An outing with Phil to add to his list of summits in Hampshire County. And a fine outing it was.
Today being the last day of deer season I was dressed appropriately -- my clown pants, three layers on top (bright red, covered by lime green, covered by bright orange, so I was ready no matter how much I was zipped or unzipped), with a bright orange hat just to be sure I was visible and didn't look like a deer. We saw lots of deer tracks, but nary a hunter, but it's still best to be prepared.
Phil was dressed all in black. I suppose that better than all in brown with a white tail.
Conditions were excellent. A few inches of snow, a little crusty on top but not much, since it has been cold since it snowed. He had on O' shoes with studs. I had my super boots plus micro spikes or whatever the proper name is. Between us the total number of falls was, yup, hard to believe, exactly zero. What's gotten into us?
Three summits -- Scott Hill, Petticoat Hill, and Unquomonk Hill. We were on trails almost entirely until the assault on Unquomonk, and then off trails for quite a while. I got reacquainted with mountain laurel on the top of U. I'd forgotten how much of a pain it can be.
But the whole outing was a pleasure. And my butt is clearly doing better. We were climbing up some steep slopes and 6 months ago I would have been making a bunch of stops to let it calm down. Not so today. Not that I had a lot of zip, those days are long gone, but it was real nice to be out wandering around and not being feeling miserable.
Up Scott Hill from NE (on trail), up Petticoat from the NE along the pipeline cut, up Unquomonk from the S steep slope but benign vegetation. First half of going back north was bushwhacking.
At the top of Mount U --