Saturday, October 13, 2007

Hikey Hikey - Mt. Monadnock and Mt. Wachusett

I climbed Mt. Wachusett today and Mt. Monadnock last Sunday! Mt. Monadnock is supposedly one of the most climbed mountains in the US, and true to its reputation it was crowded. But really only at the top and for part of the way down. On the way up we bypassed most of the crowd by taking the quieter Red Dot trail. Here are some pretty scenes.

Baby pine trees:


A tiny brown frog (about the size of a quarter):


A particularly pretty section of the trail, with the red leaves it was like walking on confetti:


The view from the summit:


And in the other direction, the misty summit:



A dead body. No wait, just kidding. My friend's brother used to run far ahead when they were hiking and then pose to make it look like he'd fallen out of a tree or impaled himself on a rock. It sounds kind of sick in the re-telling, but we practically peed our pants from laughing.


The way down (there's basically one suggested way down) was much more crowded, loud and annoying. It's also very rocky, which is wicked on my knees. The fact that I have a problem with bending my knees exacerbates the problem, and I was caught not a few times teetering on rocks like Frankenstein's Monster. Which made us laugh even more, which slowed things down.

Today we hiked up Mt. Wachusett. It's a little closer to home, and also close to my friend's brother's farmhouse, where we took a little pit stop to admire his decorating taste and pick up a massive amount of catnip that he picked for our kitties. It was a nice gentle hike, and it would be good for the directionally challenged because you're never too far from signs of civilization. (You can drive to the summit.) Not to mention some of these:

On the way home we stopped at the farm stand where I got my required apple cider donut of the year, a butternut squash, a bag of Macoun apples, garlic, and 5 stems of zinnias for 50 cents each.

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