Late in the week, I decided I must go hiking this weekend. I invited a few people to join me, but no one could make it. So - my first solo trip to Mt Taurus.
I took the train to Cold Spring, and walked a mile to the trailhead.
I've done Mt Taurus a number of times - though not always the same path, and never before choosing my own route.
I started up the Washburn trail (white blazes) until I reached the Notch trail (blue).
I listened to the last three chapters of The Golden Compass as I walked. It was narrated by the author, with actors reading the speeches of the various characters.
The next thing queued up was a sermon by Tim Keller on greed - perhaps the most insidious sin.
I took the Notch Trail until I reached a T intersection. Would I turn right, and commit myself to pushing on to Beacon, as I'd intended? Or would I treat this as the halfway point and turn left, making my way back to Cold Spring? I measured and re-measured the path to Beacon on the trail map, and it was really a lot further than I'd thought. Although I felt like I could do it, I'd finished my big container of water and one of my two sandwiches. It might be better to bring more provisions if I'm really going to push myself.
I saw a few raptors (hawks, I think), but they were camera shy this time.
I turned left on to the red Brook trail, then left again onto Undercliff (yellow), and finally Washburn for a big lollipop. (I could have made a loop by taking the Cornish trail instead of turning on Underhill, but I thought that would be too quick.)
Eventually, I listened to the chapters from The Red Pyramid that I'd missed as I fell asleep. It seemed to me there was a certain synergy between this work and The Golden Compass.
I think this hike was about 7.4 miles including the road walking to and from the train station. I'm wishing I had a fancy pedometer/altimeter so I could say for sure - trying to measure the winding trails on the map is not very accurate!
I listened to the last three chapters of The Golden Compass as I walked. It was narrated by the author, with actors reading the speeches of the various characters.
The next thing queued up was a sermon by Tim Keller on greed - perhaps the most insidious sin. 
I took the Notch Trail until I reached a T intersection. Would I turn right, and commit myself to pushing on to Beacon, as I'd intended? Or would I treat this as the halfway point and turn left, making my way back to Cold Spring? I measured and re-measured the path to Beacon on the trail map, and it was really a lot further than I'd thought. Although I felt like I could do it, I'd finished my big container of water and one of my two sandwiches. It might be better to bring more provisions if I'm really going to push myself. 
I saw a few raptors (hawks, I think), but they were camera shy this time.
I turned left on to the red Brook trail, then left again onto Undercliff (yellow), and finally Washburn for a big lollipop. (I could have made a loop by taking the Cornish trail instead of turning on Underhill, but I thought that would be too quick.)
Eventually, I listened to the chapters from The Red Pyramid that I'd missed as I fell asleep. It seemed to me there was a certain synergy between this work and The Golden Compass.
Ultimately, I was glad that I returned to Cold Spring, because as it turns out I was a lot slower after lunch. This was not the day to push on to Beacon.
I think this hike was about 7.4 miles including the road walking to and from the train station. I'm wishing I had a fancy pedometer/altimeter so I could say for sure - trying to measure the winding trails on the map is not very accurate!
3 comments:
Awesome! I love walking alone (just walked about 50 miles of trails alone). And, I love the word "provisions," specifically because of this quote from Pooh:
"And we're going to have po-, pro-...er, things to eat. In case we want to eat them."
-A.A. Milne
To this day, the word "provisions" is popular in our household.
That's a wonderful quote! I think maybe I need to put some Winnie the Pooh books on my library list. :)
Nice photos & writeup. I too had a good time on this trail. I took the same route as described here except when I reached the Cornish estate (which by the way are pretty neat) I took the blue trail to the right instead of the red trail to the left (south). I eventually ended up on the Breakneck ridge trail with was an unexpected surprise... for trail maps, gps coordinates, photos & a video of my experience on the Mt Taurus trail, see my website hctrails.com/?p=939 Happy Hiking!
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