| October 01, 2005 |
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I'm hiking up the Stony Brook Trail.
It's very flat. A beautiful day, sunny but cold right now.
I still have a light jacket on. I will soon hit the AT where
I'll hike back to Rt. 2 where I came in on Sunday night. |
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The little brook that I'm hiking by is very
pleasant. It has a lot of water falls, big rocks that are
sticking out. The trail is under a hardwood canopy. A
few pines here and there. A lot leaves now on the ground. |
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Had to rock hop across Stony Brook Creek.
I'm going up hill now away from the creek. It looks like this
trail is on a bit of an old timber haul road. I'm still along
side to the creek, but just higher up on the mountain. This
trail is in Mt Washington State Park. I had to cross over the
creek again only higher up. From that point on the trail has
been rocky, but still easier traveling. A lot of roots.
It's been a little steep. I'm also getting more pines in the
area also. |
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I've been hiking straight up the hill
across the stream again and I'm hiking straight up big boulders and
straight up the stream with water running right underneath me.
Large boulders. I've come 3.8 miles and getting ready to go on
the AT. |
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I'm going to be heading north back toward
Rt. 2. I do have a view of the surrounding mountains. I'm
looking at a lot yellows in the woods. Sprinkled with a little
reds here and there. A lot of rock outcroppings on the sides
of the mountains as well as on top of the ridges. It's all
pine trees in this area mixed in with a little Mountain Ash.
It looks like I'm hiking right on top of the ridge line now.
These are the nice big cement rocks that I like to hike on.
Climbing higher! Rocks have a lot of marble in them here.
And some of that sparkly looking glass stuff. |
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Looking back over the trail back from where
I came up from, it looks like I'm almost to the top of Mt. Mariah.
I can look back and see the towers at the top of Mt. Washington and the road going up.
It looks like I've got to do some hand over hand rock climbing
before I get to the top. |
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I can see Mt Washington, but I can also see
the mountains north that I just came off of. I can see Adams
and Madison and how steep it was. I remember it was an
extremely long steep down hill to get off Madison. I can see
those big boulders that I had to come down. They were very
steep and very dangerous drop offs. |
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It's beautiful up here on Mt. Mariah.
I can look out over into the distance. A lot of tall pines in
this area close to the trail. For the last 20 minutes I've
been hiking straight up large granite boulders, rounded boulders.
It's basically keeping my balance and hiking up them. |
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I've meet 4 section hikers. I'm
getting into big moss covered boulders, about the size of a large
shed that I'm going to have to go around. I'm always amazed at
the top of each of these mountains of the amount of boardwalk there
is to get over these swamps and also how many mud puddles there are
that you have to hike through, as well as a water stream running
down the lane. |
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On top of the mountain I wasn't higher than
any tree line in any place. There was still alpine growth,
just like on the other mountains. I'm at Rattle River Shelter.
Doesn't seem to be anybody here. Just a tea kettle sitting on
top of the stove. See if I can find the guest book and sign in
and I'll be on my way. |
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After I got off the hill the trail has been
very smooth, somewhat flat going down hill, but I got into some
roots and then just dirt. Pretty easy through this Rattle
River section. |
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Swing'n Jane |
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