A few friends and I spent the weekend in Bar Harbor and Acadia National Park in Maine. I was blown away by the scenery and never thought something like that was so close to me here in New England.

If you haven’t been to Acadia National Park, make the trip. It doesn’t get the publicity some of the larger parks out west do, but it’s just as impressive.  One tip: if you go, drive the loop just after sunrise.  This way you’ll miss the crowds and have the park to yourself.

The single most impressive/mind blowing sunrise I’ve ever seen from the top of Cadillac Mountain -one of the first spots in America to see the sun rise each morning.

The sunsets weren’t half-bad either.  We enjoyed it from a 3-mast schooner.

One disappointment – there aren’t many moose strolling around on the coast of Maine.. at least not at Acadia National Park. To make up for this sad fact we swung by the Maine Wildlife Park on the way home and finally, after 26 years of life, I finally saw one.

This past weekend my friends and I drove to Taconic State Park in New York for our first major hike of the year. We took the South Taconic Trail, which brought us along the top of Brace Mountain and then over to Mount Frissel, Connecticut’s highest point.

It was a steep climb when we first started off but the views were rewarding.  From the top of Brace Mountain we could see clear across the Hudson Valley and even as far as the Catskill Mountains.  At the top we came across three paragliders who were having a bit of trouble due to the strong winds.  We stuck around about 20 minutes or so to watch a launch only to see the guy spin upside down and then crash into the bushes – a firm reminder why I avoid doing that sort of thing.

From the top of Brace Mountain we continued on for about another 2.5 miles along the ridgeline towards Mt. Frissell, the highest point in Connecticut. The peak of Mt. Frissell is actually in Massachusetts, but the south slop lies across the Connecticut line and is slightly higher than Bear Mountain, the highest peak in the state.

It wasn’t the most enjoyable part of the hike.  Along the way the trail dipped down a bit and suddenly we were walking through a foot of melting snow. We made a quick stop at the tri-state marker and at the CT high point before eating a late lunch and heading back towards Brace Mountain for a few more great views of the Hudson Valley.

Earlier this month, I had the opportunity to travel to Yellowstone National Park for a work. The company I work for had been selected to restore nearly 200 lighting fixtures from the historic Old Faithful Lodge , so my co-worker and I were sent there to photograph the fixtures and then drive them roughly 2,800 miles across America back to Connecticut. (Project details here.)

The trip started in Salt Lake City, where we picked up our 16' rental truck, a bunch of packing supplies and a ton of snacks for the road.  That afternoon we drove nearly non-stop for 600+ miles through Utah and Idaho to West Yellowstone in Montana where we crashed for the night.

Since Yellowstone closes to the public for the month of November, we were one of the very few people within the 3468 square miles of the park when we drove in the next morning.  That meant if something were to go wrong, we' would pretty-much on our own. Fortunately we made it in and out without incident. No flat tires, no angry bison attacks, and no geyser burns. 

Since I was there for work I didn't explore the park as much as I would have liked to, but I did manage to see some cool stuff, including several geysers and a ton of wildlife including some bison and wolves.  The lodge where we were working was literally right along-side the Old
Faithful Geyser, so every 90 minutes or so we'd take a short break to
watch it go. We actually had to hike up to a scenic overlook of the geyser basin to sign the paperwork so we could leave – not exactly the worst way to spend a work-day.

The drive back took us several days, with brief stops at Belgrade in Montana, Mount Rushmore, Sioux Falls in South Dakota, and Chicago.  After a good night's rest in Indiana and a quick meal in Ohio, we pushed straight through back to Connecticut and got home early Saturday.  It wasn't exactly the classic all-American road trip, but it was still a great experience.

If you’re living in CT and you’re not sure what to do during a free day, I suggest taking a hike along the Appalachian Trail.  The trail is over 2,000 miles long, running all the way from Maine to northern Georgia.  In Connecticut, it runs through the northwest corner of Litchfield County over some of the state’s highest peaks.

I went for a hike yesterday with my friends Amber and Bret, with the goal of reaching the top of Bear Mountain.  With an elevation of 2,316 feet, it’s Connecticut’s highest peak.  We started off on a trail about five miles south of the mountain.  There’s a parking area that’s only a short drive from the town center in Salisbury which brings you right to the beginning of the trail.  After passing through a few fields we started a quick climb up the hill where we met up with the Appalachian Trail.  From there we continued to the top of "Lion’s Head" (1,738 feet) which gave us a seemingly endless view of Connecticut.  If you’re ever looking for a quick hike that offers great views, I strongly suggest giving this one a try.

We didn’t stop there.  Our destination was still another 4 miles away.  From the top of Lion’s Head we made a quick descent down a very steep and rocky path and then the trail gradually flattened out.  The trail gave us a pretty smooth hike for several more miles.  We passed by 3 different campsites along the way to Bear Mountain, two of which had natural sources of water.

We kept seeing postings that warned us of recent black bear sightings, so Amber was getting a little bit scared.  It was every man (and woman) for themselves if we were ever to get attacked.  Amber had the shortest legs, so she’d probably be the first to go.

By the time we reached the bottom of Bear Mountain we had successfully completed 4.5 miles without any bear sightings.  We were in good shape.  The hike hadn’t been as bad as we thought it would be.  The climb up the top finally gave us some strenuous hiking, although it wasn’t half as bad as I had expected.  As you climb upwards the trees gradually disappear and there’s only small bushes and other plants covering the landscape.  We had some incredible views as we climbed up towards the top.  We were able to look back behind us and see where we had began, and off to our left we could see the Taconic Mountains in New York and the hills of Connecticut to our right. 

At the top there is an eight foot tall pyramid made of large stones that was built in 1885.  I tried reading the stone plaque at the base of it to find out who had put it there, but it was very difficult to read.  We hung out on the top for about a half hour to catch our breath and to take in the views, and made a few phone calls to brag to our friends that we were the highest three people in the state at the moment.

Shortly after we began our hike back, we ran into some thru-hikers.  These guys had started hiking the Appalachian Trail back in Georgia sometime around mid-April and had just made it to Connecticut.  I asked them if they thought it was worth it and one of them enthusiastically told me "absolutely".  He said he had quit his job and spent all his savings to pull it off.  They expected to make it to the end of the trail in Maine in about six more weeks.  Their body oder was overwhelming so we kept a good distance.

The hike back was much easier.  We went much faster and took a few less breaks because we wanted to make it back before sunset.  By the time we reached the top of Lion’s Head the sun had already gone down, so our last mile was unfortunately in the dark.  By the time we finished we had been hiking for over 4 1/2 hours, but other than some minor pain from a few small blisters we were feeling pretty good.

We’re gonna try to do a full days hike along the trail soon, and then stay overnight at one of the campsites.  I’m hoping to go the first weekend in October when the foliage is at its peak. 

My friend and I once decided to go on a backpacking trip along the Appalachian Trail. It’s probably the best known hiking trail in the United States, and stretches all the way from Maine to Georgia. It climbs over some of the nation’s highest peaks east of the Rockies, and can be a challenge even for the most experienced hikers.

Steve and I were both Eagle Scouts and had gone backpacking on countless other occasions.  We had full confidence we could pull this trip off. We were thinking of maybe doing a 20 mile stretch through the Massachusetts section, going 2 days in one direction and then 2 in the other. We knew it would be challenging, but challenges can be fun. So we did a tiny amount of research – getting all of our maps from the internet. Sadly, we thought this would be enough. We’d soon learn otherwise.

And so we went. We had perfect weather, and plenty of food, clothes and equipment.  The trail was clear cut, well marked, and provided us with stunning views of nearby mountain peaks and the occasional waterfall. It was only minor ups and downs, and with the comfortable temperatures and lack of humidity giving us a boost in energy, we were finding ourselves way ahead of schedule.

By 3PM we had hiked our first full 10 miles and reached our destination for the night. It was an aging shelter filled with an abundance of annoying mosquitoes. I took one look at the shelter and said "you wanna just push on to the next shelter?" “Of course”, he said. So we pulled out the map and saw that the next shelter was only 3 miles down the trail.  It was a no-brainer to just continue on.

Three miles came and went, but we there was no shelter. Another half mile, another mile… we were lost. Maybe the maps we had printed from the internet weren’t that great after all!

But we pushed on, it was crucial that we found the shelter because we were running very low on water and the shelter was our next source. "Keep going" we kept telling one another.  But there was still no shelter. The sun was setting, we were starting to get blisters on our feet, and despite the comfortable temperature we were drenched in sweat.

We never found it. The sun had now set and our mouths were so dry we could no longer even talk. My tongue began to swell and I could no longer bear the weight of my pack. I dropped it on the ground, and without even saying a word Steve dropped his and began setting up his tent.

We looked around for any drop of water- no puddles, no mud. Nothing. We were in deep trouble. I thought that maybe if I tried eating my stew the water content could help somewhat, but my mouth was so dry I couldn’t even swallow it.  I went to sleep that night wondering if I would even wake up. I couldn’t imagine having the energy to walk back to the nearest road. It seemed hopeless.

We woke up early the next morning, dehydrated, exhausted, and in pain.  But somehow we managed to make it back to the road, and hitchhiked into town.  The one bright side to our disastrous trip: our driver was a hot young girl in a bikini.  It was a true miracle.

She dropped us off at some cheap motel where we crashed for the night and recovered from our miserable hiking trip.  It was the best night’s sleep I’ve ever had.

One problem remained: we still had to get ourselves back to the car, and it was close to ten miles away.  Once again we had to hitchhike.

But this time there was no beautiful girl in a bikini.  It was a creepy redneck driving a beat up car from the 1970’s.  He had two huge dogs in the backseat and as soon as he got out we were regretting ever sticking up our thumbs.  He called us over and suggested we toss our backpacks in the trunk.  “Let me just move this gun farther back so your packs don’t rest on it” he said.  That should’ve been our cue to run, but for some unexplainable reason we still got in. 

Once again we thought we might die.

But soon enough we saw our parked car coming up in the distance, and we made it back alive.  We came back a day early and a bit humiliated, but we had a damn good story to tell.