Mount Buck

What a day for a hike! Weather forecasters said it would be a wet weekend, but thank goodness, they were wrong!

We drove out highway 9 only 15 miles from home to get to the trailhead. The trail was 3.3 miles to the peak with an elevation change of 2000 ft. (Yes, I can make that into a math problem. Simple geometry.) It was much tougher than anything I have hiked before. We had to cross creeks several times, and my Sorels are not tall enough. When we reached the summit, I took the boots and socks off and laid them out to dry while I took in the view.

We kept hearing noises that were quite bothersome. They were very loud at the trailhead, which wasn't too bad, but once we were out in the middle of the woods, they were quite creepy. If you have seen TNG's Season Six episode Schisms, then you would know exactly the sound I heard. It was a bunch of fast clicks, out of sync with one another. Very creepy out on the trail. I finally decided that they were a bunch of Yankee frogs that really do not know the proper way to predict rain. They need to go south for a while; Arkansas frogs sound pretty when they sing. These guys just scared the daylights out of me.

I didn't see a lot of wildlife this trip. Just several chipmunks and a few woodpeckers. I tried to make myself see like Brian Robeson (of Gary Paulsen's Hatchet and its many sequels) to see the wildlife I know is out there.

Speaking of Paulsen, thank you Daltons for introducing me to him. They bought me the book Harris & Me. It is one of the funniest books I have read. If you've never read it, let me just tell you that there is a chapter called Harris Fries His Business and they ain't talking about a lemonade stand.

For you dog lovers, if you are looking for a book to read, I highly recommend Paulsen's Puppies, Dogs, and Blue Northers. It only has like 70 pages in it, and each one is a pure delight.

Anyway, back on the trail...

A couple of years ago, Brad and I went to Utah to attend training. We call it a boot camp, but it's only two weeks long, so how bad could it be? :) There is a weekend between where Brad and I went sightseeing. We stopped to take a little walk and Brad saw some elk or deer up on a hill. I would never have seen them if he hadn't pointed them out. That ability is one I want. Maybe only men have it....more research is clearly indicated...

It took 7 hours for me to make that hike. Yes, we stopped often, and sometimes it was to let people pass. There was a school bus of kids there, high schoolers, and they were as polite and kind as they could be. Maybe it was the presence of Ella, or maybe they were just that kind of kids. It reminded me of a hike I took with Patti Benight with her science group one year. We went to a part of Pinnacle that I had never seen. Some of the kids had obviously never hiked before. I saw open-toed sandals, and even flip-flops (the kind you wear on your feet, not the electronics). Several did not pack water. The kids I saw yesterday all looked like seasoned hikers: good footwear, packs with water bottles, head cover. The whole nine yards.

So it was an uneventful hike, but the views were the best. See more pictures here:

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0Aat3DZu2cOGL3o&notag=1

The drive, now, was a little different. Glens Falls and South Glens Falls are in different counties. They are separated by the Hudson River. Glens Falls has these lovely things that folks up here call "roundabouts." Ever see European Vacation with Chevy Chase? Remember how he drives around that traffic circle for hours? ("Look kids, it's Big Ben!") That is a roundabout. I pretty much hate them and wish they did not exist. There are none in my town, but every town south of me has them. I am starting to get the hang of them, though. That is, I avoid them.

Ella went to the vet yesterday. Just wanted to shake hands and meet the guy and hope he was better than what I had down south. He is much better. First, Ella ran right to him and gave him kisses. That is the very first time I have ever seen her do that with someone she didn't know well. He told me she is the friendliest Saint he has ever met. And he kept remarking about how beautiful she is. Yes, sucking up is good for business.

It's raining today, so I guess I will work on my robot. Tom, our computer guru, found a kit that included a remote. He threw away the remote, dissected the robot, then set about wiring and programming it. He then handed it to me to write lessons around. Being the type of learner I am, I dissected the robot and am starting all over again. The wiring was easy, once I remembered that black is NEGATIVE and red is POSITIVE (exactly the opposite of what we taught in 7th grade math) and the programming, well, you know, programming is programming. If you've written one program the rest are easy. The hard part is the math: how far can the robot move before he rips his arm off? Stuff like that.

We go to Alabama this week (I tole 'em and I tole 'em: you don't go South in tornado season. But did they listen?) for some reason that I can't disclose. All the schools up here are on spring break so all the good dog kennels are full. I finally found one that is only a mile from work. I just hope Ella is ok. Remember (those of you who have kids) when your kids were little and you put them in day care? You just wanted them to survive until they could talk. Then they could tell you what was really going on. She'll be fine.

Next week's hike is going to be Hadley Mountain.