Welcome to the April 28th edition of our Hiking Adventures in Pictures

Hiking fans!

Welcome back to another installment of our...

Hiking Adventures in Pictures!

This week, we traveled to Middletown, CT to the Mattebesett Trail, a few clicks east of Castle Craig.



Deb and I met in Norwich at about 8:30 am Sunday morning, and we all headed out together in Rob's Volvo shortly afterwards.



We enjoyed a leisurely ride over the Connecticut River on RT66, all of the way across downtown Middletown, and almost to where RT91 & 691 cross RT66. Just before that crossing, there is a small parking lot which invites the public to enter the Mattebesett trailhead there.

The terrain was very dry and rocky, colored uniformly with a dark brown/reddish hue all around. It rose immediately into the thinly studded woods never once yielding to our wishes by flattening out. We were soon rewarded with magnificent views of the surrounding area from on top of Camels Hump and Higby Mountain. This presentation lasted most of our stay, with hills in abound. We snapped numerous pictures, and enjoyed the clean spring air. This trail has to be one of my favorites. The scenic overlooks were simply wonderful.




This week's trail presented to us, without question, one of the slowest hikes we have done in quite some time. We all were breathing heavily most of the day, and I even think I saw Rob taking in a breath or two now or then. There was allot of climbing to do on this hike, and I for one enjoyed the workout.



We did our loop-d-loop at the bottom of Preston Notch and then headed back up the trail we had come. I remember that it was a very solemn scene at the bottom of that valley. There were allot of trees that had succumb to the dry and rocky ground, and had fallen not far from where they had once stood. It seemed like there were more trees littering the ground than there was up above us. It looked almost like a tree graveyard in that valley. A very interesting place.



We ended up eating lunch at the Athenian II Diner in downtown Middletown, and then did some shopping before heading back home. We had our Starbucks latte's in Colchester, and then were in Norwich a short time after that.



ok... see everyone next week!
Joe

Welcome to the April 21st edition of our Hiking Adventures in Pictures

Welcome Hiking Fans!

This past week Deb decided to do some hiking in Rhode Island for the first time at the Arcadia Management Area, and we all thought that that was a great idea. None of us had a map of the area, (because Deb had left her map at home) but with the combined navigational talents of Rob and Deb, we were able to make our way into the wilderness and out again without major incident. I think I remember hiking about 6 miles and small change. But the best part of our day was to come...



We enjoyed our lunch afterward at the South County Tavern in Kingstown, RI. We all were quite tired and thirsty after our hike, just like we usually are after a strenuous adventure. We sat down, ordered our usual refreshments, and then proceeded to enjoy them a little bit more than expected. Our refreshments were in frozen glassware, keeping them cold all the way down! Both Rob and myself were savoring the taste of our ice cold beers swallowed down from an ice cold glass. Both of us have enjoyed refreshments in like manner before, but we were thirsty, and a cold drink was very satisfying.



After lunch, we missed out on our weekly Starbucks run, but Deb and I were able to make our own at home after a short nap.

ok, hope to see everyone next week,
Joe

Welcome to the April 14th edition of our Hiking Adventures in Pictures

Welcome Hikers!

Now this week's hike was something special!

Since everyone who experiences our weekly hiking adventure was on Deb's 50th birthday cruise, and enjoying the sun, fun, and the hot tub for a whole week, Bob and I had our weekly hike in mind. Folks... we have been hiking every single week for about 64 weeks now, and that number is still growing. We were not going to let a fun-loving, 7-day, Royal Caribbean cruise to some of the most gorgeous beaches on earth that streak. So when Bob decided to spend one of his days at St John's on an eco-hike, I decided to join him.

Our day started out like most of our mornings on the cruise. Our home away from home, the Royal Caribbean's Adventure of the Seas, slowly sailed into the port of St. Thomas while we were getting out of bed Saturday morning, April the 12th. We eat breakfast, showed our passports and photo id's to the customs agents, and made it to our excursion's meeting place on the pier not far from where we were to board a fairly large motor boat for a 45 minute ride to St. John's, all before 8:30am.





Our ride over to St. John's was mainly uneventful, except for a few well rehearsed (and I'm sure much repeated) wise-cracks by the boat's crew. I do recall however that a few glamorous hotels were pointed out to us, along with the beach homes of Micheal Jordan, Madonna, and also a few other famous people that I don't remember at the moment.







We eventually docked in Cruz Bay, St. John's and we who signed up for the eco-hike excursion were the first to disembark. Bob and I were with our tour guide, and walking toward the trailhead in no time flat.



The trail we hiked this past week was the Lind Point Trail on St John's. It began with a 0.3 mile ascent to the scenic Lind Point Overlook where we took most of our pictures. All along the way, our tour guide stopped numerous times to educate us about the various plants and animals that we came across. At the overlook, we could see both the Atlantic and the Caribbean oceans and the view was simply awesome! We snapped numerous pictures not only with our cameras, but with our neighbor's cameras as well. We then hiked to the summit of Lind Point, and then onto Honeymoon Beach. We all spent about an hour or so swimming, and taking in the sun, while some of us went snorkeling to view a nearby coral reef while our guide pointed out the various fish that passed us by. We eventually got back into our hiking cloths and followed the North Shore Road which lead us to an old sugar plantation alongside the famous Caneel Bay Resort. At the old plantation we photographed a beautiful tree, which was in beautiful bloom, and then were given a short history lesson about the plantation. We were then driven back to our boat ride which brought us back to St Thomas where we met up with our cruise ship again. This week's hike was without a doubt one of the most beautiful hikes to date.





See everyone next week,
Joe

Welcome to the April 7th edition of our Hiking Adventures in Pictures

Welcome Hikers!

These last few weeks have been extremely busy for most of us because we have been planning and preparing for Deb's 50th birthday cruise. So, the day before our cruise on April 5th, Rob, Bob, and I went for a hike and this is how that went...



We met at the corner of RT2, 201, and Ryder Rd at about 8am on Saturday morning and we started hiking pretty much right away toward Wyassup Lake, to our east. We walked up Ryder Rd for a short bit and headed into the woods following the blue trail markings up a short hill and continued on a fairly quick pace. There really wasn't much to slow us down except for the wet terrain and the overflowing stream beds. We all walked across the streams, trying not to get wet, but I was the most cautious one of the bunch. This trail, without question, exhibits some of the most challenging stream crossings in our adventures so far. One of these days, one of us is going to slip or fall in and get very wet. But that did not happen that day.



We eventually did our loop-d-loop at Wyassup Lake and rushed back to our starting point. Rob kept an extremely fast pace, (especially toward the end) as he led a 6.9 mile hike in about 2 hours and 31 minutes. I believe I remember that those were the final stats. This hike was one of the fastest hikes on record.

See everyone next week!
Joe