Hiking Ramblings

This morning my buddy Frank and I decided to go on a little hike around the local nature reservation. We did this last October and it was great fun, but that time we took a path which was almost a direct line up to the top of the hill with steep elevation changes. (Hill makes it sound like an easy go, but it's far from nothing. I'm not saying it's a mountain-level, but still an incline... You know, writing this defense, I now see why "The Englishman Who Went Up A Hill, But Came Down A Mountain" was based on a true story. That's an important distinction.) This time we figured we would do a longer hike, but with less elevation. However, about a mile in and after some steep turns, I noticed a sign telling us we were at nearly 1700 ft. So much for less elevation. Anyway, here are a few other things I noticed along the way:

-There was a lot more snow left than I anticipated. I know that we were at an elevation, but we haven't gotten any fresh amounts of the white stuff in almost a month. I would have thought it would have been gone by now. I was expecting all the mud I stepped in, but the fact that some places had four inches of snow still hanging around was an unpleasant surprise. It was a good thing I wore my boots.

-A word of advice: if you are ever hiking the back-half of Blue Hills and come to a triple split in the trail, don't take the path that looks downhill. It's not. It goes downhill for a short while and then goes back uphill until you end up higher than you were before. It was completely the wrong turn and a terrible decision. Speaking of continually making the wrong turn...

-You could buy a trail map for $2 (or just take one, as it is on the honor code). Frank actually paid for one, but if you get the opportunity, you should skip it. This thing was very difficult to understand, because all the trails overlap and, for $2 (which they are obviously prepared to lose) they clearly didn't go into great detail. We started on the easy trail and yet somehow we ended up on the 'moderate to hard' trail. (I am not a 'moderate' hiker.) Even that trail was hard to keep track of. At one point I went to some higher ground to try and get a picture and that was the only way I ever would have figured out which way we were supposed to be going. If I hadn't we would still be walking around in circles.

-A mile or so in, I was starting to get winded and felt rather out of shape. This point was driven home shortly as a man came literally running past us. I'm dying, he's out for a leisurely stroll on the mountain. That guy sucks.

-Then, as if I couldn't have felt any worse, a woman brought her dogs up the trail with her. These dogs were having a grand old time jumping over all the rocks. But, it did remind me of something: people say dogs choose their owners. This drove home the point that there was a reason Harry was my dog. He never even wanted me to take him for a walk; I think he would have killed me if I dragged him up a mountainside.