Group Hike: Jones Hill and Tinker Falls

One of Frankie's best friends is a little girl named Holly who has been a classmate of his for three years now.  I got an email Thursday from Holly's mom, Megan, inviting us to join a group hike with families from Frankie's school at Tinker Falls today.  The hike was organized by a family with two elementary-aged children, and their daughter is best friends with Holly's older sister.  The few names I recognized on the invite list were parents of other elementary students.  Because of the mixed age classrooms at Frankie's school, he could be in the same class with some of these kids next year when he moves up to elementary.  Plus I knew he'd have fun hiking with Holly!  

Post-Halloween Hike at Clark Reservation

My mother Mary has been visiting.  She stayed with my sister a few nights on this trip, so that she could spend some quality time with my adorable nephew.  Frankie loves visits from Grammy, so wasn't necessarily excited to share her, but we arranged it so she would be here with us for the Halloween excitement, and could stay with Frankie while Erwin and I attended a parent-teacher conference at his school.  Pumpkin carving and trick-or-treating are very important to my five-, almost six-year old.  We didn't get in as much hiking as we sometimes do, but we did have fun!

Great Bear in October

My mother and her husband are in town briefly, on their way back from their annual fall tour of New England, visiting family in Maine and friends in New Hampshire.  It is a long drive from Maine to Michigan, so they stopped here in Central New York for two nights, giving us two dinners and one full day together.  The weather was autumnal perfection, so after some lazing about this morning, with Frankie reading books aloud and showing off his school work, we headed out for a hike.  Alden was napping, so Mary suggested Great Bear, in hopes Erin could come join us when Alden woke up. 

North Country Trail: Freber Road to Emhoff Road

I had originally hoped to get up to the Adirondacks this weekend to do some leaf peeping -- hiking Blue Mountain this time last year was amazing.  However, the weather forecast was kind of dodgy.  For last minute, long drives, I generally look for more favorable weather conditions, so I decided we'd stay local.  Frankie and I headed out for another section hike on the North Country National Scenic Trail (NCT).  We parked at the trailhead on Freber Road, and hiked south to Emhoff Road and back, hiking the section immediately north of my last hike.  The mileage would have been 4.6 miles out-and-back, but due to some slight backtracking to reclaim a special stick that Frankie accidentally left behind after snacking, totaled 4.9 miles by the time we got back to Freber Road.  The back seat of my car is full of sticks.

Great Bear in September

Erin and I wanted to get together for another hike, and since we hadn't been to Great Bear Farms since spring, we decided to meet there.  We took what has become our default short loop, down to the river via Alec's Trail and back via Great Bear Road.  There are so many more trails available here, but we're always trying to fit our hikes into a narrow window, constrained on the front end by how long it takes Frankie and I to get out there, and at the back end by Alden needing to get home for his nap.  And since we can't possibly skip the river, this is where we go.  It is a lovely little walk and fits our needs for now.  Someday those boys will be ready for a longer loop!

Short Hike at Three Rivers

Erin and I have had a hard time getting together for hikes this summer, but we finally met up for a short walk at Three Rivers Wildlife Management Area.  Alden gets up super early and we wanted to catch him before his nap, so I rushed Frankie out the door, skipping his yogurt and giving him the pear slices to eat in the car.  We managed to get out there by 8:30 am, a rare feat for my morning slug.  It's not so much that Frankie sleeps in, not by normal standards anyway; he is almost always up by 7 am.  It's just that he likes to lollygag in the mornings.  But we made it!

Belfry Mountain Fire Tower

Located in the Hammond Pond Wild Forest in the eastern Adirondacks, Belfry Mountain barely qualifies as a hike -- it is more like a very short walk.  In fact, that is how I explained it to Frankie: it would be like a walk around the block, only with a fire tower halfway.  And that about sums it up... The "trail" is actually a gravel access road that services a couple communication towers just below the fire tower.  After passing the second right hand turn, the road narrows to a two track with a strip of grass in the middle.  Stay left/straight for the fire tower (i.e., keep going "up").  Roundtrip, the hike is just 0.8 mile with 120 feet elevation gain.

Mount Van Hoevenberg

Everyone seemed game for a third day of hiking (hurray!), so we headed for another little peak I'd been keeping on deck.  When hiked from the trailhead on South Meadows Road, Mount Van Hoevenberg is 4.4 miles roundtrip with 740 feet elevation gain.  The first mile or so is pancake flat, passing through pine and spruce plantations with gorgeous sunlight streaming through the boughs.  The trail then skirts a lovely beaver pond before starting to climb.  The open water of the beaver pond offers views up to the rocky summit ledges of Mount Van Hoevenburg -- nice to see our destination before re-entering the woods. 

Mount Gilligan

After hiking Cascade yesterday, I wasn't sure what we'd end up doing today.  Would the boys need a rest day?  Or would they be eager to hike again, like me?  We settled on doing an easier hike today.  Mount Gilligan fit the bill: it has been on my radar for a while as a good kid-friendly little mountain.  It is 2.2 miles roundtrip with 790 feet elevation gain.  The rocky summit ledges have nice views towards Rocky Peak Ridge and the Dix Range.  The gravel lot for the trailhead is on Scriver Road (not Gilligan Road) just east of Route 9.  After parking, walk the bridge across the Bouquet River and follow Scriver Road around the bend to the south.  The trail starts on the left immediately before a home; it is clearly marked with a large sign and can't be missed.

Cascade Mountain: Frankie's First High Peak

Cascade

4,098 feet  |  ranked 36/46 in height  | 2nd peak climbed (repeat)

Last year at Labor Day weekend we rented a big house in Keene Valley with Jason and Susie and their girls.  The house had a huge wrap-around deck with views of Giant Mountain.  Frankie immediately began asking to hike it: "I want to climb Gigantic."  Giant as a stand-alone (without Rocky Peak Ridge) is generally accepted as one of the easier of the Adirondack High Peaks.  However, it is still about 6 miles round trip with more than 3,000 feet elevation gain.  Since Frankie was four at the time, and hadn't yet climbed any High Peaks, we deferred.  I told him I wanted him to climb Cascade Mountain first, and if he liked that, we would consider taking him up Giant.  And he did not forget... he's still talking about "Gigantic."  So this year at Labor Day weekend, we rented a little house in Keene with views of Cascade Mountain.  And Frankie climbed his first High Peak!

North Country Trail: Spruce Pond to Jones Hill

This summer has been hot.  Not just regular old summer hot, but really freaking ungodly hot.  HOT hot.  I've mentioned this before (broken record alert!), but heat is not my friend.  I am immeasurably thrilled that the forecast for later this week and into the weekend is for significantly cooler weather.  But between appointments and birthday parties and non-compatible travel, it has been far too long since I'd been out hiking, and I just couldn't wait another week to get in the woods.  Since I knew temperatures were going to exceed 90 degrees today, I wanted a shorter hike, so we went with Option 3 from the hiking menu I made Frankie a few weeks ago.

North Country Trail: Shackham Road to Tinker Falls

On a lark, I wrote up a "hiking menu" last night after Frankie went to bed.  I included some brief descriptive information about four different sections of the North Country National Scenic Trail (NCT) and showed it to him in the morning.  While he ate breakfast, he read through the menu and announced he wanted to do hike number 2.  This was welcome news!  All the options were of interest to me, of course, or I wouldn't have included them.  However, I was most looking forward to this one, even though we hiked the adjacent section of trail last week.  Options 1 and 4 follow the abandoned Lehigh Valley Railroad, and as a result, are quite flat.  They are also located in a more developed landscape, closer to roads and houses and such.  Option 3 is a lovely hike that is also adjacent to last weeks hike (on the other side); Frankie and I did it last summer and will certainly repeat it at some point.  Morgan Hill State Forest, especially, and the abutting Labrador Hollow Unique Area, has a remote rugged aspect that really appeals to me, and Option 2 was all new territory for me.

North Country Trail: Tinker Falls & Jones Hill

Bolstered by our successful mini-adventure at Clark Reservation on Wednesday, I was finally ready excited to head out for a summer hike in Central New York.  I gave Frankie the choice of a few different sections of the North Country National Scenic Trail (NCT), showing him maps and pictures from previous hikes.  He decided he wanted to go to Tinker Falls, which is part of Labrador Hollow Unique Area, then hike up to the hang glider launch pad on Jones Hill.  Last year when we hiked here, we took the service road up to Jones Hill, but this year we stuck to the blue-blazed NCT the whole way up and down.  The NCT does follow a short section of the service road, but the majority of the hike is on a narrow single-track in the woods.  It was so charming, I question why we ever went the other way!

Clark in July

This was my very first hike since returning from Scotland three weeks ago, an inexcusable lapse that has lead, I am ashamed to say, to no small amount of moping on my part.  I have been extremely discouraged by the horrendous heat and humidity, and compared to the cool perfection of the Scottish climate, it has seemed even more unpleasant than normal.  The day we flew home there was a 40+ degree temperature differential from morning in St. Andrews to evening in Syracuse.  Then, just when I promised myself I'd get out that weekend, no matter what the weather and enjoy myself (dammit!), I was dispatched to western New York for three days of invasive plant surveys.  Field work means very long days, even when it's 90 degrees, so after arriving home late Friday, I was feeling more like crawling into a dark cave than heading back out into the beastly weather.

East Lomond Circuit, Falkland, Scotland

With our vacation rapidly winding down, this was to be our last hike in Scotland.  I was a little worried when Erwin developed cold symptoms yesterday, and more so when he was slow to rise this morning.  However, he finally emerged and managed to pull himself together.  He stuffed his backpack full of tissues and we set out for Falkland, a 35-minute drive from our rental in St. Andrews.  We arrived in time for lunch at the Covenanter, a charming little inn across from the Bruce Fountain and Falkland Parish Church, right in the center of town.  It began raining as we finished our meal, so after settling up, we paused in the empty bar to pull on our rain gear.

Fairy Glen, Isle of Skye

Since we are leaving Skye tomorrow to drive to St. Andrew's, I had hoped to do another big hike today.  However, Erwin confessed he was stressed about the long drive, due to some car trouble we'd had on the drive from Edinburgh, and was hoping today could be mellower, more laidback.  So we lollygagged around in Portree a bit in the morning, enjoying another delicious breakfast at the cozy Cafe Arriba and poking into some shops before setting out for the Fairy Glen, which had been on our radar all along as a place we wanted to visit.  I am so glad we didn't miss out!

Coire Lagan, Isle of Skye

If the Quiraing is the hike that brought me to Scotland, Coire Lagan might be the hike that brings me back.  Hey!  I can always dream, right?  But seriously, I do feel like I have unfinished business in Scotland.  We never climbed any Munros, after all.  [A Munro is a mountain in Scotland that is over 3,000 feet high; hiking all 282 of them is a challenge hikers pursue much like the Adirondack 46ers, New Hampshire 48, or Colorado 14ers.]  And we didn't get to climb North Berwick Law, which we'd planned as a day trip from Edinburgh via train, because service on that line was canceled due to a ScotRail strike. 

Talisker Bay, Isle of Skye

After the "big" Quiraing hike yesterday, we wanted today's activities to be a little easier, to let Frankie rest up for another big adventure later in the week.  We decided on the short hike to Talisker Bay, followed by lunch at The Old Inn in Carbost and a quick stop at the Talisker distillery, where I picked up a wee bottle to help sleep through the Highland nights, which have just a few hours of darkness this time of year.  Then we hopped in the car and drove to Dunvegan, where we spent the remainder of the afternoon exploring the castle and gardens.

Quiraing Circuit, Isle of Skye

This hike is the reason we came to Scotland.  No joke!  Our trips are often inspired by some insignificant detail that leads down a rabbit hole of investigation and obsession.  For example, Erwin and I traveled to St. John's many years ago after I saw a job listing for a biological science technician position with the Park Service, but couldn't apply because it required scuba certification.  At the time, I had the same job title working for the Forest Service.  I knew nothing of St. John, but was very interested in what I read as I burrowed away.  A Caribbean island not dominated by golf and casinos?  What?  Similarly, our trip to Ireland was spurred by some rare plant surveys I did for Hart's-tongue fern (Asplenium scolopendrium var. americanum).  While doing background research, I discovered that another variety of this federally threatened species is common in Ireland; once I read about the Burren, there was no turning back.  My Quiraing fascination grew along those lines. 

Arthur's Seat, Edinburgh

When we travel, we always book our flights, lodging, and car rentals in advance, of course, but we don't schedule the day-to-day adventures.  Erwin uses Google Earth to pin sites of interest in the vicinity of where we are staying.  That way we have information easily accessible about place we want to see, but can fine-tune our days based on weather, energy levels, and new information we may acquire on-site.  We always have more sites pinned than we could possibly visit, so have to prioritize somewhat.  For Edinburgh, our number one attraction was Arthur's Seat.  That doesn't mean we hiked it the first day; rather we watched the weather forecast, looking for the best possible day.  After a few days in Edinburgh it became clear that the forecasts were somewhat meaningless, and it would likely rain, at least a little bit, every single day.