9/4/13 Blackcap Mountain

I cannot find a map of the trail so have drawn it in and it should be viewed as very approximate.


A beautiful sunny day after several of rain ( it's raining again as I write this) . Blackcap seemed like a drier alternative than some other trails after all the rain. We parked at the end of Fitts Pond and Kelley headed there first.

You start on the trail that circles the pond and follow it to the trail up the mountain. This trail is woody, fairly steep, and rocky in places and  Kelley needs to work around some of them but she handles them on her own.

Coming out of the woods onto ledge it looks and feels like you are at the top.

and looking back the way you have come.

But you quickly return to the woods and have a ways to go with more elevation to gain.

The top has several antennas and we do not linger there but continue on the trail along the ridge- at first an old woods road which soon becomes a regular trail.

There are views through the trees and a couple of ledges also offer views.

The trail down is, in some ways,  more of a challenge. It seems to get less use and is difficult to follow in places- blazes are old, faded, and sometimes hard to see. There are also many places with large boulders that make Kelley do big bushwhacks.

We have usually ended up giving up on the trail at some point and just bushwhacking down. Today I decided we would find the trail all the way down and we did though it was slow going at times.  A more open area near the bottom goes through brush and there are no blazes but somehow we ended  up on the trail we we reentered the woods.

Once we reached the pond I decided we would just follow the pond back to our start- we usually continue on around the pond. We must have done this before but I did not remember how hard it was for Kelley. Many places with huge boulders she could not get over and difficult bushwhacks- slow going again.  Once again she managed - she is very clever at solving these problems.

In a small pool I saw this moth trying to get airborne but seemingly stuck there.

I put my hand under it and lifted it out of the water. It seemed content there as it dried- difficult to photograph with only one hand free. I had read that one way to tell moths from butterflies was their 'feathery' antenna which I had not clearly seen before- but were very evident here.

I set it on some moss and it flew away.

Once we passed the intersection with the trail up, the walking was easier and we soon were back at the pond. One more swim before we headed home.

This turned out to be a more challenging hike ( especially for Kelley) than anticipated  and took longer than usual but we both seemed fine at the end and it had been a beautiful day. 3  1/4 hours