Eight of us met at the Underhill Center local Park and Ride, and took two cars to the trailhead at the end of Stevensville Road. We set out at 9:15 up the Butler Lodge trail, reaching the Lodge around 10:20. After snacks, we headed up Wampahoofus a short ways, then turned onto Rock Garden. We had great fun climbing down, up, around the rocks, squeezing through tight spaces, crawling under or clambering over a big boulder, with the frequent surprised “oh!” as a hand encountered a slug on a tree or rock. Did I mention conditions were slightly wet?

Had the hike ended there, it would have lived on as “Jill’s slug hike”, but with yellow stained palms, we turned up Maple Ridge to ascend to the forehead, arriving around 12:20. We lunched there, discussing the particular variation of peanut butter sandwich each and every one of us had brought(!), and enjoyed the view. Having determined that conditions would be too wet for the group to descend via the Long Trail, we instead took Maple Ridge and Wampahoofus back down to Butler Lodge, and on down Butler Lodge trail to the trailhead, arriving around 2:45. All seemed to agree it was a super fun hike with a great group of people!

Participants: Ed Rogers, Dale Schmit, Dave and Kristen Watson, Jamie Murphy, Mark McLane, Dave Hathaway. Trip leader: Jill George.