This was an Adirondack Mt Club outing that I led. We had Dick, Jo,
Eileen(currently working on the design of the Catskill100 patch), Jennifer, Mark, as well as Bookah and 2 of Eileen's canine family.
We hiked up Rochester Hollow, took some photos at the Burroughs monument at the sharp bend in the road, then jumped into the bushwhack. Try as we might, with Dick as an outrigger on one side of the group, and me on the other, we hunted for the woods road that Jay and Jim located on their way down from Rose.
The woods were nice and open, had much less caterpillar activity than Mongaup and Barkaboom on Thursday and we were well on our way to the ridge when something happened. Hearing a barking from one of Eileen's dogs, I did a recall command for Bookah, and she and the other Lab came on the fly....both with a facefull of porcupine quills. Really loaded. Muzzles, gums, tongues, heads, paws. Looked like a contest to see who could come away with more quills.
I got Boo on her side, covered her eyes with one hand, and then removed the quills one by one, and in groups with the new multipliers. Many were thin and deeply imbedded. After getting those, Eileen and I started working on her much larger dog, the one who clearly 'won' the quilling contest. The poor thing had gotten really nailed. Throughout it all, we soothed him and got every quill we saw and he never cried and I was never in fear he'd bite the stranger who was pulling the quills out of his face.
After the flurry of activity, we let the pooches calm down(and us too), and it back to the serious business of bushwhacking up to the top.
Just above where the summit cone sits on the ridge, we found "The hammock".
Fully strung between 2 trees, it overlooked the best views of the hike, as well as the fire pit, and the chairs and sofas built from large pieces of slate.
The summit plateau was long and flat, and we walked most of it, then returned to the hammock for lunch. Oh, I forgot to mention that near the hammock was a horseshoe pit that had recent use. This was a very unusual summit in a lot of ways.
After lunch it was back down the hill to the monument and then the relaxed and lazy walk back down the fern-lined and along babbling brook stream that the dogs enjoyed.
Back at the tailgates, Mark whipped out some of his home-brewed IPA brew. You could smell the hops as he poured it all around, and the taste was even better than its bouquet.
What a way to end a day. Great woods, great folks( 2 new hiking friends), an interesting peak, a porcupine adventure, and Bookah's 51/100.
Eileen(currently working on the design of the Catskill100 patch), Jennifer, Mark, as well as Bookah and 2 of Eileen's canine family.
We hiked up Rochester Hollow, took some photos at the Burroughs monument at the sharp bend in the road, then jumped into the bushwhack. Try as we might, with Dick as an outrigger on one side of the group, and me on the other, we hunted for the woods road that Jay and Jim located on their way down from Rose.
The woods were nice and open, had much less caterpillar activity than Mongaup and Barkaboom on Thursday and we were well on our way to the ridge when something happened. Hearing a barking from one of Eileen's dogs, I did a recall command for Bookah, and she and the other Lab came on the fly....both with a facefull of porcupine quills. Really loaded. Muzzles, gums, tongues, heads, paws. Looked like a contest to see who could come away with more quills.
I got Boo on her side, covered her eyes with one hand, and then removed the quills one by one, and in groups with the new multipliers. Many were thin and deeply imbedded. After getting those, Eileen and I started working on her much larger dog, the one who clearly 'won' the quilling contest. The poor thing had gotten really nailed. Throughout it all, we soothed him and got every quill we saw and he never cried and I was never in fear he'd bite the stranger who was pulling the quills out of his face.
After the flurry of activity, we let the pooches calm down(and us too), and it back to the serious business of bushwhacking up to the top.
Just above where the summit cone sits on the ridge, we found "The hammock".
Fully strung between 2 trees, it overlooked the best views of the hike, as well as the fire pit, and the chairs and sofas built from large pieces of slate.
The summit plateau was long and flat, and we walked most of it, then returned to the hammock for lunch. Oh, I forgot to mention that near the hammock was a horseshoe pit that had recent use. This was a very unusual summit in a lot of ways.
After lunch it was back down the hill to the monument and then the relaxed and lazy walk back down the fern-lined and along babbling brook stream that the dogs enjoyed.
Back at the tailgates, Mark whipped out some of his home-brewed IPA brew. You could smell the hops as he poured it all around, and the taste was even better than its bouquet.
What a way to end a day. Great woods, great folks( 2 new hiking friends), an interesting peak, a porcupine adventure, and Bookah's 51/100.
