Halia and Flammeus
06-20-2010, 09:30 PM
leading a hike for the 3500 club, that is. My inaugural effort at leading went rather smashingly well today despite the wicked humidity and heat early on.
I led a group of 8 (plus an amazing shih tzu that has a fabulous attitude!) up from Kanape Brook PA. Lovely folks, some of whom post here and I hope will chime in and add their photos. I shot very few - I was more focused on "leading."
Our group made excellent time up to the summit - approx 2.5 hours. We chilled (hardly - it was about 107 degrees on that rock with 90% humidity), ate lunch and then visited the blueberry meadow. The group seemed well pleased with the excellent view of the Burroughs Range and bushwack peaks.
Back to the summit and Ixy helped out with leading down to "Little Ashokan" - the view spot about 300 feet down to the east. I'd never been and holy cow - it was the highlight for me. Laurels were in full bloom, and there are TONS of them. There is a moment where you push through very thick brush above you to emerge into the open clearing and it is just amazing. I was pretty blown away.
Getting back up to the summit was nowhere near as bad as I thought it would be.
No snakes, no real blueberries to speak of, no injuries, no heatstroke... I did discover that my main leadership qualities included "mother hen behavior" and telling Flammeus what to do. Hey - guess I'm a natural at this!
just a few photos here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/30705651@N02/sets/72157624195705243/
I led a group of 8 (plus an amazing shih tzu that has a fabulous attitude!) up from Kanape Brook PA. Lovely folks, some of whom post here and I hope will chime in and add their photos. I shot very few - I was more focused on "leading."
Our group made excellent time up to the summit - approx 2.5 hours. We chilled (hardly - it was about 107 degrees on that rock with 90% humidity), ate lunch and then visited the blueberry meadow. The group seemed well pleased with the excellent view of the Burroughs Range and bushwack peaks.
Back to the summit and Ixy helped out with leading down to "Little Ashokan" - the view spot about 300 feet down to the east. I'd never been and holy cow - it was the highlight for me. Laurels were in full bloom, and there are TONS of them. There is a moment where you push through very thick brush above you to emerge into the open clearing and it is just amazing. I was pretty blown away.
Getting back up to the summit was nowhere near as bad as I thought it would be.
No snakes, no real blueberries to speak of, no injuries, no heatstroke... I did discover that my main leadership qualities included "mother hen behavior" and telling Flammeus what to do. Hey - guess I'm a natural at this!
just a few photos here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/30705651@N02/sets/72157624195705243/