It's New Year's Eve. Not to compare, but last year on New Year's Eve I was on a sailboat in the Andaman sea, with stars everywhere, squid boats, and bioluminescent algae. I fell asleep most nights around 8:00-9:00 pm on the deck to the gentle rocking of the boat. And went snorkeling during the days in pristine reefs. But this year I have my cats and we are all on the couch and I'm going to do yoga at home. By myself. OK, so not the best year, but I wanted to end on a positive note. I went to Mt. Major for a quick little hike.
I got started a little late because I didn't plan it until after I got up. I was drinking coffee, looking at the cold and gloomy weather and thought, "WTH?!" I decided I would just drive up and back without stopping, be socially distant, wear a mask, and get in a nice short hike - Mt. Major has been so crowded, but I figured it wouldn't be too bad today since it's a Thursday, cold, and wintery. And I might be able to add Straightback, another one of the Belknaps.
I didn't get there until about 1 pm, which is pretty late to start hiking when it gets dark at 4:15 pm. But I knew from previous hikes that it only takes about 3 hours to do Mt. Major. So, I figured it was OK. For some reason, even though I had my microspikes, I refused to put them on until I was about 3/4 of the way up the mountain. About when I saw this bad boy:
Once I put my spikes on, I was able to go a lot faster :) It was a pretty nice hike - on the way up I wore my ninja hoodie, a t-shirt and my big puff, along with these awesome new fleece-lined tights that I got from a place called Spandits in Maine (expensive, but made in Maine, super cute, and very warm - they seem high quality, so hopefully I will be wearing with my ninja hoodie for year's to come)! I started out with gloves and a hat, but took them off on the way up - it got pretty warm.
There was this group of teenagers hiking, the girls all had on tennis shoes and no socks, with jeans and thin jackets. I wanted to tell them to turn around. There were a fair number of other hikers, but it wasn't too bad - like I'm sure it's been in the summer. Because I refused to put on my spikes, it did take me 65 minutes to get to the top. Where the view was, as always, stunning.
The top was windy, freezing and not great for a long stop. I took a few photos, looked at the view, and headed off. I couldn't decide about Straightback, and figured I would make a final decision once I got to the turn. When I got there, I was like "It's taken me an hour and 25 minutes to get here, it's 2:30. It's almost 2 miles down and it's slippery out and it will be dark in less than two hours. Bad idea to do Straightback." And then I turned down the trail for Straightback. I got about a tenth of a mile when I decided that it really was a stupid idea, the mountain would be there on another day when it was light out, and turned back. I did have my headlamp, but no extra layers really. I was pretty sure I would be walking out after dark, and it just seemed like a bad idea for real. I was kind of annoyed with myself for starting so late, but what can you do? It's a really nice hike and I will be happy to do it again, adding Straightback when it's light out.
I headed down and out, which took less time than I thought it would (since I had my microspikes on). In the end I probably would have made it out before dark, but I'm glad that I turned around. It was a nice hike, good to be out there, not a difficult drive up. I stopped at Whole Foods on the way back and spent so much money on IDK what - how can one bag of groceries cost that much?? But whatever, it's NYE and we need to celebrate somehow. Happy New Year to my reader(s) aka Kit! Here's to a better 2021.
