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| Warming up the cold air before take off. |
Cool thing from the last 24: I worked on a hot air balloon. Riding in a balloon has been on my bucket list for 30 years. Being on the ground crew never was. But it was a blast!
We got up at 4:30am. The kids had gotten to bed around 9. We got back from the drive-in at about 2am, so I'd say the kids were fresher than we were. We arrived at the balloon's residence (the owners have a large flat lawn, so they launch from home) at 5:15 and got started. There was a reporter there from the South Hudson News who wanted to write a story about them.
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| Landing in a random field |
I held the balloon open while a gas-powered fan pushed air into the envelope, and once they had taken flight (Aria rode in the balloon) I drove the chase car. They landed in a field at about 7am. It took us about half an hour to tow the balloon back close to the road, take it down and package it up properly. Cool experience.
Christian and I came home and finished preparing for our hike. We met at the bottom of Mt Beacon at 10am. There were 3 boy scouts, me, and another dad. We had a great time. It was not an easy hike - the first mile is nearly a 1000 ft climb (20% grade, for reals). Then we had reached the old casino. We took an hour then to clean up garbage (mostly broken glass). We stashed it along side the trail, and continued on our hike. Our highest point was the fire tower, at 1600ft elevation, nearly a 1500 ft rise from the base. The views were incredible. We happened to be there at the tower's opening ceremony - city council people, Marines, steel workers, and a news crew all drove up there in Jeeps. By the time we finished, we had hiked 5.35 miles and covered over a half mile of total elevation gain/lose (over 3000 vertical feet). We all ran out of water by the end, and it was about 80 degrees, but nobody got hurt, and we all had a great time. Boy Scouts is awesome.
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| no hike is complete without frogs |
Katrina was napping when I got home, so I stayed up and grilled some burgers. She woke up, and by 7pm I was in bed. I slept for 12 hours.
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| The wild blueberries on top of Mt Beacon were ripe |
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As expected, the views from the highest point in the
Hudson Highlands are amazing |
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| Lunch in the shade at the fire tower. |
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| We are the Vikings! Strong and Tough! |
Christian and I came home and finished preparing for our hike. We met at the bottom of Mt Beacon at 10am. There were 3 boy scouts, me, and another dad. We had a great time. It was not an easy hike - the first mile is nearly a 1000 ft climb (20% grade, for reals). Then we had reached the old casino. We took an hour then to clean up garbage (mostly broken glass). We stashed it along side the trail, and continued on our hike. Our highest point was the fire tower, at 1600ft elevation, nearly a 1500 ft rise from the base. The views were incredible. We happened to be there at the tower's opening ceremony - city council people, Marines, steel workers, and a news crew all drove up there in Jeeps. By the time we finished, we had hiked 5.35 miles and covered over a half mile of total elevation gain/lose (over 3000 vertical feet). We all ran out of water by the end, and it was about 80 degrees, but nobody got hurt, and we all had a great time. Boy Scouts is awesome.
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