Chasing the vision-Haystack sunrise 8/21

DreamFarmer · Aug 23, 2010

Do you ever have a real strong vision of being in a certain situation and then you work like heck to make it happen ? Even if the situation only lasts a few minutes? Last weekend the vision was watching the sunrise from Haystack. It was Little Rickies vision in the beginning but Dan-the-Man and I internalized it and were ready to make it happen. We needed a little cooperation from the weather and we got it.
So, at sunrise, the day of the BBQ, we sat and watched the sun come up from a rocky vantage point in the trail , almost to the Little Haystack- Basin split. We had "bivy'd" at Slant Rock and rose at 3AM.
Stoves blazing , coffee in hand and big breakfast coming we watched as the sun rose on the clear, calm morning. We hung for a while and basked in the moment, then summitted Haystack and took a nap before heading out to the BBQ. Vision accomplished, dream harvested.

Chip · Aug 23, 2010

Very cool ! I love coming down the trail that early when people are heading up thinking or saying "When the heck did you start out this morning ?"

I had a similar vision a few years ago in NH for Pierce; a full moon would be setting as the sun rose. I literally dragged my older son out of bed in Conway at about 3am. We missed the actual sunrise by about 20 minutes, but had a great hike and views.

Little Rickie · Aug 24, 2010

I've always wanted to be on top of a mountain for sunrise. What DF didn't say was that I also wanted to be drinking black coffee with blackberry brandy while the sun rose. It was glorious. I hope the pictures come out OK.

It was an adventure for sure, 27 hours and 19 miles, 15 with backpacks. (46, 42 & 36 lbs, I had the 36

Dan & Clay are my two best hiking buddies and it was all fun for me. We hiked when we wanted to hike, rested when we wanted to rest, ate when we wanted to eat. Lots of laughs and rock busting. No rush. No worries.

I was ready to bivouac if we couldn't get a lean-to or campsite and that's exactly what we did. Just found some space between the trees and put my z-rest down.

I've been bike communting one or two days a week, stair climbing for an hour on Sat plus a little wt lifting and it seems to be working. I can say as slow as I am that I am now getting faster and don't have to stop as much. That's as rewarding as the sunrise for me.

The sunrise was the best part of the day. We saw what what most slept through while sitting on a stone bench god made. It got cloudy after that. Dan looked up and said a cold front was comming from the north and wouldn't be a problem for the rest of the day. No bugs, little mud, no rain and fairly cool temps.

The last 3.5 miles from JBL was real rough, clasic death march. I started to see cars in the parking lot through the trees 15 min before we got to the Garden. I was shot by the time we got to the gathering and limped on sore blistered feet.

One of my best hiking experiences.