Welcome to the February 25th edition of our Hiking Adventures in Pictures

Welcome Hikers!

Ever since we started getting snow this past week, I was really dreading the coming hike. I was thinking that we were going to have to stomp through the snow, picking up our wet feet like back when we were at Salmon River. We probably had about 5 or so inches of snow in our driveway, and I expected the same out on the trail. But that wasn't the case, thank God. The snow was only about an inch or two deep, combining that with comparatively warm temperatures, and we were able to enjoy a very pleasant day out getting our weekly hike in.





This week, Rob decided to begin our adventures at Wyassup Lake and hike toward RT2 on the Narragansett trail. As I said, the snow didn't hinder our movements too much, so we were able to trot right along, albeit a little slower than normal. Our main obstacles however were the few streams that we had to cross. It was impossible to cross the stream where we usually would, so we had to find a good spot down river. Rob located a good spot, and we were able to balance ourselves while we walked across a log that was about 12 feet long and a foot or two above the water. I snapped a good picture of Sof who was smiling as she was on her way across.





We ended up turning around at the beaver dam, and finished up at about 4.7 miles according to Rob's odometer. We ate Sunday brunch at the newly renovated R&R truck stop. We actually saw Kim and Amy, and their parents at R&R. That was prett cool. The food was pretty good I might add, and then we had our lattes while chatting in plush comfort at the Starbucks in Mystic.



OK, Talk to everyone next week.
Joe

Welcome to the February 18th edition of our Hiking Adventures in Pictures

Welcome Hikers!

Yes, I know, I'm a day late. But yesterday was a very slow day at work, and I didn't want to ruin that. :-)

I started my Saturday morning with loading my truck with Bob's staging that he left at our house when he was doing some sheet rock work, so I got up early enough to make sure I had time to do that without being too late.



Deb and I finally were out of the house by about 8:30, and at Sof & Rob's by about 9am. We all did our morning greetings and then headed out in Rob's Volvo shortly afterward.



The girls wanted to do some shopping in preperation of our up and coming cruise after our hike at the West Farm's Mall, so Rob decided to hike close by. I'm not sure which trail we chose, but it was somewhere north of Salmon River.



The trail started out fairly rough, with lots of rocks, streams, and ice. The first hill was a little slippery, and pretty steep, but by the time we got to the top we noticed that there was another hill right after that that was probably the steepest 2 to 3 hundred yards of trail we have done yet. Most of the traverse was very rocky with allot of leaf cover to force everyone to slow down and be very careful placing our steps.



Once at the top, we continued our hike after a short break and did our loop-d-loop at the top of what we thought was another hill that was close by. On our return, we snapped some pictures at a few scenic spots, and finished our adventures shortly afterwards. We hiked about 6 miles or so this week. We had lunch, our lattes, and did our shopping afterwards. It was a very long day. Thanks to Rob for doing the driving.

Talk to everyone next week,
Joe

Welcome to the February 11th edition of our Hiking Adventures in Pictures.

Welcome Hiking Fans!

This week we had some very special guests join us, Cris and Butch Hartley. They had planned to spend their Friday evening at Foxwoods, and since they were waking up in Norwich on Saturday morning, they joined us. They ended up seeing Johnny Winter play some pretty good blues Friday night I hear... I was very jealous. LONG LIVE THE BLUES!

We all met at the intersection of RT2 and RT 201, which is at the bottom of Cassaduck Hill. We decided to hike the Narragansett Trail again this week because of it's proximity to everyone hiking. The trailhead we chose started directly across the street from where we all parked. From there, the Narragansett Trail crosses over the Hewitt's Pond Dam Pedestrian Bridge, then across a fairly large grassy field, and into the woods where we immediately climbed up a fairly short but steep hill.



During most of our hike Rob, Butch, and I were way out front, and therefore we stopped numerous times to let everyone catch up. The girls were all talking and I assume they enjoyed themselves to the fullest. CC was with us as well, so we tried to tire him out by throwing sticks for him, but I doubt that did any good. He ran out front, and back behind all of us all day, but never seemed to slow down. He probably enjoyed himself more than anyone.

We eventually crossed the street where the entrance of the North Stonington Dump is, and then walked past an old pitiful looking barking dog at the Pound there, and then entered back into the woods close by. We then made our way to the base of Lantern Hill, climbed it's back side, and found Foxwoods greeting us at the top. We then sat and chatted for a good while and snapped some group shots, and then did our loop-d-loop at the top of the hill there, and headed back.



Our final group shot was taken about halfway back where the trail intersects what looked like a rough dirt road which connects two fields which is intersected by a stone wall. Everyone sat down on that wall while I setup my camera. Sof was trying to get CC to look at the camera by throwing rocks, and I think she did a pretty good job. You can judge for yourself. Here are the pics.



We ate lunch at the S & P Oyster House in downtown Mystic, then had our usual after-lunch latte at Starbucks in Mystic. We then headed home and reminisced about how gorgeous the weather was out, and how that contributed to everyone having a wonderful day.

I really enjoyed this past week's hike and I hope Cris and Butch can join us again soon.

See everyone next week...
and Happy Hiking!
Joe

Welcome to the February 4th edition of our Hiking Adventures in Pictures.

Welcome back hiking fans!



This week we decided to hike Lantern Hill because we needed to stay close to home because we were celebrating Uncle Chet's birthday later in the day.



We met at the base of Lantern Hill at about 9am and quickly started our assent. Rob and I were talking most of the way up the hill, but as I started to breath more heavily, I was loosing my ability to carry on a conversation. Once we reached the top we paused to catch our breath and we snapped a few shots, then we continued on. Eventually we made our way toward the North Stonington dump, where the dogs at the pound were activaly protesting, and then we made it across the street to continue on. We maintained a fairly fast and steady clip most of the hike, making good time I'm sure, but we didn't have a working pedometer to measure our distance. We continued on until we got to our loop-d-loop point, the Hewitt's Pond Dam Pedestrian Bridge. We again took some pictures, and hiked back over Lantern Hill and back to our cars. We probably did about 8 or so miles, and really enjoyed our workout.



Talk to everyone next week,
We missed you Bobby Goat Gruff!

Joe