Jonatha, Steven, John & I decided to head to the north country on Sunday, for a traverse along a section of the lovely Kilkenny Ridge. The only rain experienced over the course of the day was on the drive up through Jefferson.
We ascended the Starr King trail, which was found to be in very good condition, despite the heavy rains of this past week. Our first encounter with fellow hikers was with a handsome Black Lab. He greeted us with usual tail thrashing & full body wiggles, which sent 3 of us head-long into stories about our beloved BRUTUS !
Next, we bumped into Dorothy & Jeff, who were loaded up with Yellow Paint. They were on a mission to add a fresh coat to the existing blazes, from Starr King across the Kilkenny, to a point where they had previously blazed, approaching from the other direction. If you have hiked up to Waumbek, and beyond in Winter, you should be really pleased to learn this, as it will definately aid us in following the trail once it is covered in snow.
Up on Starr King, there was another group of 4 hikers who were sharing their lunch with the Grey Jays. They all are working on their NH 4's list, though this was a repeat summit for a couple of them.
We would meet up with them again at the summit cairn, where I admired the custom knee brace one of them was wearing. He and I shared our priase for Drs Moran & O'Conner, and the staff at Concord Orthopedics, as we owe our continued hiking enjoyment to their skills.
Once we left the summit of Waumbek, we didn't encounter another hiker until we were beyond South Weeks. The surrounding forest is so beautiful, open woods, carpets of Moss & Ferns. Though the light of the day was veiled grey, the contrasting colors lit up the terrain. It is really beautiful along the ridge trail. And then, between South & Middle Weeks, we found SkiMom ~ her eyes sparkle, just like in her Avatar photos, and she relived her recent big mountain climb for us. Sounded wonderful.
Over on North Weeks, after we collected the 3 discarded t-shirts....., in a spare plastic bag, which Steven offered to carry out, we descended to the junction with the York Pond trail. The west segment is a very lightly used trail by hikers, but the "locals" presence was noted numerous times. There are quite a few old woods roads that cross this part of the trail, and with the very evident, intersecting social trails, and encroaching treadway growth, if can be hard to follow at times. The trail is wet most of the way, but the mud just seemed to add to our fun day. We weren't really that grubby when we returned to our spotted vehicle, so no one was forced to ride on the roof back to the Starr King trailhead.
We ascended the Starr King trail, which was found to be in very good condition, despite the heavy rains of this past week. Our first encounter with fellow hikers was with a handsome Black Lab. He greeted us with usual tail thrashing & full body wiggles, which sent 3 of us head-long into stories about our beloved BRUTUS !
Next, we bumped into Dorothy & Jeff, who were loaded up with Yellow Paint. They were on a mission to add a fresh coat to the existing blazes, from Starr King across the Kilkenny, to a point where they had previously blazed, approaching from the other direction. If you have hiked up to Waumbek, and beyond in Winter, you should be really pleased to learn this, as it will definately aid us in following the trail once it is covered in snow.
Up on Starr King, there was another group of 4 hikers who were sharing their lunch with the Grey Jays. They all are working on their NH 4's list, though this was a repeat summit for a couple of them.
We would meet up with them again at the summit cairn, where I admired the custom knee brace one of them was wearing. He and I shared our priase for Drs Moran & O'Conner, and the staff at Concord Orthopedics, as we owe our continued hiking enjoyment to their skills.
Once we left the summit of Waumbek, we didn't encounter another hiker until we were beyond South Weeks. The surrounding forest is so beautiful, open woods, carpets of Moss & Ferns. Though the light of the day was veiled grey, the contrasting colors lit up the terrain. It is really beautiful along the ridge trail. And then, between South & Middle Weeks, we found SkiMom ~ her eyes sparkle, just like in her Avatar photos, and she relived her recent big mountain climb for us. Sounded wonderful.
Over on North Weeks, after we collected the 3 discarded t-shirts....., in a spare plastic bag, which Steven offered to carry out, we descended to the junction with the York Pond trail. The west segment is a very lightly used trail by hikers, but the "locals" presence was noted numerous times. There are quite a few old woods roads that cross this part of the trail, and with the very evident, intersecting social trails, and encroaching treadway growth, if can be hard to follow at times. The trail is wet most of the way, but the mud just seemed to add to our fun day. We weren't really that grubby when we returned to our spotted vehicle, so no one was forced to ride on the roof back to the Starr King trailhead.
