In this section, I wanted to list some of the experiences I've had while hiking. I've hiked in different parts of the world, and I want to share those experiences with others. Please don't take any of the distances and altitudes too seriously; they were mostly taken from my brain so they could be wrong. If you are curious about any of the hiking trips, feel free to e-mail me about them. Click here to go home.
New England
Imp Shelter -- 4,000 footer hike
Trail Name:Wildcat Ridge Trail -- Carter-Moriah Trail -- Gorham
Distance: Approximately 21 miles
Days: 2
Hiked with: Jesse Greeley
After a wonderful summer in the mountains of Yellowstone, I was anxious to re-explore the beauty of the White Mountains. A good friend from college, Jesse Greeley, planned a 2-day trip that would carry us over 7 4,000 footers to the town of Gorham, NH. The trails throughout the White Mountains of New Hampshire have a reputation for being physically demanding, and I found that out the hard way on this hike. We started early in the morning, following a steep trail to summit the peak of Wildcat Mtn. (a ski area during the winter time). Wildcat has various peaks above 4,000 feet so we followed the ridge to summit each peak. The trail then passed down into a notch where we found a beautiful mountain refuge, Carter-Notch Hut. From the hut, we challenged ourselves to summit Mt. Carter. This climb was strenuous due to the fact we had already summited one 4,000 footer during the day. We made it to Carter's Dome peak, and it was necessary to mumble to myself, "Why do I do this?" at times to avoid thinking of the strain on my legs. The Carter-Moriah trail led us to our planned shelter for the night, Imp Shelter. It was a 3-sided lean-to with a fire pit in front, classic for the NH mtn. refuges. There, I cooked up a giant can of baked beans which I carried all the way despite its extra weight. They were wonderful, and I had everyone at the shelter wishing they had brought their own. Three others stayed at the shelter, 2 men from Massachusetts who were hiking together and another younger guy. One of the Mass. guys had hiked the entire A.T. when he was younger and had some nice stories to share. The younger guy (who was there along) said he was attempting to hike the entire A.T. in a period of years. He was doing it piece by piece each summer. His stories seemed a little unbelievable to all of us, and we finally realized the next morning (when he didn't wake up at all) that he was not too serious about doing the A.T. During the night, I scared everyone with the unconscious scream of "BEAR! BEAR! BEAR!". Everyone went crazy for a second...shouts of "What's going on?" , "Are you OK?", "WHERE?" followed my scream. Since I had been in Yellowstone (where bears can be a problem) during the summer, I had been dreaming of a giant grizzly attacking our lean-to. I made the dream a reality with the screams. Luckily, I easily went back to sleep after the screams; the others, probably not so easily. After some laughs about the incident the next morning, Jesse and I took off along the Carter-Moriah Trail. This morning we would summit Moriah and then head to the town of Gorham, NH. I was pretty sore but everything went well and we made it to Gorham in little time. There, we treated ourselves to a giant ice cream cookie and began our hitch-hiking adventure back to the car. We walked along the road about 2 miles before finally finding someone who pulled over. It was a group of drinking and smoking teenagers playing "Rage against the Machine". They didn't have any room in their trunk to put our backpacks so we all (us two and the three of them) packed in the car with the backpacks. I was worried more for my survival in this car ride than the entire duration of the hike. Luckily, we arrived to the car safely with a great memory to look back on.
Saddleback Mountain
Trail Name: Appalachian Trail near Saddleback Mtn. (Maine)
Distance: Approximately 14 miles
Days: 3
Hiked with: Anthony Trani
The A.T. near Saddleback Mtn. is flat terrain with a two refugees along the way. Tony and I arrived at the trail late the first day and hiked a couple miles to a refugee on a lake. There, we bunked down in a full 3-sided cabin with a large hiking group. The following day was our longest...due to our different hiking speeds, we hiked alone with the destination being a refugee at the base of Saddleback Mountain. From there, we would decide to summit that day or the following day. Although the distance was around 8-10 miles (to get to the refuge), the hiking was easy...along flat terrain with a wide trail. When I arrived at the refuge, I had plenty of energy to make the climb up Saddleback, so I decided to do it. I wanted to see the view from Saddleback because the surrounding area had some large lakes and was generally beautiful. As I started the climb, rain began falling. Of course, by the time I reached above tree line, a storm had begun. I never saw the view from the summit, but from above tree line, it was spectacular. Another man, who was retreating from his summit attempt also, joined me in a slippery trip back down the mountain. That night, I met Tony at the refuge and a thru-hiker (someone who is attempting to hike the entire A.T. at once) joined us for the night. Tony and I questioned him about his trip, gear, and food, and I learned more from that conversation with him than any other hiking conversation I have had before. The following day, we returned 2 miles on the flat trail we had followed to a parking area where I had left my car. I was dissappointed in the attempted summit of Saddleback, but I enjoyed the beauty of the A.T. in Maine and the company of the thru-hiker and Tony.
Mount Washington (6288 ft)
Trail Name: Tuckerman's Ravine Trail
Distance: Approximately 8.5 miles (summit and back)
Days: 1
Hiked with: Anthony Trani, Chris Tkach
Mount Washington is the most famous of the White Mountains. It is in the Presidential Range of the White Mountains and due to its size, got the nickname of America's first president, Washington. It is rumored to have the highest altitude of the Appalachian range on the east coast of the US (I haven't checked the data to be sure). Also, for a long period of time, Mt. Washington held the record for highest recorded wind speed which I believe was recorded to be 215 mph. Also, Washington is home to Tuckerman's Ravine, a place where skiers gather during the winter to test their skills on ungroomed terrain. There are many different ways up the mountain, but most of the routes are typical for the White Mountains -- "straight up, no switchbacks". The trail tires your legs quickly on the way up and beats on your knees on the way down. If you're hoping for a beautiful, peaceful summit, Mt. Wash can be quite disappointing. The summit has a weather station, restaurant, and various tourist stands which takes away from the beauty that could have been. There is a paved road and the Cog railway which bring up lots of tourists; the summit is clogged with people who never even thought of hiking the Eastern giant. Even still, there is a wonderful view of the presidential range. The Cog Railway is a neat thing to see. Finally, if you hike it, you'll know that you did and you can reward yourself with a hot dog or hot chocolate at the top (you can't do that every mtn. you summit).
Yellowstone
Eagle Peak
Trail Name: Unknown
Distance: Approximately 30 miles (there and back)
Days: 2
Hiked with: Jeff Laurie and Brian Herzog
I consider this hike one of my most memorable hikes ever. I don't think I'll ever forget it. I met Jeff and Brian in Yellowstone N.P. on one of my first days; we've been friends since then. While hanging out and working in Y.N.P., we had talked about attempting to climb Yellowstone's highest Peak, Eagle Peak. This had been attempted by many people, but it wasn't often that someone was successful. It was a long hike that took days to complete and with only 3 days available to us, it would be difficult. We decided to make the attempt from outside the park; the trail was slightly shorter going in this manner. As we parked our car and got our gear ready, the trail itimidated us immediately. We had to fjord a river to get to the trailhead. I had never done this so I took a deep breath and charged in with the others to cross a river with a fairly heavy current. I maintained my balance (barely) as I crossed but my clothing was soaked to my waste to start the hike. It turned out, during the entire trip, we would have to fjord many more rivers of varying sizes and currents. We travelled about 13 miles the first day reaching the base of a mountain we would need to cross over to get to Eagle Peak. The trip was tiring through rivers, up small mountains, through rain, but we were successful in getting to our planned destination. At one point, I was leading the three of us on the trail and came across a hillside next to a large, open field. On the hillside, there was a giant grizzly. He began jogging towards me as Jeff yelled "Jeremy! BEAR!!". I looked up at the grizzly coming straight at us; I started thinking of what I should do...run, play dead (as they taught us in the park), or go for a tree. Being in shock, I did nothing. The grizzly stopped as Jeff, Brian, and I looked on. He turned and ran back into some nearby woods. Jeff, Brian, and I stood there wondering who would venture on first when finally Jeff decided to take the lead towards the woods. We passed through them slowly and on the other side, we saw our friend sitting up on the hillside picking flowers. Both the grizzly and us watched each other intently as we passed, but everything went on without incident. That night, we pitched our tent in a wooded area and hung our food in a backpack high in a tree, so the grizzly would not ransack our tent looking for it. The next day, we continued on with small backpacks in a constant rain. We kept our larger backpacks at our tent as we planned on returning from Eagle Peak that night. We all struggled up a trail to the top of a mountain which borders the National Park and the National Forest. There we were able to get our first view of the spectacular Eagle Peak. Like others, we decided it would not be possible to make the hike in the days we had available, but we have some wonderful pictures of the spectacular view that day. Tired and bear-scared, we went back to our tent, gathered our possessions and traveled back through the National Forest. Along the way, we once again fjorded rivers and tramped through mud. Jeff, while attempting to cross a tree laying across a river, slipped fell into the river with his backpack. Brian was able to grab him and pull him out of the tugging current, but it was quite a site to see. That night, we slept at a hotel and went out for chinese food. I've never eaten more chinese than I did that night and probably never slept better either.
Pyrenees
Northern Catalunya (Pyrenees)
Trail Name: GR-11
Distance: Unknown
Days: 4
Hiked with:Marco Pallotta
Before my brother and I flew to Spain to visit friends, I bought a couple books about the hiking through the Spanish Pyrenees. One of these books described a trek across the entire range of the Pyrenees from the west coast of Spain to the east coast. Our plan was to do a peice of this trek for 6 days and to end at an east coast town with a railroad station. It would be difficult because we had large backpacks filled with necesary items for our entire stay in Europe (1 month). We began our trek in Ribes de Freser, a northern town in the Pyrenees that the train goes to. From here, we trekked some kilometers to Nuria where the GR-11 started from. Nuria was a large, beautiful monastery in a valley surrounded by ski area mountains. We stayed our first night outside of the monastery. The following day, we attempted to climb to the highest point on the GR-11. This was an extremely difficult task because it was our first full day out and our packs were heavy. The view was spectacular from the peak. As we continued, we had to trudge through snow and deal with rain to complete a trek to a town called Setcases. There we pitched our tent near a river that went through town and hoped that noone would mind. It turned out we weren't bothered all night and we got some much needed sleep. The following day (being rather sore) we set out for Mollo...this stretch of the GR-11 took us through many cattle pastures, dirt roads, and once again, rain. The hike was easier than the day before because there was less altitude change. On our way down to Mollo, Marco had noticed a lingering pain with his hamstring muscle (the injury occured the day before). We decided in Mollo, with a giant bottle of Fanta (orange soda), to trek to a town called Castelfilla de la Roca. This would cut the trip short and require us to change our plans, but it was necessary because of the injury. We spent the night in a campground (at a very cheap price) and got showers (much needed). The next day, we followed the GR-1 where we encountered a cattle passing...hundreds of longhorned cattle passed us as we hiked along a section of the GR-1. A couple of them gave some harsh snuffs to us, but none of them made any moves (thank god). In Castelfilla, we found a bus to take us to the train station which was our final destination. We did the trek to see some of the spectacular views of the Pyrenees and some of the small towns in between. We got to see how the people live in the area. The trails themselves were very difficult to follow (badly marked). We spent a lot of energy looking for the trail. Not knowing the Spanish language gave us problems in finding the trailheads in towns. All in all, it was an experience worth remembering and lots of fun.