Hiking to the Summit of Mt. Major, New Hampshire

Mt. Major is known for being a family hike.  When our kids were six, eight, and ten, Steve Adler took our family of five to Mt. Major.  We all scrambled up to the top quite easily.  As a middle school teacher, I was part of a team of teachers that brought 75 seventh graders to the mountaintop.  They all made it.  The cliché goes You can’t give kids self-esteem, they must earn it.  Mt. Major makes them earn it.

Mitch and Paula Sakofs have come to New England for a sensible, not macho hike.  Putting aside my neurotic need for an Olympic challenge kind of hike ("Citius, Altius, Fortius" (faster, higher, stronger), I choose Mt. Major, an hour from our home in York, Maine.  Packing water, energy bars, and salty snacks on a high humidity day in July, we begin with a steady ascent to the peak 1.8 miles up.  Within a few hundred yards, the trail has leveled out and we are in the shade of the forest, which blunts the sun and humidity.  Soon we take a sharp left following the brilliant blue blazes on the trees.  Instantly the gift of trekking sticks proves a godsend.  Adjustable for any height, these telescoped poles help me with my balance as the trail now is filled with Adirondack switchbacks (i.e., a trail that goes straight up.)  These poles are ideal for the over 60 crowd who have spent a lifetime beating up their knees.  Ninth Commandment of the Trail – Get a pair of inexpensive trekking sticks (I’ve been told mine are $10, but alas, since they are gifts, I don’t know their price.).

Those cautious by nature will be challenged the large rocks and rock faces of Mt. Major, but it’s all good and doable.  Tiny blueberries, raspberries, and huckleberries abound in summer.  Though the blue blazes are prominent, we momentarily lose the trail.  Thankfully this is a popular mountain and voices lead us back on track.

We meet two hikers from Arizona and our conversation quickly comes to the various forms of heat and which heat is worse.  We agree to compare the heat of the desert to an oven and this humidity/heat to a sauna.  At the top we are rewarded with a 360-degree view of Lake Winnipesaukee and the surrounding forests.  Even on a humid Monday in July there is a party atmosphere at the top with hikers who bounce around feeling the satisfaction of reaching the summit.  Engaging a couple from Texas in conversation, I learn of the Brooks Trail that is 2.4 miles back to the parking area.  Rather than take to the rock faces going down, we descend a more leisurely roundabout hike through the forest to the west.  Ideal for people on humid days and dogs on any day, the canopy shades one and all and the brook is a welcome relief for the canines. 

Mitch has me pull on a green plant, scrap the root, and chew what turns out to be wintergreen.  Later he has me sample the tiniest of roots of the Indian Cucumber, which is succulent to the taste.  It’s a moment, not a meal, he waxes.  It’s great to hike with a botanist/poet.  After three hours of low intensity hiking, we drive to the nearby Alton Bay Dunkin Donuts, buy an ice coffee, and eat our homemade sandwiches in cool comfort.  They don’t seem to mind. 

Mt. Major Hike rating – Excellent  

As always when hiking, know thyself, thy limits, and the conditions.  Be prepared.

Dan and Hannah Hike Our American Southwest – Angel’s Landing, Zion National Park, Utah

We’re Not Exactly Parents of the Year

Do good parents really take their children to Angel’s Landing?  It all began rather innocently.  We stopped at the Zion National Park visitor center in July of 1993 and asked for a family hike recommendation.  The young park ranger suggested Angel’s Landing.  Sure, why not? we thought.  We had no idea of Angel’s Landing’s location or reputation. 

Soon Hannah and I hit the sandstone switchback trail with our daughters Molly, 13, and Robyn, 11, and son Will, 9.  Since the temperatures were pushing 100 degrees, we looked forward to the cool relief of tubing on the Virgin River within the park later in the day.  Including the 21 switchbacks called Walter’s Wiggles, the first two miles of the hike are benign, gently ascending.  And then we saw the distant climb into the heavens, the plunging mountainside 1500 feet below to the canyon floor, and the chains bolted into the side of the mountain.  Hannah and I looked at each other, thinking, Well she said it was a family hike.  (http://www.zionnational-park.com/zion-angels-landing-trail.htm)

Robyn, the child with valuable self-knowledge, opted to stay back while we four pressed on, grabbing the chains and avoiding looking down at all costs.  I thought to myself, They said it was a family hike. It must be okay.  I moved forward with Molly while Hannah paired up with Will who, not wanting to disappoint his big sister, followed closely behind, though clearly not loving it.  Then a cactus needle, lodged in his hand, gave Will the ticket to save face and turn back.  Ironically, having an out, he steeled himself and continued on.  Eventually, we four, having hung on with death grips, made it to Angel’s Landing, where twenty others stood on a perch no more than 20 feet by 20 feet far, far above the canyon floor.  We stayed all of five minutes; I couldn’t let go of the thought that we now had to retrace our steps.  Somehow we made it and found Robyn resting comfortably under the tree where we left her.  We knew we had dodged a bullet and were totally out of the running for Parents of the Year 1993.

                  

Jump ahead thirteen years to 2006.  While Robyn is in Afghanistan as a soldier in the US Army, Hannah and I take Molly and Will on a hiking trip West to celebrate their recent graduations from college.  Returning to some of our favorite National Parks of Utah - the Arches, Bryce Canyon, and yes Zion - our athletic children nodded in passive agreement when Angel’s Landing was suggested by Hannah as a possible morning hike.  After the easy first two miles, we fixed our eyes again on the one and a half inch chains and the mountaintop in the clouds.  Bigger and bolder than I remember, the chains energized Hannah to go for it.  I bailed immediately.  Molly and Will, just wanting to please their mother, reluctantly soldiered on.  And then after the first set of chains they gave their mother the We don’t’ want to go any further. Can’t you tell!  look.  Hannah relented and reluctantly turned back to keep our family as one.   There was peace in the valley.    

Angel’s Landing hike rating – Don’t    

Here are two opposing views (no pun intended) of Angel’s Landing  http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/ outposts/2009/08/angels-landing-dangers.html and http://www.utahoutdoors. com/pages/angels-nate.htm    

Dan and Hannah Hike Our American Southwest - Zion National Park. Utah

Entering Zion National Park from the East, Hannah and I drive through deep canyons and a one-mile tunnel through the mountains.  With no electricity in the tunnel, there is an eerie cave-like feel to the drive.  Finding the parking lot at the Zion Visitor Center full at 11A on this Wednesday in early June, we easily park along the main street of Springdale, UT adjacent to the park.  A free shuttle bus takes us to the park entrance where we flash our $10 Seniors All Access Pass and enter as royalty.  Seventh Commandment of the Trail – Arrive early, beat the heat, and get a parking spot at the Visitor Center. 

Immediately behind the visitor center is the Watchman Trail.  Climbing and hugging the canyon wall in a toasty 90 degrees, I feel little danger of falling though I step to the inside of the trail.  In thirty-five smoking minutes, we arrive at an overlook of the Zion valley and its meadows.  Fully focused on getting as much exercise as we can in three hours, we cruise through this one plus hour hike.  It is not a hike to be feared.   Zion has others that indeed fall into that category.

We take the free shuttle busses (http://www.nps. gov/zion/planyourvisit/zion-canyon-shuttle-system.htm), which since 1997 have been the only access to the Zion Canyon leading to the Zion Lodge (http://www.zionlodge.com/), Angel’s Landing, and the Narrows (http://www.zionnational-park.com/zion-narrows.htm).    

Zion is known for Angel’s Landing.  Now that is fear inducing.  Observation Point with 2300 feet of vertical gain is another death-defying hike.  Our knees say no.  The hiking guide discourages those with a fear of heights from trying either hike.  And that would be Dan.  Angel’s Landing is two miles of easily negotiated sandstone switchback trails until hikers reach the last half-mile of the trail that requires one to hold on to heavy chains that are bolted into the canyon wall, with the valley 1500 feet below.  http://www.zionnational-park.com/zion-angels-landing-trail.htm We decline Angel’s Landing’s invitation.

And yet, we hit the jackpot with the Emerald Pools trails.  In the early afternoon, we ascend on narrow trails that have us again hugging the canyon walls.  The Lower Pool and Middle Pool are mere pauses on the way to the crown jewel.  A gem awaits at the Upper Emerald Pool, a mere three tenths of mile up a rocky, negotiable straight up climb.   Once there we are treated to a sandy beach and a chilly, but refreshing pool fed by mountain waterfalls, ideal for mid afternoon hikers who have endured temperatures in the 100s.  When we were there, there must have been 50 people, a third of whom were kids playing in the sand or in the pool at the nearby sandbar. 

Watchman and Emerald Pools trail ratings - Excellent

Driving from Zion the terrain flattens and Mesquite, NV lies 90 miles away.  Rooms at the Virgin River Casino (http://www.virginriver.com/) in Mesquite can be had for $25 per night Sunday through Thursday.  For you blackjack card counters, they have one-deck games.  Life is good.

As always when hiking, know thyself, thy limits, and the conditions.  Be prepared.

Dan and Hannah Hike Our American Southwest - Bryce Canyon National Park

Kanab, Utah is a Western town you will come to love for its slow pace and easy access to national parks.  It is a mere 80 miles to Bryce Canyon and just 40 to Zion.  Our morning walk is through quiet streets of single story homes in neighborhoods where it seems like everyone would know your name.  At the Kanab High track, a promising young athlete works with her coach before the heat of the day.  It’s known as “Little Hollywood” with such television shows filmed here as Gunsmoke and the Lone Ranger.  We breakfast by the motel pool with biscuits, coffee, and Special K.  And believe it or not, you can get the USA Today at 7A in Kanab!

Driving through the spectacular Red Rock Canyon just prior to Bryce in late May, Hannah and I smile to ourselves as we revisit a national park that we once took our three children to.  Nostalgia rocks (no pun intended).  Even though it is called a canyon, Bryce is really a giant amphitheater of brilliantly colored stone formations created by erosion.   At the first stage of erosion, these “fins” weave through the park floor like exposed dorsal shark fins.  At Sunset Point, with salty snacks, water, a sun protecting hat, and sunscreen, we descend on the switchbacks of the Navajo Loop on the way to the Peekaboo Trail.  Once there, the canyon walls bracket us as the trail is sandy smooth and often wide enough for Hannah and me to walk side by side.

With many foreign and homegrown visitors, Bryce gives us many opportunities to engage others in conversation.  We actively seek out others and learn of preferred hikes at Zion National Park and adventures of sleeping in cars because campgrounds are full.  Germans Michael and Anja willingly respond to our opening and tell us, Americans are most welcoming.  This would not be the case if hiking in Germany.  We exchange email addresses and invite them to stay with us in Maine when they visit Acadia National Park. 

Rated strenuous, the Peekaboo trail rises and falls easily as brilliant vistas showcase “windows” that are created in the fins (second stage of erosion).  They appear around many turns in the trail as if to say “Peekaboo.”  The Bryce guide cautions that mild exertion can cause light-headedness and even nausea.  The Sixth Commandment of the Trail - Know thyself and thy limits. Thy is not as young as thy once was.  A narrow spur trail where we step carefully, but not fearfully, ascends to the canyon rim at 8300-foot Bryce Point.  Our breathing is harder but not taxing.  Whereas all our other days of hiking were sun filled, postcard blue skies, today we have the clouds, and what a blessed relief they are.  As we retrace our steps from Bryce Point back down into the amphitheater to Sunset Point, we stand in awe of the towering soft orange/pink hoodoos, pinnacles of stone formed by wind, water, and ice, the final stage of limestone erosion. 

Let me now underscore the importance of a picnic table at the end of the hike.  Without a can opener for our Rolling Rocks (no pun intended), we seek out the nearest RV and hit “can opener pay dirt.”  We celebrate in a sitting position in this rocking part of the world (yes, pun intended). 

Peekaboo Trail rating - Excellent