Last night Wendy sent me a link to a new Springsteen video ("Letter To You"):
It was really nice to see, right before I left on my long solo hike.
This morning it is a one-hour drive to get to the Trailhead Parking:
The map for today:
and the hike I wound up accomplishing:
What a hike - 20 miles in 11 hours!
I had previously done 4-miles-in/4-miles-out on Tuesday Aug. 18, 2020 (read blog here), so that allowed me to feel real comfortable on my hike in to the "Santanoni Express Trail".
I started at 7:44 AM. The first 1.9 miles are on an old logging road, then you take a right onto a pretty nice trail running up through the woods for 2.1 miles:
Just before the cairn/turnoff, there are some very nice cascades:
I left a spare water bottle behind the cairn
and then headed left, up the "Santanoni Express Trail" at 9:20 AM.
You cross over Santanoni Brook (looking back at where I came from):
and, after veering left "to avoid beaver activity", you head up "about 2 mi from the marked trail."
Well, this is where I lost the trail. The "main map" has 3 very nice straight lines: west-south-west:
while the 3-d map shows a bit more "trail variation" (plus it has the name):
As you can see, at some point going around the "beaver activity", I zigged-when-I-should-have-zagged, and wound up going south for a while:
I figured that I was "not where I should be", so I headed northwest along the mountain contour, through the woods. 30 minutes after leaving the "trail", I FOUND IT:
As I like to say: "Any bad trail is a whole lot better than any good bushwack." Amen, and Thank You God!
You can also see that, on these "trails", there is a WHOLE LOT of back-and-forth/zigzagging:
which is not a really enjoyable experience.
I started to see some views at 10:47, and reached "the ridge" about 1/2 hour later. At the summit at 11:33 AM:
I backtracked a little, and had lunch-with-a-view:
looking northwest:
and looking northeast at Bradley Pond, MacNaughton Mtn., and Street Mtn.:
(I'll be going around Bradley Pond on my way back down)
After a long hike through the woods:
I made the "Times Square" clearing at 12:30
I left my backpack here because this is where the trail to Couchsachraga Peak goes out-and-back. At 1:20 I was at "the bog":
and at the summit at 1:54 PM:
There was a really nice view-point I passed on my way out to the Peak, but it was THE ONLY ONE, so I stopped there on my way back and took a nice picture northwest over the Cold River Valley at the Seward Range:
Back to Times Square, picked up my backpack, and made it to the top of Panther Peak at 3:34 PM:
Cool views coming back down off the Peak - Santanoni Peak:
and Couchsachraga Peak:
I headed down "Panther Brook Trail" (no signs, of course). You zig and zag across the brook, often just going straight down it. This is a view back up one section:
I WAS SOAKED - with both my blue slicker top (over red long-sleeved shirt) AND my black rain-pants (over long pants). Another blog writer said these herd paths are "crowded by trees and brush in spots." - um, that is being extremely charitable. It was written in Sept. 2015, and it seems that there has not been any trimming/clearing since! The foot-path is generally 1-to-2 feet wide, but the growth comes in from both sides, and you need to keep pushing through it. Soft branches = no scratches, but VERY WET!
There was only extremely limited view of Bradley Pond (but I bet it is beautiful if I wanted to hike down to it), but I did get a nice view of a beaver pond right before intersecting the main trail (Trail 128 "Duck Hole via Bradley Pond"):
About 3/4 miles back down the main trail I retrieved my water bottle (Excellent "water management" today!), and then it was 4 miles back to the car. 19.99 miles in 11 hours 4 minutes!
A little-more-than-an-hour drive back to the Super 8 in Ticonderoga. Italian sub for dinner. 101 miles driving today.
A nice phone call with Wendy, a hot bath, and then Lights Out - Thank you God for all these GREAT Adventures!
Monday morning drive to the trailhead:
Ed Sheeran - X, 2014 2nd album
I like listening to music while I hike, so we're going to try the boom cube and a couple of nanos, listening to ALL MY CHRISTIAN SCOTT ALBUMS!!
Rewind That, 2006
Anthem, 2007
Live at Newport, 2008 live album
Yesterday You Said Tomorrow, 2010
This was the album that started him for me, a couple of years ago. I heard "American't" on WHRB-FM 95.3 one morning, and I was blown away - excellent music!
Christian aTunde Adjuah, 2012 double album
Stretch Music, 2015
Ancestral Recall, 2019
IT WAS GREAT LISTENING TO THIS MUSIC ON THE HIKE! (and certainly helped me end the day with a smile.)
and then the Monday evening drive to the Super 8:
Flickerstick - Welcoming Home The Astronauts, 2001 debut album
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