A lollipop up the Ammonoosuc Ravine Trail (ART), around Monroe, back over Monroe and down the ART.
Plan was to go up Friday night, camp, and hit the trail early.
Nothing quite like tooling up the road in the dark, no other cars , just you and the dark and the tunes ... in the Zone. Mmmmm ...
And then realizing you're moving way too fast and if you hit a moose you will both explode like the Big Bang and there wont be anything but a few strands of hair and an expanding cloud of radiator fluid :O !
Fortunately neither moose nor Smokies appeared before I got back in proper form. And then it was a nice moonlit ride along the Kanc, with ... wait ... what the heck is that ? Odd ... somebody hitchhiking? A statue? Ah! A moose! Stop. Moose looks at me; I look at moose. Moose clearly the more alert of the two of us, wanders off ... I start up again and land in camp just around midnight...
4.30 AM My planned Boots on Trail of 6 AM does *not* look that important. zzzz...
6.30 AM ... ok, I can do this ...
Arrive at Marshfield station. Plenty of cars, parking starting to get scarce. Not helped by the young person who has decided the proper place to do yoga is in the next available parking space ... but I get settled. Vermont Subaru pulls in. Smoke billowing from under the hood. None of the crew seems worried. Its a Subaru, they got here, plenty of time to worry after the hike. Good to have perspective ! :)
The whole day is shaping up like going to a Show. And in fact, that sort of became the way I looked at the whole day. It was kind of a Scarlet Begonias day. "... strangers stopping strangers, just to shake their hand; everybody's playing in the Heart of Gold band ... ". Almost everyone was so blissed out today, stopping to chat and just revel in the beauty of it all. It's rare that I enjoy being around so many people ( SO many!!! It was almost a continuous line up the ART !), but the day was so glorious! Rare vibe!
There were so many people at LOC, that one croo was sitting outside to shoo people off the alpine vegetation.
In case you can't tell, I'm a big fan of AMC croo :) I love the hard work, creativity and sense of humor I so often see from them :)
Inside the hut were ... cookies!!! Yay! LOC has the best cookies ever!! And coffee! Mmmmmm...
Much too soon I reached my cookie limit and headed off , much pleased with the way I was feeling. Last week's 6 mile hike in the Belknaps all but did me in so I was a little concerned about today, but after coffee & cookies I knew I had it in me to do the loop past and back over Monroe . So off I went.
I love this loop ; the Crawford Path is about as smooth a stroll as can be found , and it's a very pleasant tease with Monroe looming above.
Then you reach the south end of the Monroe loop and go up little Monroe, the trail just adequately challenging to boost the adrenaline a little, and then across the sag - I think of it as a lawn, though I don't know whether it properly qualifies in alpine terminaology. And then ... up Monroe itself.
Monroe is my favorite Presidential. Spectacular views, relatively easy ; it has a friendly feel to it; and it's great to have LOC nearby for ... (did I mention ? ) cookies!!
This time, no bees. (Last time I was on Monroe there were bees. I doindt get stung, but it was kind of distracting having them buzzing and landing on me...) A couple black flies passed by , but no bees. Yay! So hung out there for a while, headed back down to LOC descending the wonderful stone work ... and then it was time for the grind down the ART.
A few stops for waterfall pics ( and here I took a few black fly hits) and then back out to Marshfield Station. What an excellent day!