Yesterday I did my yearly climb of Snowy. Snowy Mountain is one of my favorite mountains and I was using this opportunity to condition for the high peaks. Now there is a section on Snowy that is quite steep. The trail starts out climbing away from the road, heads for the Beaver Brook valley and levels off. It parallels the Brook, eases into it and finally crosses it at about a mile. After crossing it, it climbs up the northern bank, pulls away a little, and heads for a tributary with a beaver dam. Beyond the beaver dam is a concentrated series of boardwalks with a gradual rise. The trail rejoins the primary brook, crosses it twice along with other tributaries before reaching one final crossing where there are a series of rock stairs on the other side. Here is where the real climbing begins at possibly 2.5 miles. I divided the climb into three stages. The first stage is a steady climb that seems to go on for quite a while in the same direction. The change comes when the trail makes an abrupt turn to the right over the roots of a tree and begins to zig zag up the mountain. I call this the switchback stage. The trail will climb moderately then turn up sharply briefly then moderate again. It does this about two times before the major switch back. Just before the major switch back the trail flattens out for a moment then makes a hair pin to the opposite direction and proceeds up with many roots and rocks over the trail. Beyond the switchback are two short breaks in the climbing that are a really nice to recoup. After the second break the trail becomes increasingly rocky then breaks out to a massive climb on the right. I call this the grand finale or third stage. This intense pitch seems to take 10 to 20 minutes to scale up cobble and large rock slabs. Yes I know there is worse. I know there are people who scale worse every day in 2 minutes while bushwhacking I know I know, I have even seen it. But for the average person not in shape this section is nasty. It climbs to the junction where the east arm of the mountain meets the horn. This is the eastern arm that extends to peak 3149 where Griffin Brook is. Then it turns right up severe soil erosion and breaks out on the summit. Now, curious do any of you have a definition for that steep pitch. Is it a micro slide, a northern drainage, what is it?
Now, today when I was in the process of climbing that steep section I looked up and saw a horned goat. I was shocked. What’s a goat doing up here. Other hikers were amazed too. There were two other people with the goat. I yelled out to them and said are you kidding me, that’s a goat. The guy told me that the goat just started to follow them, of course that was non-sense. The women corrected and said that wasn’t true and the goat was there’s. The guy was just trying to get a rise out of me. Along with the goat they had with them what looked like a black lab. The goat followed orders as if it was a dog. I was surprised by all of this. Has anyone else seen hikers bring along animals such as goats with them.
Now, today when I was in the process of climbing that steep section I looked up and saw a horned goat. I was shocked. What’s a goat doing up here. Other hikers were amazed too. There were two other people with the goat. I yelled out to them and said are you kidding me, that’s a goat. The guy told me that the goat just started to follow them, of course that was non-sense. The women corrected and said that wasn’t true and the goat was there’s. The guy was just trying to get a rise out of me. Along with the goat they had with them what looked like a black lab. The goat followed orders as if it was a dog. I was surprised by all of this. Has anyone else seen hikers bring along animals such as goats with them.
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