July 7th,14
18,8 miles
On Sunday night i decided to go Adks next day for a hike. I was not entirely sure what i wanted to hike, i had 4 different ideas, but eventually i settled on Mt Marshall.
Monday morning i woke up at 3am to sounds of sirens and lights, one of our neighbors had a fire, it turned out it was a barn which got burned down. Since i was awake i decided not to wait till 4am alarm but to start getting ready.
Me and MIsha left the house at 4:45 and started hiking at 9:18. The ride was long but it was so worth the hike.
The weather was nice, in low 60s with a lot of shade and cool breeze.There were showers in the forecast but i was hoping it wouldnt happen.
The area of Upper Works was filled with cars when we got there but in the registry book there were only two groups signed in that day. The rest must have been camping in the area.
We took off pretty quickly, crossed the bridge and took first right. After couple minutes there was another fork where i decided to go left, i was unsure but i saw that it was pointing to hunters pass and i thought i remembered that name from trip reports. What a big surprise it was when i got to the next intersection where it turned out we were not on the right trail. We ended up going towards Duck Hole and to get back on the truck i had to turn around or follow another trail for 2 miles where it would bring us to Calamity Brook. I decided on taking extra two miles. That part of the hike was in deep woods with zero views and mostly wet. Also it started raining lightly and sky got darker. Misha started panting more and it got humid. I was really happy when we finally got to the bridge and the right path.
From then on the trail was really interesting with several bog bridges, some cool rock formations and pretty roots. We also followed the stream for most of it which brought nice breeze and cooled the air down. Misha loved the fact she could cool of in the cold river all the time.
We reached the memorial area pretty quick, passing a couple of campers on their way back to the car.
The area was beautiful there, a lot of low shrub and body of water. We had it all to ourselves!
From there it was not long to get to the intersection where we would take the herd path to Marshall .
The path did not look long on the map, it was mostly following the stream and i was hoping to get to the summit in around 30 min.
Unfortunately it was not the case this time. The path disappeared and reappeared many times along the water. I followed the stream for the most part. It started raining again and it got tough to walk on the we ledges. Few times i slipped and almost fell. It got colder. My clothes got soaked. The scenery was beautiful though. The rocks were covered in moss in many places and running water made it look serene.
I was afraid i was going to have hard time to go down the same way, it was really slippery and i had almost no traction. My feet were soaked and i was covered in mud. I was not moving fast and it was talking long time to go up.
Misha was a good sport though, whenever she needed help she would wait and cooperate. I knew she was tired and i hoped the summit would come fast and we could take a lunch break.
It turned out that it was around 2 miles up the stream and then a walk in the more wooded area to get to the top. I was tired,cole and hungry. Also right before the end i got sucked in the mud almost all the way up to the knee.
When we finally got to the summit, it stopped raining and we had some food. I switched my soaked socks to new fresh ones and i took my wet t-shirt off and put long sleeve on. I was going to keep shorts on even though they were totally wet. We did a little over 10 miles at this point, so it looked like the whole hike was going to be 18 instead of 14 miles.
It felt good to eat something, Misha was happy too. We both were looking really dirty. I knew we could not stay much longer up, since it was getting close to 1 o'clock and i wanted to be back at the car around 5pm.
Thankfully on the way down, i discovered that the herd path up the mountain was actually almost all the way alongside the stream and i just didnt see it on my way up.I did not have to go down the ledges and with the water. I felt a little stupid that i didnt look for it more carefully going up.
The rain started again a little after we started going down. I covered myself with pack cover and managed to keep my fresh clothes dry.
When we reached Flawed lands once again this day i was feeling more relieved. I knew that from there it was going to be around 5 miles of fairly flat walk which we could do in a short time.
It stopped raining and it got a little brighter.We passed an older couple on their way to the lean to, they did not have much luck with the weather.
We stopped near the memorial area once more and i went looking for my coffee beans which i noticed went missing around that time. I was so happy when i found them in the brush near the water. Such a small things give you so much happiness sometimes.
We passed a group of 4 young men going back to their car. They hiked Iroquis that day and bailed from going up Alonquin because of bad weather. I had brief chat with the when we all go to our cars.
It was so good to switch to clean clothes and to sit down for a min.
It was just before 5pm when we were pulling away from the parking lot.
It was pretty good hike after all even though it rained a lot and we didnt have much views. I would love to get back there on a sunny day.
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