What's New el Grande de #&%!$cat!? (woah hhh, ohoh)

“Hey I went hiking and paddling last weekend.”

“Hope you had a good time, Zac. Yeah, ours was a real fun one. Extreme belly laughs were the order of the evening. Damned near perfect conditions, too...”

“I'm uploading pictures right now. I was having fun playing with the new camera.”

“cool. I'm going off, so I will look at them in the morning. Talk to you tomorrow...”

“Knowing the way webshots has been lately, no one will be able to open them until tomorrow anyway.”

“Okie-dokie, here’s my version of “What’s new El Grande Pu…ssyGato”

Saturday morning Clan of the Trees and Scorchie picked me up at around 7:45am. Woohoo! Upon finally meeting the ‘infamous’ Scorchfire, the Redhead Triangle was complete. Treebeard saved the late start by discovering a new way off the island and getting us to the trailhead only a half hour late (it was the bodega’s fault I swear!). Met up with NJpacker and Babyface. NJpacker is one awesome TT’er…and Babyface….kiddo, you’re not bad yourself J. After some moderate futzing about with gear and packs and goofball photo ops we all soon headed off on the trail. It was a gorgeous NY spring day, i.e., sunny blue skies, warm temps, and a lovely cool breeze. Perfect. Even more perfect then the weather was the great company! I think I’m sorer from laughing than from the actual backpacking. Had a lovely hike to the snowmelt waterfall where we stopped for an “ooh ahh” break and water filtering. The water was yummy but ladies…didn’t the guys look a bit ‘suspicious’ from the back? From there we continued on courted by tiny purple butterflies and little green finches that glistened like Christmas tree ornaments. At some point the guys and I got separated from the other two redheads….too much laughing? or perhaps it was the garter snake we mucked about with (and which Njpacker tossed at me – eek!) that was the distraction which caused us to miss the left turn?…regardless, it’s not my destiny to go up Tom Jones from the back! We knew we were a bit off when we passed the tennis courts and progressively nicer houses. No worries, we caught the road and then had to huff it up Tom Jones’ front…grr baby! Passed some guy and his beautiful white shepherd who was robbed of his camera and GPS…he’d asked NJpacker and Babyface to watch his tent while he schlepped back to his car to see if the missing items had been left behind. We plotted to kick some booty while pathetically sprawled out on the mountain - huffing and puffing after the short but steep hike up Tom Jones (beware of the Welsh!). As it turns the guy had left his gear at home and was actually….drum roll….Jack Canine and super dog – Pumba! Shortly thereafter Maple and Scorchfire mounted Tom from the back and we were once again a happy crew of TT’ers. Set-up camp in the high wind (must insert here that my new solo Mountain Hardwear PCT 1 tent rocks! – so easy to set up and quite roomy for it’s wonderfully light weight. I love it! I love it! I love it!) and crashed for awhile. Babyface decided since his young and virile to do a quick trek to Blacktop and back (that bastig!). About an hour later Must Hike (?) joined us – of course by that time the wind had died down! Ate like a bunch of starvin’ marvins and then the TT drinking began. Scorchie corrupted the youth…while the youth rambled on about the oracles and Delphi….and strange lights were seen all around (just the CIA spying on Scorch!)…before the youth passed out in the lap to take home and put on a shelf. LOL! Oh, let’s not forget Missy Elliot and his pantyhose doing the tequila dance! The Redhead Triangle strikes again? You’ll have to join us all on another trip to find out won’t ya? After all the refreshments were gone…and a few night hikers scared away by the thought of fun….and Jack’s wife serenaded by our starpower version of every TJ song…it was time to roll into bed. Again, I need to share that my other new piece of gear (Northface Blaze mummy bag) rocked! This usually cold sleeper was finally so hot in a sleeping bag that I got to experience the joy of sleeping in undies and camisole – with my feet out of the bag! Oh it was devine! Next morning up and at ‘em – down the mountain for Jack, Tree, Scorch, and I….and back the way we’d come for the rest!
This trip was one of the best TT trips I’ve ever been on – and that’s hard to narrow down since they are always great! Can’t wait to see this crew again!

PS – pepsi can stoves kick butt! (NJpacker I’m at triana_@hotmail.com)

I LOVE TT’ers!”

“excellent trip report. Treebeard...whats up withthat black vest? The others are in shorts and t-shirts, and your wrapped up like some mummy for winter. LOL.”

“twinks, great report, had me laughing all over again!”

“Great report, Twinks. Good to have another perspective.

And that's a good question, Stickie. I lost it after about an hour as it began to heat up. The temp was borderline for me that morning. I guess my temperate zone wasn't too high that day. Once the blood started moving, I did begin to sweat pretty bad under there...”

“That Aftershock is 80 proof,.. I forget who asked me.”

“HHA

was that an after shock thought?”

“HARDY HAR HAR”

“80 proof of what?”

“Proof of age (if you are referring to Baby Face)”

“must hike why arent you going on the hawk mt trip??

(standing and tapping my toes)”

“Maybe he's getting fitted for a wedding dress!

There's a lot of that going around these days...”

“Can't make it this weekend, I've got things at home to do and I've been out two weekends in a row.”

“Wah wah wahhhhh”