But I got kind-of-beat-up yesterday (13 1/2 hours hiking!!!), so I want to do something pretty and comfortable. So let's do a nice drive up to the Santanoni Range trailhead, and go up the trail (you know, "trail" is a misspelling of the word "trial". Just saying.) to the "cairn-turnoff" for the Santanoni Peak:
This morning it is a one-hour drive to get to the Trailhead Parking:
House of Pizza opens at 10, so I got a cheesesteak for late breakfast/early lunch.
On the way up, on Blue Ridge Road, you pass right by Blue Ridge Falls:
The river is right across the highway from the Blue Ridge Falls Campsite:
At noon - Beautiful drive up "Upper Works Road", seeing Sanford Lake and Mount Adams:
I do like exploring, so I continued 1.6 miles beyond the Santanoni Trailhead, up to the Upper Works Trailhead Parking:
It looks like that is where you park to access other High Peaks: Mount Marshall, Iroquois Peak, Algonquin Peak, and Wright Peak:
(gee, I must be feeling better today!)
Back down to the Santanoni Trailhead about 12:30
I signed in the register, and off I went!
For the first 40 minutes/1.8 miles you are on a logging road - very nice pace:
Almost all through the forest, but pretty marshes once in a while:
You then take a sharp right onto "Trail 128":
which is a GREAT trail for a little over a mile.
You have a nice bridge over Santanoni Brook:
and then up the nice trail on the other side:
After 3 miles of hiking, the trail deteriorates - it becomes rocks (small and big), planks over swamps (thank you for the planks!), and stream water running right down the "trail":
It is really cool going up next to Santanoni Brook and its Cascades:
After 1 hour 50 minutes (4 miles), I reached the cairn-for-the-path-to-Santanoni-Peak (go left - the official trail continues up-to-the-right):
I had been through a couple of rain showers, so I turned around and headed back down. Sunny day going back down:
and I finished 8.04 miles in 3 hours 3 minutes.
Driving back down, I stopped near a bridge (put on my sneakers):
and took pictures upstream:
and downstream:
A nice rainbow to end the day - 107 miles driving:
Wonderful Wife phone call, and then Lights Out - Thank you God for this Lovely Day!
Tuesday morning drive to the trailhead:
various artists - Chicago Blues Anthology, second album of a double-album release
The Firesign Theatre - Don't Crush That Dwarf, Hand Me the Pliers, 1970 third album
WOW - in the style of "Airplane" - just keep the jokes coming. A few funny, most not so funny, a good "historical" document/listen.
I am hiking with the boom cube and my orange nano: Miles Davis Quintet, 1965-68 cd 1:
driving again - Cat Stevens - Foreigner, 1973
garbage album - one track is good: "The Hurt"
Robyn Hitchcock and The Egyptians - Globe of Frogs, 1988:
yes, interesting '80s music. "Balloon Man" was a "minor college radio hit".
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Wednesday drive home:
Say goodbye to my nice room at the Super 8:
Going over the "Lake Champlain Bridge" at Fort Crown Point:
Pretty Vermont:
Although I wrote down all my directions, I had fun not looking at them at all while going through Vermont!
I had a scheduled pickup at the Billerica Library from 1:00-1:30, and I got there 30 minutes early. I finished my italian sub; the book/cd person came out, and I ripped my 2 Dave Alvin cds. Returned them in the slot, and headed over to Maynard Library for my 2:30-3:00 time slot. I ripped my Dave Alvin cd. Returned it in the slot, and headed over to Reading Library for my 4:00-4:10 time slot. I ripped my Dave Alvin cd. Returned it in the slot, and headed over to Gloucester Library for my "before 5" time slot to pick up Justified, Season 3. SUCCESS!!
Home by 5:15, jumped in the pool, and dinner at 6! 288 miles today, 740 miles for the whole trip- WOW, Thank you God for this Great Day! (and this Great Adventure!)
Driving music:
I like starting the drive off listening to books-on-tape. Neal Stephenson (a sci-fi author I really like) wrote one of his early novels Snow Crash in 1992, cds 6 + 7:
then "music I don't usually listen to" on my iPod:
Wings - Wings Over America, 1976 live triple-album
The Madison Square Garden gigs (New York City) were May 24 + 25, 1976, and I was there (without research into the boxes in the attic, I don't know which date). I do remember getting up one morning in the winter of 1976, listening to WNEW-FM, and they announced that tickets were going on sale in an hour. These were the days when, even though there were Ticketron outlets, the best way to get tickets was at the box office. So I got dressed and took the subway down to Madison Square Garden where, after a few hours, got my ticket!
This album "was the first triple set by a group to reach number 1 in the US".
Paul Pena - New Train, recorded 1973, released 2000
Great Rhythm-and-Blues on "Gonna Move" (The Persuasions singing backing vocals).
Paul Revere & The Raiders - Greatest Hits, 1967
I ripped 6 songs; of them, "Just Like Me", "Kicks", "Hungry", and "Good Thing" actually really rock, and are much stronger songs than I remember (I thought they were just pre-Bubblegum Music [look it up], especially when they changed their name to "Paul Revere & The Raiders featuring Mark Lindsay" - he was a teen magazine favorite.)
Patti Smith - Land (1975-2002), 2002 compliation album
Ok, I LOVE HER FIRST ALBUM!!!! Everything else - not so much. I ripped 4 songs, including two live cuts.
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