My son and I have been watching the weather (and our busy schedules) to find a good couple of days to tackle the next mountain on our 46r quest - Haystack (#45). Things looked good for us both weather and schedule-wise on Friday/Saturday. Friday evening after I finished work we headed for the Garden. We arrived around 6PM and headed in with plans to stop at the first lean-to (Bear Brook) if it was empty. If not, we'd continue on to the second one (Deer Brook). As we were preparing to leave from the Garden a hiker was just making his way out. We asked if either of the first two lean-tos were taken. He reported that both were empty. So we planned on heading straight for Deer Brook.
Sure enough, the first one was empty and we continued on to the next one. We arrived to find a fair amount of gear there. Oh well, the other one is only 10 minutes back at best. So we headed back to Bear Brook to find another party that arrived just ahead of us with intent on using the lean-to. So we decided just to set up our tent nearby and stay there. Hopefully the rest of the trip will be well.
After a somewhat restless night, we were up at 4:30 and had a quick breakfast. We left our campsite a little after 5:00 and headed toward JBL. Just before arriving at JBL we saw two deer in the trail. They must have grown accustomed to people as they had no fear of us. I was able to take several pictures and finally walked by them only a few feet away. We made our way past JBL and said our hellos to some folks getting ready for their day. They didn't even grumble a response back.
We caught up with a nice group of 6 ladies at the Bushnell Falls crossing. We chatted a bit at the high-water bridge and found that some of their group was also heading for Haystack while others were going to Basin & Saddleback. After crossing the bridge we went by and made our way to Slant Rock where we saw another group of campers just getting up to start their day.
From Slant Rock up the trails were quite wet with lots of running water from all of the recent rain. We arrived at the junction to Marcy at the head of Panther Gorge and discussed the possibilitiy of heading over after Haystack but stuck with our plans to save it for later when friends/family could join us.
The scramble up and down Little Haystack was fun as we both enjoy open rock climbing. There was some mud in the col, but again not bad at all.
We finally arrived at the summit and spent a good half-hour there enjoying the view and some lunch with no one else. We could see several people over on Marcy and we chatted about being there soon to finish the 46.
As we made our way down, we ran into half of the group of ladies on Little Haystack. One needed some encouragement to continue on as she was a bit hesitant to head down into the steep col.
We retraced our path and made it back to the lean-to a little after 3 pm. It began to rain just as we finished packing up and we quickly made our way to the Garden despite being quite tired. The rain began in earnest just was we arrived at our vehicle.
45 down and 1 to go! Marcy soon!
Sure enough, the first one was empty and we continued on to the next one. We arrived to find a fair amount of gear there. Oh well, the other one is only 10 minutes back at best. So we headed back to Bear Brook to find another party that arrived just ahead of us with intent on using the lean-to. So we decided just to set up our tent nearby and stay there. Hopefully the rest of the trip will be well.
After a somewhat restless night, we were up at 4:30 and had a quick breakfast. We left our campsite a little after 5:00 and headed toward JBL. Just before arriving at JBL we saw two deer in the trail. They must have grown accustomed to people as they had no fear of us. I was able to take several pictures and finally walked by them only a few feet away. We made our way past JBL and said our hellos to some folks getting ready for their day. They didn't even grumble a response back.
We caught up with a nice group of 6 ladies at the Bushnell Falls crossing. We chatted a bit at the high-water bridge and found that some of their group was also heading for Haystack while others were going to Basin & Saddleback. After crossing the bridge we went by and made our way to Slant Rock where we saw another group of campers just getting up to start their day.
From Slant Rock up the trails were quite wet with lots of running water from all of the recent rain. We arrived at the junction to Marcy at the head of Panther Gorge and discussed the possibilitiy of heading over after Haystack but stuck with our plans to save it for later when friends/family could join us.
The scramble up and down Little Haystack was fun as we both enjoy open rock climbing. There was some mud in the col, but again not bad at all.
We finally arrived at the summit and spent a good half-hour there enjoying the view and some lunch with no one else. We could see several people over on Marcy and we chatted about being there soon to finish the 46.
As we made our way down, we ran into half of the group of ladies on Little Haystack. One needed some encouragement to continue on as she was a bit hesitant to head down into the steep col.
We retraced our path and made it back to the lean-to a little after 3 pm. It began to rain just as we finished packing up and we quickly made our way to the Garden despite being quite tired. The rain began in earnest just was we arrived at our vehicle.
45 down and 1 to go! Marcy soon!
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