Eagle Mountain 8-4
Posted: Mon Aug 06, 2012 10:00 am
So I was going to go up eagle and Big Indian, but it was super humid out. The temp was only 80s but the air was really thick and oppressing. It's nice that the hike up to Eagle is mostly in the shade, but there were tons of flies out on Saturday. It was really disgusting when I got to the summit there were millions of flies, some of them an inch long and really black.
In addition to all the flies, I figured I was the first person on the trail. I was breaking all the spider webs on the way up, and probably ate about 20-30 spiders and rotting fly carcasses. I had borrowed my wife's poles for the day since my splints were hurting me and I wound up just waving them around in front of me to try to get the cobwebs out of the way before me.
I got back to the intersection pretty early, by about 1 and decided to skip the humidity and more bugs and not go for Big Indian. I'll go up there when I take the bushwack to Fir. I hiked back down past the lean-to.
When I was near the end of the trail, I stopped to take a picture and I spotted some sunglasses on the trail. I was thinking about bending down to pick them up, and all of a sudden there was instant pain in my arm, and in the back of my gaiter. I thought the fastener on my gaiter had caught on my skin or something and I looked and saw a giant bug biting me. I think it was a wasp or a hornet and no matter how many times i swatted it away it just kept jumping back on me. I ran away and finally got rid of it, but my arm and leg stung until I got back to NJ.
So yah, I got to the top of the mountain but the bugs won...
Here's the registration box and the sign reminding you that this trail passes through private land
The trail follows a stream, and it crosses it a few times. I imagine in high water a lot of these would be difficult. There is also some woods roads and a camp up here on the private land. Here's a bench I saw at the intersection with the road.
Here's a bridge where the woods road crosses the trail.
Entrance to private land
Nettles on both sides of the trail. There's a lot but not soo many that you can't snake through. I didn't get hit this time. whew.
I always tell my wife and my mom about them, and they don't understand about the tiny needles until I showed them this picture. Here's a closeup of the stem of a nettles.
I don't remember much of a climb. There's only two sections where it's steep enough to be considered "vertical" and even those sections are easily navigated. I would say that Eagle is a relatively easy climb compared to some of the other 3500 trails.
Here's me at a clearing that I decided was the summit, or close enough to it. I couldn't tell from mike's picture if there were any cairns or anything, and I saw this firepit that looks destroyed and decided it was probably it. I didn't see much of a trail west of here, and the flies were going crazy with me being the only smelly thing within a mile.
Here is a section of fern covered trail. There are some pines on this mountain, but they don't dominate.
Back by the lean-to
I assume this is a spring for the lean-to. It's flowing even though the stream is dry.
Waterfall from the bridge
Another small cascade with a pool below. It was right after this that I was stung by the wasp
Back at the car
In addition to all the flies, I figured I was the first person on the trail. I was breaking all the spider webs on the way up, and probably ate about 20-30 spiders and rotting fly carcasses. I had borrowed my wife's poles for the day since my splints were hurting me and I wound up just waving them around in front of me to try to get the cobwebs out of the way before me.
I got back to the intersection pretty early, by about 1 and decided to skip the humidity and more bugs and not go for Big Indian. I'll go up there when I take the bushwack to Fir. I hiked back down past the lean-to.
When I was near the end of the trail, I stopped to take a picture and I spotted some sunglasses on the trail. I was thinking about bending down to pick them up, and all of a sudden there was instant pain in my arm, and in the back of my gaiter. I thought the fastener on my gaiter had caught on my skin or something and I looked and saw a giant bug biting me. I think it was a wasp or a hornet and no matter how many times i swatted it away it just kept jumping back on me. I ran away and finally got rid of it, but my arm and leg stung until I got back to NJ.
So yah, I got to the top of the mountain but the bugs won...
Here's the registration box and the sign reminding you that this trail passes through private land
The trail follows a stream, and it crosses it a few times. I imagine in high water a lot of these would be difficult. There is also some woods roads and a camp up here on the private land. Here's a bench I saw at the intersection with the road.
Here's a bridge where the woods road crosses the trail.
Entrance to private land
Nettles on both sides of the trail. There's a lot but not soo many that you can't snake through. I didn't get hit this time. whew.
I always tell my wife and my mom about them, and they don't understand about the tiny needles until I showed them this picture. Here's a closeup of the stem of a nettles.
I don't remember much of a climb. There's only two sections where it's steep enough to be considered "vertical" and even those sections are easily navigated. I would say that Eagle is a relatively easy climb compared to some of the other 3500 trails.
Here's me at a clearing that I decided was the summit, or close enough to it. I couldn't tell from mike's picture if there were any cairns or anything, and I saw this firepit that looks destroyed and decided it was probably it. I didn't see much of a trail west of here, and the flies were going crazy with me being the only smelly thing within a mile.
Here is a section of fern covered trail. There are some pines on this mountain, but they don't dominate.
Back by the lean-to
I assume this is a spring for the lean-to. It's flowing even though the stream is dry.
Waterfall from the bridge
Another small cascade with a pool below. It was right after this that I was stung by the wasp
Back at the car