Hiking in the Humidity

Jim and the crew built a camp up in Weld.  The owner was going to be away for the weekend and offered it to us.  Since our dogs are so unpredictable and so darn destructive, and since the camp is so nice (I would not classify it as a camp - more like a really, really nice small house on Webb Lake), we opted to just go and check it out, drink a beer and then take off.  Jim wanted me to see all his and his co-workers' work.  It is a nice place; they did a good job.  I went right for the dock - that is me out there with Mt. Blue.  

Dog Days of Summer.

Wednesdays are hiking days.  Emily and I have a standing plan to meet and hike on these days - rain or shine.  On this particular Wednesday (June 26) we opted for Puzzle Mountain.  It was HUMID.  Man, that word does not cover it.  I think I am beginning to adjust just a bit, but I still am not enjoying it.  You know, the perspective of a child is so different than that of an adult.  Perhaps my lack of work, lack of manual labor, lack of responsibility is what pleasurably colors my childhood perspective of summer weather.  My memory seems so clear.  I remember humidity, for sure, remember sitting in front of a box fan, not moving, practically panting.  And as well as I remember that, I also remember these cleansing thunderstorms, when the new, dryer air mass would collide with the humid, dense mass and cause a serious storm.  After the thunder, the wind, the lightening and the struggle, the dryer mass would win out and I would feel the air change.  Unfortunately, that has not been the case this summer.  Our only break from the heat is when it rains.  This summer it seems as though it has either been 90 degrees with dew points in the 70s or it has been raining buckets.  I can't wait around for the weather to cooperate, and I am thankful I have several friends who feel the same way.  We just have to go - get out there, bring the Gore-Tex and the bathing suit - and go.  Go we did.  Only saw one other out there, Bill, the maintainer of the trail and the man who took Jim hiking when Jim was a boy.  I had never met him, only heard about him, so it was pretty cool to say, after introducing ourselves with first names, "Oh, you know my husband."  

Old Speck to the left - Bald Pates to the right.

This rain has made the brooks, streams and rivers beautiful (and blissfully cold).  This is the stream that runs behind Titcomb Mountain.  Typically it is a trickle; typically I don't bother walking beside it in the summer.  But this summer it has babbled along, adding sound and energy to these ferny woods I walk so often.

Another benefit of the rains - wildflowers abound.

Wild strawberries - the biggest I have seen.

For this past Wednesday's hike (July 3), we only had a small amount of time to hike, so we opted for Blueberry in Weld.  There was an inversion.  Clouds both below and above us.  We never saw Big Jackson, but Webb Lake was hidden to start and out by the time we left.  Looking toward Roxbury.

On the right - that is Bald and Saddleback in Weld; the summits are above the clouds.

Phoenix - should be able to see Webb Lake in this shot...

And there it is - the clouds were lifting as we visited on the summit.

To head home, I opted to go through Philips to check out my regular swimming spot.  Would not have gone in there; it was raging.  Jim and I swam there on the 4th, but not up here near the rocks, down lower in an easier spot to stay safe.

Summah!