Dog Days of Summer

Not much to report in the last few weeks so all has been quiet on the blog. July has been hot…. Really hot and I just don’t respond well to that kind of weather. Energy levels and motivation become low and all I can think about is the snows of winter… and how far off they seem…. sigh! Life without July seems like a pretty sweet plan but alas I think it’s hard to put into practice. Perhaps I should join the Canadian Cross Country Ski team and spend July’s in New Zealand for some sweet skiing before returning to fall “already in progress”. Still I have been getting out a bit. Evening rides in the park (when the days start to cool down) are the extent of my activities at home. I did sneak away for a quick hike in the Adirondacks back on Canada Day. The day in fact was the last cool one we’ve had in a while - starting at a frosty 5C in the morning!! I took the nice ridge hike up Giant and Rocky Peak and – much to my surprise on a long weekend - had it mostly to myself until I was almost down again. Since then the heat has made me less than eager to expend energy climbing up mountains and I’ve kept to the bike and found interesting rides to go on.


Taking in the view
This past weekend was another long one and I did want to try to get away for a little bit. The weather was slightly cooler than the past few weeks so it seemed like a reasonable chance to slip in some hiking. Last minute Pete called and had some free time. He was interested in getting in a little hiking/ camping trip and had his mind set on Vermont so I loaded up the car and we set off on Saturday. On the drive down we stopped at the trailhead for Burnt Rock Mountain. This was a spot I had discovered while I was hiking the Long trail. It doesn’t get a lot of attention (or so I thought) compared to the big peaks but it was a beautiful little summit with some fun scrambling so I thought it would make a good destination. My “secret little spot” however proved to be popular on a summer day as we were just able to squeeze the car into the last spot in the carpark and greeted many hikers coming down the mountain. That said the summit has lots of nice little outcrops so even on a busy day there is lots of room to sit back, relax and enjoy the view. After the hike we supplied up and headed to the campsite where a good evening was had burning a little firewood, drinking a few beverages and solving most of the world’s problems…. Just can’t think who took the minutes of the meeting tho’ so some of those problems will have to stay unsolved for a while yet.


Topping out on Burnt Rock Mountain

On Sunday we opted for a nice loop hike up and around Pico peak. With a relatively recent piece of newly aligned Long Trail now skirting the peak one could hike up and over Pico on the old version of the LT and then link up with the new trail and loop back to a main road. A short road walk would put us back at the car. Seemed like a perfect plan. Sadly our thinking hats must have been left at home. Part way up the trail we came to a little lookout on the side of the ski trail. Why not hike up the ski trail and enjoy the view – looks straight forward so off we went. Sadly looking at a ski hill in summer from a distance, the slopes look covered in nice short grass. From my new experience this is not the case! The grass is very deep – shoulder to head high in places. This makes for energy intensive wading through the tall grass. And when the trail isn’t brutally steep up… it’s a bog! Even the slightly cool August weather can be hot when you are slaving up a mountain. From now on I think I’ll stick to shady trails in the heat of the summer and pop out onto the summits to enjoy the views. Summit reached we claimed a spot on the deck of a ski hut that had a nice overhanging roof and took a well earned rest. The rest of the hike – back on trail was a breeze in spite of having to do a little road walk at the end.

Lunch break on the summit of Pico - a little more civilized than I anticipated but the porch gave a welcome break from the heat
Monday the heat and humidity returned so we opted to do a couple of short hikes at lower elevation and by the end of the day, as we drove home, the inevitable thunder storms hit us hard. Good weekend away though. Interesting to see a few rogue trees are starting to change colours which suggests – in spite of another hot week here at home - that cooler weather can’t be far off. Perhaps it’s time to start working on my ski fleet in anticipation of the coming snows…


Moss Glen Falls