With only a few
High
Peaks left to conquer,
and Summer winding down, Rich and Jack decided to take advantage of a clear,
cool August weekend to make some more progress on the list.
Since Jack was facing a long run as part of
cross country practice the next day, we decided on the shortest of the
remaining hikes for this trip.
It is
amazing that we now consider a 14+ mile hike to be a “short” trip.
We were a little later than planned in arriving at the Upper
Works trail head at 8:30 AM, and slid into the last legitimate parking spot in
that lot. The sky was completely clear
and the car’s thermostat registered 49 degrees when we started. The route was familiar, as we had traversed
the Calamity Brook trail a little over a month ago. The familiarity and dry conditions made for
fast travels, allowing us to complete the 4.5 mile trip to the Flowed Lands in
well under 2 hours. The trails were
significantly more crowded than recent hikes, with lots of large groups travelling
in both directions. At the Flowed Lands
trail register we met a pair of experienced 46ers that were leading a group of
novice young girls up Mount
Colden.
The cairn that marks the start of the herd path on Marshall was easily
found, and after a brief snack at that juncture we started up the path. The early going was through a beautiful dense
forest along the Marshall Brook, but as soon as we gained elevation it allowed
us to quickly climb the slide that encompasses much of the path that the brook
follows. Clouds were starting to build
as we made progress up the path, but we never felt like there was any threat of
rain.
At just under 4000’ elevation, we encountered a trio
descending that was moving carefully.
In
conversation, we learned that they were from
Virginia Beach.
This was interesting in that our family just
returned from a vacation there, and it allowed us to trade stories with the
group.
As they left us, they told us
that they had just left the summit 45 minutes prior, and we were close.
Fifteen minutes later we passed another pair,
and quickly arrived on the summit just before Noon.
We had a good laugh at how slow the first
group must be moving (or how bad they are at judging time).
There were no great views, but it was nice to
see that a new sign marking the summit has been added since Rich visited the
previous October.
We spent about 25 minutes on top, ate our lunch, called Mom,
and had a nice conversation with the couple from
Burlington that we passed right before the
summit.
They told us how they had done a
bunch of hiking when they were younger, but can’t remember which peaks they
climbed, so they are starting over in attempting all 46
High Peaks.
Just as we were leaving the summit, the pack
of young girls that we met at the register arrived.
They informed us that they decided Colden was
more aggressive a trip than they planned, and after talking to us decided to
divert to
Marshall.
We did get some good southerly and easterly
views from an outcropping just south of the summit, and a nice view of Iroquois
on the way down.
The descent went fast and smooth; predictably, we caught up
to the
Virginia Beach
group, even with a long lunch on top.
The hike back to the Upper Works was pleasant, but uneventful.
It was nice to be able to be back on our way
home before 4:00 PM, enabling us to be home in time for dinner with the family.
The total hike was about 14.4 miles in a quick 7:10. Forty-three High Peaks down; 3 to go.
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