blueberries

blueberries
Originally uploaded by wereldmuis.

Yesterday's hike: 7 h 10 min | 16.1 mi | 2.2 mph

I went hiking on the Midstate Trail, from Rt 12 to the New Hampshire border.

I had a tough time deciding what kind of hike to do. Originally, I had planned to do a long hike with a partially loaded backpack to get some training in. Maybe even camp out. But the weather report said the temperature would be in the 90s and there was a potential for thunderstorms. Didn't sound like a good day for backpacking.

In the end, I buckled down anyway, and brought my backpack loaded with my sleeping bag, tent, and 4 liters of water. The loaded bag weighed about 21 lbs. I figured since I did so well (in terms of speed) last week, I would turn things up a notch this week.

By the time I got to the trailhead at Jewell Hill Rd, I had begun to have some doubts about carrying so much weight in the bag. I was starting later than I wanted to, around 10:30 am, and it really was beastly hot. I decided to take the bag as it was, anyway, and started down the trail. It heads northwest up Rt 12 here, and soon turns north into the woods, running over private property. The entire section of the trail between Rt 12 and Russell Hill Rd was pretty buggy and wet.

North of Russell Hill Rd, you pick up a little elevation gain. The air became drier, and the mosquitoes left off. There are a lot of blueberry bushes along this section of the trail. The berries in this photo are from a lowbush variety, and they were the biggest and most delicious berries I've ever tasted from a lowbush blueberry.