The Sikes
Member
OK...I guess I have to write this trip report since Julie didn't come with us. Bummer. We missed you Julie.
Here it goes....we went back and forth on which way to do these three and since Harry was joining us and my kids do love cliffs and rockclimbing, I thought I'd suck it up and go for it. Besides, the weather was suppose to be nice and there was suppose to be little to no wind...
I checked out the parking situation the night before and it didn't seem good...only 3 spaces and no camping allowed there. We went over and slept in the parking area of Giant which seemed to have an unusual amount of nocternal activity...with people going in and out of the woods...not sure what they were doing (can only guess) or where they were going.... We got up bright and early...5:00 AM...and headed over to the Garden in hopes for a space. Only one was available and Harry was suppose to meet us. What to do....we waited for him and when he got there, my poor kids stood in our spot with their headlamps at 5:30 AM so we could shuttle the cars. They did say the stars were beautiful! I love my kids!
Then off we went. We started at 6:16 with headlamps. It wasn't bad. By the time we hit JBL, we had shut off the lamps, topped off our water and headed off. Most people we saw in the lean-tos and tents were still sleeping soundly.
We took the Ore Bed Brook Trail up to Saddleback. It got very wet the higher we got but not as bad as when we did The Santanoni's. We hit Saddleback at 10:07. It was very chilly and windy and I was starting to think I made a mistake about which way we took. Harry reassured me that we would be fine as I mentally was trying to remember the info about the heard path going around the lciffs I got and down we headed. I have to admit that it wasn't as bad as I thought. Maybe thinking the worst is good because then when you actually face it, it doesn't seem that bad. I kept saying to Harry, "When are we going to hit the hard part?" and he would tell me we just did it. I didn't believe him until we were in tree line again. It does look very intimidating when you look up at it.
Now for Basin. Our stay at Saddleback was short because we couldn't get out of that biting wind..we headed over to Basin at 10:16. I had to laugh, because we were coming down this one cliff area that I thought was far worse than the Saddleback area when Adam heard treking poles... Apparently, there an alternate route around it but did we take it....Nooooo! The kids didn't seem to care. They were having a ball. I, on the other hand, thought of taking it but how could I let my kids show me up.
When we were almost to the top of Basin, I saw snow! Noone else seem to notice it but maybe that was because the views were stunning. They distracted me from the fact that you walk a tiny path with a hug drop to the right. (Noticed that when I asked Harry to get a picture of us....YIKES) There also was one spot of ice but was easy enough to get around. Then the top! WOW! We hit that at 11:30 and sat down to relax and take it all in. We could block ourselves from the wind so this was perfect. We ate and tried to name all the peaks around us...2 summits so far all to ourselves...didn't see anyone so far this day.
OK...we had to leave some time and we still had a good ways to go...Haytack looks so far from Basin. We headed off after 1/2 hour of leisure! Here we started seeing people all going the way we just came thinking we were insane but having done it this way, I didn't think so. Matter of fact, going down the other side of Saddleback with all that wet steep rock could be challenging. We hit Haystack at 1:40. There were a couple of guys finishing their 46. We chatted with them and some others. And again, enjoyed this view. It was wonderful. We could see Camel's Hump in VT but it was getting a little hazy, but we'll take it. After take a million pictures, we headed down. Met some people who took the kids pictures so he could prove to his wife that there are kids that hike out there. He had 3 and wanted to take them. His wife said no way. I told him start small and go for it! We took State Range Trail over to the Phelps Trail. Looking back when we went over the little hump, you have a wonderful view of Little Haystack and Haystack...another picture for my album.
I thought hiking was a "G" kind of thing to do with my kids, but this weekend was going to prove otherwise ontop of last weekend...YIKES. Harry and Adam were in front of me and Beth near Slant Rock when they backed up and said to stop...I asked why and got--3 women are bathing in the river and don't have clothes on....Nice. We got a little biology in for the day. Harry was concerned about calling to them to let them know we were there because they would then turn around so we waited behind the rock patiently. Then after a quick hi, we were off again.
When we got to the John Brook Lodge, Beth heard a little snap and saw a deer. That was a nice treat. We enjoyed that, filled our water again and headed out. We were doing good on time. It was still light ...5:15 and we were almost out. Off we went again. I joked with the kids about saving a picture in case we saw a bear on the way out. Well...I didn't see it but I sure heard the forest come crashing down to the left of us and I told the kids to move it and we quickly moved on ....Harry laughed and said, "I thought you wanted a picture of the bear?" I said to forget the picture. Don't know what the noise was but that was close enough for me. We got down at 6:45...just before dark. What a great day. Adam said Haystack was his favorite...We still had 3 left...would he change his mind? Since we got down early enough, we thought we'd try to go over and catch Neil and the gang and congratulate him on his 46th!
Here it goes....we went back and forth on which way to do these three and since Harry was joining us and my kids do love cliffs and rockclimbing, I thought I'd suck it up and go for it. Besides, the weather was suppose to be nice and there was suppose to be little to no wind...
I checked out the parking situation the night before and it didn't seem good...only 3 spaces and no camping allowed there. We went over and slept in the parking area of Giant which seemed to have an unusual amount of nocternal activity...with people going in and out of the woods...not sure what they were doing (can only guess) or where they were going.... We got up bright and early...5:00 AM...and headed over to the Garden in hopes for a space. Only one was available and Harry was suppose to meet us. What to do....we waited for him and when he got there, my poor kids stood in our spot with their headlamps at 5:30 AM so we could shuttle the cars. They did say the stars were beautiful! I love my kids!
Then off we went. We started at 6:16 with headlamps. It wasn't bad. By the time we hit JBL, we had shut off the lamps, topped off our water and headed off. Most people we saw in the lean-tos and tents were still sleeping soundly.
We took the Ore Bed Brook Trail up to Saddleback. It got very wet the higher we got but not as bad as when we did The Santanoni's. We hit Saddleback at 10:07. It was very chilly and windy and I was starting to think I made a mistake about which way we took. Harry reassured me that we would be fine as I mentally was trying to remember the info about the heard path going around the lciffs I got and down we headed. I have to admit that it wasn't as bad as I thought. Maybe thinking the worst is good because then when you actually face it, it doesn't seem that bad. I kept saying to Harry, "When are we going to hit the hard part?" and he would tell me we just did it. I didn't believe him until we were in tree line again. It does look very intimidating when you look up at it.
Now for Basin. Our stay at Saddleback was short because we couldn't get out of that biting wind..we headed over to Basin at 10:16. I had to laugh, because we were coming down this one cliff area that I thought was far worse than the Saddleback area when Adam heard treking poles... Apparently, there an alternate route around it but did we take it....Nooooo! The kids didn't seem to care. They were having a ball. I, on the other hand, thought of taking it but how could I let my kids show me up.
When we were almost to the top of Basin, I saw snow! Noone else seem to notice it but maybe that was because the views were stunning. They distracted me from the fact that you walk a tiny path with a hug drop to the right. (Noticed that when I asked Harry to get a picture of us....YIKES) There also was one spot of ice but was easy enough to get around. Then the top! WOW! We hit that at 11:30 and sat down to relax and take it all in. We could block ourselves from the wind so this was perfect. We ate and tried to name all the peaks around us...2 summits so far all to ourselves...didn't see anyone so far this day.
OK...we had to leave some time and we still had a good ways to go...Haytack looks so far from Basin. We headed off after 1/2 hour of leisure! Here we started seeing people all going the way we just came thinking we were insane but having done it this way, I didn't think so. Matter of fact, going down the other side of Saddleback with all that wet steep rock could be challenging. We hit Haystack at 1:40. There were a couple of guys finishing their 46. We chatted with them and some others. And again, enjoyed this view. It was wonderful. We could see Camel's Hump in VT but it was getting a little hazy, but we'll take it. After take a million pictures, we headed down. Met some people who took the kids pictures so he could prove to his wife that there are kids that hike out there. He had 3 and wanted to take them. His wife said no way. I told him start small and go for it! We took State Range Trail over to the Phelps Trail. Looking back when we went over the little hump, you have a wonderful view of Little Haystack and Haystack...another picture for my album.
I thought hiking was a "G" kind of thing to do with my kids, but this weekend was going to prove otherwise ontop of last weekend...YIKES. Harry and Adam were in front of me and Beth near Slant Rock when they backed up and said to stop...I asked why and got--3 women are bathing in the river and don't have clothes on....Nice. We got a little biology in for the day. Harry was concerned about calling to them to let them know we were there because they would then turn around so we waited behind the rock patiently. Then after a quick hi, we were off again.
When we got to the John Brook Lodge, Beth heard a little snap and saw a deer. That was a nice treat. We enjoyed that, filled our water again and headed out. We were doing good on time. It was still light ...5:15 and we were almost out. Off we went again. I joked with the kids about saving a picture in case we saw a bear on the way out. Well...I didn't see it but I sure heard the forest come crashing down to the left of us and I told the kids to move it and we quickly moved on ....Harry laughed and said, "I thought you wanted a picture of the bear?" I said to forget the picture. Don't know what the noise was but that was close enough for me. We got down at 6:45...just before dark. What a great day. Adam said Haystack was his favorite...We still had 3 left...would he change his mind? Since we got down early enough, we thought we'd try to go over and catch Neil and the gang and congratulate him on his 46th!
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