grouseking
Well-known member
Saturday was such a beauty of a day that I decided to hike up to Velvet Rocks in Hanover to get some much needed exercise and to see how the blowdown situation was on that stretch of the AT. So I took out the bike and headed over to Hanover, which is about a 6 mile road from my apt. Considering I haven't biked in years, I did pretty well, arriving in about 30 min.
I didn't really know what to expect from the trail. I was hoping for at least some views, but really didn't get too many. There were some small open areas overlooking the countryside, but in summer these vistas are probably not visible. Still, the walking was nice, and once I got away from the noise of a baseball game going on from the bottom of the hill, I was content. The trail was muddy at times, and there were a couple of significant blowdowns, mainly off trail. That would change further up. I arrived at Velvet Rocks Shelter pretty fast and took a nice break there. It was such a mild day....I was wearing shorts and a t-shirt.
I continued along the spur path and found a couple of nice views, one of the next hill I'd have to climb, and one of the hills in the area. This was pretty much the extension of the views on the trail, though I didn't hike the entire piece of trail. One of the things I will remember about this trail were the many ups and downs, which provided quite a good workout. Everything was also very wet, slippery and muddy, so I took my share of slips, slides and falls.
As I neared the height of land, I lost the trail. I spent about 5 minutes trying to locate it.....thinking it went off to the left, but it actually went off to the right. WHen I found it, I couldn't believe the wind damage that I was seeing. There were several pines and hemlocks all down right in a row on the trail, which made it difficult to pass. I got by them but saw more blowdowns further away, so I decided to just call it a day at that point. Trees were either completely uprooted, snapped or heavily damaged. Someone is going to have a lot of fun cleaning up that section of trail this spring. Here are a couple pics of the downed trees.
Trail is on other side of tree
Same Here
SNAPPED
The trip back went pretty quickly, except I couldn't walk to save my life. I kept tripping over every little branch and twig my foot could find. I guess that happens after a few months of traveling via snowshoes
. I saw a few moose tracks on the way down as well. After making it back, I headed into town for a nice sub, let my legs cool down a little, and then headed back to Lebanon. It was a great combo bike/hike, which I may do more often now that we are getting into a warmer season. It may not have been a large mountain, but it more than fit the bill for me.
Rest of pics http://grouseking.phanfare.com/album/262951#imageID=15694334
grouseking
I didn't really know what to expect from the trail. I was hoping for at least some views, but really didn't get too many. There were some small open areas overlooking the countryside, but in summer these vistas are probably not visible. Still, the walking was nice, and once I got away from the noise of a baseball game going on from the bottom of the hill, I was content. The trail was muddy at times, and there were a couple of significant blowdowns, mainly off trail. That would change further up. I arrived at Velvet Rocks Shelter pretty fast and took a nice break there. It was such a mild day....I was wearing shorts and a t-shirt.
I continued along the spur path and found a couple of nice views, one of the next hill I'd have to climb, and one of the hills in the area. This was pretty much the extension of the views on the trail, though I didn't hike the entire piece of trail. One of the things I will remember about this trail were the many ups and downs, which provided quite a good workout. Everything was also very wet, slippery and muddy, so I took my share of slips, slides and falls.
As I neared the height of land, I lost the trail. I spent about 5 minutes trying to locate it.....thinking it went off to the left, but it actually went off to the right. WHen I found it, I couldn't believe the wind damage that I was seeing. There were several pines and hemlocks all down right in a row on the trail, which made it difficult to pass. I got by them but saw more blowdowns further away, so I decided to just call it a day at that point. Trees were either completely uprooted, snapped or heavily damaged. Someone is going to have a lot of fun cleaning up that section of trail this spring. Here are a couple pics of the downed trees.
Trail is on other side of tree
Same Here
SNAPPED
The trip back went pretty quickly, except I couldn't walk to save my life. I kept tripping over every little branch and twig my foot could find. I guess that happens after a few months of traveling via snowshoes
. I saw a few moose tracks on the way down as well. After making it back, I headed into town for a nice sub, let my legs cool down a little, and then headed back to Lebanon. It was a great combo bike/hike, which I may do more often now that we are getting into a warmer season. It may not have been a large mountain, but it more than fit the bill for me. Rest of pics http://grouseking.phanfare.com/album/262951#imageID=15694334
grouseking
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