ferrisjrf
New member
- Joined
- Apr 2, 2008
- Messages
- 189
- Reaction score
- 242
Hui Yeng and I met at Upper Works pretty late Friday night, and spotted a car there, before heading down to the “Allen trailhead”. We knew we had a little time to kill before Marc and Gillian would arrive, so we spent our time getting hydrated and acting as temporary interpretive guides for the few folks who, apparently attracted by our headlamps, pulled into the lot thinking it was Upper Works. It wasn’t long though, before our partners in crime had arrived, and we were on our way towards Allen, with the help of our headlamps and a few million stars.
Late that night (technically, early Saturday morning), we reached the state land boundary on the Hanging Spear Falls trail, and found ourselves a nice little spot to throw down our sleeping bags, quickly drifting off to sleep under the stars, as the moon traversed the sky above us, acting as a perfect night-light.
Saturday morning brought blue skies, and we were moving pretty early…backtracking the mile back to the Allen herd path, and then cruising over to Skylight Brook. Once the real climbing started, progress slowed somewhat as we slid around a little on the wetter sections. But the views that emerged as we ascended more than made up for any difficulties we encountered. We were up top before noon, engaged in a photograph session (in which someone was caught in a compromising position with an innocent young tree
), and just generally enjoying the morning.
We coasted back down to our campsite, packed up our overnight gear, and headed on towards Flowed Lands…with a little stop at Hanging Spear to enjoy the scenery and do a little reconnaissance for future Olympic swimming exploits in the area.
When we reached Flowed Lands, we looked around for the best lodging options, and settled on a little piece of real estate that seemed to call us like a siren from afar. We did a little swimming (along with some leech eradication efforts), before beginning a quiet little Happy Hour on our beachfront property. One thing led to another, and before we knew it, we’d eaten dinner and watched a beautiful sunset from the beach…and now we were sitting under the stars, enjoying another cool, clear evening...discussing the intricacies of Malaysian software discounts and other important things.
Sunday morning, after sleeping a little late (just waiting for things to dry out some), we hit the Calamity Brook Trail, headed towards Uphill lean-to. The walk went pretty quickly, and once at the junction, we aimed ourselves towards Redfield. It was a pretty uneventful (but beautiful) climb to the top, punctuated by Hui Yeng wrestling with some spruce on the summit (I think the vegetation won). Then the quick jaunt down to the Cliff turnoff, before we started going up again, working on the short ascent of Cliff…which was more eventful that the Redfield climb, if only due to the pseudo-ledgy fun that is the Cliff herd path.
We had thoughts of going on to Marshall afterwards, but after much deliberation decided we'd rather make the walk back to the car in daylight. So we went back to our own little "Inn at Flowed Lands", loaded up our packs, and...with tears in our eyes...turned our backs on our lovely weekend abode, and began the journey to Upper Works.
This was my first backpack since May, I think, and it was really sweet to get a clear, dry weekend, and to spend it in one of my favorite areas...and the company was OK, too.
Jason
Late that night (technically, early Saturday morning), we reached the state land boundary on the Hanging Spear Falls trail, and found ourselves a nice little spot to throw down our sleeping bags, quickly drifting off to sleep under the stars, as the moon traversed the sky above us, acting as a perfect night-light.
Saturday morning brought blue skies, and we were moving pretty early…backtracking the mile back to the Allen herd path, and then cruising over to Skylight Brook. Once the real climbing started, progress slowed somewhat as we slid around a little on the wetter sections. But the views that emerged as we ascended more than made up for any difficulties we encountered. We were up top before noon, engaged in a photograph session (in which someone was caught in a compromising position with an innocent young tree
), and just generally enjoying the morning.We coasted back down to our campsite, packed up our overnight gear, and headed on towards Flowed Lands…with a little stop at Hanging Spear to enjoy the scenery and do a little reconnaissance for future Olympic swimming exploits in the area.
When we reached Flowed Lands, we looked around for the best lodging options, and settled on a little piece of real estate that seemed to call us like a siren from afar. We did a little swimming (along with some leech eradication efforts), before beginning a quiet little Happy Hour on our beachfront property. One thing led to another, and before we knew it, we’d eaten dinner and watched a beautiful sunset from the beach…and now we were sitting under the stars, enjoying another cool, clear evening...discussing the intricacies of Malaysian software discounts and other important things.
Sunday morning, after sleeping a little late (just waiting for things to dry out some
), we hit the Calamity Brook Trail, headed towards Uphill lean-to. The walk went pretty quickly, and once at the junction, we aimed ourselves towards Redfield. It was a pretty uneventful (but beautiful) climb to the top, punctuated by Hui Yeng wrestling with some spruce on the summit (I think the vegetation won). Then the quick jaunt down to the Cliff turnoff, before we started going up again, working on the short ascent of Cliff…which was more eventful that the Redfield climb, if only due to the pseudo-ledgy fun that is the Cliff herd path.We had thoughts of going on to Marshall afterwards, but after much deliberation decided we'd rather make the walk back to the car in daylight. So we went back to our own little "Inn at Flowed Lands", loaded up our packs, and...with tears in our eyes...turned our backs on our lovely weekend abode, and began the journey to Upper Works.
This was my first backpack since May, I think, and it was really sweet to get a clear, dry weekend, and to spend it in one of my favorite areas...and the company was OK, too.
Jason
