poison ivy
Well-known member
Pictures from our hike, on two days way too hot for hiking, are here for those who wish to skip my ramblings!
I cannot say thank you enough to MEB, Little Sister, bpschroder & MichaelJ for agreeing to come along on this backpacking trip. It was really too hot for hiking and four out of the five of us suffered from heat exhaustion in varying degrees. (I went into a little detail about my experience... but I'm leaving it to others to talk about their experiences if they want to.) Everyone was a real trooper and I was so happy to have them along for the trip.
We started out at Route 27 at about 8:30 a.m. on Saturday, crossing the road after some quick pictures of the gorgeous wild lupine and devil’s paintbrush just near the trailhead. Since the first mile was completely flat, we expected to make great time… but it soon became apparent that a one mile-per-hour pace was going to be the norm for the day because of the hot and sticky weather.
Sweltering by the time we reached Cranberry Stream Campsite, we were all hoping the next few miles to Horns Pond would pass quickly so we could take a swim and cool off. After just those first few miles, I was already feeling somewhat sick, with a raging headache, and knew that I was heading down the road to heat exhaustion. So I stopped for some Vitamin-I and took plenty ofwater breaks, which helped me cool off.
By the time we reached Horns Pond I was feeling a million times better and ready to swim. The pond is a little weedy but the water was ice cold… the swim was really one of the highlights of the trip. We spent an hour swimming, lunching and lounging before deciding we should head off for our next three uphill miles in case thunderstorms came rolling in during the afternoon as predicted.
We packed up and made the steep ascent up to the spur trail for North Horn. GO had recommended that we head the .2 miles over to the summit because it has the best views of all the peaks in the Bigelow Range. Michael decided to skip it and headed up South Horn instead. He missed an entertaining Bee Gees medley provided by Mary Ellen, Rachel & Brian but not so much in the views department because of the haze. We did get a peek at our final mountain of the day -- Bigelow’s West Peak, which looked pretty daunting from our 3,792 ft. vantage point.
After our brief stop on North Horn, we all headed the remaining .1 of a mile up South Horn, which is on the NE Hundred Highest list. There wasn’t much time to celebrate though as we still had two more hot miles to go, but at least the trail wasn’t particularly tough though until the final climb up Bigelow’s West Peak.
It was rocky and ledgy so the sun was just beating down on us by the time we arrived on the 4,145 ft. West Peak. We didn’t stay long as we were all ready to get out of the sun, away from the bugs and down to the Avery tent site, which was just .3 of a mile away. It was a quick cruise down a steep slope and our day’s mileage was finally done at 5 p.m.
We managed to squeeze two tents on a platform and Michael had his hammock, so we managed to camp together on one site. At 7 p.m., Rachel & I headed back up to West Peak in the hopes of catching the sunset. Upon our arrival, it started thundering so we took a quick look around at Flagstaff Lake & the mountains, which were shrouded in pink clouds and headed back down. We arrived at the tent site just in time, as the rain came pouring down about five miles after our arrival. We were tent-bound for a short thunder storm that helped keep the site cool for the night.
SUNDAY:
We woke up early and found it wasn't really any cooler than yesterday. Everyone had recovered from Saturday’s bouts with heat exhaustion and we agreed to take it slow during today's hike. We were on the trail by 8 a.m.
Our first half-mile was going to be the hardest of the day -- the steep climb up Bigelow’s Avery Peak. About halfway up, everyone else stopped at a box spring to pump some water. Since I had enough water and the bugs were already ferocious, I decided to keep on hiking up to the summit. For once, I was actually ahead of the pack!
The summit of Avery Peak, 4,088 ft., is just beautiful. It was still somewhat hazy and cloudy but for some reason I really like it better than West Peak -- despite swarm of bugs that immediately surrounded me. It was a boarded up lookout cabin and a nice summit plaque too. I enjoyed the views and watched everyone else cross the summit from my little perch.
After a few minutes enjoying the views, we headed down the trail toward Little Bigelow, our next mountain, which looked and felt so far away. It took absolutely forever to descend less than a mile to the viewpoint on Old Man’s Head -- a rock profile that looks like a face from a distance. Our viewpoint on the forehead was really pretty and we had great views since the clouds were starting to lift finally.
The ascent up 3,040 ft., Little Bigelow Mountain was actually not all that difficult and pretty gradual. I was starting to suffer again from the heat so I took my time and lots of breaks. Once again my feet starting killing me -- pounding and throbbing so much that each step caused me to slow down even more. Little Bigelow has some great views from the ledges, but I didn’t enjoy them at all because every step over rock just killed me.
For the entire descent down Little Bigelow, I kept waiting to arrive at the lean-to’s stream, where I planned to cool off. It took absolutely forever to get there. When I arrived I dropped my pack and went to sit in the stream. The water was so cool and wonderful -- I couldn’t actually stand being in it for long. However, it actually numbed my feet and I got another half-mile of walking in before they started to hurt again. We arrived at East Flagstaff Rd at about 3:30 p.m.
Tally-wise, this puts me at 65/67 New England Fours & 74/100 of the New England Hundred Highest.
-- Ivy
Edited to add: A special thanks to GO & Valerie for assisting with the car spot & allowing us to crash at their place the night before the hike. The logistics were so easy thanks to you guys!!
I cannot say thank you enough to MEB, Little Sister, bpschroder & MichaelJ for agreeing to come along on this backpacking trip. It was really too hot for hiking and four out of the five of us suffered from heat exhaustion in varying degrees. (I went into a little detail about my experience... but I'm leaving it to others to talk about their experiences if they want to.) Everyone was a real trooper and I was so happy to have them along for the trip.
We started out at Route 27 at about 8:30 a.m. on Saturday, crossing the road after some quick pictures of the gorgeous wild lupine and devil’s paintbrush just near the trailhead. Since the first mile was completely flat, we expected to make great time… but it soon became apparent that a one mile-per-hour pace was going to be the norm for the day because of the hot and sticky weather.
Sweltering by the time we reached Cranberry Stream Campsite, we were all hoping the next few miles to Horns Pond would pass quickly so we could take a swim and cool off. After just those first few miles, I was already feeling somewhat sick, with a raging headache, and knew that I was heading down the road to heat exhaustion. So I stopped for some Vitamin-I and took plenty ofwater breaks, which helped me cool off.
By the time we reached Horns Pond I was feeling a million times better and ready to swim. The pond is a little weedy but the water was ice cold… the swim was really one of the highlights of the trip. We spent an hour swimming, lunching and lounging before deciding we should head off for our next three uphill miles in case thunderstorms came rolling in during the afternoon as predicted.
We packed up and made the steep ascent up to the spur trail for North Horn. GO had recommended that we head the .2 miles over to the summit because it has the best views of all the peaks in the Bigelow Range. Michael decided to skip it and headed up South Horn instead. He missed an entertaining Bee Gees medley provided by Mary Ellen, Rachel & Brian but not so much in the views department because of the haze. We did get a peek at our final mountain of the day -- Bigelow’s West Peak, which looked pretty daunting from our 3,792 ft. vantage point.
After our brief stop on North Horn, we all headed the remaining .1 of a mile up South Horn, which is on the NE Hundred Highest list. There wasn’t much time to celebrate though as we still had two more hot miles to go, but at least the trail wasn’t particularly tough though until the final climb up Bigelow’s West Peak.
It was rocky and ledgy so the sun was just beating down on us by the time we arrived on the 4,145 ft. West Peak. We didn’t stay long as we were all ready to get out of the sun, away from the bugs and down to the Avery tent site, which was just .3 of a mile away. It was a quick cruise down a steep slope and our day’s mileage was finally done at 5 p.m.
We managed to squeeze two tents on a platform and Michael had his hammock, so we managed to camp together on one site. At 7 p.m., Rachel & I headed back up to West Peak in the hopes of catching the sunset. Upon our arrival, it started thundering so we took a quick look around at Flagstaff Lake & the mountains, which were shrouded in pink clouds and headed back down. We arrived at the tent site just in time, as the rain came pouring down about five miles after our arrival. We were tent-bound for a short thunder storm that helped keep the site cool for the night.
SUNDAY:
We woke up early and found it wasn't really any cooler than yesterday. Everyone had recovered from Saturday’s bouts with heat exhaustion and we agreed to take it slow during today's hike. We were on the trail by 8 a.m.
Our first half-mile was going to be the hardest of the day -- the steep climb up Bigelow’s Avery Peak. About halfway up, everyone else stopped at a box spring to pump some water. Since I had enough water and the bugs were already ferocious, I decided to keep on hiking up to the summit. For once, I was actually ahead of the pack!
The summit of Avery Peak, 4,088 ft., is just beautiful. It was still somewhat hazy and cloudy but for some reason I really like it better than West Peak -- despite swarm of bugs that immediately surrounded me. It was a boarded up lookout cabin and a nice summit plaque too. I enjoyed the views and watched everyone else cross the summit from my little perch.
After a few minutes enjoying the views, we headed down the trail toward Little Bigelow, our next mountain, which looked and felt so far away. It took absolutely forever to descend less than a mile to the viewpoint on Old Man’s Head -- a rock profile that looks like a face from a distance. Our viewpoint on the forehead was really pretty and we had great views since the clouds were starting to lift finally.
The ascent up 3,040 ft., Little Bigelow Mountain was actually not all that difficult and pretty gradual. I was starting to suffer again from the heat so I took my time and lots of breaks. Once again my feet starting killing me -- pounding and throbbing so much that each step caused me to slow down even more. Little Bigelow has some great views from the ledges, but I didn’t enjoy them at all because every step over rock just killed me.
For the entire descent down Little Bigelow, I kept waiting to arrive at the lean-to’s stream, where I planned to cool off. It took absolutely forever to get there. When I arrived I dropped my pack and went to sit in the stream. The water was so cool and wonderful -- I couldn’t actually stand being in it for long. However, it actually numbed my feet and I got another half-mile of walking in before they started to hurt again. We arrived at East Flagstaff Rd at about 3:30 p.m.
Tally-wise, this puts me at 65/67 New England Fours & 74/100 of the New England Hundred Highest.
-- Ivy
Edited to add: A special thanks to GO & Valerie for assisting with the car spot & allowing us to crash at their place the night before the hike. The logistics were so easy thanks to you guys!!
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