One of the main highlights for me - Celebrating my Dad's birthday on the top of North Pack. Miss ya Dad!
We made the trip in 4 hours including a decent stop at the top of North Pack. It started of course with Sue dropping us off at Miller State park... well, actually it started off with too long of a trip at WalMart, then a missed turn (bad directions in the trail guide I think,) then a stop at the farm stand for the real directions, then dropping off my car, checking and double checking for keys (thats important later,) and then Sue Dropping us off at the starting point.
And then us paying $3.00 a piece to enter the park. I don't know why but in a small way that irks me... but I can honestly understand and it's not like it broke the bank or anything.
We started out, took a couple of photos of each other at the trail head sign, (which I photoshopped so that the two of us are in the same picture,) and then our journey began.The first bit of that trail was the most difficult bit of the bunch. Hand and foot climbing up some pretty steep rocks. Lot's of water later we were through and to our first scenic overlook. A bit hazy of a day, but we knew it would be good from that point on.
The remainder of the trail to the top of South Pack was pretty easy, a few steeper spots, but nothing like the first part. Near the top we veered off the trail onto the red dot trail where there was some open rock face / an over look. As we came around the corner we spotted what we thought was a film crew at first (no luck,) but it did turn out to be a 'Hawk Watch' which was pretty neat.
We got to the top in a little over an hour I think, took a photo break and a quick snack. A guy at the top talking on his cell took a photo of us (so I didn't have to worry about photoshop for that one.) He was quite the character - it took him 2.5 hours for the same trek. He probably could have done it in less had he not been smoking.We packed up, spotted a sign for some water, filled up and found a very odd sight. The cut off bottom of a 2 gal. milk container, filled with water... and two hornets swimming around. Truly, truly odd. But, we had little time to observe their backstroke as we got on our way.
The next leg of this trip put both of us into the unknown. I've been up Pack many times (on the Auto Road,) and North Pack more times than I can remember, but never linked the two together.
A short distance from the summit we passed a cairn, and then after that a side trail to a 'memorial overlook'. Being the sight seers that we are, we decided to look and as thought, the view was great so out came the camera again. As Alex framed up the photo, I got into position on a rock slab and as I did - it began to list backwards on me... I quickly regained my balance, and stepped off the rock for the photo. We laughed and moved on.
The decent was pretty uneventful. We exited the state park, entered another wilderness preserve area, and began climbing again. At some point we - well I say we - Alex spotted our next 'wildlife' encounter in the form of a small snake. I did eventually see it and Alex got this photo of it.We eventually reached the junction where the 'Cliff Trail' splits off and thats where we met Mike and Donna (or at least I think that was their names....) They were also hiking through and wondering which way we were going. We decided to keep with the plan and stick with the Wapack, and they decided to take the Cliff trail.
We made it to the summit and took a good break. After a few minutes of re-orienting myself with the top, we found the place to celebrate my Dad's birthday. A couple of Gatorade slushies, some trail mix, and an apple sauce made for the fixins, and Alex lit a match... er, candle to help the party atmosphere.
We finished up, packed up and began to look for the trail down. After a false start we found it and... we found Donna and Mike. They both agreed that the Cliff Trail was gorgeous and we let them go ahead for a few moments. The trail down opens up onto some open rock face and Alex and I stopped a couple of times for some more photos. It was only a few minutes from the summit though when we ran into our two new 'friends' again.
It seems as if they had just discovered that they left the keys to the vehicle ahead of them, in the vehicle a couple hours behind them. They asked us for a ride back to the lot and we couldn't leave them stranded so we now had some hiking buddies.
We stopped for a few more shots, they went ahead. We saw them only a couple of times at the bottoms of a couple of steep areas. The trip down seemed quick and it was pretty much right when we caught up to them that Alex spotted the cars parked on the side of the road.
4 hours later, we were finished. We cleaned a bit out of the back seat of the car, and we drove Mike and Donna back to Miller State park. (She ate my Doritos, but thats perhaps for a different blog.)
All in all, this hike re-energized my love for the outdoors and it looks like our next hike will be on the weekend of the 20th.
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