Mt Marshall (9/16/09)

#13 this year, #16 total.
It was a nice fall day for a hike. I headed out with my friend Rob for the Upper Works trail head at 8:30am and we were on the trail by 10:45am. The weather was nice for hiking, not as warm or sunny as other days, but maybe 55-60F for most of the hike and a mostly cloudy (but no rain) day. When I was planning the trip I didn't really count the miles carefully and was under the assumption that it would be close to 10 miles round trip. In actuality it was around 14 miles and ended up taking us a little longer than originally thought. The trail back to the Flowed Lands/Calamity Pond was very nice. There was some elevation gain but nothing more than moderate and the trail was very well established and maintained, with some really beautiful scenery along the way. Several spots we saw the beginning of the turning of the fall colors. We took a short stop to check out the David Henderson monument, at the site where he accidentally shot and killed himself back in 1845. As we approached the Flowed Lands lean-to, I got my first foot soaker of the year when I was rock hopping over some muddy water and my right foot slipped and sunk over the top of my boot. My foot got a bit wet, but not squishy wet so I didn't change out my socks on the spot. When we got the the Flowed Lands area we took a few minutes to enjoy the awesome view! It truly is a gorgeous area. From there up to the break off point up to Marshall the trail went quick. The trail up Mt Marshall is deemed trailess, but the herd path up is well defined and marked where needed so we had no problems finding our way. For the first two thirds of the trail, the path follows a stream bed up. I have heard that Marshall is known for its moss and I definitely can see why after climbing it. I have never seen so much lush, dense moss as there is along the trail up. It is like a carpet of soft, fuzzy green everywhere! We had a couple steep pitches up the second half of the Marshall trail, and the last quarter of a mile had a few rock scrambles that were needed to navigate up. Once we made it too the top, it was PB&J time and I finally got out of the wet socks! Off a short side trail we had some really nice views of Marcy, Skylight, Redfield, Allen, Cliff and the Santinoni Range. On the way back down, we enjoyed several great views of Iroquois Mt. We picked our pace up a bit on the way back down in an effort to make it out before darkness set in, and we only ended up doing the last .25 mile or so in the dark. Overall the trip took us close to 8.5 hours. It was a great time, with some super views. Another one bites the dust!