Today was what should be called a perfect day of a hike up Mt. Cutler in Hiram; they don’t get much better.
We had gotten a warning that the parking lot hadn’t been plowed so even though a touch out of the way almot all of us met at the Denmark church first and then carpooled down to Hiram in four-wheel- drive pickups. That way we avoided having to park on the side of the road. It was a beautiful morning, a crsp 14 degrees. No one complained about black flies, mosquitoes, noseeums or deer flies. The trail was snowpcked with no root trying to trip us up, no stones seeking to twist an ankle. Cool eough that we werent haing to top to adjust clothing or wipe sweat from our brows.
Hiking today were Jeff, Sandy, Liz, Dale, Jacob, Greg M, Greg D, David, Jean, Susan, Kathy, Toni, Linda, Polly and one lady that the pen froze up on so I can’t read her name!
After the ritual of taking our trailhead photo we hiked up the Blue North Trail to the ridge.
We took a short lunch break when we topped the ridge line, a rather scenic and sunny view point. We won’t use the term bask to describe the sun’s warmt at this point, but at least it wasn’t too windy. Pleasant mountain was the backdrop for some amazing photos.
There was some discussion which way to proceed down as the route up had been steep and a bit icy over some of the smooth rock surfaces. When Toni admitted that she has helped cut and maintain some of the trails on the mountain, the group immediately volunteered her to lead us down an alternate trail. She led us along the ridge until reaching the White blazed trail zn then through the woods on what proved to be a far gentler and less steep decent.
We then followed the yellow trail back to the Blue trail and back down to the parking lot. Sections on the ascent were a bit sketchy but we all had good traction and made slow but steady time No one broke a sweat nor complained about being too hot. A perfect day!
Next week’s Hike has been changed. We had planned to Hike Albany but have discovered that the access road isn’t plowed.
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