I did my new conditioning hike today. When I do this I will not put in a new post, I will just add a note to this one.
This is Squak Mountain in a very vanilla way. No forest trail – this is the South Access Road, it goes almost straight up to the top, where there is a microwave tower. I have no idea what kind of maintenance they do on a microwave tower, but whatever kind it is, they use this road (which has a locked gate near the start) to get there.
However, it is not at all illegal to hike right up this road. I saw a couple of other people today, and near the parking lot, which is on SE May Valley Road (and requires a Discover Pass) there are three or four houses.
This is pleasantly steep and you can get as tough a workout as you like, just adjust your speed accordingly. As usual, my speed was slow (75 minutes to the top) but fairly steady.
Anyway, if you look at the picture above, you see a short stretch close to the bottom (they are building a new home on the right) that is level, and notice the hill. Well, that’s about how it is the entire 2.6 miles up.
When you get there, you know where you are:
And the “view” is not exactly spectacular:
But this is a conditioning hike, not one for views or spectacular forest. It is like a 2.6 mile long treadmill, but outside in the woods. More fun than the gym.
Here is the track:
https://adventures.garmin.com/en-US/by/djhiker/squak-mountain-9-4-2017#.Wa226MaQypo