Three of us left Essex at 8:00am for the one hour drive to Eden. Arriving at about 9:00, parked in the LT trailhead parking we were joined by one other hiker.

The weather threatened rain and thunderstorms, but it mostly failed to carry through on the threat, though we did get a brief shower just before reaching Devil’s Gulch. This of course made the Gulch slippery and a bit treacherous, but we passed through without major incident. We arrived at Spruce Ledge Camp a little after 11:00 and had a nice lunch.

We took the Long Trail on the way in and the Babcock Trail on the way out, which makes for a nice loop. One of our hikers is rather new to hiking and at times felt a little out of his element, but he kept up the pace and made it through the hike just fine, though he does have a couple of skinned knees as souvenirs of the hike. In all we had a very good hike, especially given the dire weather forecasts.

Participants: Dana Baron (leader), Peter Saile, Barbara Mackay, Andrew Stevens