Dedicated to Mara's travel and hiking adventure journals as well as her words of wisdom and suggested resources for hikers and travelers.

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Various trip reports - spring of '01 Feb 9: Night hike from Crawford Notch to Ethan Pond - scared the sh*t out of a couple of counselors brushing their teeth near the shelter as I walked up the trail with only a photon light. Had to ask them not to shine their lights on me as they were blinding me. At least their group was tenting. I stayed in the shelter. Back out the next morning. March 18-24: ~67 miles from Springer to Dick's Creek Gap - see Kicked with my own Boot report March 31 or April 1: some questionable number of miles up the Beaver Brook Trail from Kinsman Notch - blazes were at knee level at the parking lot. We quickly lost them underfoot altogether but managed to stay on the trail for a while. Then lost the trail and meandered around for a while. Never did find the summit. 5/25-7/01 Well, our original AT plans for this weekend got derailed by a lousy forecast of rain and thunderstorms. So, the four of us (Walking Home, PA Mule, Jojo Smiley, and myself) stuck a bit closer to Boston. First we tackled the wilds of the Middlesex Fells and did a seven mile loop there on the Skyline trail. It's a surprisingly rugged trail just five miles north of Boston. We saw a couple of Ribbon snakes, a Scarlet Tanager, a Baltimore Oriole, some sort of yellow warbler but I'm not sure which one, a Great Blue Heron, a possible owl sighting, and many other more ubiquitous birds. The Pink Lady's Slippers are also in bloom now are are abundant there. On Sunday, we trekked through Boston following the red-blazed Freedom Trail (literally - a red painted stripe or inlaid brick trail that goes past many of the Revolutionary era sites). We even climbed the 294 steps of the Bunker Hill monument (built on Breed's Hill, of course). We aqua-blazed back to Boston from the Charlestown Navy yard on the water shuttle. A stop at the Hard Rock Cafe for a snack and some Boston memorabilia and then to the Science Museum for the Omnimax showing of Shackelton's Endurance. Now that was an adventure. We ran into Hummingbird (also AT99) and her Mom at the museum, too. All in all, a great weekend with wonderful friends.

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Trip Reports   Gear Lists   Mail Drops   About Me   Acknowledgements   Photos   Updates   Fun   Email Mara