Ireland Vacation

We have arrived and are on tour in Dublin!! Left Boston Logan airport on Wednesday evening for a  flight across the pond which was uneventful, arriving about 8 AM. We could not check into the Ashling Hotel until 3 pm so we dropped off our bags and took the tram into O'Connell Street to grab our Hop on Hop off Tour bus. The picture above is of St. Patrick's Cathedral under grey skies. Our sunny arrival had turned to light afternoon sprinkles. Toured Dublin by bus checking out the places we wanted to see on Friday and were back in the Hotel for a nap by 3 pm. 

We went out for dinner in a restaurant called the Church, which was in an old Church, built in 1700 with lots of stained glass and old wood with a beautiful organ still in place, Guinness was married here in 1761, We ate on a balcony that ran down both sides of the church and the food was very good. 

Friday we started our tour with a visit to Trinity college, the oldest College in Ireland founded by Elizabeth I in 1562. It was an all male college util 1903 when women were finally allowed entrance. 

Above is the entrance gate to the Quad. A fourth year student in a brown frock coat gave us a tour of the grounds and then we stood in line to see the Book of Kells. We walked in through a small well illuminated exhibit of the Book, it's history and with views of various pages. The manuscript has been bound into 4 separate volumes, and at any given time 2 of the four gospels are on display. There were 2 text pages and 2 decorated pages. Ellen & I were both a little disappointed by the pictures that were on display. They were very detailed in dark browns and blacks with only a couple of small colored sections. The pages are only turned every 3 months.

No pictures allowed in the Treasury, but when you come out, you come into the 200 footlong main   chamber of the old library. The books are arranged by size from the top of the stacks to the bottom with the smallest at the top. Quite impressive and students can still check out books here.

We left Trinity and hoped on the bus for Christ Church Cathedral. It occupies the same site as the 1040 wooden church built by King Sitric in viking times and is the reputed tomb of Strongbow, the English  warlord who invaded Ireland. We had lunch in the Crypt and then on to St. Patricks Cathedral.

After a walk around the nave we hopped back on the bus for our last stop of the day the Guinness brewery at St. James Gate. The brewery tour no longer goes through the brewery but thru a modern display with videos and pictures describing the history and making of Stout. It is now not only made in Ireland but also under contract in 50 other countries. There are 3 varieties, one for Ireland and England, one for export to the US and Europe and the one with the most hops and alcohol to the Caribbean and Africa.

After the Guinness tour we walked back to our hotel for a rest before dinner at the Porterhouse, one of the oldest pubs in Dublin and now the home of the most craft beers. This ends our Dublin tour Saturday we depart for Westport and the western part of Ireland. It will be the first day driving in Ireland.

Pharaoh Lake Wilderness

    After last year's successful hike in Virginia with Tim we decided that we would get together again for another backpacking adventure. This year we headed to Adirondack park and the Pharaoh Lake Wilderness Area. The criteria for this year's hike was for an easy day hikes, with no early morning departures and ending at a pond or lake for fishing. A loop in the Pharaoh Lake Wilderness Area ticked all the boxes. Three 6 mile days and with a 2 mile finish, only one peak to climb, Pharaoh Mountain 2558', (1457' of actual climbing) and lots of ponds to fish.

     So on July 6, Tim, Sean & I left Williamstown and headed north to the Pharaoh Wilderness Area and started our hike around 2 pm under threatening skies. I realized shortly after we crossed the pond in the picture above, that  I hadn't taken the camera, so Timothy volunteered to go back and get it. The video that follows, materialized after we returned home, and loaded the pictures onto the computer.

Rain coats were put on and we ducked into Little Rock Pond Shelter as the skies opened up with lots of noise and bright flashes for about half an hour. When the rain stopped we headed off on the Lilly Pond trail. This trail did not seem to have had a lot of use. It was quite overgrown and with the recent rain, our shorts were drenched from walking through all the underbrush. Around 6 pm we arrived at Crab Pond where Sean found us a nice campsite for the evening. Tim and I  set up our hammocks and Sean his tent. 

 Tim got the best site hanging right on the edge of the pond. There was about a 5 foot drop to the water with lots of lilly pads, so the fishing poles did not get a lot of work. We had dinner around 8, watched the sunset, and settled in to listen to the loons for a while and then the frogs singing all night.

July 7 we were up and on the trail by 9:30 am for our hardest day, climbing Pharaoh Mountain. For me it was very slow going, between the heat and the bugs. In the Blue Hills outside of Boston I normally average around 2 miles an hour. On this trip I was barely doing one and all my planning had been for the 2 mph that I thought I would be able to do.

After about 4 1/2 hours we stopped for lunch on a ledge overhanging the side of the mountain.

The bugs were not too bad and the views were great. After lunch and a short hike we were on the top. The trail markers and the signs made trail following especially easy. All the trails and junctions were well marked through out the Wilderness except for on the top of Pharaoh Mountain. We had to scramble around a bit before we found the highest point and then spent a while trying to find the trail down.

 The trail guide says that the trail down is lightly used and after a short distance it be came quite apparent why.

We came to a point where the boys had stopped and the trail seemed to have stopped as well. Sheer rock going up on my right and a shear drop going down on my left and Sean & Tim in front of me trying to decide what to do. There was an 8 foot drop to the trail. The packs came off and Timothy climbed down. We passed the packs down, tossed the hiking sticks and Sean & I gingerly climbed down. It was not easy. More drops followed but none as steep. I am not sure what I would have done if we were going up the trail rather than down. I was actually quite pleased in the direction that I decided to run the loop after going down this trail. 3 hours later we were at the bottom. and made the decision to go to Watch Clock Rock Shelter. This appears to be the new name for Pharaoh Lake #5 as listed on the National Geographic Map. Pharaoh #6 no longer exists.

Sean got the best tent site this time right on the end of the point with good views all around and the fire nearby. Not having any trees on the end, (which some of my friends are concerned about), we had to move back a bit, but still managed to find trees alongside the pond. There were 2 families and a single girl with her dog nearby, so I was happy to be off in the woods a bit.The guys did some evening fishing, we had dinner around the campfire, with a few spirits to help settle the evening, and then off to bed after a nice sunset, with loons on the pond and  frogs croaking all night.

 

  July 8 we awoke to red skies  and a beautiful  beginning of another day of hiking . I have always taken the sailors rhyme of "Red skies at night, Sailors delight, Red Skies in the morning, Sailors take warning" Red skies in the morning usually means inclement weather within 24 hours, but we also had a red sky the previous evening so there was a little confusion on the weather prediction.

 

We had breakfast, fished a while longer, many fish were caught, (I was told this later on in the morning while we were stopped for lunch),while I was packing up my hammock and pack. We were on the trail around 10 headed for our last camp site on Grizzle Ocean.  The bugs were the worst.  You could not stop for more than a few minutes before the mosquitoes and deer flies were all over you. Long pants and long sleeve shirts were the order of the day. We walked around the lake and had a good view of our last evenings campsite.

Thursday's campsite on the rocky point across the pond

At the end of the lake the Adirondack Trail crew was rerouting the trail and building a bridge over a stream. It was interesting watching one of the crew cut a notch in a log with an adz.  We went out onto Wintergreen Point for lunch, a swim and some more fishing. It was the first time I've encountered black flies which were really terrible and to top it off my big toe was chomped on by something while I was swimming. Quick in the water Quick back under cover. Tim caught the only fish here, and then back on the trail again.

 

We arrived at Grizzle Ocean Shelter around 5 pm. Tim & I set up down by the pond and Sean put his tent up on the hill. We all took an afternoon nap and then set up for the evenings special dinner of fried salmon cakes with couscous , rice and hominy.

We all enjoyed the last campfire and  retired for the evening before the rains came down. The next day Sean & Tim practiced casting for a while before we packed up and hiked the 2 miles back to the car. You can see all the pictures from the hike if you click on the "Pharaoh Lake Wilderness Hike" filed under "stuff to look at" in the right hand column of the blog.

Tripod on the AT in Maine

Fall foliage starting in Rangeley Maine

This was a re-supply trip and my last chance to camp out in the woods with Spoon and friends. I arrived at the trailhead at 2pm on Sunday to find Spoon a bit muddy, waiting with friends. We passed out some home made cookies and loaded up for the trip into Rangeley. The original plan was to do a grocery shop to augment the supplies I brought up and then head out to the shelter, but Timothy was ready for a night off, so we found a motel in Rangeley for the night. As it turned out one of his hiking friends, Zamboni, was also staying in the same place having taken a couple of days off to recover from a bout of the flu. Then we drove back out to the trailhead and picked up his 2 other friends, Joker and Watermelon, who we took to a hostel. I did a lot of shuffling on this trip, moving 4 guys around with gear, from our motel, their hostel, which was outside of town, and the town of Rangeley.

Rangeley Maine

 When we headed out for dinner that evening at a Thai restaurant  we added another hiker Connecticut Bob, who actually was from Boston and we had mutual friends from the Blue Hills. On Monday morning Tim did laundry in the morning and we packed up, did some gear shopping, picked up more food at the local IGA and headed to the trailhead with Zamboni for our 1.8 mile hike to the Piazza Rock leanto. Watermelon, who was waiting for a mail drop at the Post Office, and Joker who was waiting for a FedEx from his bank, were to join up with us later on.

Bridge on Trail

Spoon under Piazza Rock

At the trail head we ran into the Barbarian Utopia, whom I have been hearing stories about for a while and who were headed into the IGA for a quick re-supply. The Barbarian Utopia consists of a father, Tecolote and his 8 year old son, Venado, who Tim has run into on a number of occasions as they have been working their way north. Passed out some more much appreciated cookies and then it was an easy hike for the 3 of us out to the shelter. Just one small hill and then a nice stroll thru the woods. We set up our hammocks, got a fire started, and waited for the others to show up and then went up to explore Piazza Rock.We were on the top of the rock, where I took some pictures that really did not show anything. Afterwards we discovered this view and I tried to convince Spoon & Zamboni to climb back up and sit on the edge, but I couldn't get any takers. Back in camp Watermelon came in first followed by Joker and a little while later the Barbarian Utopia. Set up the grill for some Bratwurst which Joker had brought out, and washed them down with some peppermint Schnaps which Spoon lugged out.

Venado and Tecolote logging their stay

The Piazza Rock shelter had a caretaker who was paid by the Maine Appalachian Mountain Club. He worked 40 hours per week, 10 days on 4 days off and was responsible for the trail from RT 17 to the top of Saddleback. He recorded visitors to the shelter, did trail maintenance, gave us information on the local wildlife, ( he expected a moose and her 2 calves to show up), made sure the privy was clean, walked the trail daily and slept in a large tent up in the woods. His term of stay was coming to a close. Caretakers are not in residence in the winter.

Exactly as listed in the Guide Book

The privy is listed in the Guide Book as a 2 seater with a cribbage board in between. We all agreed that it would be hard to find someone to play cribbage with. No cards and missing one peg,( which would be easy to find). I have some friends who are really big into cribbage and whom I would be happy to give directions to find this location.

We got up around 7 am after a cold night in the woods, ( the temperature dropped into the low thirties), and discovered that the Barbarian Utopia had already been up,  had breakfast and left. They walk slow, they leave early, I was told. After breakfast and packing up, I was off for home and they for 17 miles to the next shelter on the other side of Saddleback Mountain.   They are having a hard time coming to the realization that this adventure is going to be over in 2 weeks. We wish them the best of luck and that the weather improves for them for the rest of their journey. Too much rain, mud, cold, slippery rocks so far in Maine. Looks like we will be heading to Katahdin in early October for the final climb.

Watermelon, Joker, Spoon, Zamboni