The Silkie Road: 4th of July on Blue Mountain

To get to the start of the trail was a bit of an adventure in and of itself. We drove about an hour and a half to get to Mavis Banks, where we parked our cars next to the police station (as instructed) and waited for our ride to take us to the hostel. It turned out to be somewhat open air:

From Blue Mountain

We had a little dilemma about where to put Salem and his car seat. For some reason the driver didn't want Salem in his seat up front without me, but there wasn't room for me and the carseat. So he sat in my lap up front (which was incredibly hot) while everyone else rode in back. For the ride back we decided it would be better to sit in back with him in the seat wedged in between me and Christopher. Neither arrangement was particularly safe, but he survived.

We left the hostel about 1:30 AM (yes, in the morning!) to start our ascent in time to reach the peak for sunrise. I think the early start accounted for a good deal of the fatigue :-) Surely it has little to do with being out of shape. It was kind of fun hiking in the dark (when I wasn't dying from exhaustion), and exciting as it started to get light. Shockingly, the peak was all fogged in so we didn't get any view photos. But here is a picture one of our friends took at the peak:

From Blue Mountain

It's a shame, you get to the top of this beautiful mountain, and the shelter is full of trash and covered in graffiti, with the roof mostly blown off...

Here Salem and I are at the highest point - he really is in there under all that gear.