Frost to Butler — second loop with the dog
Back on the Frost–Butler loop; faster because the rocks were familiar, plus a baby barred owl
Second time on the Frost–Butler loop and the dog came again. We hit the trail early; at 6:45.
The difference was knowing what was coming. I anticipated the chimneys and scrambles this time. We didn’t have to negotiate each one from scratch. The vistas opened the same way west toward the lake and the Adirondacks, but we didn’t linger as long.
The path on high elevation was sprinkled with delacate four-petaled Canadian Bunchberries (who I just learned about).
Frost still trades straight-up climbing for those short flat breathers between elevation lines.
The forecast called for full sun all day, but what we saw was a cloud stuck over the summit, in between the sun and us. So, the rocks weren’t dripping, but they weren’t as bone dry as I’d prefer.
The sun finally showed up half an hour before we met the car. Late, but nice to see the beams coming in to the dank woods.
Then we had some good medicine as nature pounded at my psyche and physiology. A shrieking stopped us both in our tracks, as it registered as not a common forest sound. Not a squirrel or chipmunk, not a loud mouth bluejay or crow, but an owl. A fuzzy fledgling sat glaring at us testing it’s vocal chords.
I’d like to venture to the forehead summit eventually.
There are two main ways to get there and they each have features which give me anxiety about bringing the pup. One way is not using the rock garden trail from maple ridge, but continuing on it. Doing so leads you to a gap that The Green Mountain Club explains:
The trail crosses a narrow, unbridged gap you need to leap over. Many dogs and children are not able to cross this gap! If you have doubts, turn around.
The other route is from butler lodge itself. You take the wallace cutoff trail as a connector to the long trail which has sets of near vertical ladders. We haven’t gone through ladder training yet.
Someday.