A View from Mt Philo

A Cessna flying into the sunset over Lake Champlain surrounded
by the Green Mountains of Vermont and the Adirondack Mountains
of New York. Look closely... is that Champ's head sticking out
of the water in the middle of the lake?

I hope to get to make a short climb to the top of Owl's Head at Lake Groton this summer and that got me looking for photos from the last time we did any hiking. Hikes, no matter how short and easy, can be a dangerous thing for me. Systemic Mastocytosis can cause anaphylaxis at any random time but especially when my body temperature rises.  This makes hiking difficult for me.

Another issue for me when it comes to hiking is my energy level. My energy level has been so low that any sort of hike is difficult. Trying to hike uphill and then downhill is a lot of work.  All this stress on my body also causes a risk of anaphylaxis too. Needless to say, hikes have been few and far between since my health has started struggling with Systemic Mastocytosis.

Our last hike was a short hike to the top of Mt Philo back about five years ago. We hiked up late in the afternoon so we could watch most of the sunset that day. I managed to get some nice shots of the golden sun settling down behind the rugged Adirondack Mountains. I say that we watched most of the sunset because we didn't want to be hiking down the mountain in complete darkness. After the sun disappeared behind the beautiful Adirondack horizon, we headed for the base of the mountain. My Philo actually has a road that winds up the mountain to a parking area at the summit but we chose to park at the base and hike up.

This is the wide-angle view after the Cessna in the above photo
passed over Lake Champlain. The moment the sun disappeared
below the horizon, we packed up and headed back down the
mountain.  In order to avoid twisted ankles on the trail in the dark,
we chose to hike down the paved road.

Owl's Head at Lake Groton also has a road to the summit but I think I want to attempt the relatively short hike to the summit. I've heard that the summit of Owl's Head is very overgrown today so I'm not anticipating capturing any beautiful photos from that summit. We'll see what happens though... maybe I'll get lucky and find a nice hole in the foliage and brush giving me enough of a view for some decent photos...

Anyway... back to our hike up Mt Philo... This really is a great little hike. The view across Lake Champlain to the high peaks of the Adirondack Mountains is stunningly beautiful. Mt Philo even has the claim to fame of being the first State Park in Vermont. It is a great little park and has an awesome view!

I shot a lot of photos that evening and came away with a lot of really nice images and two large format panoramas.  Two shots which I have never shown before are included here. Actually, these two shots were actually in one of my "cull" folders ready for the trash bin!

I'm looking forward to another hike this summer and shooting some more photos from another mountaintop.