Hurricane Mt. Shakedown
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...