How Many Camel's Humps Can a Camel's Hump Hump?

This last weekend Heather, Chance and I hike Camel's Hump. Rising to 4,083 feet, it is one of the few "bald" peaks in Vermont which means stunning views. It also means that if you choose to hike it on Labor Day weekend when the weather is perfect and clear you are not going to be the only ones up there. The trail was surreal, people every couple of hundred feet and much of the trail so narrow that you just needed to stand (especially if there was another dog) and wait for the others to pass. When we finally got above the treeline it was a stunning view.

What you see below is Mount Mansfield to the north of Camel's Hump, the next peak to be conquered and also over 4,000 feet.

From the top you could see three states, the Adirondacks just loomed and Mt. Washington was easy to find. Chance got a little excited by my picture taking.

This gives you a good idea of just how crowded it was up there. I think when we were there there was about 50 or more people and estimates we heard on the trail indicated more than 500 people hiked the peak that day. It was too crowded to be enjoyed and all of us were glad to start the descent. And no, I am not the guy in the green shirt in this picture.
The descent was much more pleasant, much fewer people and the trail really is beautiful. We both agreed it need to be re-hiked on a calmer day. Total elevation gain: 2,800 approximately feet, total length: 6.6 miles and total time 4.5 hours incuding stopping at the top.

From Bennington to Burlington

This post is only about a week overdue but here it is with typos and grammatic inconsitencies. Exactly nine days ago I moved up to Burlington Vermont. For those who don't know where it is imagine a medium size town or a small city (but let's be honest, it is a town) located on the shore of Lake Champlain with the Adirondacks on the far shore and the Green Mountains to the East. It is a stunning location. So I loaded up my parent's car with my stuff, a kayak and two bicycles for the trip.

It isn't as loaded down as you would think, and certainly a little less than my move to Bennington. The drive was uneventful thanks to my parents and once Heather got in we unloaded. Within minutes it looked like what you see below.

Actually that is a complete lie, it took many days to turn it into the picture above. It is a beautiful place and as per the tradition of two poor bastards the sofabed is off the side of the road. Perfectly clean for those who come to visit and stay with us, I swear. I steam cleaned it on my hands and knees.

This is the view out our back porch. In the back yard you can see my kayak, Heather's kayak and our landlords canoe. Sitting here with candles lit enjoying a meal or drinking a good beer bring a remarkable feeling similiar to being on vacation in some amazing cabin in the middle of nowhere instead of, oh yeah, where I live.

This is all the fun stuff, all our hiking, camping, snowshoeing gear. Not pictured are the two pair of cross county skiis that hopefully will see good use this winter and kayak paddles. I am hoping to put my kayak in the water soon and I need to start working on the frame for the second one. I want it to be a solid build so I can take it across Lake Champlain and battle the Loc Ness creature that lives in the 400 feet deep underwater canyons.

Hiking the Bald Mountain and Discovering Dandruff

Today I took a hike up Bald Mountain. It is located in the Glastonberry wilderness next to the Appalachian Trail and rises to around 2,800 feet with a 1,600 feet elevation gain from the trailhead. It is 2.5 miles to the top and the runoff made the first mile of trail quite muddy, something that Loki, my canine companion, decided to utilize by walking down the middle of any puddle. It probably helped him keep cool, it was 85 degrees and 50% humidity.
Along the way I ran into this guy, not sure exactly what species but he was about 3 inches long. The blue spike was brilliantly colored, something the picture doesn't do justice.
So the commen nomenclature in Bennington for Bald Mountain is The White Rocks, named for the large exposed white rock face on the western slope. During this climb I learned that it is white because the mountain is mainly marble. The chunk in the shot above was one of a multitude that covered the trail. Note, marble when wet is slippery.Just another cool rock, I wish the focus had turned out better. Poor Loki was suffering towards the summit, he is a bit porky and it was damn hot so I let him set the pace and kept stopping to let him breathe.This at the summit, the ground is white with marble powder, rather surreal and the reason for the title of this post. The pines there only grew to about 6 feet at the most so I stood on the pile of rocks to get a view.
Self portriate with the auto timer. I had my camelbak with me and drained all 50 oz. by the time I got back to the car.This is the view from the top. It was hazy so it didn't photograph well but it overlooked the Green Mountains and it was stunning. I took a seat and called my girlfriend Heather to share with her the exerience and as I am sitting there two backpackers walked up. Sure I am sitting on the summit of a moutain on my damn cell phone. Silly. Loki was very tired and going through heat exhaustion so we decended quickly to find some drinkable creeks. It was a good hike, I want to go up the other side so I can get to those white rocks and take some shots there.

Because you know it is true. I made this for fun in the peak of procrastination about other projects. The inspiration? Well simply this car was parked out of my apartment in Pittsburgh for the year plus I lived there...

What happens when you soak a Phoenix

After a couple days of insanity running around for my move up to Burlington I took today and its beautiful weather as a sign and decided to put the Phoenix back in the water at Lake Paran. It was quiet when I first got there.
This is the dam at the end of Lake Paran. After all the rain it was running strong. It is a small lake and has a serious problem with this invasive seaweed. Almost half is filled almost to the surface with the stuff and I had to be careful not to catch my paddles on it.
The launch is really nice and I did a couple trips out and around. I am getting more comfortable with the balance of the boat and when I would get close to shore I would try my harder paddle strokes and turns while tilting the hull. Once I relaxed and settled it was quite nice and dragonflies kept landing on the bow. I also saw a turtle surface for air, which was a nice surprise. Believe it or not this was on purpose. Knowing how tippy this is I wanted to do some more tests with worst case scenarios. I flipped and filled it as much as I could and tried wet reentry to see if I could paddle it filled with water. It was slow and ponderous but still functional. And with it filled with water and therefor lower, the kayak was notably more stable. I tried a partial flip with me in it to see what it would be like getting out of it inverted. I have my hands on ground in case I needed it and I discovered that it was incredibly awkward experience. I am going to practice more when I have someone there to flip it back up in case I get stuck. Over all I had a great time and all my clothing is hanging all over the room drying.

Beginnings...

You can always begin in the middle, anyone who has had to face the trials and tribulations of life knows that sometimes you gamble, sometimes you lose and have to start again. The greatest danger is being taught as a child this is a bad thing, that failure is the end of days. In truth the most important lessons are learned from mistakes and the greatest successes come from failures. History may only record the successes but there are many that can testify that while necessity is the mother of invention, mistakes are how you get there. Some of the most important advances in science and common useful items (x-rays and post-it notes anyone?) are products of mistakes.

Today I struggled with finding a temporary job to earn me enough money to move to the place I want to be, seemingly losing the temporary job I already had because times are tough, searching for apartments and jobs in Burlington and resolving a thousand other issues. If I faced each of these problems and defeats as indicative of a large failure of character then by the end of each day my world be destroyed. Instead by taking each in stride and moving onto the next step it become part of a larger and more powerful process.

Time has taught me that almost consistently my expectations and predictions bears almost no relation to what has happened. So what I try to take from that is to instead focus on making my day amazing and empowering. With these thousands of little beads I can make a remarkable life.

The Magnet Moves

As I write this I am in Buffalo on the way back to Bennington. The last couple of weeks time has been in short supply so this is the first I have had time to blog about it.

There are points where you are presented with obvious choices and breaks that begin a distinct new chapter in your life. For me there was going to Vassar, moving to California to live with my sister, then moving to Pittsburgh to be with friends. Now my options are fairly simple: on one hand I could wait for my job to be eliminated because of State budget cuts and start searching for new work in Pittsburgh and saving up to move back to Vermont while accruing more debt in the interim, or just simply go now. My parents were going to be in the neighborhood at the beginning of July so the choice was immediate and surprisingly easy. Within a single day I had gone from trying to move next spring to moving in three weeks.

It is remarkable to think of the experience I have had in Pittsburgh, from wide-eyed innocence upon my arrival to a complicated and hard engagement which I ended I have come to a certain kind of maturity here. And the friends I have made are amazing. I held a going-away party and invited people from work and from the Northside and this is the result. Put a bunch of artist together anywhere....

So I am going back to live with my parents for a couple of months in Bennington to make enough money to move up to Burlington. Joining me in that windy city (okay, let's be honest, it is a large town) will be my girlfriend Heather, a vital part of this next chapter. It should be an interesting journey no matter what happens. My eyes are wide yet again but rather with potential than innocence.