This year marks the 55th anniversary of Earth Day celebrating nature and this beautiful planet we live on. The first Earth Day was celebrated in 1970, when 20 million people attended inaugural events at schools, universities, and other public areas around the country.
Earth Day falls on April 22 every year. This past week on Earth Day my friends, Kelly Moody, Tracy Orkin, Sue Coonrod plus her pup Howie and I decided to hike Bald Mountain over Blueberry Cobbles and enjoy some of what our great Earth has to offer.
Kelly was to pick me up at 6 am and we were meeting Sue and Tracy at a parking lot in Peru at 6:05am. Anyone who has hiked with Kelly knows she is always early. Well, it was 6 and still no Kelly. I texted confirming that she was picking me up and her reply was 6:55 right? Yikes! My reply was “ Now”. Sue and Tracy were already at the meeting spot. Long story short — Sue and Tracy drove to the trailhead in Elizabethtown and started hiking slowly and Kelly and I got there as quickly as possible. I raise my hand — guilty! Somehow I told everyone else the correct time except Kelly. From now on it will be group texts so to be sure we all have the same time.
It was a quick drive to the parking lot which was empty except for our cars. The temperatures were chilly but I warmed up fast hiking as quickly as possible to catch the girls. The beginning of the trail follows a pretty stream teaming with spring run-off over rocks covered with moss. I noticed the trout lily and trillium leaves were sprouting everywhere. Soon hikers will be treated to many wildflowers including Jack-in-the-pulpit and lady slippers to name a couple. It was not too long and we heard a whoo hoo in the distance. Kelly was quick to reply. I was sweating and huffing and puffing by the time we caught them. Bald Mountain is from 7.5 to 8 miles round trip depending on which report you go by. There is plenty of climbing.
The beauty of this hike is there are several look out spots. The first view is at 1.6 miles on the left and the second at 1.8 on the right. Both are worthy of a look. At each one we were greeted by a nice, cool breeze. It was not long before I had pants rolled up to shorts and a short sleeved shirt. As usual I’m always hot. We reached the intersection where you can go over Blueberry Cobbles to the left or bypass it on a trail on the right. We chose to go over and enjoy the views. Off in the distance you could see the Dix Range and the Boquet River Valley. No sign of blueberries yet but before you know it, there should be plenty.
At one point, I had everyone pose hugging a tree in honor of Earth Day. We are all so grateful to have these beautiful, scenic mountains to climb.
After taking in the mountainous scenery, we descended steeply into Mason Notch where the bypass trail joins up. As we dropped down, we crossed over some snowy patches, remnants of the past winter. As always, we walked and talked — a lot. We all discussed the idea of doing the traverse from the Giant over to Rocky Peak Ridge, up to Bald Mountain down to the parking lot we started at. I think we all have done this traverse at least once. This hike you need to spot a car at the trailhead. There were lots of “It can’t be too buggy.” “It can’t be too hot.” “No rain in the forecast.” I hope we follow through with it but you can be sure I’ll keep you posted.
Before we knew it, we were ascending the last push to the summit of Bald Mountain. I think we were all ready to get there as none of us had hiked much recently. I take that back — Howie was still raring to go as he led the way. As we climbed, there were views in every direction. Just before the summit there is a cool, rock wall you pass. The bright blue sky had some large puffy, white clouds which we all love for photos. With the wind picking up, we were all quick to layer up. It was only 10:30 but we were ready to have lunch.
It was definitely lunch with a view. Mountains everywhere you looked. The most prominent was Rocky Peak Ridge. This is what we could climb over if we did the traverse. There is a large cairn marking the top, always fun to photograph. Tracy found a slanted rock wall in the sun and out of the wind. It was a welcome break to lay there and gaze at the pretty sky. Now getting back up, that is another story.
We stayed on the top for quite a long time just chatting and taking in the layers of mountains in the distance. Alas, it was time to go. Packs on our backs and one last look to make sure we didn’t leave anything, we were off. We carefully picked our way back down. When we reached the intersection of Blueberry Cobbles, we chose to take the route bypassing the cobbles. The dry leaves were quite slippery and a couple of us took a little slip descending. Luckily no one was hurt.
Close to the end of the trail, we noticed bunches of flowers blooming. There were white and purple hepatica (liverwort). They looked so pretty and a definite sign that spring has sprung.
Back at our vehicles, we all agreed that it had been just what the doctor ordered. We could not believe that we had the whole trail to ourselves. The weather was perfect, lots of elevation gain made it a good spring training hike and most of all the company of such great friends made it the best.
On a side note, if you don’t want a long hike, the two viewpoints or Blueberry Cobbles make a great destination with lovely views.
Happy Trails.
Trailhead: The trail begins at a parking lot on NY 9, 4.9 miles north of the junction with NY 73 and 1.3 miles south of the U.S. Post Office in New Russia.