peak_bgr
New member
Well this was a half day hike, car hopping from one to another. Dodging bullets as we bushwhacked on state land, hunters everywhere. We could here gunshots in the distance, but cars were parked everywhere, it felt like a war zone. I was wearing a red shirt, but I don't know if that was bad or good. Good they could see me, but bad because know one could tell if I was bleeding or not. Hell, what's a bushwhack without a little blood??
Our first stop was a very short bushwhack up Reardon Hill. We found an excellent jumping off point-state land top of the height of land along the road, piece of cake. It really was too. A little slippery and muddy in spots and quite steep. But all in fun. The woods were a wide open hard wood forest, covered in a bright orange rusty colored leaf carpet. The views were a little lacking, but some could be had through the open trees.
Now off to our second peak, Carmel Mountain. This one located behind Taylor Pond. That's where we started from, the trail behind Taylor Pond. Maps show a trail going up this little mountain, but we looked for it on top and had a hard time following it. So we bushwhacked back down, just as we did up. The woods were a little littered with dead fall, covered in second growth forest. Sapling waiting for some unsuspecting eye to poke. We were soon through the worst part and found ourselves at the base of a rather large rock wall. No way up this baby, at least from where we were standing. We contoured a little left to a small section that looked promising, it wasn't. The next spot we found looked a little hairy but we went for it. Always me first, it seems. Anyhow, with a little boost from Brian, who is actually much stronger than he looks, I was on top of the first big step. I pulled Brian up and we had a fun little scramble the remaining disatnce to the completly open rocky summit of Carmel. The views were a little lacking this day however, low clouds decided to settle in, and show us nothing much above Taylor pond.
Fun hike though. Highly recommended if you have a couple hours to kill, or you're camping at taylor Pond. Which I highly recommend, especially if you like fishing and/or kayaking.
Our first stop was a very short bushwhack up Reardon Hill. We found an excellent jumping off point-state land top of the height of land along the road, piece of cake. It really was too. A little slippery and muddy in spots and quite steep. But all in fun. The woods were a wide open hard wood forest, covered in a bright orange rusty colored leaf carpet. The views were a little lacking, but some could be had through the open trees.
Now off to our second peak, Carmel Mountain. This one located behind Taylor Pond. That's where we started from, the trail behind Taylor Pond. Maps show a trail going up this little mountain, but we looked for it on top and had a hard time following it. So we bushwhacked back down, just as we did up. The woods were a little littered with dead fall, covered in second growth forest. Sapling waiting for some unsuspecting eye to poke. We were soon through the worst part and found ourselves at the base of a rather large rock wall. No way up this baby, at least from where we were standing. We contoured a little left to a small section that looked promising, it wasn't. The next spot we found looked a little hairy but we went for it. Always me first, it seems. Anyhow, with a little boost from Brian, who is actually much stronger than he looks, I was on top of the first big step. I pulled Brian up and we had a fun little scramble the remaining disatnce to the completly open rocky summit of Carmel. The views were a little lacking this day however, low clouds decided to settle in, and show us nothing much above Taylor pond.
Fun hike though. Highly recommended if you have a couple hours to kill, or you're camping at taylor Pond. Which I highly recommend, especially if you like fishing and/or kayaking.
