The Mountain’s Tougher Than I Am

I came home, ate dinner, took a shower and collapsed! Right now my knees are killing me and I hardly have the strength to get of the couch.

I got a “direct message” tweet last week from my friend Mike on the shoreline.

Brother in law is now in town. Still up for photo walk? Open Sat, Sun afternoon & Monday as I’m taking off work. Thoughts?

It sounded like a good excuse to climb Sleeping Giant which is what we did this afternoon!

As is par for the course I overpacked my backpack. A mountain means mainly wide landscape shots with “slow” aperture settings. I still brought two long lenses. No big deal except I had to carry them! Long lenses are heavy lenses.

It was Easter Sunday, but it was still packed. Why not? The weather was gorgeous with skies blue enough that I had to explain to Helaine they weren’t manipulated in my photos! What happened to spousal trust?

OK… maybe I tweeked them tiny bit.

We walked up the 1.6 mile Tower Trail then continued on the Blue Trail hoping to intersect with the Violet. We had a map, but it’s tough to judge exactly where you are. If I only would have known some of Sleeping Giant’s trails are on Google Maps. I could have used my phone’s GPS in the field!

Rather than end up out of the way and a steep climb to return we turned around.

Lots of people are talking how Connecticut’s flowering plants have bloomed early this year. Maybe so, but on Sleeping Giant it’s still very early. Some trees are showing buds, but no leaves. There is some flowering–not much.

Round trip on the Tower Trail is 3.2 miles. I’m guessing we went somewhere between four and five miles today and my body knew it. I came home, ate dinner, took a shower and collapsed! Right now my knees are killing me and I hardly have the strength to get of the couch.

I love that mountain.

6 thoughts on “The Mountain’s Tougher Than I Am”

  1. yeah and what hurts the most are those who run all the way to the top and pass you on the way back…..show offs!!!! 🙂

  2. Thanks for sharing Geoff. I haven’t been able to climb that mountain in quite a few years – it was great to see the pictures!

  3. Geoff, just a heads-up – you’ve probably already noticed this, but the ticks are horrendous this year. Be careful while you’re out hiking, and keep a close eye on Doppler, too. We just took another one (loose, thankfully) off our dog tonight, and my mother had one on her, too.

  4. I went to college across the street. I had a friend who used to run the tower trail daily. As a hike leader for groups who occasionally schedules hikes at the Giant, I can say that there are some serious trails there and even the Tower Trail will leave you breathless. The blue is one of the toughest in the park.

  5. Geoff, just curious if you own a circular polarizer. If not I would suggest you get one for landscapes, they make skies and clouds ‘pop’ without needing to tweak them in post. Graduated neutral density filters are also great landscape tools.

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