Over the weekend I had a fun adventure with my swim friends and doing some solo hiking! There's a summer swim fest at the same place as the winter one and a group of us went for the event. I didn't swim, instead I kayaked for a friend who did a 5K and for the 1 mile swimmers, which was so fun!
On the drive up I took a little detour to do Table Rock, which is on the terrifying 25 hikes of the White Mountains list. I did a short route up - just 1.5 miles, and only 750 feet elevation gain. It actually wasn't too hard, though of course I was still breathing hard and glad to get to the top. The big thing with this hike is the rock at the top - it's maybe 4 feet wide, maybe 20 feet long, and about 100 feet straight down on both sides. I got about 10 feet from the end before I started thinking too much, and crouching lower and lower to the ground. I didn't completely think I was going to make it to the end, so I wasn't too disappointed, though I did give it like 3 tries. Then I had a delicious cheese sandwich at the top and hiked on down. By doing the hike on the way up to the swim, I didn't drive 3.5 hours for a 1.5 hour hike (good choice me) and I got to take some of the back roads to get to Lake Memphremagog, which I also liked. It's so nice out there!
We camped at a really nice place in Vermont, which turned out to be where the races left from. Two thumbs up, would definitely do again. I just got a new inflatable mattress, and it was so lux. We stayed for three nights, and had a fire each night. Really fun!
On the second day I hiked Mt. Pisgah, which is about 30 minutes from the campground. I took the North Trail because the trailhead was closer to the campground. Very random reason, but they both sounded good. Also enjoyed this hike - the trail up was steady uphill, but there were
switchbacks for some of it, and only a couple really uphill bits. On the way up they seemed to take forever, but on the way down they weren't so bad. There were 4 viewpoints at the top, all of them really nice, but the first two were the best. I was so hungry when I got to the first one that I ate my sandwich (white bread, cheese and avocado. So good!) The hike down was pretty easy - in fact I did both of the hikes in book time.
That evening we went to the pasta dinner at the race place. Honestly, I don't love their favorite restaurant and my stomach was a little upset after eating. Then, I must have walked through some kind of bug's nest or something, because after we got back to the campsite my feet were itching so badly I didn't know what to do. When we looked at them, they had swollen up like crazy and someone had to go get me Benadryl to make them stop. Fortunately by the time we went to bed they were only a little itchy, and they were fine the next day.
Race day was so fun - I loved being the kayaker. My friend had rented a kayak for me to use, and I have to say it did work better than my folding one. It was pretty fun to zip around in the water, though mostly I lazed along because my job was to guide her along the route and swimming is just going to be slower than kayaking. She did so well - she didn't even train and swam 5K in 2 hours and 10 minutes. After we had to stand in line for over a half hour for the race lunch, and it wasn't that good. Note to self - bring a sandwich next time. The other two people I went with did the 1 mile race, and I kayaked for that. It was so fun being the person in the yak being supportive of others. There was one woman who was really the slowest, and so after everyone else finished I went back and met with her and another kayaker and cheered her on. I would totally do that again.
Definitely a fun weekend, would do again for sure! Except for the bugs...
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