Josh Hurd's Blog » Getting Lost

Spring Break in New Mexico

Josh Hurd — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 13:48:06 +0000

A little over a month ago now I was on a spring break adventure in southern New Mexico. Needless to say there were many adventures, including some of the most horribly maintained trails I’ve ever hiked on, many trout for dinner, snow, sun, swimming, getting lost, finding cool rocks, fording streams, climbing to the top of cliffs, etc etc. I’m too lazy now to write up a full account, but hopefully some pictures will suffice.

McGill Winter Meet

Josh Hurd — Sun, 04 Feb 2007 18:04:10 +0000

Last weekend – last weekend in January in the good new year of 2007 – 18 of us intrepid Dartmouth Woodsmen headed up to the far reaches of Quebec to participate in the Winter Woodsmens Meet at McGill University. After getting lost for about an hour on the winding highways, interestates, on- and off-ramps in the outskirts of Montreal, we finally arrived. We sent one men’s team, one women’s team, and one jack and jill (coed) team. Twas a cold day that Saturday morning. The temperature hung around 0 degrees fahrenheit, but with a five mile per hour breeze on top of that. So while it wasn’t that shell-shock type cold, it was the get-down-to-your-bones cold as you stay outside for hours on end.

So we did the normal events for a normal Woodsmens meet, and I have a few pictures from various things here and there.

Pulp Toss – take these probably 20-30 pound pieces of hardwood and throw them 14 feet and try to get them between these two sticks in the ground. Fun times – t’was heavy pulp, but then frozen ground facilitated sliding nicely.

Log Decking – take an incredibly heavy piece of tree and try to get it up this steep ramp using only your peevee – this logging tool. We got ‘er done, but ooh boy was my back sore the next day.

Single Buck – a singles event, not all of us did it. Take your crosscut saw, minus one side’s handle, and cut through a damn big piece of tree. Good times.

Chainsaw – ME! – this is basically speed and accuracy. Make a half cut from the button and then a half cut from the top. Have them meet in the middle, but for ever 1/4 inch you’re off, be penalized 3 seconds. Luckily, I wasn’t penalized and ended up getting 4th in the event.

H-Chop – A fellow Dartmouth Woodsmen getting a h-chop ready. Then you stand on it and chop it out beneath you.

Firebuild – watching the judge waiting for the go signal.

Firebuild – a leftover fire from a previous firebuilder in the foreground, with Dartmouth’s women’s firebuilder in the background.

Indeed indeed, gotta love the good cheer.

V-chop stantion not yet pounded in. The stantions weren’t all that great, but sure looked gnarly.
Yep, and that’s it for the Winter Meet at McGill. Of course plenty of stories, but here’s not the place.

Wrapped by Reynolds

Josh Hurd — Mon, 11 Sep 2006 20:50:50 +0000

There are quite a few Montanans at Dartmouth College. However, we mostly only see each other at college. So, Erin and I decided to meet up in Montana, during break, and go camping and hiking. To Glacier National Park we went.

On Monday (early) morning I left Missoula, arrived in Kalispel, picked up Erin, and then to Glacier we went. We topped Logan Pass around noon. Naturally we weren’t satisfied with the basic tourist boardwalk. Off the trail and to the goat paths we went; destination: Mt. Reynolds. First to the saddle over the Continental Divide, then south and around the west side of Reynolds, finally up the South Face. Above, on the saddle of the C.D. looking west down towards Hidden Lake.

Hidden Lake, as seen from the saddle. You can see the trail dropping down to the lake center-right.

Well, we set out to make it to the top of Reynolds, but alas, as things happen, we didn’t make it. Probably got within 500 vertical feet of the summit. Thwarted: the scree field gave way to a solid rock face that was, at minimum, a class four scramble. And as we naturally valued our lives, we chose to stay put, have lunch, and head down. So Erin sits here, at the spot where we turned around. The lakes in the canyon are the Twin Lakes

Looking down into the Twin Lakes drainage again, with the upper of thw two middle-left.

Strange rock formation below. Of glacier origin, most likely. But how formed, no idea.

Erin scrambling down the mountain, with the rock face that thwarted our full ascent in the background.

Erin looking at, at a particularly rocky, spiney, and inaccessible portion of the continental divide.

A strange color pattern of lichens and mosses on the west rock face of Reynolds.

Barker Mountain

Josh Hurd — Wed, 30 Aug 2006 00:33:49 +0000

I have an obsession with the Rocky Mountain Front. Both exploring it, and getting great views of it. On Tuesday I hiked a mountain that I’ve wanted to hike for the past two years – Barker Mountain – on the far northern edge of the Little Belt Mountains, looking over the plains and front region.

The road to Barker went through the historic town of Hughesville. Well, right now the historic ghost town of Hughesville. Silver mining in the region was very prominent way back when – late 1800s and early 1900s. But now these mines are abandoned, with just remnants remaining. One of the largest mines – no idea what its name is – is above.

The hike itself went through mountain lion country. Well, this whole region is mountain lion country. And by country I mean they actually live here and we actually seen them – one has nearly got my dog twice. Good thing my dog is faster than the cats. But because of this, my .45 comes along, fully loaded, not cocked but loaded.

From the top of Barker looking west-by-north-west. The mountain on the left, Tiger Butte, is directly across from my cabin. Always fun to see where you live from far away.

Looking south into the Lewis and Clark National Forest from the top of Barker.

Self-shot! Me, on the top of Barker, looking at something. I’m wearing my new OR hat everywhere I can – need to break it in for Africa.

Looking north from the top of Barker towards the plains. After I got back to the Jeep, I continued on the small little road that I was on. The road in the center of the picture is the road that I took out – but I had no idea where it went. So I just aimlessly followed the road for about 20 miles before it came out on some highway. Luckily took a left on the highway, and found out where I was within a few miles.

The trees are spooning!

Again, from the top of Barker, looking north-east, with the Highwoods rising up on the left side of the horizon.

Looking south-east from the top of Barker, with Big Baldy, the tallest mountain in the Little Belts, straight ahead.

Hillside Cemetary

Josh Hurd — Fri, 26 May 2006 05:40:26 +0000

This trip actually happened a while ago, it’s just that I haven’t gotten around to developing the film and scanning it until now. Not too much to write about here. Decided one day to go on a bike ride, but didn’t really know where to go. I didn’t want to be gone for more than a couple hours, so I decided to head over to Norwich, go exploring, get myself lost, and then come back. It really is pretty hard to get yourself lost, actually. To return to Hanover all you have to do is aim for the Connecticut River, which is to the east if you are in Vermont. Route 5 parallels the Connecticut, so all you have to do upon getting lost is head east until you hit Route 5 and the Connecticut River, and then head back to the Ledyard Bridge, over into New Hampshire, and then back up to campus.

Back to the trip. Went to Norwich, a left here, a right there – down this road and up that road. Eventually saw a sign to a cemetary and decided to go exploring. I ended up spending more time walking around the cemetary than biking to or from the cemetary, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing.

And that’s about it – here’s the pictures.

(In this last one you can see Baker Tower in the distance)

All pictures from my SmugMug gallery. Here.

Bike to Hinman Cabin

Josh Hurd — Wed, 03 May 2006 03:45:24 +0000

On a whim I decided to reserve Hinman Cabin on Reservoir Pond for a Wednesday night. The goal was to bike up, canoe around, get some homework done, to sleep, have some fun in the morning, and then back to campus. It’s not a bad bike ride to Hinman – just under 20 miles, most of which is uphill, but not a horrible uphill. A relatively steep hill just after Lyme, NH, and then a few steady hills on Dorchester Road, but overall, a relatively pleasant ride.

Apparently I was feeling artsy when I was taking pictures up at Hinman, because all I have is a few nature artsy shots, and no shots of the cabin itself or my bike, or the hills, or the roads. So here are my two artsy pictures on Reservoir Pond. I B&Wed the second picture – worked better that way.

Velvet Rocks Adventures

Josh Hurd — Fri, 31 Mar 2006 23:15:01 +0000

This is being written in May, even though the various trip shappened at the start of Spring Term 2006. So while belated by a month, I thought I’d post some just to get this little “blog” of mine going.

The Hemlock

I like Velvet Rocks – a good little part of the Appalachian Trail just outside of Hanover, NH. After coming back from Montana, the first thing I wanted to do was to get into the New Hampshire woods again. But not by myself; rather, with my trusty axe.

So about 200 feet into the trail a big massive Hemlock was downed by some storm or something. But it was no match for my axe

Before:

After:

It was quite fun. Took a little while to get all limbed up and everything. But a good Tree.

The Mystery in the Woods

From there, I went up the trial a little more, and then went explore through the woods. Followed a couple old rock fences in the woods. Then over a little ridge and down a little depression. Then POW, all of a sudden I see a big massive structure. Turns out it was a Hanover water storage tank. But it was pretty interestingly grafitied, most likely by young locals of various sorts.

The Sunset

That was the end of the first adventure up Velvet Rocks. Then another trip with Karl Yando. More trailwork. This time to the top of Velvet Rocks, where I climbed a lovely White Pine and took some pictures of the evening sky:

Then we headed back down. A fun day in the woods.

A Third Outing

And then I headed up Velvet Rocks again, this time exploring with Tom Bonamici. Found some pretty sweet places within a half mile of the AT, included a pretty knarly tree:

Then we went back. Unfortunately, an innocent frog was killed on the way.

And that’s a short rundown of Velvet Rocks.

Picture Originals from http://jlhurd.smugmug.com/gallery/1444345