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Showing posts from April, 2023

Hurricane Mt. Shakedown

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  Sunny and I have been jogging just about every morning for the past three weeks or so and it was time for another hike. We need to get into hiking shape before our first High Peak of the year, so a few easy hikes were in order. The hike up Buck was easy enough, so I decided to increase the difficulty slightly.  The Hurricane trail is a couple of miles longer and twice the elevation gain, so it seemed like just the thing.  I was cognizant that the higher peaks are still not recommended for hiking at the moment, so I wanted to be prepared even though Hurricane's elevation is only 3600'. I was expecting a lot of mud, so I wore my big boots. Recent reports indicated that there was very little ice left near the summit, but I brought my spikes anyways just in case. As usual, Sunny was impatient to get started. As with many of the hikes in the High Peaks region, this one began with an initial climb out of the road in the valley before a long, flatish path to the main ascent. T...

Four Seasons on Buck Mt.

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  I've been feeling very out of shape after this winter, so I thought it best that we get an early start on training for the High Peaks. When beautiful weather was forecast for this week, I requested today off for a hike, then got Sunny Days in for a grooming. Mason's Place did a great job trimming off all the excess hair and snarls. He's such a handsome boy! Over the next few weeks, we'll be running in the morning and doing hikes to ramp up to the first High Peak which will be about 10 miles. So, for this hike, I decided to go up the back side of Buck Mt. from Shelving Rock Rd. The trail was about 5 miles and 1000' of elevation change. The other main trail up Buck is a 7 mile hike and climbs 2000' from the shore of Lake George. I will save that for another day. As usual, Sunny was ready to go. Here he is, telling me to get my ass in gear: Autumn at the Trailhead The temperature was already in the 60s by the time we got to the Buck Mt. trailhead. As we tromped ...