NE 100 Highest (#95) - Dorset Peak, Vermont

Friday, August 17, 2018 - Wendy is leading a retreat up at Thendara (Vergennes, Vermont), so I'm doing an "art-and-climbing" day trip:

The day sure started out pretty enough:



I got down to the Bennington Museum by 10:28, for my 10:30 meeting with Collections Manager Callie Raspuzzi

I LOVE getting to go "back behind the scenes":

The Thomas Moran piece is an etching/engraving from Scribner's Popular History of the United States, Vol. I, (1897 edition) titled "Lake Champlain":

the detail is Beautiful


The Museum also had a wonderful map- "A Map of the Most Inhabited Part of New England", 1774:



Lunch at the Subway in Manchester Center, then another misty day in New England - trailhead at 12:33:


I had previously attempted this hike on Saturday, June 30, but had not done enough research, and never reached the "true summit". SUCCESS this time! 7.14 miles in 2 hours 53 minutes:


The trail starts out very nice:

At some point, although the "road" curves off to the left, you follow the trail up to the right (marked by a big cairn):


About a mile in, the trail passes an old house/structure:

And then goes UP UP UP

alongside a beautiful spring-fed brook:



Hey Mom, I found this Really Cool Rock!! Can I have it??

Oh, wait, it won't even fit into my backpack ...

1 hour, and 2.25 miles after starting, I reached "The T intersection":

and turn right onto a lovely path:


10 minutes later I was at the intersection, getting ready to go up the upper trail:

15 minutes later I DID NOT go up the "trail to the fake summit" (even though it has a really nice cairn):


A few minutes later I was at the clearing with its nice sign to the correct summit:



15 minutes later (after going through some VERY WET areas), I reached "the true summit":



Going back down through the beautiful green forest ("the Green Mountain State"):

And Yes, that soggy-boggy-wet-waterfilled area IS THE PATH:


1/2 mile from the bottom, there may be confusion - stay on the path curving to the right, NOT the dry stream bed straight ahead:


I finished at 3:26, and headed home. Well, not "straight home" - I backtracked a couple of miles to visit the Norcross West Marble Quarry - "the oldest marble quarry in the United States". These days it is an AWESOME Swimming Hole, right next to the main road (Route 30 in Dorset):




More Vermont beauty driving back to Vergennes:



Great getting back to Thendara, on Lake Champlain:

and seeing my beautiful bride down there on the dock:


I left this morning at 7:25, returned at 6:10 - a Good Long Day. Thank you GOD for these wonderful adventures!

Today's music from my big iPod:

Pat Metheny Group - Letter from Home, 1989

In 1990, the album won the Grammy Award for Best Jazz Fusion Performance.

O Positive - A great EP ("Only Breathing") followed by an even greater EP ("Cloud Factory") on one CD, 1996


O Positive - toyboatToyBoAtTOYBOAT, 1990


Santana - Abraxas, 1970


Love - Love Story 1966-1972

I really liked Love's first album in 1966; I bought it before I even went to St. Paul's. As an Amazon reviewer says: "but these songs take me back to a time when the world was changing". Excellent "Garage Band" music, but better musicianship.

The Who - Live at Leeds, 1970 live album

I trimmed my cd-rip down from 14 songs to the original 6 songs on the original album, and I LOVE IT!

The Clash - London Calling, December 1979 live double album

There was a moment there, in the 2nd half on 1979 - we were living in New York City - there was a moment there that The Clash was the most important band in the world. Tom Carson writing about September 21, 1979: The Clash rock New York’s The Palladium:

The musicians’ confidence was evident at every turn. Lead guitarist Mick Jones and bassist Paul Simonon leaped around as if no stage could hold them; Nicky Headon’s drums cracked through the music with the authority of machine-gun fire. The group’s perfect ensemble timing – the two guitars locking horns above the percussion; the way Jones’ ethereal, incantatory backup vocals filled the gaps in Joe Strummer’s harsh leads – went beyond mere technical mastery; it was audible symbols of the band’s communal instinct.

I'm glad I was able to get this LOUD ROCK AND ROLL BAND STUFF out of my system (at least for a little while).

NE 100 Highest - (#93) Elephant + (#94) Baldpate Mountains, Maine

Tuesday, August 14, 2018 - Wendy and Ellie are going to Falmouth for theatre, so I'm going hiking for the day! Left home at 6:30 AM, and got to the trailhead for Elephant Mountain at 10:45

Continuing to "collect Post Offices" - Andover, ME 04216:

It was supposed to take 24 minutes from the Post Office:

but when you zoom-in on the Google Map:

you see that it actually does not match my actual route on a topo sheet:


It turns out that parking was 2 miles from the hairpin turn:

and looking back down the dirt road:


I had assembled-and-printed information from blogs, and was able to match my parking area with what I had printed:


It had been raining on my way north, and was still Very Misty/Foggy/Wet (no "actual rain", though). It was a 24-minute hike up the old logging road (easy but wet brushing against leaves), and you enter the woods as the road ends:

Looking back down the "road":

Well, there's not supposed to be much of a view from the woods on top of Elephant, anyway.

This spot, on MapMyWalk, is 0.8 miles from my start.


In the mist, these red berries are positively phosphorescent:

This photo SHOULD SHOW tiny little red LED lights!

I went around to the left when I hit the moss-covered cliffs:


I then went around the "swampy area", on the right side, followed the herd path for a while, then made a wrong turn - that was when I started bushwacking to the peak. I had less than 0.5 miles to go, so I figured it would be ok:

I "should have kept going North" to reach the "main herd path to the summit, but 30 minutes of bushwacking was ok.
I was overjoyed when I saw the canister at 12:08

and got my selfie:

Just a little farther on, someone had set up a nice string of prayer flags:


As one FOLLOWS THE CORRECT HERD PATH DOWN FROM THE SUMMIT, you get to a VERY COOL alpine clearing in the mist:

but now that I look at it, maybe I went too far north (into the alpine clearing) before turning east:

What - Are we all just "fumbling around in the woods"??

Back to the car (SOAKING WET) at 12:58 [4.48 miles in 2:06]

Driving down the road at 1 PM - back on schedule (you didn't know there was a schedule? There's ALWAYS a SCHEDULE!)

Driving down 26 to Grafton Notch, with a view (I think) of Baldpate (East and West peaks):

The "one hour" drive to the Grafton Notch parking area took 1:30, so I started this hike at 2:35. My camera lens was getting fogged from all the moisture, but hopefully you can see the big wooden AT symbol:


A really nice trail at 3 PM:

That became really steep an hour later:


Survey Marker "near the West Peak summit, but not at the Summit":

West Peak selfie:


The Trail over to East Peak (white AT blazes!) is pretty cool, and shows the difference between photos taken with my (foggy) regular lens, and those taken with my "selfie lens":





No view, but it is pretty cool being up here:

50 minutes later, on my way down, I wanted to see the Baldpate Lean-To:



40 minutes later, I took the side trail to Table Rock (hey, what can you do when they say "EXTRAORDINARY VIEW"?).

It turns out it was a lot more "uphill" than I expected/wanted:

Wait - where on the map is this? Here is the hiking map:

and here is my path:


Yes, it is an "EXTRAORDINARY VIEW":




I spent a lot of time trying to find the trail down, and just gave up and backtracked. This hike was 9.85 miles, in 4:41 (Elephant was 4.48 miles in 2:06), which makes 6 hours 47 minutes hiking 14.33 miles. That was kind-of pushing it, especially when you tack on driving about 10 hours (left home at 6:30 AM, back in the garage at 11:11 PM)

Even with all that (and my right elbow getting kind-of bashed up), I still have to say Thank you GOD for these wonderful adventures!

Because Shannon had some good POP songs at yesterday's STEP class, I wanted to listen to all my NOW That's What I Call Music! cds:

Now That's What I Call Music! 6 (U.S. series), 2001

The highlight was U2's "Beautiful Day":
You're on the road but you've got no destination

Now That's What I Call Music! 24 (U.S. series), 2007


Now That's What I Call Music! 33 (U.S. series), 2010


Now That's What I Call Music! 40 (U.S. series), 2011


Now That's What I Call Club Hits, 2009


Now That's What I Call Club Hits 2, 2010


Now That's What I Call Country Volume 3, 2010


Now That's What I Call Dance Classics, 2009


By now, I'm a little tired of 21st century music, so Time For Some GREAT MUSIC from the '60s:
Nuggets From Nuggets, 2000

The original songs go from 1963 ("Louie Louie" by The Kingsmen) up through 1967 ("Nobody But Me" by The Human Beinz, and "Incense And Peppermints" by Strawberry Alarm Clock).

Nuggets: A Classic Collection From The Psychedelic Sixties, 1986

The original songs go from 1964 ("Laugh, Laugh" by The Beau Brummels) up through 1968 ("Journey To The Center Of The Mind" by The Amboy Dukes [Ted Nugent's first band]).

So, what happened to "The Schedule"? Well, if I had finished by 7 PM (or 6:55, to be exact), it was a 2-hour drive down to Portland, where Eastern Mountain Sports closed at 9. I could use Wendy's $10 gift coupon to buy Power Bars. But I finished at 7:15, so I just drove home.