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