Next stop... Gaysville!

 These days, if you aren't in Gaysville, you probably wish that you were.  It wasn't so "groovy" when I was twelve!

 Not having children of our own, on the occasion that we "borrow" one (like Noah here), we have no idea how to properly care for them.

 Our very own "organic" vegetables. An unyun, pees and Toddy-taters.

 Back to New Jersey for Taylor's graduation party! Conratulations Taylor!

 The kegerator! So many memories!

 Land shark!

Back in the Vermont... Mushrooms is crazy!

 Shelly practicing the dark arts to get a fire started.

 A lazy Vermonts afternoon!

 I call this plant, "The Prickler".

The Wallingford Cemetery. Why not come visit?.....  Forever!

So I decided to hike the trail to Little Rock Pond. It's high summer which means everyone is trying to get either the Appalachian Trail (over-achievers) or Long Trail (under-achievers) off their bucket list!

This is the Little Rock Pond. I met a bevy of hikers on the trail; some stunk and some didn't. It was a good mix.

Newts are real! Unlike the Seven Cities of Gold or Trickle-Down Economics. Who knew? They may be real, but that doesn't mean they aren't lazy. Am I wrong?

View of Little Rock Pond from the Little Rock. There were rumors of treasure on the island from a band of forest pirates. I would have looked for it myself but there just wasn't enough time.

That's the "Little Rock" near the bottom left that gives the pond it's clever moniker!

I'm not sure why, but I love "captain obvious" signs like this. The sign is on the Little Rock itself, near the 30 foot drop to the rocks below. It reads "no camping". Admirable restraint to not make it "no camping, stupid."

There sure are a lot of signs off the beaten path...

The trail marker. Nature's way of saying, "this way, jackass."

Trail fruit! To eat or not to eat? I guess it depends if you remembered to bring the toilet paper... or not.

Killington - on the Bucklin Trail

 Something I've been looking forward to for a long time: Hiking the Bucklin Trail to the top of Killington (4,235 feet) in Vermont. It's 7 miles or so round trip.

 Craig "volunteered" to go hiking and picked Killington. He didn't know there'd be bridges!

 This was scarier than it looks... or maybe it is as scary as it looks.

 A relic of the native americans that occupied this area before europeans? Were they too lazy to build pyramids like natives of Mexico and South America? Maybe they had something better to do? Is it just a pile of stones? We may never know.

 Parts of the trail blended into the foliage. I thought that was kind of neat.

 Weather was crappy with a chance of crap. It was cool with heavy cloud cover for most of the trip up. Then it started raining. Yay.

 The signs told us what to do.

 This was the beginning of the "home stretch" to the peak. The rocks are the trail.

 Almost at the top.

 More and more "sunlight" near the peak.

 End of the line at the peak. We won! Normally you get a pretty good view here. Not today, as clouds were all up in here.

 Craig examining his walking stick for stress fractures. There were tons of shoobs at the top that cheated by taking the gondola (or is it gondola?). The shoobs were identifiable because they were eating potato chips and asking directions. You're at the top already! Every direction goes down!

 Going down from the peak was (for me) more difficult! Unfortunately this is when it started raining and the rocks were pretty slick.

 Cooper Lodge near the Killington Peak spur off of the Long Trail.

 Craig said this rock was worth $30 (U.S.), I thought that made it worth taking a picture.

 I call this rock "Weezy" (the Jeffersons?).

 I don't look miserable despite being completely drenched, cold and tired.

Craig sustained several non life-threatening injuries.

Of course, memories of the Chuck Norris videotape cover (seen at the Maclure Library Book Sale in Pittsford, Vermont) sustained us through the journey. Thanks Chuck!

Don't Hike Wearing Flip-Flops

 The White Rock Cliffs, near Wallingford, Vermont. We hiked (pronounced  hi-ked, like "Forked River") the "Ice Bed" trail at the White Rock National Recreation Area.

 Crossing a mighty river on our hike... Trust me, treacherous it was.

 Sure is green...

 This is crap that was growing from one of the rocks at the end of the trail. Called the "ice beds" because the ice never completely thaws under the rocks. It was quite a bit cooler (it was 80 today, but felt about 50 near the rocks) where I took this pitty.

 Mushrooms is crazy!?

 This picture doesn't show that this was steep as hell.

 The West Rutland Marsh up close (from a kayak).

We bought some wacky old furniture from an estate sale in Wallingford, Vermont today. This chair belonged to a man with a gigantic right hand.

A wacky desk (also from the estate sale).