cairnage

[eor]

Cairns, little pyramids of loose stone, are used to mark trails above the treeline.

When I spoke to you last, derien and I were on our way up the final bit of Falling Waters Trail to the summit of Little Haystack. It doesn't feel little when you're on it. At treeline the trail is steep, but the views begin to open up and it's quite impressive to look down into the valley. The evergreens are short and stubby and very determined looking.

The picture bellow features a warm and puffing derien. In the background the large expanse of rock is the cliff of Cannon mountain. It was on that cliff that the Old Man of the Mountain used to hang out, before he got too cold and tired and headed for the valley. In front the Cannon cliff you can see another ridge running downward right to left. The final leg of our route runs down that ridge. It looks a long way off doesn't it?



The next picture I took from a rock just a little higher up. To the right of the tree are Cannon and the previously mentioned ridge. To the left of the tree are Lonesome Lake, in mid-frame, and the parking lot that we left from, further down and almost obscured by the tree. Yes, that's a divided highway with a parking area on each side. At this point we'd climbed nearly 2700 feet over the course of three miles.



When we got to the top a few minutes later we stopped and had a sandwich, sat down for a while. It was cooler on the summit and just about a perfect temperature for hiking. The cloud cover looked like it was descending and it was nearly noon, so after a bit of a rest we continued on our way.

Next we were headed across the ridge to Mt. Lafayette. The the sign point the way and the cairns will mark it...