DreamFarmer
Active member
What a blast this was. And hardly any bug issues.
I arrived at St Huberts on Saturday (23rd) ,at 11AM and had to park across the street at the Giant Trailhead since the St Huberts lot was filled. I was loaded to camp and figured I’d set up at the sites between the 2 trails to Fish Hawk Cliffs and go grab Nippletop and Dial Saturday and then get Colvin and Blake Sunday before running to the 46’r meeting in Lake Placid. The plan almost worked but by the time I got my camp set and did Nippletop, it was 4:30 and I didn’t feel like getting Dial which would have had me returning to camp later than I wanted.
Instead, I stayed on Nippletop,stripped down to my boxers, and sat in the sun, enjoyed the GREAT views then dozed while drying out. I kept an ear open in case anyone would’ve showed up. After 5, I headed down to camp and was “in the bag” ,literally, by 8. I enjoyed a couple nice improvements to my camping routine. A new light-weight air mattress (17 oz) from Big Agnes was really nice and it has a valve that makes it easy to blow up because it can take a big flow of air and you don’t have much “back pressure” when you blow into it. The air chambers are tubular so there’s less space you have to fill with air but you still have the comfort. I think it took 12 “blows” to fill it ! My other improvement was Ramen Noodles. A belly full of hot noodles and broth felt real good and the clean-up was a cinch. A couple rinses, drinking the rinse water , and there’s not much for bears to be attracted to.
So , I snuggled in and waited for the big rain storm, hopefully, with thunder and lightning. No such luck. I noted a passing sprinkle around 4ish but that was it.
By 5 AM I was up, hiking by 5:30. There was a tent engulfing the 2nd intersection of the trail to Fish Hawk Cliffs. A scouting group came in late and couldn’t find a site.
I’m going to guess there’s about 700 feet of elevation I had to re-climb to get back up to the intersection of the trails to Elk Pass /Nippletop and Colvin/ Blake. Anyway, these two peaks were WAY harder than I had anticipated.
There’s a lot “hand work” necessary and searching for footing, and many places where you could get into trouble. There’s lots of steep sections and tons of roots to deal with.
You EARN these peaks. Don’t be stupid like me and under-estimate them.
A light rain set in as I summited Colvin about 8AM. The views were really nice especially down into the Lake below. I took a break and ate, enjoying the overcast solitude. Then onward to Blake. At first it’s a flat, easy, wide open hike and then you get slapped back into reality when you see how far you have to go down and back up. When I got to the spot where the trail splits off to Blake , I took a big drink, grabbed the camera, and dropped my pack. It felt great to be “packless” and it took 20 minutes to cover that ½ mile to the summit . Yipee ! I had now had number 41 of my 46.
I returned to Colvin’s summit took a break and headed down by 10:30. Got back to camp by around noon. The rain stopped and the sun was taking over. The scouts were still set up in the trail intersection and now they were sprawling out preparing breakfast.
By about 2, I was back at the car and heading for Stewarts and the Crown Plaza for the 46’r meeting. What a great weekend !
I arrived at St Huberts on Saturday (23rd) ,at 11AM and had to park across the street at the Giant Trailhead since the St Huberts lot was filled. I was loaded to camp and figured I’d set up at the sites between the 2 trails to Fish Hawk Cliffs and go grab Nippletop and Dial Saturday and then get Colvin and Blake Sunday before running to the 46’r meeting in Lake Placid. The plan almost worked but by the time I got my camp set and did Nippletop, it was 4:30 and I didn’t feel like getting Dial which would have had me returning to camp later than I wanted.
Instead, I stayed on Nippletop,stripped down to my boxers, and sat in the sun, enjoyed the GREAT views then dozed while drying out. I kept an ear open in case anyone would’ve showed up. After 5, I headed down to camp and was “in the bag” ,literally, by 8. I enjoyed a couple nice improvements to my camping routine. A new light-weight air mattress (17 oz) from Big Agnes was really nice and it has a valve that makes it easy to blow up because it can take a big flow of air and you don’t have much “back pressure” when you blow into it. The air chambers are tubular so there’s less space you have to fill with air but you still have the comfort. I think it took 12 “blows” to fill it ! My other improvement was Ramen Noodles. A belly full of hot noodles and broth felt real good and the clean-up was a cinch. A couple rinses, drinking the rinse water , and there’s not much for bears to be attracted to.
So , I snuggled in and waited for the big rain storm, hopefully, with thunder and lightning. No such luck. I noted a passing sprinkle around 4ish but that was it.
By 5 AM I was up, hiking by 5:30. There was a tent engulfing the 2nd intersection of the trail to Fish Hawk Cliffs. A scouting group came in late and couldn’t find a site.
I’m going to guess there’s about 700 feet of elevation I had to re-climb to get back up to the intersection of the trails to Elk Pass /Nippletop and Colvin/ Blake. Anyway, these two peaks were WAY harder than I had anticipated.
There’s a lot “hand work” necessary and searching for footing, and many places where you could get into trouble. There’s lots of steep sections and tons of roots to deal with.
You EARN these peaks. Don’t be stupid like me and under-estimate them.
A light rain set in as I summited Colvin about 8AM. The views were really nice especially down into the Lake below. I took a break and ate, enjoying the overcast solitude. Then onward to Blake. At first it’s a flat, easy, wide open hike and then you get slapped back into reality when you see how far you have to go down and back up. When I got to the spot where the trail splits off to Blake , I took a big drink, grabbed the camera, and dropped my pack. It felt great to be “packless” and it took 20 minutes to cover that ½ mile to the summit . Yipee ! I had now had number 41 of my 46.
I returned to Colvin’s summit took a break and headed down by 10:30. Got back to camp by around noon. The rain stopped and the sun was taking over. The scouts were still set up in the trail intersection and now they were sprawling out preparing breakfast.
By about 2, I was back at the car and heading for Stewarts and the Crown Plaza for the 46’r meeting. What a great weekend !
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