Jennifer Pharr Davis

I have previously mentioned that Jennifer Pharr Davis is an acquaintance of mine. Link below (from 10! years ago) that mentions some of her accomplishments. I'm not sure I'm in the same league, to be calling her a friend. However, I did show you the picture of her speaking at our Celebration last week.



But, she did remember me. She also helped me pick Modestine, "Teeny," when I needed a new pack 3 years ago.

We got to visit a little bit at dinner at Celebration.

I want to take my hat off to her yet again, but this time, not for any feat of hiking (or hiking feet). Most keynote speakers just breeze in and out of conferences. She came a day early, ate with us, took one of the hikes on the NCT the next day to Jones Hill, and then ate dinner with us again just before her talk. That was great, by the way.

Here, she is checking out my End-to-End patches, the new ones and the old one.

I'm currently reading her book, The Pursuit of Endurance. It's an overview of what may motivate long-distance hikers and record-setters. It includes mini bios of a number of people she knows who do this kind of thing over and over. I am not anywhere near the same league as most of them, but I do understand a lot of what she is saying about what makes them tick, their lack of ability to articulate why they want to do these things, and the constant presence of pain as you fulfil goals that you've mentally embraced.

Today, I edited my brains out and also went to the grocery store. Omer came home from his travels. He says he's actually tired.

See Generations of Hikers

Gore Mountain

The afternoon of the day we went to Fort Ticonderoga (September 30), Marie and I did not return to the Celebration on the bus. We played hooky with Larry and went up the Gore Mountain Ski Area gondola. It runs all summer as a tourist attraction, and mountain bikers use the trails too.

The pictures from the gondola aren't as good because the plexiglas was very scratched, but this is looking down the lift.

There is a total of 1700 feet of rise from the bottom to the top. Needless to say, the ski resort has a number of lifts, but this is the popular one for tourists.

Now this is what I call a view! The blue peaks in the distance are the High Peaks. One of them is Marcy [high point in New York]. I could pick it out in person, but in the reduced size picture, I'm not so sure which it is.

Since we could see Gore Mountain from the Moxham Mountain hike, I asked if you could see Moxham from Gore. The lift operator told me where to look on the way down. I think that cliff standing out by itself is Moxham. You know I love figuring out how I fit into the landscape.

The name Gore Mountain has nothing to do with being bloody. At the Adirondack History workshop I attended at the Celebration, we learned that the whole central portion of the Adirondacks was surveyed not on N-S lines, but at a 45 degree angle to that. So where that area adjoins other areas surveyed in the normal manner, there are triangular sections. If you have ever sewed clothes, you probably know what a gored skirt is... a skirt made from triangles. Gores are also inserted in things like sails. Guess what those triangular sections of land were called. Now guess where Gore Mountain is located. I knew you could do it!

Well, ok... there is probably some etomological relationship between the meanings. They both may hark back to German and Old English where various forms of gehre and gar meant a spear or a spearhead, which are triangular, and the use of such an item to gore someone resulted in bloodshed... to be gory.

I edited in the day, and had a program this evening. That's enough for one day!

See Fort Ticonderoga

Best Photos of April 2022

Here are the best of the pictures I took from April 2022. Photo sorting is going slowly, but it's not a high priority at this point.

From April 2022, I've chosen what I think are the 10 best pictures to share. Things were starting to green up, but there was still a ton (or several) of mud. I hiked across Pennsylvania and into New York.

I am saying these pictures are "best," not because they necessarily tell the story best, but because I think they are simply the best actual photographs. I've left them full size, so you can click on them and see them larger. That always makes photos look better. Every single one is tweaked a bit to reduce the blah, flat look of low light sky.

I crossed Pennsylvania and was well into New York in April.

This is The Branch, in Pennsylvania, and it's one of my favorite pictures from the entire hike. Best seen larger. As usual for these photo posts I've left the photos full size so you can click on them.

Of course, there's still the occasional temporary return to winter. Hey, I crossed the Holimont ski slopes in NY on the last day they were open for the season. But this is not the ski area.

I was definitely looking for anything green by then. On a continuous hike, you have to take whatever season you get, but I sure don't care for the brown and gray months. Loved these hummocks of moss.

Maybe I love this moss that grows in tendrils across the rocks like a fern or hemlock boughs even more.

Creeks were starting to run full. This is Tracy Run (you may remember I had concerns crossing it, but made it safely). The challenge did not detract from its beauty.

This is just a wet meadow area at the end of a small pond. The old grasses are bent over, and it's all very subtle, but I like the textures and muted colors.

I left Pennsylvania walking along the Kinzua Reservoir. I love this picture despite the tree down across the trail. My "trail work" sensors get set off, but the rest of me can ignore it for the way this almost glows.

Although Pennsylvania is no slacker in the hill department, you get better views from many of the hills in New York. This is from the ridge above Hickory Hills campground, long-time supporters of the trail. In fact, I camped here on my first hike.

Some of the open-ness of the views is due to agricultural use. Last years cornstalks are often good for an artsy picture. Late afternoon or morning light would have been nicer, but hey. What I got was light at 1:30 in the afternoon. As I always say, I'm a photographer of opportunity not design.

And the layered shale of western NY is always good for patterns. This photo is almost an optical illusion. At first glance it looks like water in a rocky gorge. You may have to look at it larger to see this, but the far "wall" is not rock, but water. Just a study in patterns. This is in Excelsior Glen, very close to my hometown.

Do you think we'll have more colorful pictures for May? One day soon, we'll find out.

I couldn't sleep last night so did some extra work, then slept in, and edited when I got up. Productive, but probably not as fast as I should be making progress.

See Best Photos of March 2022

Sky Day

The sky was impressive this evening. This is actually southeast- the late sun was reflecting off the clouds

All of these pictures were taken over a 20-minute period. I think we are doing a transition from the rainy day to something else. Maybe not sun, but lots of changes happened up there. This is the view south.

Just a sliver of a sunset to the west.

Big changes off to the northwest. All that roiling appeared in a half hour as a black cloud broke up.

But the rain's not over for someone yet!

I edited and did a few other things. My back is still not right. Sigh. I hate that it takes time to recover from whatever sets this off occasionally.

See Hikin' in the Rain

Hikin' in the Rain

To my knowledge there was no singin' or dancin' involved, but hey, we didn't have Gene Kelly along.

However, nine of us decided that rain didn't matter. Two of the people were brand new to our group. We call them Intrepid!

All the rain gear made us a colorful bunch. Koa, Loren, Glen, Steve, and I walked together quite a bit.

Just a tiny maple tree, turned bright red.

The most interesting thing was the way this bracken fern is losing its color. I like the pattern.

I also hunted down an unmarked railroad berm that I've showed you before. I lost all my waypoints when I updated maps. Note- if you use Avenza, it's safest to export your tracks and waypoints that you want to save before you update. Then if they don't come through, you can import them back into the map.

North Country Trail, Freesoil TH to Tyndall Road and back. 5 miles.

See SPW August Hike See that rail berm in winter See When I found it