Rocky & Lone 7/5/2010 - FatVegan's 35 Finish

[niceguyted]

Ok, so this is FatVegan, writing from niceguyted's profile, because his dashboard has the automatic good grammar/spelling/syntax setting, and mine doesn't.

Yesterday we hiked Rocky and Lone, #s 38 and 39 of 39 for me (I did the four winter peaks twice). The overall hike was 10 miles; we left from Denning Road and headed out along the fisherman's path. It was absolutely beautiful - probably one of my favorite hikes so far (with a close second being the last/summit section of the KHP herd path on the north side). Ted said it was "boring" and that he liked the section between the two summits more, but he's an idiot. Am I allowed to say that here? Whatever, he doesn't read my stuff anyway.

Ted's navigational skills were somewhat lacking, but luckily I actually have a sense of direction, so we kept a pretty straight line when I was out in front. We turned off the fisherman's path a little too soon, I think - our turn was probably more in line with the brook in the hollow between Rocky and Lone, rather than the one between Balsam Cap and Rocky. So we ended up hitting the saddle and making a left to get to the Rocky canister, Ted muttering incessantly about how things looked much different in the winter.

We hung out at the summit of Rocky for a bit and enjoyed the slight breeze that filtered through the pines. We then weighed our options vis-a-vis dropping below the pine line and 'whacking over to Lone, or going through the pines across the saddle. Given that there was plenty of undergrowth in the non-pine covered parts, we figured it was six of one, half dozen of the other. Ted said that he preferred the pines to the undergrowth, so we proceeded to make curlicues across the saddle on the way to the summit of Lone. I had to take the lead a couple of times to straighten out our line, brushing aside Ted's assurances that we were "on the herd path". My hat's off to the folks of last weekend's "six-pack" hike - these two were enough for us for a day!

We managed to get off Lone in the right direction to hit the Donovan Brook hollow, though we tracked more west than north, rather than making a beeline straight down the hill for the Neversink. We came out maybe a mile from where the fisherman's path intersects the Peek/Table trail.

My knee buckled just as we got out of the car, so most of the hike was pretty painful for me. I didn't mention this to Ted until about halfway up Rocky, just to tick him off (which got him back for joking about how he'd already done Rocky and Lone in July, so our hike would have to wait until August.

Anyway, Lone was a great place to finish my 39. My first summit was Wittenberg back in the fall of '07, but I didn't really start working on this list in earnest until 2008. I took most of '09 off and had about 10 mountains left to go when I picked back up this spring. I'm really glad to have found this forum as well - you all seem like such nice people. Previously, it was just Ted and me against the list, but now I feel like we're part of a community, which is a really warm and refreshing feeling. I hope to meet you out on the trail some day and look forward to seeing you at the 3500 Club dinner next March.

Ok, gotta run and fill out my tally sheet so I can send it to Dave...

[Zer0-G]

Congratulations....!!!!!!!!

Glad to have you in the community.

The Neversink is a great place to finish the list.

[billandjudy]

Great place to finish..Congrats and welcome to the club!

[Woolybear]

Congrats .
Ted what the hell you did these on your own and in the dark last winter what are you doing getting confused and being fuzzy on the nav .

[Snickers]

Congrats!! Looks like you saved the best for last, nice job.

Happy trails - Cindy

[hermit]

Congratulations!

[Halia and Flammeus]

Congrats again, Scott. Welcome indeed. Great trip report - a few good chuckles at Ted's expense. I think that might become a trend!

"Ted muttering incessantly about how different it looks in winter" - yep. know that one well. There was a fair amount of that on the might (sic) traverse. After I finished the 35, I realized I had only finished the first round. There will be many more rounds (although after this winter I may never do Halcott again...) and many more approaches (a few of them unintentional !) to these mountains. You don't really know them until you've seen them in all seasons.

As far as navigation goes, any landing you can walk away from... You got to the can and then back to the car. Superb. And every time you're out there you learn a little more about the finer points.

Welcome again - loved your trip report and looking forward to many more.

[daLunartik]

Congrats! You do realize, that all we're going to do is introduce you to more lists

[FatVegan]

Thanks everyone, hope to see you out there soon. I got more list to get craking on already and if I run out im sure we can make up some more.

[Maria]

Congrats and welcome to the club! It's a fun one to be in and there is always something new to explore....now you get to work on your winter round