Climb The Highest Mountain

NOAH KORES
Special to ctnow.com

December 19 2005

I'm a fairly avid hiker, and I backpack four or five times a year. By far my favorite backpacking trip in the state is up Bear Mountain in scenic northwestern Connecticut's Berkshires.

This mountain makes for a great weekend trip in any season. And if you're looking for a short, challenging day hike, the walk up as far as the Lion's Head vista will give you a great view for your effort.

There are two ways to reach the Appalachian Trail before it crosses over Bear Mountain in Salisbury. The Undermountain Trail is shorter, but steeper. I prefer the route up Lion's Head Trail.

Late last February I hiked Bear Mountain with a few friends. We started on the Lion's Head Trail, at a parking area on Bunker Hill Road in Salisbury, and followed it up about half a mile to the Appalachian Trail. From there, it's about three miles to the summit of Bear Mountain.

I was carrying a 30-pound pack, dressed for the 25-degree temperatures in fleece and Thinsulate, with snowshoes, gloves and a winter hat.

A winter hiker needs to be careful about clothing. It's most important to avoid cotton because it soaks up sweat and water, which chills the skin.

It's also important to pack lots of water and to drink a lot while you hike. Remember that cold air soaks up the moisture as you exhale. Although it may seem counterintuitive, salty food can also help you retain water and stay more hydrated

The trail was relatively easy. We pushed our way up a few steep stretches by jamming the crampons attached to the bottom of our snowshoes into the snow and ice.

I find hills more rewarding than anything else on a winter hike. The sweat cools your face and you can see your breath as it warms the air as you hike upward. On the way down, you enjoy the rewards of the effort spent hiking up.

It's only about half a mile to Lion's Head vista, where the view is awesome. To one side we could see the Appalachian Trail wrap up and around Bear Mountain. Straight ahead, the view into Massachusetts seemed endless.

From Lion's Head we turned north on the Appalachian Trail and soon arrived at a lean-to, where we dropped off our packs. There is an enclosed toilet near the shelter, but no running water. We grabbed some water from the stream nearby, threw in some iodine to sanitize it and made the last pitch to the summit of Bear Mountain.

At the top of Bear Mountain is a pyramid with a flat, square top, about eight feet high, that offers a nice panoramic view to the north and west of mounts Race, Everett and Frissell and to the east of the Twin Lakes in Salisbury. At 2,316 feet, Bear Mountain's summit is the highest peak in Connecticut, but it's not the state's highest point. The highest point is on the south slope of Mt. Frissell, at 2,380 feet, on the way to its summit in Massachusetts.

Hikers are scarce on Bear Mountain in the winter, and we had the luxury of a lean-to to ourselves. We also had the pleasure of reading the lean-to logbook, where hikers share their stories. One highly dubious story concerned a man who claimed he came across a bear trying to attack a hiker who had climbed halfway up a tree. The man claimed he killed the bear with his trekking pole, skinned it and made bear burgers for himself and the hiker he had rescued.

The night we spent in the lean-to, the temperature got down to 10 or 15 degrees. With a 0-degree down sleeping bag, I was warm enough to sleep, though my face got a bit chilly.

Hikers returning on this route can head back down the Lion's Head Trail or push on to Sages Ravine in Massachusetts. Either way, it's downhill.

Gift ideas for outdoors folks

Posted on Sun, Dec. 04, 2005
Phil Bloom

You wonder sometimes when, or even whether, you will be touched by the Christmas spirit.

For me, it arrived in Wednesday’s mail with delivery of the L.L. Bean “holiday best” catalog. A quick flip through 88 pages of wishful thinking made me realize there are fewer than three weeks to get Santa Claus a list of all the new goodies I’d like to add to my growing collection of outdoor gear.

That means it’s time for the sixth annual Journal Gazette Outdoors page holiday gift guide, which is the same as saying staff artist Gregg Bender gets another shot at creating an illustration that makes me look like a fat guy in a red suit.

In previous years, the gift guide has highlighted such must-have items as Uncle Booger’s Bumper Dumper, an Indiana state park pass (which then cost $18 but next year will ring up at $36 – yikes!), a carbon-fiber canoe paddle weighing 12.5 ounces, a Kevin VanDam bobblehead, and my personal favorite – a Jetboil backpacking stove.

Now there’s never a shortage of creative ideas in the outdoor gear industry, and this year’s no different.

Take the aforementioned L.L. Bean catalog, for instance.

OK, so it includes pink, terrycloth bath robes and snowsuits for toddlers, but it’s got some really useful stuff, too. The kind of clever marketing tactics that make you slap yourself on the forehead and mutter, “Why didn’t I think of that!”

Like the Nalgene water bottles.

Perhaps you’ve seen them before. Made from hard plastic (actually polycarbonate), the 32-ounce bottles are essential equipment for backpackers because they are lightweight and durable – you can’t break ’em with a sledgehammer.

The ones in L.L. Bean come with added features. One is filled with a sampling of Toblerone chocolate and the other with an assortment of personal hygiene items – shower gel, shampoo, razor, shaving cream, toothpaste, mouthwash … and bath salts.

They’re priced at $19, which is what L.L. Bean also wants for an “ergonomically” shaped, 18-ounce water bottle that is stuffed with a pedometer, sunscreen, lip balm and first-aid kit.

Now, the options for finding nifty holiday gifts for your favorite outdoors man, woman, child or pet aren’t restricted to L.L. Bean. You can find a lot of the same products at local stores in the Fort Wayne area, but either way I’m here to help with a few suggestions.

I’ve not personally field tested every item. Who’d have the time or money to do that? Instead, the following list represents a sort of vicarious window shopping spree.

Required reading

If you’re buying for an avid reader, here are a couple of good reads I’ve stumbled onto:

•“Sowbelly: The Obsessive Quest for the World Record Largemouth Bass” by Monte Burke ( www.penguin.com, $23.95). Burke lives and works in New York City, where he writes for Forbes magazine. But don’t let that fool you. He loves fishing, and “Sowbelly” is his look at some of the people who have purposely tried catching a largemouth bass bigger than the recognized world record caught in 1932 by George Perry.

•“The Everlasting Stream: A True Story of Rabbits, Guns, Friendship and Family” by Walt Harrington ( www.groveatlantic.com, $23 hardback, $13 paperback). First released in 2002, “Everlasting Stream” is Harrington’s historical memoirs of hunting with his father-in-law and a group of elderly black men in rural Kentucky. What makes the story so compelling is how Harrington, a Washington Post reporter with an aversion to hunting, turns a decade of traditional Thanksgiving hunts into a commentary on life and friendship. Harrington now heads the journalism department at the University of Illinois.

Let there be light

How many times have you been in the dark only to find the batteries in your flashlight are dead as a doornail?

Fear no more, my fellow night owls.

The Max Burton Wind ’n Go Flashlight is the answer.

The Wind ’n Go weighs about a pound and is powered by a rechargeable lithium battery. When the light begins to dim, flip open the handle and crank it for a minute to provide a half-hour of fresh power.

It’s made by Athena Brands Inc., ( www.athenabrands.com) of Gardnerville, Nev., and sells for about $20.

Games people play

Who doesn’t know about Monopoly?

Who hasn’t burned an opponent on Park Place or been shipped off to jail without passing go and collecting $200?

There have been all sorts of spin-offs to the famous board game, but none quite like the one developed by two Ohio men – Dirk Gadd and Darin Overholser.

Whitetailopoly.

Based on the original game, Whitetailopoly pits hunters trying to acquire hunting ranches with game pieces shaped like bullets or deer antlers.

The game costs $29 and is available at www.whitetailopoly.com or through the Cabela’s catalog.

Hooked on fishing

When Terri MacKinnon’s sister was diagnosed with breast cancer, she decided to use her passion for fishing to try to make a difference.

So, she formed FisherGirl ( www.fishergirl.com), a Canadian company whose stated purpose is “to introduce the joys and benefits of fishing and the outdoors to women and children.”

FisherGirl offers fishing rod and reel sets designed for different age groups. The Mermaid, for women age 19 and older, made a splash at the ICAST fishing trade show this summer where it was judged the best new reel-and-rod combo.

The Mermaid comes in a 6-foot telescoping model ($47) or a two-piece combo ($59).

The company donates a portion of its sales proceeds to fight breast cancer.

Home away from home

The first rule of backpacking is to go light.

At 4 pounds, 4 ounces, the MSR Hubba Hubba ( www.msrcorp.com; $290) got the nod from Men’s Health magazine as its favorite backpacking tent.

Besides the Hubba Hubba’s easy-on-the-back weight, Men’s Health liked the two-door design and pole configuration that spread the tent enough to give the magazine’s reviewer plenty of room.

“I’m 6-foot-6 and didn’t touch at either end or bump into my tentmate while sleeping or sitting up,” he said.

Cool, clear water

If you’ve ever been on a wilderness trip and had to endlessly hand pump water through a filter, you’ve had to think, “There’s got to be a better way!”

There is, and it’s the SteriPEN – a portable water purifier that uses ultraviolet light to destroy all those yuckie things that will make you sick if you drink them.

And it’s fast. Dip one of those 32-ounce Nalgene bottles mentioned above into a mountain stream, insert the SteriPEN ( www.hydrophoton.com, $149.95), flip the switch, and the battery-powered device will give you safe drinking water in about 90 seconds.