Family

This isn't my usual adventure post, but I felt compelled to write anyway.

So much of who we are as individuals is influenced by who our family is.  Each person in our family shapes us to help us realize who we want to become (or don't want to become).  If we're lucky, there are people in our family who are honest, committed, and hard working, and show us how to always aim for a better version of ourselves.  Today, my family lost one of the strongest, most intelligent, and most respected men I've ever had the pleasure of knowing, and my heart grieves for our loss. 

I am fortunate enough to carry inside of me all the lessons you taught me on who I can and should be as a strong independent woman.

But boy will we miss you.

I love you Opa.

Obituary For Robert James Arkley

Overlook Mountain

Overlook Mountain and Echo Lake
Where: Catskill Park, NY
# Days: 3
Mileage: 10ish
Mountains Bagged: Overlook Mountain

This time we decided to plan a more relaxing trip than what we usually do.  During our planning meeting, Justin, Kyle, and I (Tania joined our group later) decided to choose a hike that wasn't as many miles, we weren't looking specifically to climb a 3500' peak, and we thought it would be really nice to be able to camp at a lake.  We decided on Overlook Mountain to Echo Lake, a 4 and some change mile hike each way that would take us to some old house/lodge ruins, a fire tower, and Echo Lake, one of only two named ponds protected as wilderness in the Catskill Park.

Friday night the 4 of use pull into the parking lot around midnight, which is right across from a beautiful Buddhist Monastery with prayer flags everywhere.  We had read the trail was a popular trail, and that was confirmed by how many cars were in the lot.  We got our stuff together, and decided to just hike about 10-15 minutes in and try to find a mountain flat spot of land to pitch our tents.  The boys were in a 3 person tent, and Tania and I were in her new 2 person tent.  After we got everything set up, we all crowded into the 3 person tent, and played rummy, drinking some wine and Washington Apples (a whiskey mixed drink that was amazing).  Around 2am, we snuggled into our respected sleeping bags, and snoozed while it gently rained outside.  Happiness :) 

Saturday morning we lazily got out of our tents and packed up, with day hikers already marching up the hill.  The climb up Overlook Mountain was well graded and easily traveled.  Near the summit of the mountain are the ruins over Overlook Mountain House, an old hotel built 3 times, in 1833, 1875, (both times the structure burned down) and again in 1923.  The final attempt, the building was never completed due to financial difficulties. 

I cannot put into words, or pictures, how absolutely amazing it was to see these ruins.  The size of the buildings (there were 2), and the details, even though most of the building was either gone, or never built, were unbelievable.  The house was intended to be a hotel for tourism, for people to arrive to from cities and spend time in nature, which really excites me, especially with all the research I did for my thesis on the whole nature-human experience.

 Nature has completely overtaken these ruins, which astounds me.  Nature always finds a way to thrive.

This is a view of the other structure, smaller, I suspect was the caretaker's and/or workers' house.  The inside was empty, and filled with plants, flowers, trees.  You couldn't really walk into this structure like you could the main lodge.

Crumbly staircase inside main building.  The main part of the hotel that you walk into has a huge fireplace, and these stair are to the right, taking you downstairs.  Stairs to the right of the fireplace took you to what would be the second floor, and to another entrance to the building.

Just past the ruins is the summit of the 3,140 foot mountain.  Atop the summit is a very popular fire tower on the west side, and a small cliff overlook on the west side.  There is also a small building with information about the history of the Overlook Mountain House, as well as the snakes in the area!  Overlook mountain is a protected habitat for Timber Rattlesnakes, but we were lucky and didn't see any snakes.  

About 2ish miles past the fire tower is Echo Lake.  The hike to the trail junction to the lake is pretty mild, more the hiking I like, though, with rougher terrain than the old jeep path up to the fire tower.  Once you get to the trail junction, however, the sign says 0.6 miles to the lake, and I said it going down, and again the next morning going back up - that was NOT 0.6 miles, no way.  At any rate, the steep climb down to the Lake was filled with loose rocks, which can be annoying, but once you get to the bottom, the lake is beautiful.  It's small, with a trail all the way around the lake, littered with campsites.  We had 2 tents of course, and had brought a slackline, so we needed a larger site with 2 large trees about 20 feet apart, which we found easier than I expected.  Slackline set up, tents set up, as much filtered water as we could store, and we were ready for a relaxing evening.

The evening was filled with slacklining, eating a fabulous feast of fajitas, tortellini, salmon pasta, and brownies, more wine and Washington Apples, and since I'd brought my mp3 player and mini speakers, our evening was also filled with lots of good music.  We slept under the stars that night with no rainfly on our tent, and in the morning had another amazing feast of scrambled eggs with bacon, scallions, tomatoes, potatoes, and cheese mixed in.

We ended our weekend with the traditional beer and truffle frites at the Dutch Ale House in Saugerties, NY, which I highly recommend to anyone in the area.  I also would absolutely recommend this trip to anyone looking for a nice, low key backpacking route.  I think I will probably go back again sometime :)

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More photos on my flickr page www.flickr.com/photos/theashface

Devil's Path

Devils Path
Where: Catskill Park, NY
# Days: 3
Mileage: 17ish
Mountains Bagged: Big Indian Mtn, Twin Mtn, Sugarload Mtn, Plateau Mtn, Hunter Mtn


Yay! Another trip in the Catskills. The more I go there, the more I love them. The mountains aren't necessarily tall, most of these are between 3500 and 4000 feet, but the terrain is challenging, and each trip has proven to be difficult and demanding, and I leave loving the mountains even more. This trip was no exception :)

This trip was taken with my good friend Tania. We set out on a very ambitious trip, which may have been our first mistake. We got up and over Big Indian Mountain, and because we had gotten started much later than planned, we camped between Big Indian and Twin. Nice campsite, nothing spectacular, but when the sun came up over Big Indian the next morning, it was quite beautiful. Unfortunately, getting going over Twin, Tania stopped me not too far up. She wasn't feeling too well, and after a long break and staring at the map and talking about our options, we agreed she would downhike a side trail back to the car, drive to a road crossing in about 6 miles, and meet me at the shelter 2 miles up from the road. Only one problem - we forgot to factor in the sun sets at 5pm now due to daylight savings, and wasn't so respectful of just how hard the terrain would be for me to hike the 9 miles to the shelter to meet up with her.

Going up and over Twin the rest of the way wasn't so terrible. Heading up Sugarloaf, however, I started to feel I was getting tired already. Thankfully, at the base of Sugarloaf, right before hiking up, I had met a mother and her son, and hiked up and over with them. They were great conversation, and made the climb a lot more enjoyable. Turns out, the son actually spent last summer working on Wildlife Management at the flight line at Eielson AFB in Alaska, so we had lots to talk about! Small world :)

When I started up Plateau Mtn, I quickly realized that this would not only be the hardest hike of the trip, but also that there was no way I was going to make it to the shelter before it got dark. At first, I was just going to pitch my tent when it got dark. But then I started feeling bad about Tania staying in the shelter alone, without a hot meal, and decided "what the heck, I love night hiking, I'll just night hike to the shelter!" The night hike was quite enjoyable, some of it I was able to do without a headlamp because the moon was so bright. There were field mice all around me squeaking away which made me smile, and I saw the most amazing sunset view over the valley. Well, around 8pm, I finally arrived at the shelter, exhausted and hungry.

The next morning, we hiked a nice easy hike up to Hunter, got a great view from the fire tower, enjoyed a tasty lunch, and headed back to my car. What a trip! I sit here tired, sore, exhausted, but still excited for whatever my next trip will be, just like always :)

Unfortunately, because Tania took the camera with her when she left me, I don't have any photos of my solo hike. We did get some photos though from before she left me and after we met back up, which I put up on my flickr:

www.flickr.com/photos/theashface

Hope you enjoy! Planning a winter trip hopefully in February, so stay tuned!!

Cranberry Lake

Cranberry Lake 50 Mile Loop
Where: Adirondack State Park, New York
# Days: 4
Mileage: 50 miles

Cranberry Lake is the third largest lake in the Adirondacks. Only a few years ago, some trails were connected and created to form a 50 mile loop around the lake. Matt and I had our eye on this trail for a few months, and we finally got the opportunity to do it this past weekend. The trail has mild elevation changes, goes past several smaller lakes and ponds, and on the whole is quite enjoyable. We had perfect weather except for some rain the last day, and camped in some beautiful campsites along the lake. And yet, those were 4 of the worst days spent on the trail I have experienced to date.

Why? Two words: deer flies. I cannot express enough how awful the deer flies were the entire 4 days we were hiking. We constantly had 10-20 flies swarming each of our heads, dive bombing us, landing on our shoulders, arms, hands, neck, and face and biting us. My skin crawls just remembering how many flies there were. It’s frustrating, because the flies were so bad, it was nearly impossible to enjoy how beautiful the trail and scenery were.

Despite the flies, however, I do look back at the trip and smile. That was the biggest trip I’ve taken since hiking the Appalachian Trail. We hiked big miles, and despite being a little sore, I’m quite happy with how my body held up. It also feels good to finish a big loop, my name is posted on the website as only the 303^rd person to do it, and I’ll get a patch as well. All in all, a good trip :)

UPDATE: here's a link to the Cranberry Lake trail for anyone interested in more information about the area: http://www.cranberrylake50.org/

Pictures on Flickr: www.flickr.com/photos/theashface

New Trip Updates

Well, several trips have occurred since my last update. Silly me :) Will do a quick update to the three trips worth mentioning.

Trip #1: Night Hike through Palmerton Superfund Site, November 2010

Location: Appalachian Trail

# Days: 2

Miles Hiked: 7ish

Okay short trip, but was awesome. Rocket and I began the hike around 10:00pm. The Superfund Site is a ridge in PA that has been heavily smelted for zinc. As a result, the entire hike is almost completely bare. The climb out of Palmerton is just rocks. A mile long rock scramble to the top of the ridge. After that, low grasses and shrubs can be found, and an occasional tree. It's quite barren, reminds me of something out of a grim Dr. Seuss book.

Rocket and I night hiked a few miles up the rocks and through the low grass, everything entirely lit up by the moon. We rarely turned out headlamps on. It was amazing! We set up our tent near a small grove of trees, and had a spectacular view of the city. Woke up, and hiked the remaining couple miles to the next road where we got picked up. That rock scramble is considered the rockiest section of the Appalachian Trail south of the White Mountains.

When we went through this section last summer, there were blueberry and raspberry bushes everywhere, so we are looking forward to going back this summer for some berry collecting :)

Trip #2: Catskill Mountain Cirque, February 2011

Location: Catskill Mountains

Mountains bagged: Blackhead Mtn, Blackdome Mtn, Thomas Cole Mtn, Windham High Peak

# Days: 3

Total Miles: 20ish

This hike also started as a night hike, taken with a group of people from work. Rocket was not with me on this trip, which is the first time in forever! :( This was probably the most difficult hiking I've ever done! Fresh snow had fallen before we arrived and began out hike around midnight. We snowshoed a mile in to the first shelter, set up camp (most of us tented), and set out the next morning breaking trail for most of the remainder of the trip.

Over the next two days, we climbed 4 mountains, 3 of them over 3500' (and are also among the top 5 highest peaks in the Catskills). The terrain was intense, steep, and icy. Could be considered non-technical mountaineering. Was absolutely amazing, the feeling of climbing those mountains, knowing all that hard work would get us to the top. As my first trip in the Catskills, I am definitely looking forward to another trip!

One thing I feel important to add is I was able to test out my new 0 degree Marmot Coloir bag, and I must say I love this bag. I am a cold sleeper, and have had problems in the past staying warm on cooler nights. Each night was in the teens, probably less, and each night I slept toasty warm. In fact, the last night I was warm, and slept in just my thermals. I would definitely recommend this bag to anyone thinking about getting it.

Trip #3: Appalachian Trail

Location: AT

# Days: 3

Miles Hiked: 25

This was intended to be a more relaxing trip on the AT for Rocket and I. Not a whole lot to say about this trip, we didn't climb any significant mountains, but it was nice to get out on the trail, carrying a few extra luxury items in our packs, not worry about hitting large miles, and could stop early, set up a nice camp, and just enjoy a relaxing evening in the woods.

The second day we had plans to go farther, but found an amazing campsite next to a beautiful babbling stream, and decided to stop for the evening. Both nights we enjoyed a wonderful fire, almost full moon, and a meal consisting of more than just ramen and instant potatoes :)

One thing we've learned is that we're both kind of addicted to backpacking, but in a thru-hiking setting. End to end hiking provides such a sense of accomplishment. Weekend backpacking is pleasant and can be very relaxing, but there's something special about walking the entire length of a trail, whatever that length may be. We look forward to more thru hiking, though our next hike or two will likely not be nearly as extreme as the AT.

Trip #4: Wittenburg, Cornell, Slide Trail
Location: Catskill Mountains
# Days: 2
Miles Hiked: 10.2

This was admittedly short for a 2 day trip, but we got a late start the first day and had plans to climb at least 2 more mountains, but due to poor weather, we cut the trip short. Rocket and I did an out and back trip, which isn't quite as fun as a loop, and we didn't have two cars to have it start and finish at two separate trail heads. All three of these mountains are over 3500'. Rocket and I are working towards being a part of the 3500 Club, meaning we climb all 35 peaks in the Catskill Mountains that are over 3500'. Since I took the winter trip, I have a few more climbs than Rocket, so he has some catching up to do :)

Not too much to say about this trip. We were hoping to hit a couple mountains via bushwhacking (walking through the woods without a trail, using a map and compass to guide you) and herd paths (an inconsistent unmarked trail), but we decided given the weather and whatnot to ditch that plan. There are a handful of the mountains over 3500' in the Catskills that are trail-less summits, and I am excited to tackle those soon.

Neither Matt nor I have a camera, so what photos we have from the last 3 trips we have taken since the Appalachian Trail we had to rely on our phones to take. Hoping to get a camera soon so I'll have more to share!

Photos from the hikes up on my flickr

www.flickr.com/photos/theashface

I'll keep you updated better on trips I do in the future!

My life after life

I thought I would give an update to everything that has come to be since the trail.

Life after the trail is...interesting. You get off the trail on this amazing life high. Life on the trail for 4 months, in my case, was simple, challenging, and amazing. Everything life demanded of me was on my back. I looked out for me, and didn't have to worry about other people's ignorance and idiocracy stopping me from accomplishing and doing everything I wanted. I said it before, I'll say it again - my hike was grueling and exhausting, often painful, frustrating, at times monotanous, and the most amazing experience I have ever encountered. Every single day I think about when I will be able to go back and finish, and I wait with eager anticipation.

Now I have been off the trail for almost 3 months. Less time that I spent on the trail. And it's mildly numbing. My life experiences more variety than it ever did on the trail. I now have more human contact in a day than I had in a week out there. I have access to luxuries on a daily basis. To the "normal" person, my life should be better and easier.

While my life is more convenient, it's rough. Finding a job to pay for all the things that come with living in a permanent home has been exceptionally difficult. I seriously toyed with the idea of giving up my apartment and living out of my car/tent. I eventually decided that finding a roommate was a more acceptable solution, and while I am extremely happy with my new apartment, I still dream about how life presented itself on the trail, and I struggle to find a way to adapt that mentality to my day to day off trail living.

Part of what is so wonderful about trail life is the adventure that every day held. Also, each day held a uniqueness. Every day was special, and I can literally remember nearly ever single shelter/tentsite I stayed in every night for 4 months, and I can remember snippets of nearly every single day I hiked for 4 months - animals I saw in what state, what the trail was like, mountains I hiked, weather, and so on and so forth. Interestingly, I can hardly remember what happened a week ago, and can barely tell you what I did yesterday. Yet each day on the trail stands alone as a vivid and special memory. What a way to experience life!

I've been fortunate that my boyfriend, Matt, or Rocket as you know him through this blog, has helped generate adventure off the trail. We have found lots of smaller free adventures to experience, and that has helped so much with the overall transition. I'm so lucky to have someone in my life who loves life like I do, who seeks out new experiences like I try to, and who is constantly in search of something exciting to challenge himself with.

I'm adjusting. I'm loving my "new" life. Slowly my life is unfolding and molding into something that is amazing and makes me excited and proud. So stay tuned :) There is certainly more to come!

Last Post

Final pictures up: www.flickr.com/photos/theashface

Decided to do one last post, now that I am officially back in Philadelphia.

I finished my trip Saturday, 7 August on top of Mt. Washington. What an amazing end to my journey! HUGE thanks to my Aunt and Uncle who drove up to the top of Washington to pick me up. I spent a few days with my aunt and uncle and cousin, flew to Virginia to spend a couple days with my immediate family, and then drove back to Philadelphia.

Being back has been the most trying part of my journey, adjusting back to civilization. And most days I just think "I wish I were still in the woods." Life out there is simple and uncomlicated, and I believe that's how life is supposed to be. That's not to say I want to live the rest of my life in the middle of wilderness, surrounded by nothing but trees and animals, and live off the land. It just means that I'm in the middle of translating my life on the trail to my life off the trail.


So what did this adventure do for me? It has slowed me down, mellowed me out. It has given me back more patience than I knew I could have. It has caused me to realize that what we want, and what we need, are truly different, and has helped me to see the difference more clearly in my own life. I am in a process of paring down my life to surround myself with what makes me truly happy. The rest is just clutter, and I'm removing it from my life, bit by bit.

All in all, this summer was one of the most important things I've ever done for myself, and could not have been more perfectly timed in my life. It has opened up a whole world of possibility. I can truly do anything if I just put my mind to it. I plan to finish the trail as soon as I'm able, and look forward to more adventures on the horizon. Big thanks again to my family and friends that supported me.