These last two pages contain a set of images that document our hike of the September 11, 2010 Rocky Peak Ridge traverse with Pu and friends, but in a more traditional style.
It was a glorious late summer day in the 'daks as we started off on the Giant Mountain Ridge trail - the typical route of the first segment of a west-to-east Rocky Peak Ridge traverse hike. We hiked up through the open forest, switchbacking up the steep but short stretch that leads to the first good lookout along the trail, high above Chapel Pond and route 73.
The Giant's Washbowl was higher than we'd seen it before. In fact, there's now a log bridge across the outlet, something that wasn't there last year. Turns out that the culprits are some industrious beavers that have made a small dam in the outlet stream of the pond.
After the pond, we're soon ascending the steep stuff up to the beautiful open-ridge section of the hike. There's a lot of chat and talk on this hike: heated debates on what constitutes art, mostly.
The intense social interaction makes the steep climb up the ridge seem like a cakewalk (albeit a very beautiful cakewalk), and soon we are back in the trees for the upper forested part of the ridge. Presently we arrive at Giant Mountain's summit (technically not part of the Rocky Ridge Traverse but such a short detour that it's almost always worth doing). On this beautiful September day, the place is teeming with people, and we have to hike a little farther beyond the summit to find a clear spot to sit ourselves down for lunch.
