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I was sick a good deal of June with
pancreatitis, so this was my first trip of the year to do trail
maintenance on the Mt Clinton Trail. Over the winter, I had bought more
of my own equipment including an axe, a new bow saw (I lost my other one
last year), a hat hard, and a pair of loppers. I bought extra long
loppers because bending over all the time to cut off growth at ground
level is hard on my back. All of these tools came to a fairly hefty
weight, so I was planning to store them in the basement at Mizpah
Springs Hut for the season. That way, I wouldn't have to lug them up the
Crawford Path from the Highland Center each trip.
I had made reservations to stay at Mizpah
Springs Hut for the night, so I hiked up the Crawford Path
in the morning, deposited my sleeping bag and extra clothes in my bunk, and headed out
right away to work
on my trail. It was the beginning of the Fourth of July weekend, and the
hut croo expected several busy nights during the coming week.
There were only a few blowdowns, which I
managed to easily remove using only my bow saw, so I never got to try
out the axe. But I was dismayed to find how much had grown back after
last year’s extensive brushing. With all of the cutting I had to do, I
only managed to get down to about 4200 ft. I had really hoped to not
have to begin brushing until I got about halfway down the trail. But
such are the fortunes of a trail maintainer. They wouldn't need me if
nothing ever grew back.
When it started getting late, I
packed up my tools and headed back to the hut, arriving around
5:00 PM to a very full house. I was tired, my pants were thoroughly
soaked and muddy, and the bottoms of the pant legs were ripped to
shreds. Luckily, they were zip-off pant legs, so after I got home again,
I just threw away the torn legs and kept the top half as shorts. After
changing into dry clothes and cleaning up a bit, I relaxed in my bunk
until supper.
As usual, dinner was good and the croo was
welcoming. There were a number of small groups staying at the hut that
night, including a troop of Boy Scouts from New Jersey who were in the
middle of a multi-day Galehead-to-Madison Hut traverse. After supper, I read for a short time and then quickly
fell asleep.
After breakfast the next morning, I was
anxious to get home as we were planning on going to see the fireworks
that night if the weather was good. I refilled my water bottles and
headed up the Webster Cliff Trail, for as usual, I was taking the long
way back over Mt Pierce and down the Crawford Path.
On top of Mt Pierce, the weather was nice and
sunny, but the views were a bit hazy. Mt Eisenhower stood out clearly
enough, but Washington shimmered in the distant haze and my pictures
weren't as good as I would have liked them to be. I did manage to take a
few decent pictures of wildflowers though. It was past peak blooming
time, but there were still a number of blossoms, including bunchberries,
Labrador tea, and three-toothed cinquefoil, that made for nice
photographs.
Back at the Highland Center, as I was coming
down the final steps to the parking lot and my car, I also took a nice
shot of the lupines that proliferate on the hillsides in June and July. |
