Ian, Nick and I headed off on our first hike where we'd be camping out in tents, on the trail. The plan was to climb Colvin and Blake on day 1, then Nippletop and Dial on day 2.
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We were able to take some of the load off our backs, but couldn't leave any food there, because of the bear. We also weren't sure we could find and purify water when we needed it, so I was carrying a lot of water. I was carrying more weight than usual and, now that we were really climbing up Colvin, I was having a hard time. Like at the Santanoni hike, I was stopping every couple of minutes to rest.
Finally, we got to the peak of Colvin. The hikes down Colvin and up Blake were steep, and we would have to come back the way we'd come, so I left my heavy pack on Colvin; that made the Blake hike a lot more doable.
The day was getting long, so we had to push on to get back to the campsite before dark. When we got there, we heard that the bear had been through the campsite just after we'd left and had shredded someone's tent. It wasn't too interested in the people, though, and the guy we saw said he'd been able to take a lot of pictures of it.
We made dinner (too much food!) and put all our remaining food in a bear bag; Ian shimmied up a skinny tree and hung the bag on a branch. We were a little disappointed in the morning that we didn't get to see the bear.
After breakfast, we packed up camp and headed off toward Nippletop, but decided to take the trail that led past the Indian Head overlook. Now we were carrying our tents, sleeping bags, extra water, etc. It was a short but steep hike up to Indian Head and before we'd even gotten there, I knew I wasn't going to be able to climb two more mountains that day. As a consolation, we spent a long time at Indian Head and the boys climbed up and down every inch of it.
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| You can see the "Indian Head" profile on the left. |
On the way back, we stopped to look at a beaver den and got to watch the beaver.
