2011 Hiking Season In Review

 

 

Well, it wasn’t exactly a banner hiking year for me.  I blame myself, but also my work schedule and the weather.  The hikes I did do were unique in their own ways.   I did get a chance to hike a different loop on Camel’s Hump, partake in views from the top of Mt Abraham, and hike up a volcanic crater in a totally different climate.

Total mileage this year was 13.7  miles.  This included the following hikes:

Burrows Trail, Long Trail, and Forest City Trails, roundtrip loop over Camel’s Hump, VT
Long Trail from Lincoln Peak south to Mt Abraham, then north to Castlerock Peak, then down Castlerock to Lincoln Peak base
Diamond Head Crater, Waikiki – Honolulu, Hawaii

Factors which limited hiking this year:

• Spring Flooding – this affected many hiking access points, including the Duxbury side of Camel’s Hump
• Work Schedule – a non-consistent work schedule, plus many more morning and extended work shifts than normal.  Also starting in the beginning of August, double-duty at work, taking up 4 mornings each week, in addition to my regular 35-40 hour schedule.
• Hurricane Irene – struck in late August 2011 and effectively closed the Long Trail and many side trails from the MA/VT border north to Camel’s Hump.   The closure lasted nearly a month, with many access points remaining inaccessible.

So there are many goals set out again for next year.  Of course, the primary ones will be to mark off more Long Trail mileage.  My goal is to solidify my Long Trail coverage from Sherburne Pass north to Smuggler’s Notch.  In order to do this, I need to hike 3 stretches – each about 10-15 miles long.  Depending on scheduling, I’d like to extend this coverage even further at both ends.   Overly-optimistic goals would be to go south to Killington Peak and north to the Lamoille River in Johnson.  One or more of the factors listed above could derail these plans, so we’ll see what happens.

See you on the trail in 2012!

Hawaii! October 19-28, 2011

Sometimes you just have to go for it…. go take the vacation of a lifetime!

Back in September, I toyed with a crazy idea to take a vacation to Hawaii.  My dad was out there for work so lodging would not be a factor.  All I had to do was book the flight.  Well it took a good month before I got around to it, and on October 19, I was off on a Delta flight from Burlington to Honolulu.  It was my first plane ride since 1990 and it would be my first time ever off the east coast.  And since I had just finished the season at the golf course a few days earlier and it would be a couple more weeks until I would start work for the winter, the timing was perfect.

My flight schedule was Burlington to JFK, JFK to LAX, and finally LAX to Honolulu, with layovers in between each flight between 1-2 ½ hours.  The flights ran on time (or ahead of schedule) and all of my arriving and departing gates were right next to each other.  It was neat flying from JFK to LAX and seeing where you were in the country on the back-of-the-seat monitor.  After all day traveling, I arrived into Honolulu around 7pm and my dad picked me up.  His hotel was about 2 blocks away from the beach in Waikiki.

My first day there, we drove around the island of Oahu, from Waikiki, up to the North Shore, in a counter-clockwise circle.  The Pacific is so blue on the north shore, then blueish-green in Waikiki.  We stopped at a shrimp truck for lunch, then visited the Dole Plantation for pineapple ice cream, before returning back to the hotel.  The traffic on the interstate H-1 around Honolulu can get pretty horrendous – even with 4-5 lanes in each direction.  Yes, there is traffic in paradise!

Friday afternoon we were going to go to Pearl Harbor, but realizing when we got there that it was an all-day event, instead drove around and then walked the beach.  Saturday, we spent all day at Pearl Harbor, visiting all the museums and memorials there, including the USS Arizona Memorial, plus the Bowfin submarine, Battleship Missouri (the ship which hosted the Japanese surrender of WW II), and the Pacific Aviation Museum.  There is a lot of history in the whole area and it was cool to experience.

Sunday we visited a flea market at Aloha stadium and then went  to Diamond Head State Monument.  I hiked the 600 vertical feet / 0.8 mile trail to the summit in about 20 minutes, a hike which was far from anything I’ve ever done on the Long Trail back home in VT.   There were a lot of stairs involved, which I ran up and down in no time, passing people left and right.  My dad was amazed when I got back from the hike about 45 minutes after starting.  The pamphlet distributed at the gate said it would take 2 hours roundtrip.

My dad and I at Battleship Missouri in Pearl Harbor

Traffic on H-1 approaching Honolulu

My dad went back to work on Monday, so I was free to explore on my own.  I spent one day walking up and down the length of the beach, going in the water and relaxing in the sun, and finding a taco spot – Maui Tacos, then enjoying a Mai Tai at a bar overlooking the ocean.  Another day, I took in the Waikiki Aquarium and the US Army Museum (both on opposite ends of the beach), and on my departure day, grabbed a bite to eat at Cheeseburger in Paradise and browsed through some shops on the “strip” at Waikiki.

Myself at the top of Diamond Head

Monk seal at the Waikiki Aquarium

I left Honolulu at 9:40pm on Thursday October 27 but due to time changes and layovers, it wouldn’t be till 8pm Friday night when I touched down in Burlington.  I got off the plane still wearing shorts and a t-shirt, though it was in the upper 30s and the first flakes of snow had already fallen on the mountain.  I was glad to be home, but equally as glad to have made the trip, to have spent time with my dad, and to experience a place where not a lot of people I know have been.

Aloha!

To see the full photo gallery from this trip, visit my Picasa page at

http://picasaweb.google.com/shadyjayvt

2nd Summer at the Golf Course Comes To A Close

If you told me back in May of 2011 that I would be ending my season at the golf course on the grounds crew, I probably wouldn’t have believed you.  But that’s in fact the way it went down.  In early August, I began assisting the grounds crew, working 4 mornings a week, in addition to my regular cart duties.  As September progressed, I found myself helping them out more and more.  And in October, with my last day of carts scheduled during Columbus Day weekend, I would finish out the season just doing grounds crew.  In the final few days, this included coring the greens.  On Friday October 14, it was my last day of the season, along with several others on the crew.

The big question is what I plan to do for next season.  There is a high probability that I will go to the grounds crew full-time.  But there is a lot of time between now and then and I don’t have to make any decision until April of 2012.  Until then, it’ll all be about winter and snowboarding…. but first… something different…

Phish: A Benefit for Vermont 9/14/2011

(not my photo)

It has been a wild few weeks here in the Green Mountains.  Hurricane Irene tore a path of destruction through New England, hitting Connecticut hard with high winds and surf and Vermont with devastating flooding.  I had to make an emergency trip to Connecticut just days after the flood because of my uncle’s passing.  And work at the golf course has kept me busy with 10-12 hour days 5 or 6 days a week.  I had planned to donate my time or some finances to the flood recovery, until September 6 when I learned Phish was playing a benefit concert on September 14, donating all ticket proceeds ($75/piece) to the recovery efforts.  I entered into the ticket lottery, and two days later, found out I had won.  Several other Sugarbush friends of mine were going as well.  It would be my first Phish show in Vermont, and my first show since IT back in August of 2003.

The show was at the Champlain Valley Exposition in Essex Junction, about 45 minutes or so from Sugarbush.  Four of us piled in and rode up to Essex together, meeting another 10-15 friends there.  The parking lot was a scene just like I had remembered it from the 50+ Phish shows I’ve been to, between 1995 and 2003, however there seemed to be more drinking involved this go-around.  We went into the show and headed for the “lawn” just as the set began with Chalkdust Torture.  I lost my friends during the walk to find a good spot, but would recover them about 2 songs later.  We watched most of the second set, then retreated to the beer garden, running into more of our group there.  Returning back into the field area for the second set, it was just like old times, hearing the songs I loved, watching the moon rise higher into the sky, and of course, the epic light show and the tossing of glowsticks.

Here was the setlist, courtesy phish.net:

Set 1: Chalk Dust Torture, The Moma Dance > NICU, Funky Bitch, Sample in a Jar, Cavern, Bathtub Gin, Alaska > Possum, Wolfman’s Brother > Julius
Set 2: Carini^[1] > Down with Disease^[1] > Slave to the Traffic Light > Rock and Roll > Twist >Backwards Down the Number Line, Theme From the Bottom > Suzy Greenberg > Character Zero
Encore: Loving Cup
Afterwards, we regrouped at the car, and after some rearranging of seats, we managed to get on the road and home by 1:30am.  It was a great show and all for a great cause.  Does this mean I’m back on the Phish tour wagon?  Well, maybe, if they come back to Vermont again!

Irene – August 28, 2011

On the evening of August 27, you  never would have known a hurricane / tropical storm was going to slam into Vermont the very next day, causing devastation and destruction in the form of severe flooding the likes of which the state had not seen since 1927.  Despite the oncoming storm, I ventured out to the Champlain Valley Fair with several friends.  There, we watched Lynyrd Skynyrd, ate, drank, and all-around enjoyed the evening.

The next day I woke up around noon to rain falling, which was coming down heavy at times.  It was windy as well, and we lost power on the mountain a few times.  It wasn’t until the next day when I learned we were an island, with no routes available to get off the mountain.  Monday morning, those who showed up for their shift at the golf course were those who lived within 2 miles.  There was no way down the Access Road or German Flats.  We were trapped.

Storm damage from the course was limited to some trees and branches down, one bridge with a small washout, and a culvert with a large washout which narrowed the cart path considerably.  We grabbed our gators, loaded up debris, while Dave managed to make it in and cut down the trees which were blocking the paths.  By the mid afternoon hours, you could hardly tell anything had happened.

Reports began to filter in of the situation elsewhere in the state.  Later in the afternoon, we found out there was a way off the mountain, but the Valley had sustained severe damage.  To our north in Moretown and Waterbury, and to our south in Granville, Rochester, Stockbridge, and Killington, the damage was catastrophic.  Numerous towns would remain cut off from the outside world for nearly a week, bridges and roads were washed away, and historic covered bridges were deemed unsafe, and in the case of the Bartonsville covered bridge, completely washed away.

On Tuesday we were able to head into Moretown to see the damage.  From reports of residents, the water level rose so fast and came up to the first floor windows along Route 100B in the center of town.  The river here is way down in a gorge, so its amazing to see how high the water came up.

Residents throughout the state of Vermont have pulled together to help out their neighbors and friends.  Volunteers have been helping out those less fortunate, donations have been pouring in, and social media sites such as Facebook have become valuable tools in the distribution of resources and for those looking to help.  I’m proud to live in a state where neighbors help neighbors in time of need.

I have a complete photo gallery of shots I took in Moretown and Waterbury on my Facebook page.  If you’re not already a friend, go to www.facebook.com/shadyjay.

Amtrak 40th Anniversary Train at Union Station, Burlington VT

I finished my morning duty of the grounds crew at the Sugarbush Golf Course by 9am and was on the road to Burlington to check out Amtrak’s 40th Anniversary Exhibit Train.  The Burlington stop was added as part of the nationwide tour – if it had not come to Burlington, I would’ve checked the train out in New Haven, CT back in July.  But seeing the train in Vermont is a lot better than in Connecticut, and the waterfront area of Burlington is great exposure for the train.

I parked up on the garage on Church Street around 10am and walked down to Union Station.  The locomotives on the train were facing south, and the train’s consist included a former 10&6 sleeper (used as a crew car), 3 baggage cars set up with displays, and a cafe car converted for use as the anniversary store.  Outside, the train is clad in Phase III paint (equal width red/white/blue stripes) which was common on Amtrak trains from the 1980s through the early 1990s.  Inside, the display cars show the history of Amtrak via memorabilia, vintage ads, seat and dining car displays, HO scale Amtrak trains, Amtrak horns exhibit, and more.  The displays were really well done, but some of the manequins were kind of creepy – there were a lot of them, too.  The anniversary store car had a lot of merchandise available and at reasonable prices too.  I picked up a t-shirt for $15 and the anniversary book & dvd combo for $40.
Outside, the air was heavy with humidity and you could tell it would rain within the hour.  After a brief stop through the lower level of Union Station (which had a HO scale layout, plus some tables for Vermont Rail Network and such), I headed back up the hill towards Church Street, bought a badly-needed new pair of sneakers, and headed back to the Mad River Valley.

Some photos are below…. for a link to the complete photo gallery, check out my Picasa photo gallery here:  (link fixed 8/22, PM)  http://picasaweb.google.com/shadyjayvt/Amtrak40thAnniversaryExhibitTrain

Photos 2 & 3 below will go full size if you click on them

Mayhem Fest! 7/22/2011 – Great Woods

It has been a few years since I’ve been to any big outdoor concert or festival.  I think my last one was Ozzfest around 2003 or 2004 before I moved to Vermont.  But when a coworker of mine convinced me to go to the Mayhem Festival down in Massachusetts, I had a desire to tear some shit up.  But could I get the day off from work, after having gotten the previous weekend off completely?  Luckily, I convinced my supervisor that he owed me, gave the go-ahead to Ryan to order the tickets, and after a morning shift on Friday July 22, at 9am we were on our way to the Comcast Center in Mansfield, MA.

This was the lineup for the day… ** indicates those bands we watched:

JAGERMEISTER STAGE:
Deadseason – 1:45
Red Fang – 2:35 **
Kingdom of Sorrow – 3:35 **
Unearth – 4:35 **
In Flames – 5:40  **

REVOLVER STAGE:
Straight Line Stitch – 2:05 **
All Shall Perish – 3:05
Suicide Silence – 4:05
Machine Head – 5:05

ROCKSTAR ENERGY DRINK MAIN STAGE:
Trivium – 6:25
Megadeth – 7:15  **
Godsmack – 8:30 **
Disturbed – 9:55 **

When we got to the grounds of the Comcast Center (ironically, where I saw my first major outdoor show back in 1995 – Phish – at what was then called “Great Woods”), it was 100 degrees.  We got there not long after doors had opened and caught several acts on the secondary stages.  On the Revolver stage, we caught Straight Line Stitch, then moved to the Jagermeister Stage (right next to the Revolver Stage), for Kingdom of Sorrow (during which the vocals went out briefly), Unearth, and In Flames, with a half hour break in between each.  All 3 were off the charts, and our position for each of these was about 4 rows back from the barricades, and at the edge of the circle pit.  We all were doing a bit of moshing at times, and the other times, pushing what seemed like 50+ people over our heads crowdsurfing.  A couple of people I just launched over the crowd to the waiting security guards to catch them.  It was unreal and something I’ve never experienced on that level before  (I wasn’t nearly as close for Ozzfest, and other shows there was some crowd surfing but nothing like this).

The hot sun was brutal but luckily there were a couple of “cooling stations” which were nothing more than a hose spraying water and us all running through.  Bottled water was $4.50, Gatorade was $6, and there was a Rockstar Energy Drink tent giving away free cans of Rockstar.  This was also one of my first shows which I didn’t have any beer – not because of the price (though it was $9.50 or so for a beer), but because of the heat.  We both felt content with just water or gatorade.  The sun was also roasting my back and I’m sure I’m not the only one who was at that show that is presently feeling the effects of sunburn.

Here are a few shots from the Mayhem Festival’s Flickr page from this show… if you look in the first shot about 3 rows in front of the security staff (in the yellow shirts), that’s how close we were.  Ryan’s in that shot… I’m somewhere in that sea of sweat but haven’t pinpointed my exact location yet.

After the Jager and Revolver Stage acts were concluded, we all filtered towards the pavillion area.  By this time, the sun had receaded to a point where it was not blazing the lawn, and we found ourselves a spot to watch Megadeth and Godsmack from.  The peaceful serenity of the lawn was a complete 180 from the standing in the sun and the pit of earlier in the day.  Godsmack put on one hell of a good show – it was their hometown show since they are from Boston.  Partway through Disturbed, we decided to head for the exit and get a jump on the road, by this point it was 10:30pm.  Headin’ for the exit, I decided to plunk down $25 for an official 2011 Mayhem Festival shirt.  It was then on the road, stopping for gas and McDonalds, on our trip north back to Vermont.

By the time we arrived back in the Mad River Valley, it was around 3:30am.  Holy shit – what a show.  I’m glad I went and thank Ryan for convincing me to go.  He had told me it would be the highlight of my summer… and I think it most definitely was!

From the Mayhem Festival Web Site, here are pics and a video from the day:

http://rockstarmayhemfest.com/blog/id/1844913

There’s A New King In Town… And It Ain’t Me!

On Tuesday July 12, I was forced to pass off my “crown” of Taco King of the Mad River Valley to my friend and fellow competitor Shawn Fuschetto.  Shawn came in 2nd place in the 2010 competition, stopping at 25 tacos.  This year, however, he one-upped me, as I could not go higher than my personal best of 27.  So what caused my downfall?

One word …. TEQUILLA

Shawn had warned me of some tricks up the sleaves of those who created the contest.  Little did I know that a mandatory tequilla shot at the start of the competition would lead to 2 more within the next hour or so.  I’m not a tequilla fan, and while there was no “second tasting of tacos” during the competition, my stomach became too upset to bring home 1st place.

As I was struggling with #27, Shawn was working on his #28.  There was just 10 minutes to go.  I thought of stalling with my 27th taco until the end, as Shawn was watching to see how much farther I had to go.  If I could finish #27 and Shawn couldn’t finish his 28th when the clock struck 8:30, then we’d be all tied up.  But then I thought of what the tiebreaker could be.  More tequilla?  It was at that point where I conceeded, with about 5 minutes remaining.

My prize:  a PBR Hammock, which I have already gotten a lot of use out of.  Shawn took home the rocking chair.  We once again both got the prizes we wanted, but this year, with a reversal of title.  Congrats to Shawn for being #1 this year.

And for those who think I’ll go and try to reclaim my title in 2012…. my decision is that I am officially retired from competitive eating.

Trip to Connecticut – 7/15-7/17/2011

It has been a while since I last made the trek down to Connecticut to see my family.  In fact, Christmas was my last trip down and was a hectic trip (with the holidays, weather, and whatnot).  I was debating whether or not to go down for the Deep River Muster (July 16) or my Family Reunion (July 23), but seeing as how my brother would be up from New York City and that most of the family I wanted to see would be at the Muster, I chose that weekend.

I got out of work early on Friday July 15 and headed south on VT 100 to VT 107, picking up I-89 in Royalton.  My first stop was West Lebanon, NH to go to Walmart to pick up a few things.  When I came out, the West Lebanon police were questioning why I had left my dog in the truck with the windows up.  (a couple of years earlier, on the way back from Christmas, the West Lebanon police had to assist me with getting into my locked, running vehicle since my dog had jumped up and locked me out).  After a few minutes, I was soon back on the road and on the way down south, arriving at my dad’s house some 3 or so hours later.

Saturday was the Deep River Ancient Fife & Drum Muster.  If you don’t know what it is, basically you stand on the streetcorner and watch a parade of fife & drum corps go by while drinking.  I’ve been going to the Muster ever since I was little, and one tradition that has remained constant is the bagpipers stopping to play happy birthday to my grandmother (she turned 86 this year).  Most years, a second stop is made for another “Happy Birthday”, and this year was no exception.  After the parade, we retreated back to the house for a relatively quiet evening.

The next morning, Sunday, I had all intentions of going on a train ride out of Canaan, CT to Great Barrington, MA and return.  This ride would allow me to complete all rail mileage of the “Berkshire Line” from Danbury CT to Pittsfield MA.  However I opted out of it, since it would have delayed my trip back to Vermont by some 3 hours, and I wanted to get home with enough time to relax and get a descent night’s sleep, as I had to be in to work at 7am the next morning.  So instead of the train trip, I hit I-91 and headed back for Vermont.

It was great seeing my family, many of whom I haven’t seen since Christmas.  Since this winter I may have to work Christmas, I’m not sure when my next trip down south will be.  But it was a good time and glad I got to go to the Muster.

Summer Hiking Series #2: Sugarbush – Lincoln Peak, Mt Abraham, Castlerock 7/10/2011

On July 10, I finally got a chance to go out for my second hike of the season.  Yes, I know, I’m lagging behind my hiking marathon of last summer.  To date, I have only hiked some 12 miles, whereas one year ago I was up to nearly 50.  But I digress…

There wasn’t a cloud in the sky as I disembarked from the Super Bravo at the top of Gadd Peak at Sugarbush at about 11:10am.  The hike up Jester to the summit went pretty well, accomplished in about a half an hour, though I noticed the back of my feet were killing me.  I was wearing my new hiking boots and socks and I would discover later that two blisters had developed on the back of each foot – guess I need to break the new boots in some more.

When I reached the top of Lincoln Peak, I went over my options in my head.  Should I head north on the Long Trail to Mt Ellen and then back to Lincoln Peak and down?  Should I head south to Mt Abraham, then go north from there?  I decided on the latter, mainly because I have never hiked up Mt Abraham and had a view – all other times I’ve been in the clouds and fog.  Would I see the views that my Long Trail Guide claim are one of the best on the whole Long Trail?

So after a little time on the summit of Lincoln Peak, I headed south to Mt Abraham, which I arrived at about 15 minutes or so later.  The views were excellent, though there was a little bit of a crowd up there…. kind of reminded me of Camel’s Hump on a nice weekend.  After a few pictures, I returned north, passing over Lincoln Peak, and arriving at Castlerock.  Again, noting that my feet were uncomfortable, I decided to forgoe the Mt Ellen roundtrip and just head straight down Castlerock to the base.  I started down Castlerock Run, diverged onto Hi & Lo Road, then back to Castlerock Run before taking Troll Road to the base of the lift, then down the Runout.

It was shortly after 2pm when I arrived at the base area of Lincoln Peak.  Total mileage for the hike came in at about 6.5 miles.  It was then time for a delicious lunch at Castlerock Pub before heading the 3/4 mile back home.