Bear Mountain

BSA Troop 494 went on a two day, one night, excursion along the Appalachian Trail starting in Salisbury, CT, and ending over the boarder in MA.  We started up the Undercliff Trail to the AT and took that up to the summit of Bear Mountain where we took a long rest and had some lunch.  There was a large pile of rocks there (don't ask me why) and a plaque at the base of it claiming Bear Mountain to be the tallest point in CT.  The view there was beautiful and you could see for miles.  After summiting, we took a dreadful trail down some really steep and slippery rocks.  Everyone slipped and fell at least once because there was no such thing as dry trail, given it had rained the two previous days.  Once that ordeal was over, we found a Laural Brook Campsite, which isn't the campsite where we wanted to spend the night, but where we wanted to stay was actually a little further down the trail.  Once we got there, we learned that the campsite had been relocated to the previous location.  We now know that our maps are out of date.  Anyway, we decided that since we had about 3 more hours of good daylight, we might as well make the three more mile trip to the next campsite, the Bear Falls campsite.  And, just as soon as we decided to make the extra 3 miles, it started to rain.  Not bad, just some passing sprinkles, but its still rain.  To get there, we had to cross a river that was flowing over the trail and required removal of shoes and socks and to cross freezing cold, shin deep, water.  THEN, we had to summit Race Mountain, which was not as tall as Bear Mountain, but its still a mountain.  Afterward, we did a nice cliff walk along the mountain ridge on about a two foot wide trail with a thousand foot drop to the right and woods to the left.  After trudging through the mud, we finally made it the campsite, after what felt like for ever.  That was a 15 mile ordeal.  That's impressive, with a group of 12, each with a 30 pack.  After a small mishap with one of the stoves, we cooked some soup for dinner and got some well deserved sleep.  We woke up the next morning to a little more rain, but with a real easy hike out, approximately 2 more miles to the  parking lot where we staged a car to go back and grab the other at the starting lot.  On the way back, we encountered a HUGE waterfall, with about an 80 foot drop, and we all had fun climbing up on the side.  All in all, we're very tired, dirty, and we all had a blast.

Here we are leaving the firehouse at about 8 in the morning

Up the slippery rocks toward the top of Bear Mountain

 There were a couple really nice lookout points along the trail to the top of the mountain.  Here are some pictures that resulted of those beautiful vistas:

Here's some of the crew at one lookout

Here is the whole crew

This is the view atop the great rock pile on the mountain top.

Here we are eating lunch

The crew on the summit

The tallest hill out there is Mt. Everett, the tallest mountain in the area.  We climbed that a couple of years ago and it was a lot of fun.  The lower hill just to the right I believe is Race Mountain, our second summit of the day.  That's pretty far out there.

The plaque stating that this is the tallest point in CT.  It's too bad you can't read it

Here we are climbing down the slipper rocks.  Good thing we decided to start where we did rather than start where we ended because going up these rocks would be torturous.

Slipping down the mountian

This was actually the trail.  No way around these rocks

WAAAAYYY up there is my father climbing down

AT signs

Us hiking along in Sage's Ravine

The pictures really don't do the justice.  These rocks and the river are a lot larger than they look.

Everywhere there were rivers and waterfalls that led into the main river in the ravine.

Ya, there was still snow hanging around

Over there's my dad, and next to him is a 30 waterfall.

More AT signs.  One of which is pointless.

The fog rolled in under the mountain, and this is when it began to rain a little.

This is the view on top of Race Mountain

Chilling on the rocks

Here we are on the cliff walk

Someone built a pi symbol out of rocks.  that's cool

That big peak ahead is Mt. Everett.

There's Casey coming through the low brush.

More AT trail signs.

Camp

Here's that 80 foot waterfall.  Again, the pictures don't show the sheer size or beauty of the falls.

Me...on a rock

I took some pictures on my way to the top of the falls.

Near the top of the falls

And after the fun at the waterfall, we uneventfully went back to the parking lot and headed home.  It was a lot of fun!

The return of NAVIANCE

Oh yes.  For those of who that don't recall, I wrote a previous blog about NAVIANCE and it and I do not get along after it suggested my dream career as professional window washer.  Now, I've got nothing against window washers, but I'm not taking honors courses to wash windows.  Anyway, one year later, its back and the school forced me and my class to do more in this "wonderful" program.  What NAVIANCE is suppose to do is to suggest careers and colleges best suited to your personality and lifestyle.  A pretty good idea, no?  Well, after that first test I took for it, I can't take it seriously.  Apparently, it's also suppose to have your GPA and you can write a resume for colleges on it.

As if suggesting awful matches for careers for me wasn't bad enough, it went out to insult me again when the guidance counselors forced me to take the "personality test."  Just before taking the test, the counselors were getting us all pumped up about how serious this is and how it was scientifically proven to be correct most of the time.  They made it seem as if it were the latest and greatest piece of personality determining technology.

So, the test is simple, but long.  It took a good 45 minutes out of my life.  Anyway, it compares two different people and you then you select which person you're more like.

Example:

Joe does this certain thing one way, while Jim does the same thing a very different way.  Which are you more like?      It was those kinds of questions.

So of course, I take the test seriously, because I was curious as to what my personality was.  I took the grotesquely long test, and toward the end others were getting their results.  The kid next to me's personality was "introvert, but loves to be active."  True, he's on like, three sports teams and only has a couple, but close, friends.  The other kid next to me got "Extrovert, loves to be outside."  Also true for them.  Of course, the results said more than just that, they were practically entire essays determining their personalities, which were surprisingly accurate.  Anybody else see a similarity between the accuracy of this test and other's results with the career test?  Oh yes, these results were spot on.

And then it was my turn to submit my answers.


My result was.....


And I quote....


"We're sorry, but we could not match your test results to any of the personalities we have."

Oh, gee thanks NAVIANCE, you never let me down.  It's not like I'm going to let a computer determine my personality, or lack there of in this case.  If anyone should know what their like, wouldn't it be themselves?  It suggested that I take the test again, you know, to waste another 45 minutes of my life.  Also, how would my answers for the test be any different the next time around?  If I agree with what Jim did, I agree with what Jim did, I'll have to lie and agree with Joe next time.

And that's how I managed to fail a test that you can't fail at.

Hello again

I'll just write to get in touch with the world, since its sorta been a while.  Anyway, I've been recovering from the black plague, thanks for asking, and I'm on my way toward infecting the rest of the house, starting with the dog that is conveniently laying right next to me.  What else....oh yea. I've been taking Driver's Ed, I've done about 5 classes so far, but a pro at driving like me, doesn't really need to take all 15, but anyway.  I've also got an Eagle Project in the works.  Yeah. *applause* Hopefully I'll be getting approvals by the town and by the council soon and we can get the ball rolling on this.  I've been doing research on what I'm going to construct which is: (Drum roll please) A trail staircase.  But that's a whole other story.  Anywho...I'll throw in some pictures of Chester Airport.

The Chester Airport cat.  Because no airport would be complete without a black cat running a muck.

The one, the only, N9603Q taking off. (Pop's plane)

NOT N9603Q.  This would be the training plane that they use to train young pilots

This is 1200 horses of pure Pratt and Whitney power.  It is a 24 cylinder aircraft engine that the organization "Connecticut Corsair" will put in their...you guessed it...Corsair.  The Corsair was a WWII fighter plane.  It's the blue one with fold-able wings that was on the aircraft carriers.  You know what I'm talking about.  So this organization is currently building one here at Chester.  It's still in many pieces across the country, but at least the engine is here.  Fun fact: The Corsair was built in Bridgeport.

N9603Q

Just thought this was cool

This is inside the shop where all the parts for the previously mentioned Corsair are stored.   Some of the parts, at least.

The hangar is full of old WWII stuff.

It's been a while (A BB, Bonus Blog)

It's been a while since my last blog post, huh?  Well, here's one now, depicting the adventurous times BSA troop 494 had at Pico Mountain skiing and snowboarding last weekend.  Everyone had a blast, and I know I had a lot of fun.

We drove up Friday night to Killington VT (Pico and Killington are pretty much on the same mountain.  Pico's just way smaller of a resort)  and we stayed at the Turn Of The River Lodge the whole weekend.  That place is pretty nice, if you ever go up there, I suggest you stay there.  (There aren't any temperature regulators on the showers, so if you wanna mess with someone in the shower, flush a toilet a couple times.  That entertained us for a little while)

A picture's worth a thousand words, so heres 7000 words

THIS is actually a picture from last year when we went to Pico.  And because I'm sure the ladies were wondering, that is in fact me.

The rest of the pictures are from this past weekend

Unfortunately, it was raining for the duration of the ski day.  Fortunately, the rain barely affected the conditions (Which were excellent, by the way)

Here we are at the restaurant  (That's James and Ethan)

So, there was a fundraiser going on this weekend to find a cure for cancer (American Cancer Society maybe?)  Anyway, there were promotional things where you donate money and you get to spin this wheel and win something.  This is Casey, who broke the wheel.  Fortunately, I already won a one day lift pass, which I soon after scalped out in front of the resort.

And here's all three of them on a lift with me.

WOAH!!!!
This is a BB, a Bonus Blog! (That's bonkers!) This means I'm too lazy to make another post, to your benefit.

Here goes that crazy, wild, bonus part of the blog:

I finally was able to encounter a day that wasn't frigidly cold, nor rainy, nor cloudy, and was actually relatively decent the other day.  So, I went out for a little hike round behind my house, and took some quick little pictures of the babbling brook which I figured would be overflowing after the two strait days of rain along with the melting of two feet of snow.  Here's another 8000 words to feast your eyes on:

This is the trail head.  Building stone steps to the street may just be my Eagle project.

Here's a really old road, probably dating back to the 1800s.

The river

The falls

I've got about a thousand pictures of this stream.