So as I was hiking up Peaked Mountain, at 5:30 am last Saturday. I said to myself- Self- why in heaven's name are you here? I mean, here at 5:30 in the morning, cold and tired, hiking up a hill. Of course the only answer I could come up with at the time was, where else would I see the sunrise?
I have been hiking for a while now. I started out with little hikes here and there, then progressed to longer and more intense hikes. Some days I start out early, other days I finish with a sunset hike. I will take a day and head to Acadia National Park and do Sergeant and Penobscot Mountains. I also try and hike closer to home when I can,
Anyway, back to the topic at hand. Last Saturday's sunrise hike!! I am up and out the door at 4:45 AM, yes folks, in order to do a sunrise hike you have to start out in the dark!! I drive the 20 minutes to the pa
rking area, don my gear and hit the trail at 5:00 am sharp. It was a bit on the chilly side, about 40 ° F and little wind. The trail started up at a nice incline, not to steep but enough to make it work. I had poles, which was nice, as the road was mostly gravel and medium sized rocks. It is something that could be driven on, in fact a young man in a pickup truck came down the hill about 20 minutes into my hike. By 5:30 I had made it to the first significant mark on the trail. I was following the directions from Trails.com. Apparently it is time to update the book!!
Another 20 minutes into the hike I decided that the directions were seriously lacking. Apparently when the cell tower was put in, the "tote road" became a real gravel/rock road. This means if you take what you believe to be, the right road, you end up at Little Chick Hill, a completely different place. I am sure the view is nice, but lets face it, I wanted to be on the mountain I was hiking that morning, for that sunrise!!
I did make it to the top at 6:15, 2 minutes after official sunrise. Ok, so a little bit beyond the goal, but OMG what a view it was. No matter how rough the journey I have never been disappointed by the view at the end of the road!!
I would recommend Peaked Mountain/Chick Hill to anyone who wants a moderate 1.2 mile hike to a beautiful sunrise view.
what a beautiful photo! chris and is used to hike the smokey's, and we miss it. maybe we should try this hike this summer. kudos on starting a blog!
ReplyDeleteThanks Shanna. I would recommend it. It is a relatively easy hike for anyone in shape. Not the most exciting this time of year but the view is worth it. I did Cutler a couple weeks ago, will probably blog about that retro, in a few days.
ReplyDeleteI'm going to have fun following your blog! Will I be able to burn calories vicariously by hiking through reading?
ReplyDeleteJen Johnson
Now if I only had some beautiful scenery like that to hike in. Mostly what I have is flat or small rolling hills but still some beautiful scenery if you find the right spot.
ReplyDeleteI've been wanting to make this trek myself - now you've got me wanting to do it at sunrise, lol. :) I've never been there, though. So I'm wondering - to get to the top of the BIG mountain (not Little Chick Hill), do you just follow the gravel road? Hiking is a very new interest for me, so I'd hate to end up lost! :)
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