Oncoman
Active member
Day 1:
Friday evening Jean & I met at the border and drove together to the Allen parking lot. We arrived at 23h00 and slept in our cars. A somewhat chilly night with temps of -25°C. Shin got up early, real early, around 03h00 and met us at 06h30 after slaloming here and there to avoid deers, running across the roads like rabbits on that cold night. Two other cheerful parties soon arrived, such that we were actually a group of 10 heading off for Allen that day.
Just before departing Jean and I had the pleasure of being greeted by a lovely curious fox barely 10 ft from us. Unfortunately no time for pictures. The trail was in superb shape, well packed down all the way to the summit. Just passed the junction for Adams, I stopped to admire the sun starting to shine on top of Sanford Hill. A beautiful sight.
Shin shortly thereafter caught up to me, but Jean was nowhere to be seen. After 10-15 min. of waiting, just as we were starting to get worried, here comes along Jean saying that he had to turn back having forgotten his lunch...
At the turn-off near the former Twin Brook Lean-to, we rested and chatted, exchanging anecdotal hiking stories. Jean made us roar with laughter with his blind man's walk when his head lamp died out and that he had to feel his way along the trail with his walking poles, though I'm sure he was not at all laughing at the time. Eventually the entire group caught up with us, and we gradually moved on, each one at his own pace.
I was surprised, even somewhat annoyed, to see all those red & yellow tapes all over the trail right up to the base of the slide, with even numerous yellow markers on the trees. There was none of that back in Sept. 2004 when I last did Allen. Since then I'm afraid the Allen trail has been tamed and has lost it's former relative virginity. Back in the fall of 2004, with all the leaves on the ground, following the herd path had proved to be slightly challenging. Not any more I guess. But then, we all know that it is only a matter of time before all the 46 ADK peaks will cease to be trailless.
On the summit of Allen, Mark or was it his friend, decided to take close-up pictures of the iced up beards of the 3 hairy faces of the group, promising however that those pix would never end up on the web. Hum...For some strange reason I was dubbed Dracula...
The return trip was slow for some of us. Back at the turn-off, I decided to take a short snooze while enjoying the warm sun on my face melting away the ice off my beard and thus making me human again. Meanwhile Jean ate his precious lunch as well as half my nuts & chocolate chips mix. We then tackled the final stretch home and all yelled our joy upon reaching at last the parking lot.
While waiting for the slower hikers to arrive, Phil and I chatted in my warmed-up car. I was particularly impressed with Phil's story of bushwacking the Santanonis back in the 60's with brush so thick then that the group had to sound off every few min. to keep track of each other. Wow...
All in all, it was a superb sunny day of hiking with a most enthusiastic group. Pure happiness!
Day2:
Another cold night sleeping in my car. Upon rising at 05h30, I noticed that my watch barometer had been falling for the last 6 hrs. Furthermore the previous evening I had heard on the radio of 48" of snow forecasts in Vermont. I was thus somewhat anxious while eating my breakfast and preparing my gear to head off solo for Marshall.
The trail from the Upper Works parking to the Flowed Lands Lean-to was a real highway, but the trail from there to the Herbert Brook was covered with 2 to 8" of powdery snow, making me worried about the trail conditions up the Herbert path. Luckily my fears proved to be unjustified, the herd path having been well packed down by a group the previous day, as well as by Shin Shurmane, Pinpin and all the others. Many thanks to you all!
About 2/3 up the trail, I had the pleasant surprise of being caught up by Pinpin and his friend Jeff. After all this was not going to be an entirely solo trip. Yuppie! Though I was not able to follow their rapid upgoing pace, I nonetheless succeeded by slowly jogging downhill to catch up to them halfway down the slope. However to be honest I must say that their stopping to chat a few min. with a group heading up the brook helped.
Seeing Jeff in front of me trying to pass by the king now and then, with Pinpin defending his honor furiously, was a real pleasure to observe. I will cheerish for a very long time this puppish image of camaraderie. We were back at the trail junction by 11h45 and after 10-15 min. of pleasant conversation, we each went our way, me towards Upper Works and Pinpin & Jeff to the ADK Loj parking.
Knowing that Gisèle, my love, my "frotadou", was expecting me to be back in Montréal early for a Valentine supper date really gave me wings on the trails that day. I was back to my car by 13h15 and in the arms of my Aphrodite at 16h15. As Pinpin would say. Yea!
Pierre
Friday evening Jean & I met at the border and drove together to the Allen parking lot. We arrived at 23h00 and slept in our cars. A somewhat chilly night with temps of -25°C. Shin got up early, real early, around 03h00 and met us at 06h30 after slaloming here and there to avoid deers, running across the roads like rabbits on that cold night. Two other cheerful parties soon arrived, such that we were actually a group of 10 heading off for Allen that day.
Just before departing Jean and I had the pleasure of being greeted by a lovely curious fox barely 10 ft from us. Unfortunately no time for pictures. The trail was in superb shape, well packed down all the way to the summit. Just passed the junction for Adams, I stopped to admire the sun starting to shine on top of Sanford Hill. A beautiful sight.
Shin shortly thereafter caught up to me, but Jean was nowhere to be seen. After 10-15 min. of waiting, just as we were starting to get worried, here comes along Jean saying that he had to turn back having forgotten his lunch...
At the turn-off near the former Twin Brook Lean-to, we rested and chatted, exchanging anecdotal hiking stories. Jean made us roar with laughter with his blind man's walk when his head lamp died out and that he had to feel his way along the trail with his walking poles, though I'm sure he was not at all laughing at the time. Eventually the entire group caught up with us, and we gradually moved on, each one at his own pace.
I was surprised, even somewhat annoyed, to see all those red & yellow tapes all over the trail right up to the base of the slide, with even numerous yellow markers on the trees. There was none of that back in Sept. 2004 when I last did Allen. Since then I'm afraid the Allen trail has been tamed and has lost it's former relative virginity. Back in the fall of 2004, with all the leaves on the ground, following the herd path had proved to be slightly challenging. Not any more I guess. But then, we all know that it is only a matter of time before all the 46 ADK peaks will cease to be trailless.
On the summit of Allen, Mark or was it his friend, decided to take close-up pictures of the iced up beards of the 3 hairy faces of the group, promising however that those pix would never end up on the web. Hum...For some strange reason I was dubbed Dracula...
The return trip was slow for some of us. Back at the turn-off, I decided to take a short snooze while enjoying the warm sun on my face melting away the ice off my beard and thus making me human again. Meanwhile Jean ate his precious lunch as well as half my nuts & chocolate chips mix. We then tackled the final stretch home and all yelled our joy upon reaching at last the parking lot.
While waiting for the slower hikers to arrive, Phil and I chatted in my warmed-up car. I was particularly impressed with Phil's story of bushwacking the Santanonis back in the 60's with brush so thick then that the group had to sound off every few min. to keep track of each other. Wow...
All in all, it was a superb sunny day of hiking with a most enthusiastic group. Pure happiness!
Day2:
Another cold night sleeping in my car. Upon rising at 05h30, I noticed that my watch barometer had been falling for the last 6 hrs. Furthermore the previous evening I had heard on the radio of 48" of snow forecasts in Vermont. I was thus somewhat anxious while eating my breakfast and preparing my gear to head off solo for Marshall.
The trail from the Upper Works parking to the Flowed Lands Lean-to was a real highway, but the trail from there to the Herbert Brook was covered with 2 to 8" of powdery snow, making me worried about the trail conditions up the Herbert path. Luckily my fears proved to be unjustified, the herd path having been well packed down by a group the previous day, as well as by Shin Shurmane, Pinpin and all the others. Many thanks to you all!
About 2/3 up the trail, I had the pleasant surprise of being caught up by Pinpin and his friend Jeff. After all this was not going to be an entirely solo trip. Yuppie! Though I was not able to follow their rapid upgoing pace, I nonetheless succeeded by slowly jogging downhill to catch up to them halfway down the slope. However to be honest I must say that their stopping to chat a few min. with a group heading up the brook helped.
Seeing Jeff in front of me trying to pass by the king now and then, with Pinpin defending his honor furiously, was a real pleasure to observe. I will cheerish for a very long time this puppish image of camaraderie. We were back at the trail junction by 11h45 and after 10-15 min. of pleasant conversation, we each went our way, me towards Upper Works and Pinpin & Jeff to the ADK Loj parking.
Knowing that Gisèle, my love, my "frotadou", was expecting me to be back in Montréal early for a Valentine supper date really gave me wings on the trails that day. I was back to my car by 13h15 and in the arms of my Aphrodite at 16h15. As Pinpin would say. Yea!
Pierre
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