Hiking

One of my favorite things to do when it's not winter is go hiking. Normally spring is the worst for it's lack of hiking and lack of skiing. Mud season makes the trails very muddy (surprise surprise). Hiking through mud isn't only obnoxious for the hiker but it's bad for the trail too. If you can avoid hiking when it's wet in the woods you should.

I'm going to drop some Leave No Trace (LNT) knowledge on you right now. LNT are principles and guidelines which help to maintain our beloved nature spots. The thing that LNT principles don't want you to do is leave an impact on an area. Nobody likes getting to a campsite or hiking a trail and seeing it full of litter, or the remains of an excessively large bon fire. Obviously littering, cutting down trees, and picking endangered plants would be considered leaving an impact. But other things which are just as important, such as staying on the trail, only having fires in designated fire areas and also camping at least 300 feet from the trail if you're not camping in a designated campsite also help keep the places we love pristine. One big rule about LNT is staying on the trail while hiking. If the trail is wet many people have a tendency to go around the puddle/ mud. This is wrong. You're actually supposed to walk through the mud or puddle. Think of it this way, the more people walk on the sides of a puddle the more erosion takes place and the larger the puddle becomes. If everyone just walked through it (your boots should all be water proof anyway) the puddle doesn't get larger. When people don't walk through the puddle or on the trail it actually makes the trail wider. Some might say 'well that's ok that the trail is 2 ft instead of 18 inches.' No this is not ok, trails aren't meant to be super highways for hikers. They are meant to get people into the wilderness. If you likes boardwalks and pavement to go Yellowstone and tour some hot springs. Going back to muddy trails. If it's spring you're not recommended to be in the woods at all on the trails. Reason being, it's so muddy that your impact is much greater than normal. When the mud dries it leaves the trail rutted and pot holed for pretty much the entire summer. When this happens on a repeated basis someone has to go in and do some maintenance on the trail. It is easier just to encourage people to not use these trails than to constantly do maintenance on them.

So for reasons stated above, I generally don't go hiking in the spring. But since this year has been an odd year as far as weather, the woods were pretty dry as well, I decided I'd go. A couple of friends I work with I told them that up the backside of Okemo was a trail that starts in Mt Holly, goes up the mountain to the fire tower on the Southface peak and there's 360 views. It's not a very well known trial and doesn't generally get the same attention as others in the area because it's not connected with the Long Trail/ Appalachian. But it is still a favorite of mine just because it was always so close. I've been a few times most recently two years ago with my dog Buster. My friends suggested that we go together. I thought this was a pretty good idea. So we parked a car on one side of the mountain and drove over to the other side to start.

Okemo is a round trip 6 mile hike. It is steep in sections and I wouldn't suggest bringing small children or people who are out of shape on this hike. It is mildly strenuous. We hiked at about a 30 minute mile including breaks. This might seem slow but the trail is very steep and it takes a lot more energy to walk straight up than it does to walk on level ground. Hiking is like skiing and can get very zen, where your mind kind of gets quiet. Being in the woods also is something I very much enjoy and to see the forest waking up after the winter was cool. We climbed the fire tower and found that it was very windy at the top, my ears hurt and it was chilly. Great vistas though. My friends and I walked down the trails and realized in some places that there was still quite a bit of snow/ ice, but it wasn't impassable.

Overall a great day! Much needed break from the stress of leaving the area.