Saturday was hot and muggy so we decided to use the day to run some errands and do some laundry. I did not take any photos of the miraculous transformation our clothes experienced as they went from dirty to clean. Maybe next time. A storm rolled in to town in the evening and brought with it cool and dry temperatures. Delightful sleeping weather, so I slept in on Sunday morning. After a leisurely breakfast we made our way north to hike Welch-Dickey. I have a love/hate relationship with this hike. I love that it involves summiting two peaks, has a wide variety of terrain, it’s a loop trail, and is only 4.4 miles round trip. I hate the rather steep bald rock faces that lead to the top of Welch.
I have a lot of pet names for the different parts of this hike. I call the worst of the bald rock faces, Old Baldy. He is a jerk. Every time we do this hike, I curse that part and imagine sliding down the face of the mountain. There are other steep rock faces and they are called, Son of Baldy, Cousin Baldy, Baldy Junior, and so on and so forth. On the way to Dickey there’s an old weathered branch that looks like a horse, that part is called Horse Branch Rock. Well, there used to be a branch, our favorite horse branch is now gone. We both hope it was dislodged in a storm and that someone didn’t take it. Because if they did take it, they’re jerks. Now I have to call that section The Rock Formerly Known As Horse Branch. Stupid. On the way down Dickey the trail keeps going in and out of the woods and it starts to feel like the trail is going in circles. I call that part The Matrix.
It was a lovely day for a hike and I was glad we went, but I really wish it wasn’t so hard for me. I had to stop a lot and catch my breath and I even fell once which made me angry. This is how it is with me and hiking. I say I like it, but I think I really just like the reward. I love it when we get to the top and get to eat our sandwiches and survey the view. After the hike we stopped in Plymouth to get some Capt’n Eli’s root beer at a little deli grocer downtown that has it on tap. I bought some fancy fizzy beverages and then saw a freezer case filled with gelato popsicles. I had to get one of those too. I chose the Blue Bottle coffee flavor because Blue Bottle coffee is delicious and is my favorite thing to drink when we are on the West Coast.
Here are some photos from our day. We hope you all had a nice weekend too.
The Derek Janiak Hepatobiliary Forum 