J.Dub
Active member
I'm cursed with bony hips.
That, combined with the fact that I sleep on my side, made for an uncomfortable night with not too much sleep, as I listened to the rain dripping onto the tent fly at the base of Chapel Slab. I had left my 3/4-length Thermarest ProLite self-inflating pad at home, opting to bring two closed-cell foam pads instead. (Won't make that mistake again!) Every 15-20 minutes I wake up sore on one side and had to flip over.
Paul, on the other hand, was sleeping like a baby.
The plan: trail run Mt. Colvin and Blake Peak in the morning and drive back to CT that afternoon. We had both completed the Ridgefield Half Marathon the previous weekend, and were feeling a bit cheeky about our fitness. This trip, and these peaks, had been on our calendars for several months, but, after the half marathon, Paul came up with the brilliant idea of doing it as a trail run rather than a hike. He even bought a new Camelbak running pack for the occasion, so who was I to rain on his parade?
Well, ol' Ma Nature must've missed the memo, because she rained on both of us all through Friday night and into Saturday morning (despite weather.com telling us that Saturday morning was going to be clear). We decided to wait a couple hours to see if things cleared up before making the go/no-go/alternate plan decision, so we grabbed some eggs at the Noonmark Diner and picked up a couple bits and bobs at The Mountaineer. By late morning, the rain was down to a light drizzle and the skies were brightening, so we decided to push on with our plans, even though I was decidedly lukewarm about the day at this point.
The Roaring Brook and St. Huberts lots were both full (this being Columbus Day weekend and all) so we parked on the shoulder of Rt. 73, shelled-up, and took off up the hill towards the Ausable Club. Pausing briefly to sign in a the register, we continued trucking up Lake Road. Well, Paul did, anyway. My pace was getting slower by the mile and I wasn't feeling all that hot. Might've been I hadn't completely digested breakfast, but for whatever reason, I was dogging it most of the way to the Bypass Trail. Once on the trail, I started feeling better, and by the time we hit the junction with the Gill Brook Trail, I was feeling my old self again.
Continuing up the Gill Brook Trail, the angle gets steeper, and we were doing more scrambling/picking our way through roots/rocks than actual running. At one point Paul asked, "Are we doing a slow run or a fast hike?" to which I truthfully answered, "Yes!" After climbing up a rather steep set of rocky steps, we found ourselves on the summit of Mt. Colvin, three-and-a-half hours after starting out. The clouds were breaking up at this point, yielding views of Lower Ausable Lake and the back side of the Great Range all decked out it its autumn colors. It was probably mid-to-upper 30's but with the wind blowing fairly hard, Paul was getting cold, so we finished up our summit pics and continued on.
The ridge trail along the top of Colvin was wonderful to run -- flat and loamy without very many roots and rocks. That began to change once we started the descent down the back side of Colvin toward the col with Blake. Slowing down considerably to pick our way down the rocky trail, I started thinking about how much it was gonna suck to have to go back UP this section of trail to get back up and over Colvin on the way back! I got a taste of the suck on the last half-mile of the trail up to the summit of Blake Peak, as I found that section steep as well.
Blake offers nothing view-wise, so we quickly inhaled a couple e-Gels and some water, along with a couple prophylatic Advils, as we were starting to get a little sore. We took our summit pics, a task made a bit more complicated by Paul's digicam deciding to crap the bed. He was about ready to chuck the thing into Ausable Lake when he had the good sense to try a set of new batteries.
And now he doesn't need to replace his camera!
The decent back to the col went quickly as did the re-ascent to Colvin. I realized when gellin' on Blake that I hadn't really been eating enough (probably due to my lingering affects from breakfast), so I made concerted effort to take a bite of Clif bar and couple sips of water every fifteen minutes or so. This worked out wonderfully, as my energy level was much better, though now at this point the legs were starting to ache. The most fun part of getting back up to Colvin was the "hand-jam crack" -- 20' or so of fun climbing. Paul scampered on ahead on the ridge trail and waited for me at the Colvin summit, at which point I took the lead on the descent.
We descended from Colvin "with all deliberate speed" -- moving quickly when conditions allowed, but not pushing so hard as to be unsafe. Upon reaching Lake Road, I waited for Paul, who -- after bounding out of the woods like a spooked deer -- proclaimed, "Awesome! Now we just need to run a 5K..." Just what I wanted to hear after 10+ miles and 7,000' of elevation change! Rather than complaining, I simply drafted in behind him as we jogged down the road the remaining three miles, thankful for the gentle downhill angle toward the Ausable Club. Along the way, we passed several parties whom we had seen earlier on the trail. Most of them gave us a thumbs-up or other encouragement, though I'm pretty sure at least one couple thought we were nuts. (They were probably right... )
At this point, I was pretty whipped, and took the opportunity to slow down to a walk while Paul signed us out at the ranger station. Catching up to me at the Ausable Club golf course, he matched my walking pace, and we started discussing our dinner options. After a day full of e-Gels, Shot Bloks and Clif Bars, steak was sounding pretty good to both of us! Talk of food spurring me on, much to my surprise -- and much to the chagrin of my protesting calves, quads and glutes -- I picked up the pace and started running the last half-mile down hill to the parking lot. "Gotta finish strong!" I kept muttering to myself...
Total car-to-car time was 6:30; we could have easily knocked this down to sub-six hours with shorter summit breaks and less time stopping for pix, but we weren't competing with anybody except ourselves. Happy to be done, we took a post-run pic and quickly changed into a blissfully clean and dry set of clothes for the ride home, stopping for dinner off the Thruway.
Key piece of gear: mechanic's gloves. One of my other hiking partners used them on last year's fall hike and I made a mental note to try them. With leather palms and elastic mesh back panels, they worked much better than the polypro glove liners I was wearing on ADK hikes previously, as they gripped better and provided more palm/finger insulation, while still letting the backs of my hands dry out fairly well.
Full photo album.
That, combined with the fact that I sleep on my side, made for an uncomfortable night with not too much sleep, as I listened to the rain dripping onto the tent fly at the base of Chapel Slab. I had left my 3/4-length Thermarest ProLite self-inflating pad at home, opting to bring two closed-cell foam pads instead. (Won't make that mistake again!) Every 15-20 minutes I wake up sore on one side and had to flip over.
Paul, on the other hand, was sleeping like a baby.
The plan: trail run Mt. Colvin and Blake Peak in the morning and drive back to CT that afternoon. We had both completed the Ridgefield Half Marathon the previous weekend, and were feeling a bit cheeky about our fitness. This trip, and these peaks, had been on our calendars for several months, but, after the half marathon, Paul came up with the brilliant idea of doing it as a trail run rather than a hike. He even bought a new Camelbak running pack for the occasion, so who was I to rain on his parade?
Well, ol' Ma Nature must've missed the memo, because she rained on both of us all through Friday night and into Saturday morning (despite weather.com telling us that Saturday morning was going to be clear). We decided to wait a couple hours to see if things cleared up before making the go/no-go/alternate plan decision, so we grabbed some eggs at the Noonmark Diner and picked up a couple bits and bobs at The Mountaineer. By late morning, the rain was down to a light drizzle and the skies were brightening, so we decided to push on with our plans, even though I was decidedly lukewarm about the day at this point.
The Roaring Brook and St. Huberts lots were both full (this being Columbus Day weekend and all) so we parked on the shoulder of Rt. 73, shelled-up, and took off up the hill towards the Ausable Club. Pausing briefly to sign in a the register, we continued trucking up Lake Road. Well, Paul did, anyway. My pace was getting slower by the mile and I wasn't feeling all that hot. Might've been I hadn't completely digested breakfast, but for whatever reason, I was dogging it most of the way to the Bypass Trail. Once on the trail, I started feeling better, and by the time we hit the junction with the Gill Brook Trail, I was feeling my old self again.
Continuing up the Gill Brook Trail, the angle gets steeper, and we were doing more scrambling/picking our way through roots/rocks than actual running. At one point Paul asked, "Are we doing a slow run or a fast hike?" to which I truthfully answered, "Yes!" After climbing up a rather steep set of rocky steps, we found ourselves on the summit of Mt. Colvin, three-and-a-half hours after starting out. The clouds were breaking up at this point, yielding views of Lower Ausable Lake and the back side of the Great Range all decked out it its autumn colors. It was probably mid-to-upper 30's but with the wind blowing fairly hard, Paul was getting cold, so we finished up our summit pics and continued on.
The ridge trail along the top of Colvin was wonderful to run -- flat and loamy without very many roots and rocks. That began to change once we started the descent down the back side of Colvin toward the col with Blake. Slowing down considerably to pick our way down the rocky trail, I started thinking about how much it was gonna suck to have to go back UP this section of trail to get back up and over Colvin on the way back! I got a taste of the suck on the last half-mile of the trail up to the summit of Blake Peak, as I found that section steep as well.
Blake offers nothing view-wise, so we quickly inhaled a couple e-Gels and some water, along with a couple prophylatic Advils, as we were starting to get a little sore. We took our summit pics, a task made a bit more complicated by Paul's digicam deciding to crap the bed. He was about ready to chuck the thing into Ausable Lake when he had the good sense to try a set of new batteries.
And now he doesn't need to replace his camera!
The decent back to the col went quickly as did the re-ascent to Colvin. I realized when gellin' on Blake that I hadn't really been eating enough (probably due to my lingering affects from breakfast), so I made concerted effort to take a bite of Clif bar and couple sips of water every fifteen minutes or so. This worked out wonderfully, as my energy level was much better, though now at this point the legs were starting to ache. The most fun part of getting back up to Colvin was the "hand-jam crack" -- 20' or so of fun climbing. Paul scampered on ahead on the ridge trail and waited for me at the Colvin summit, at which point I took the lead on the descent.
We descended from Colvin "with all deliberate speed" -- moving quickly when conditions allowed, but not pushing so hard as to be unsafe. Upon reaching Lake Road, I waited for Paul, who -- after bounding out of the woods like a spooked deer -- proclaimed, "Awesome! Now we just need to run a 5K..." Just what I wanted to hear after 10+ miles and 7,000' of elevation change!
Rather than complaining, I simply drafted in behind him as we jogged down the road the remaining three miles, thankful for the gentle downhill angle toward the Ausable Club. Along the way, we passed several parties whom we had seen earlier on the trail. Most of them gave us a thumbs-up or other encouragement, though I'm pretty sure at least one couple thought we were nuts. (They were probably right... )At this point, I was pretty whipped, and took the opportunity to slow down to a walk while Paul signed us out at the ranger station. Catching up to me at the Ausable Club golf course, he matched my walking pace, and we started discussing our dinner options. After a day full of e-Gels, Shot Bloks and Clif Bars, steak was sounding pretty good to both of us! Talk of food spurring me on, much to my surprise -- and much to the chagrin of my protesting calves, quads and glutes -- I picked up the pace and started running the last half-mile down hill to the parking lot. "Gotta finish strong!" I kept muttering to myself...
Total car-to-car time was 6:30; we could have easily knocked this down to sub-six hours with shorter summit breaks and less time stopping for pix, but we weren't competing with anybody except ourselves. Happy to be done, we took a post-run pic and quickly changed into a blissfully clean and dry set of clothes for the ride home, stopping for dinner off the Thruway.
Key piece of gear: mechanic's gloves. One of my other hiking partners used them on last year's fall hike and I made a mental note to try them. With leather palms and elastic mesh back panels, they worked much better than the polypro glove liners I was wearing on ADK hikes previously, as they gripped better and provided more palm/finger insulation, while still letting the backs of my hands dry out fairly well.
Full photo album.
