I have been off the AT for a while this month working on my 46er list in the Adirondacks. A couple of weeks ago, I hiked the Dix Range with my hiking buddy Jerry. It seemed a bit more demanding than an average day on the AT.

Last week my husband flew up to Maine to meet me and we spent a few days at Baxter State Park. It was such a tease to see Mt Katahdin and not be going to the summit. I did manage to get Matt and my friend Debbie to hike in to Katahdin Stream Falls with me. It was a short, but beautiful hike and I was ecstatic to get them both on a little piece of the trail. I think it gave them both a better idea of what I do. The weather was quite warm, but it was like natural air conditioning by the falls. We spent most of our time hanging out by Sandy Stream Pond with our big telephoto lenses taking pictures of the moose and beaver. Matt did a big gigapixel panoramic of Mt Katahdin. It will have to go on the wall at home in Florida.

This week I just hiked 3 more high peaks in the Adirondacks- Skylight, Gray, and Cliff. I hiked about 30 miles this week. I had hoped to do more, but felt that was all I could safely squeeze into my schedule this week. The first night, I stayed in the Uphill shelter. I had really great shelter neighbors. They even washed my spoon for me. The next night, I decided to stay in my hammock. I hung it at the far end of the campsite from this group’s bear proof canisters. It wasn’t far enough. At some point in the middle of the night, the bear came through and made quite a commotion trying to get into the cannisters. After quite some time, he gave up and came walking by to check me out. He walked right by my hammock and made the little huffing sound as he passed that bears do when they are annoyed. My heart was ready to beat out of my chest. I decided that when I got to the next shelter and it smelled like barf, that I would hike on out to a campground for the night. Last night I stayed at a campground with a beautiful falls across the street. It was quite peaceful and no bear problems. My camp neighbor had befriended a couple of chipmunks and I spent a couple of hours photographing them this morning. I even got to hold and pet one.

Monday I am picking up my daughter at the airport and taking her hiking with me for a few days. We are going to go back to Grayson Highlands. I enjoyed that section earlier this season with my sister and figure it will be a great spot to take my horse loving daughter. This will be her first time on the AT.

It will be a while before I have the pictures to go with this post because they are mostly back in FL on my husband’s hard drive.

I am off the trail this week and it will be a couple of weeks before I can get back on. My art shows are taking me to the midwest for now. I miss the trail already and can’t wait to get back on. I was just getting my hiking legs for the season and I know it will be tough again when I visit the whites soon. The good news is I can finally post some more pictures and update my journal. I enjoyed the photography so much the first time at McAffee Knob that I had to go back for more. The birds were not as cooperative for pictures as before but still quite abundant. This week I finally got to try out my hammock. I got a hennessy hyperlite hammock and I really love it. I hung it a little low the first night but it was still much more comfortable than the shelter. The first night was beautiful. I enjoyed watching the fireflies flicker through the woods. It was a mild night and it was much cooler sleeping in the hammock and not having to worry about the bugs. It also saves me about a pound of pack weight compared with my tent and packs to less than half the size. I don’t think that it will be warm enough to use the first 6 weeks on the trail next year but it is wonderful for the summer. I am not sure if the rain fly that comes with it will suffice. It seems a little skimpy. I guess I’ll find out soon enough. If not I’ll add a couple of ounces with a more substantial fly. When I got to McAffee Knob, I just missed a group of 6th graders. Finally trail magic I can enjoy as a vegetarian. Unfortunately I missed the oranges and pb&j sandwiches,but they had made plenty of rice crispies treats to go around. I made sure the thruhikers got their share first. It was a treat to get fresh vegetables too. It is often hard to get suitable portions of these while in town. Then there was an assortment of breakfast bars. I was well fed for this section. The weather in the afternoon was iffy and a few of us had a friendly wager on what time the rain would hit. It didn’t last long, just a few sprinkles, but it was earlier than I had hoped. This compelled me to pitch my hammock near the next shelter so that I could enjoy a dry dinner. There were some rumbles, but the storm skirted around us and it ended up being a beautiful night. I retired early so that I could get up at 5am to hike the .7 miles back up the mountain for sunrise on McAffee Knob. Just when I thought that I was going to be alone for the night, a few thruhikers came in after dark. I tried not to disturb them too much in the morning when I got up. The early morning was really worth it. There was mist down in the valleys and the sunrise was really quite beautiful. There were wispy pink clouds and I was able to get a spectacular new panoramic at dawn. Much to my surprise, a large group of thruhikers had overnighted it on McAffee Knob. If the weather hadn’t been so fickle, I might have considered joining them. You are technically not supposed to camp up there. I am not sure why there isn’t closer camping. Hiking up alone in the dark would not have been my first choice; especially since it turned out that a mama bear and two cubs were sighted just off the trail. I probably walked right by them in the dark and didn’t even notice them. I will have to be more vigilant with my food. I didn’t have any problems, but you never know when they may take advantage of unattended food. The thruhiker who saw them just had his 25th birthday (Sorry I forgot his trail name). What a great place to spend your birthday. Enjoy the Walk

I just managed to beat the weather and had a great hike this week. I was going to park at Iron Mountain when I met CC. She runs the Greasey Creek Hostil and invited me to park there as it would be much safer. Since all my show inventory is in my van, I decided to take her up on her offer. My objective for this hike was to get scenics from Roan Mountain. I was hoping that the rhododendrons would be blooming. It was a little too early for most of them at the higher elevations. I wish that I could have gone two weeks later. The first night, I hiked to Roan High Knob Shelter. It is a nice little cabin with a door and a loft. I shared it with two boys who were section hiking. They were nice company. I met a number of though hikers at my lunch stops, but they were on a different schedule than me since I was just there for pictures. The second day I hiked to the old barn. The views over the little valley were spectacular. The same section hikers were there. I couldn’t go any further since I had to backtrack and hike out in time for my art show in Pittsburgh. We slept on the platforms facing the great views and the birds sang us to sleep. We watched the full moon rise over the mountains. We woke early in the morning hoping for a great sunrise, but it was behind the mountain. I hiked about 16 miles back to the shelter. I know the milage was a little more because they put in a bunch of new switchbacks that added about a mile to my day but made the hiking much easier. The last 2 miles back to the hostil, I heard thunder rumbling. It was getting closer so I ran most of the last two miles down the mountain with a fully loaded pack. It gave me a couple of blisters, but they popped and heeled quickly. I beat the storm by about 10 minutes. It was great to be out of the weather and get a much needed hot shower. Thanks for everything CC. I’ll by back next season on my thru hike. I took a lot of good pictures on this section, but this weekend, I dropped the hard drive on the cement right in the middle of downloading them. I hope my husband can find a way to retrieve them. I posted a couple from this hike.