A Long Walk, Interrupted

This weekend I went for a hike with my dad, uncle, and two cousins (one of whom is only 6).  It was a relatively short hike on the Monadnock-Sunapee Greenway.  The plan was to leave on Friday afternoon, walk about 3.5 miles, make camp and stay the night, and then hike the remaining 3.2 miles the next day.  My dad and uncle finished the entire Long Trail earlier in the summer and had a blast, so I was very excited to be able to share in this trip.

We got going about 3:00pm.  We parked at the very first Seventh Day Adventist church.  Here we are, getting ready to leave:

We decided to bring smaller backpacks since this was a short trip.  We had plenty of water, a tent, and some rather unusual ingredients for dinner in camp.  Off we went!

It was a tough walk the first day with a lot of up-hill climbing, though I am informed it couldn't hold a candle to the Long Trail.  When we got to the campsite, the only tent platform had been taken by a single-person tent and all the other good locations had been taken by various groups, so we pitched our tent at the fork in the trail.  One trail led to the water and the other led to the latrine.  There was lots of thunder the first night and we were expecting rain but counted ourselves lucky that we only got a couple sprinkles.  As for the unusual ingredients?  They were required for the delicious braised-beef stew in a tomato paste, beef broth, balsamic vinegar, and red wine base with vegetables and potatoes.  We also "baked" an apple pie with some charcoal briquettes.  Simply amazing.

Did I sleep well?  Considering the circumstances, yes, but I did miss my bed.  I didn't want to carry my sleeping bag, so I brought long nylon pants and a fleece sweatshirt and a sleeping pad.  The plan was perfect except that I neglected to put socks on before bed and somehow I spent all night with my feet sticking out the tent door.  I woke up several times during the night with ridiculously cold feet but in barely-waking state I couldn't figure out why.

We were up and moving by 6:00am and on the trail by 7:00am.  The weather was greatly improved and we made very good time as the trail was mostly down-hill.  Then we hopped in a car that was waiting for us and went home.

As far as additional photography, there were a couple cool views along the way and I have always been fascinated by piecing together multiple photographs to form a panorama, though I have not yet been very successful.  I did take two series of photos that I was hoping to put together.  This is the first series, taken on the first day:

 In real life it's about 14000x2000 pixels and looks pretty cool though obviously it's not seamless.  I have some theories on why this is a problem and how to fix it.  Perhaps this is the next thing I'll be experimenting with!  All in all, a very good weekend and the great thing about taking Friday off is that I have another day to relax and recharge before going back to work!

-Lane

P.S. Click the panorama for a somewhat larger version!