Hiking (with the hounds)

Great pics as usual Dave.

It's obvious that the dogs are well trained, just getting them to stay put for the pictures.

 

Yesterday afternoon we went for a short hike down a trail created by Campinspecter's brother. The trail is now named after him. Clear, sunny and no wind - so unusual for May. We only went as far as the viewpoint as it is a six hour round trip to the Marine light at the end.

View from the viewpoint. We are looking across Johnstone Strait, through Weynton Passage to Queen Charlotte Strait. Mainland BC is in the far distance. Trying out my panorama capabilities of the camera.



Looking west towards Alert Bay. Eagles were everywhere.



Finally got a picture of the three dogs going full tilt in play.



Some sound caught their attention.



Off to investigate!!



http://www.telegraphcoveresort.com/trail.html Here is the link for more info on the trail. The name dedication will take place in July.

 

Forgot to post a picture of the bench situated to rest and enjoy the view.

 

Annual Memorial weekend camping/hiking trip with my BIL and nephew. Last year we tackled Franconia ridge in the Whites, my BIL's older dog had ACL surgery on both legs over the winter and has not come back as well as hoped so we decided to take it a little less strenuous this year. My younger daughter tagged along, but I had to leave my two female hounds at home, they are not campers.

"Gulf Hagas" is a gorge created by the Pleasant river in Central Maine. It is about 3 miles long with a total drop of about 350'. There is a fantastic trail that follows the edge of the gorge, the "rim trail" with a return trail through the woods. This area is very remote, part of the "100 mile wilderness", the last part of the AT before the finish at Mt Katahdin. Access to the trail at the bottom of the gorge requires a large water crossing that was described to us as "waist deep, fast and very cold", so we decided to do the trail in reverse as the head of the gorge can be accessed by a bridge with a little extra mileage. The gorge is about 100' deep at its deepest part, it was a little nerve wracking keeping track of the hounds, one slip would have had a tragic end for sure. There are very scenic views of the gorge and the numerous water falls along it's length. It is kind of hard to do it justice in photos.

 

About 8.5 miles and its back to camp for the night and of course a fire and some dogs on a stick.

The view from our campsite

 

The Gulf Hagas is part of an area is called the KI-Jo Mary multiple use forest, a 175,000 acre privately owned tract of land. The land owners formed consortium and a land management company to maintain the land in private. There is a good deal of logging and access to the mountains, lakes and rivers is along the logging roads. They also offer access to the public, for a small fee, and maintain campsites scattered throughout the land. It is primitive and very rustic, kind of like a state or national park without all the rules and regs of a government agency...nice!

The "KI" part of the name refers to Katahdin Ironworks. This was a thriving community in the mid to late 19th century. The forest provided the fuel and the nearby Ore Mountain provided the raw material to produce the iron. Apparently it was a fairly big community at the time complete with a 100 room hotel. If I read the placards right this is where the smelting of the iron happened, kind of like a 50 foot tall rocket stove. They also made bricks here.

 

Thanks for taking us along on your trip. Did you get any room in the mattress and sleeping bag or was that just for the hounds?

 

Here are some pics from my recent excursion to the Green Mountains.

I had to bring my daughter back to school in Saratoga Springs, so I thought I'd bring the hounds and take the long way home through Vermont and NH and do some camping and hiking on the way home. Bailey, my little Jack Russell/Beagle failed the backyard camping test and she doesn't do very well in the car after about an hour so she stayed home with my wife.

The summit of Killington with Pico in the background. My BIL met me and we left his car on rt 4 in Killington, went up Bucklin on the west side of Killington Mountain to the summit and then followed the Long Trail on the ridge over to Pico then down to his car. This was a long day probably 12 miles and 2500 ft gain. I met a man at the summit doing a hawk watch/count and communicating with some school kids in Rutland Vt about 15-20 miles away via mirror flashes, kinda cool.


Bucklin trail follows a stream some of the way up, fantastic trail




The Killington ski resort is on the east face, there is a gondola that brings you to within 100ft of the summit, bunch of people up there that rode up. We had lunch at the restaurant, $18 for a turkey sandwich!




Cooper Lodge, on the Long Trail, just below the summit of Killington. The lodges and shelters are spaced about a half a day apart on the Long Trail

 

I was kinda beat after the long day on Killington so we did quick trip up Blue Ridge Mountain in the morning before driving north. Not much of a view from the summit and it was quite hazy, here is a cool waterfall on the way up, I can just imagine what this looks like in the spring during the melt.



I stopped at Texas Falls on the drive north.



Found a nice campsite at a campground in New Haven, Rivers Bend.



Battell shelter on the way up to Mt Abraham also on the Long Trail. There is a Green Mountain Club caretaker in residence here from Memorial day to Columbus day. He was at the summit this day taking a count of the number of visitors over the Labor Day weekend, said they expected 800-1000! Notice the strings with bottles and cans on them hanging from the ceiling. Mice getting into your food are a big problem in the shelters and lodges esp at night, so you hang your food bag from these and they can't get at it as easily.




Mt Abraham summit looking west, you can see the Southern end of Lake Champlain and into the Adironacks and upstate NY, not crystal clear this day but still a magnificent view. Lots of FHC members in those woods somewhere.

 

What happened to the little brown and white dog? You always post with 5 companions. awesome pictures.

 

Great pics Dave , Thanks for sharing

 

She stayed at home with my wife, she is a little high strung. I had never had her camping, so we tried it out into the backyard and it is definitely not her thing.

 

This my my absolute favorite time of year for hiking, cool weather, no bugs, the fall colors. The foliage is a bit late this year, the weather stayed warm through most of September and we had little rain till recently, might not be a good year for leaf peeping.

Next weekend wasn't looking good weather or schedule wise so even though the foliage hasn't really developed yet I decided to take a trek off Island to some State public land, Black Mountain in Hancock, beautiful wide open country with some views back toward the Island.

Tunk lake at the base of the mountain, this is looking north east, not a house or road in sight



almost to the summit


it was windy this day, note the ears, that's the Island in the distant background




another view of MDI and the chain of mountains across it

 

Thanks for giving us a glance at your part of the world. This time of year is definitely the best time to go hiking. (love the ears in the wind)

 

Going back through your pictures, I stopped at the shelter with the hangers for your food packs. Here you would have to hang everything in a tree to keep the bears out of it. Even then it can be kind of iffy whether they can reach it or not from the trunk.

 

What kind of bears out your way?

I think bears are an issue too, but I've heard about many more issues with mice. I haven't done much backpacking, mostly day hiking. The logistics of backpacking with dog(s) would be tough for me.

 

We have mainly black bears with the odd grizzly bear making it's way over to the island.

When we backpacked with ONE dog, I made a backpack for her and she packed her own crunchies. Had to make it waterproof as she loved water. Most we ever went out for was a couple of days.

 

Tumbledown Mountain
I have been saving this hike for just the right day because it's a 3+ hour drive from my house. Yesterday was Columbus day, so I had the day off anyway it was predicted to be near 70F, perfectly clear, no wind, foliage is near peak, it doesn’t get much better than that, so I loaded up the hounds and headed west to Weld, Maine. Weld is not quite in the middle of nowhere, but it's definitely on the way. Tumbledown mountain is not the tallest peak at just above 3000', but what it lacks in stature it more than makes up for in scenery. Aside from the incredible scenery, Tumbledown's most notable features are a precipitous south face, likely the source of it's unusual name and and alpine pond just below the summit (Tumbledown pond).


Up Parker ridge trail. Lets go what are you waiting for!


Lots of beautiful water on the way up.


Here is a look at Tumbledown from across parker ridge, the precipitous south face. There is a trail that takes a steep route up that face that was not recommended for dogs.


Some interesting rock on the ridge, a vein of quartz? In some black rock with some cool swirly patterns.


Tumbledown pond. I didn't bring enough water and had to filter some water from the pond for a refill, it was delicious.


Tumbledown has three summits, North, West and East. I only made it to the east peak as I was running out of time, I'll save the others for another day and as an excuse to come back. Here I am with the hounds on the east peak. The camera doesn't really do justice to the stunning colors of the foliage.



Here is a picture of the "party" in the back of the "Swamp Dog Buggy" on the way home.