halia and flammeus
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- Joined
- Dec 15, 2007
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Flammeus is German, and our teenagers are studying German at school, so sometimes things get kind of overboard for me (the only non-German speaker in the group). That’s when I start channeling Helga, my wacko alter-ego whose German is all gleaned from Hogan’s Heroes reruns.
Anyway – we parked at German Hollow, and headed up to the Dry Brook Ridge. Just a short one today, we thought, since we were kind of tired, and (as usual) got a late start. We got today’s late start due to Flammeus forgetting his boots. How the Helga do you forget your boots when you’re going HIKING??? I don’t know, but he did. We had to turn around in West Shokan and head back for them
We found the trail head no problem – park across the street from the blue house, by the cones. We strapped snowshoes onto our packs, just in case, and started off. There was no snow at the trailhead, but plenty of water. I had already fallen once by the time we signed in at the register.
The trail to the lean to is sparsely blazed, and traverses a lovely hemlock grove. At the lean to, we completely lost the trail and wandered around stupidly for a few minutes. Flammeus found it and up we went. I’d guess about 10-15 trees down in the trail from just below the lean to and for maybe .25 mile beyond. The snow wasn’t deep (2”) at that point and we were still bare booting. Turkey tracks, and tons of deer tracks.
That trail gets steep. The snow got deeper – quite variable, depending upon shade and slope. We huffed and puffed up, until, just shy of the Dry Brook Trail, it suddenly dawned on me that things might get easier if Flammeus broke trail! How the Helga did I manage to be oblivious to that?
Just past the trail junction, we stopped for a snack and took a few pix. Onward and upward… until ??? the trail heads down? I know someone (Tom R.? Laurie?) will know why the trail takes a seemingly pointless and annoying
dip to the east, to side-hill for a while before heading back up to the ridge. That was not fun. We put our snowshoes on – at this point, the snow was consistently at least 4” deep.
The book I read said that it was about 2 miles from the trail junction (German Hollow and Dry Brook) to the highpoint and the views. At the junction with the huckleberry loop trail, the DEC sign said we’d come 1.4 miles so far. Cool, we thought, only a half a mile to go.
That was the longest expletive half mile I ever trudged. Probably because it was more like 1.75 miles. The distances got so confused… how the Helga did I get such contradicting information – all I did was read maps, books, and DEC signs? Were trails rerouted back in the ‘90’s? My book is ancient
The views were worth it. It was lovely up there on the ledge, and so quiet. You don’t get the sense of deep wilderness – there is a road pretty close and houses are visible, but it is still spectacular and serene.
On the trail at 10 a.m., at the “summit” and 1 p.m. and back at the car by 3:45 p.m. One Helga of a nice day
Anyway – we parked at German Hollow, and headed up to the Dry Brook Ridge. Just a short one today, we thought, since we were kind of tired, and (as usual) got a late start. We got today’s late start due to Flammeus forgetting his boots. How the Helga do you forget your boots when you’re going HIKING??? I don’t know, but he did. We had to turn around in West Shokan and head back for them
We found the trail head no problem – park across the street from the blue house, by the cones. We strapped snowshoes onto our packs, just in case, and started off. There was no snow at the trailhead, but plenty of water. I had already fallen once by the time we signed in at the register.
The trail to the lean to is sparsely blazed, and traverses a lovely hemlock grove. At the lean to, we completely lost the trail and wandered around stupidly for a few minutes. Flammeus found it and up we went. I’d guess about 10-15 trees down in the trail from just below the lean to and for maybe .25 mile beyond. The snow wasn’t deep (2”) at that point and we were still bare booting. Turkey tracks, and tons of deer tracks.
That trail gets steep. The snow got deeper – quite variable, depending upon shade and slope. We huffed and puffed up, until, just shy of the Dry Brook Trail, it suddenly dawned on me that things might get easier if Flammeus broke trail! How the Helga did I manage to be oblivious to that?
Just past the trail junction, we stopped for a snack and took a few pix. Onward and upward… until ??? the trail heads down? I know someone (Tom R.? Laurie?) will know why the trail takes a seemingly pointless and annoying
dip to the east, to side-hill for a while before heading back up to the ridge. That was not fun. We put our snowshoes on – at this point, the snow was consistently at least 4” deep.The book I read said that it was about 2 miles from the trail junction (German Hollow and Dry Brook) to the highpoint and the views. At the junction with the huckleberry loop trail, the DEC sign said we’d come 1.4 miles so far. Cool, we thought, only a half a mile to go.
That was the longest expletive half mile I ever trudged. Probably because it was more like 1.75 miles. The distances got so confused… how the Helga did I get such contradicting information – all I did was read maps, books, and DEC signs? Were trails rerouted back in the ‘90’s? My book is ancient
The views were worth it. It was lovely up there on the ledge, and so quiet. You don’t get the sense of deep wilderness – there is a road pretty close and houses are visible, but it is still spectacular and serene.
On the trail at 10 a.m., at the “summit” and 1 p.m. and back at the car by 3:45 p.m. One Helga of a nice day
