Anthony's nose is smaller than it looks

*Rory, Patrick, Michelle, Gina, Orin

So, back to the mountain we go. Michelle, Orin and Patrick (who are now officially referred to as "hiking buddies") came along with me on this trip up. We met up with Philip, the man who started my little mini-hikining obsession, and one of Orin's many model friends, Gina.

Anyway, we parked on the western side of the Bear Mountain Bridge and the trail head was litterally, right there. This hike started off steeeep. Not even 20ft up trail head and it turned into a hand over hand scramble very quickly. The ascent wasn't the most difficult, but it was consistently steep and very rugged. After about 10 minutes of hiking, we hit the first landing and the view was simply one of the best I'd seen at such a low elevation.



Anyway, we reached the top in less than an hour. Someone anticlimactic given the "epic" nature of some of the other hikes of done this year, but still worthwhile. If I lived in the area, I would take this route again and try one of the different branches, but its just too short a trail for a two hour round-trip drive.

Breakneck (Not Brokeback) Ridge

So,
This hike takes place along Breakneck Ridge, which is just 10 miles North of the Bear Mountain Bridge along the East side of the Hudson river along route 9D.

Orin, Patrick, Leslie, Deepthi (sp?) and I started out around 11:30 in the morning. The trail starts out near a tunnel and is deceptively easy during the first few hundred feet or so. But, after about 10 minutes along the trail, "This is rock climbing, not hiking", sums it up. Needless to say, the next hour an a half up the side of the trail was pretty hard. We had to use our hands, grabbing onto trees and anything else we could find to help pull ourselves up to the next landing. Along the way, we ran into lots of other hikers. We shadowed one particular pair of hikers, a couple, for about a half hour before they tired of laughing at us simple city folk and sped off up the mountain.

Once we reached the top, the view was spectacular.

On the way down, we got a little bit mixed up. The first time I did this trail, I recall taking a bend off to the right. Orin, God bless his soul, recommended a trail that broke off to the left. With neither map, nor compass, we continued on not knowing where the hell we were going. Fortunately, other hikers (the ones with enough sense to bring a map) were kind enough to point us in the right direction

The hike down was fairly interesting, as we had a very interesting coversation about diversity with Deepthi. Deepthi, fresh out of India, gave us some insight into the India Equivalent of Affirmative Action, which has historical roots with British colonialism. Apparently, they are having similar debates concerning their programs as we are having here.

All in all, it was a great trip. We made it back to the city by around 5pm and most of us (at least I know I did) collapsed in bed the second we got home.

The first expedition 7/14/07

Popolopen Tourne Trail

We started out my first hike of the summer. Dan, Michelle, Orin and I hiked to the Bear mountain lodge at around 10am and made it up to the top of the mountain shortly after 1pm. We had a few stops and mishaps along the way. A few scrapes and bruises, torn pants, a dropped camera... but even those mishaps didn't take away from the natural beauty we all experienced while hiking the trail up the peak.

The hike started out on fairly level ground. Lots of thorny bushes along the way. It was hot, but if you have sensitive skin and cut easily, wear long pants because you will get cut. Also, theres LOTS of poison ivy up in them thar hills. Surprisingly, we didn't touch any, even after stepping through it a few times.

After about twenty minutes of a fairly easy hike, we hit upon a steep incline. It was one of two really steep inclines along the trail, not including the scramble to the peak of the mountain. Shortly after, we stopped at around noon to recharge by a river and found a huge boulder where the four of us could sit down and enjoy a good meal. Power bars, water, cereal and fruit... After two hours of hiking, everything tasted great.

After the brief rest, we trekked across the river and up the other side of the valley and essentially went right into the steepest portion of the ascent. When we finally made it to the top... ohh boy, the view was a sight to see.... actually, this was part of it. I'm still playing around with the panorama function on my camera, so this is just a small portion of the view from the top.

We also found LOTS of raspberry bushes along the way, a slew of grape vines, and a really unusual tree that stumped all of us. We also came across a white tail dear. We were maybe 10 ft away from it and he just kinda stopped and staired at us for a good minute before running away.

Once the hike was finished, we headed over to the Ticknor' Family Compound. Michelle's parent's put together a great Barbecue for us and we devoured whatever they put in front of us.

Check out these pictures of the hike and bbq as well as these.

All in all, this was a great trip up and I'm looking forward to doing it again. The next hike will be up Breakneck ridge (please, no brokeback jokes) during the fist weekend in August.

** Photos by Michelle Ticknor