, to Rt. 94 in NJ. We took the lesser and southern half of the section begining at the Warwick Turnpike and turned at the trail register, making for a 7.5-mile repeater. No spectacular vistas to speak of and the landscape was mostly pretty bleak and scraggly, so there is little to note. Except, of course, for the hunters. Please correct me if I am wrong, but why are there people with shotguns blasting squirrels in a state park and standing directly on the Appalachian Trail??!! Just off Iron Mountain road was a man with two kids who were shooting right from the trail. Before heading out, we saw a tree or two with No Hunting signs posted on them, and at the parking area, we saw a hunter walk down the trail when we started and one returned from the opposite direction at the trailhead when we were finished. Makes me wonder if it's suddenly become hiker season!!

Zion Canyon

Zion Canyon National Park in Utah. Skip the busloads of cub scouts, blue hairs, and RV road warriors! We jumped off the road for a hike up a wash into the back country. In the foreground is what looks like an ancient bristlecone pine tree, but I'm not completely sure. We hiked up through the wash of clear creek between Deertrap and Cable mountains.

Great Dunes of Death Valley

Stovepipe Wells Sand Dunes - A dream come true to have the opportunity to return here.

Vegas, Baby!

What else could make a great year greater?!? All of a sudden and out of nowhere comes a business trip to Vegas the Mecca and gateway to parks of the southwest.