Burn off your christmas over-indulgences on december 26th with a quick romp out to Millbrook via the ridge trail and a return by the carriage road.

Snow shoes are prolly the way to go.

West trapps lot at 9am.

Doesn't that conflict with the annual Gunks Fest?

http://groups.google.com/groups?dq=&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&safe=off&threadm=bs6uk0%24dr05%241%40netnews.upenn.edu&prev=/groups%3Fhl%3Den%26lr%3D%26ie%3DUTF-8%26safe%3Doff%26group%3Drec.climbing

don't know, don't care, I'm going walking. based on the forecasts, the need for snowshoes will be questionable.

Hip waders may be more appropriate than snowshoes on the 26th. There was more winter in the fall than there is now that it's officially winter.

Hip waders may be more appropriate than snowshoes on the 26th.

Not far from the truth, but more of that later...

So, I figured since I wasn't working on Friday neither was anyone else, and I finally dragged my lazy butt out of the house around 7:15. Big mistake, as I realized when I got to the Brooklyn Bridge and found I was surrounded by folks on their way to work.

Finally rolled into the West Trapps Lot around 9:10 or so - found Strat's Jeep, but no Strat (he's so impatient). Threw on my boots, grabbed my pack and headed out - of course, I had no idea where the trailhead for the Millbrook Ridge Trail is, so had to spend another couple of minutes staring at the map before I was on my way. Trail (and weather) conditions were fine - no more than a few remaining patches of crusty snow to contend with, and I was at Millbrook in under an hour (still no sign of Strat, other than the occasional fresh bootprint on the trail).

So what's the big deal with the "long" approach to Millbrook? Granted I ran most of the flat and downhill sections, and wasn't carrying rack and rope, but even so...

After a quick drink and a couple of pictures I headed off down the Coxing Trail - although for most of its length it was more like the Coxing Kill, a mix of stream and marsh (definitely could have used the hip waders) with patches of skating rink thrown in for good measure.

Back to the car just after 11 to find a plate of baklava and a note from Strat, and back home to Brooklyn by 1o'clock, much to Mrs. Vee's surprise - or was that disappointment? Whichever, the baklava was a huge hit!

All in all a great morning's jaunt, just sorry I missed the instigator.