We awoke Sunday morning after enjoying an evening campfire to see the sun (a rare sight these days)! The Moose River Plains had provided another awesome campsite. Once we were all up and packed up we traveled down to Eagle Bay for some fresh warm homemade doughnuts. Then we hit up the visitor center in Inlet to try to find an easy to moderate trail we have not done before and settled on Castle Rock, an overlook over Blue Mountain Lake! Other hikers noticed and joked with us about literally rolling our son out the tent and hitting the the hiking trail. I didn't pack pants just shorts and the morning was chilly so I left him in his footy pajamas! I also thought that layer might help prevent ticks from getting him too! The sun didn't stay with us long, clouds rolled in and it started to sprinkle. My husband and I didn't say a word about it and pressed on in hopes that it would stop. The trail was quite muddy in the lower section of the trail. Eventually and thankfully the rain stopped although the sun did not return. Our son didn't quite hike the whole trail and requested up on shoulders. I told him to ask Daddy, Although my Achilles Tendonitis is improving I knew 3/4 of the way in I had bitten off more than I could chew again carrying him any distance for me is no longer an option.
When they said the last portion of the trail was steep in the brochure they weren't kidding! Part of me started to panic but I watched my husband carefully carry our child up and followed closely behind. It was easier than it looked. My fear of heights did not win! Once we reached the top we were greeted with quite the reward! There is quite a drop off here so I told my son stay put and gave him a snack and a drink. I played with the HDR (High Dynamic Range) settings on my camera. By doing this I was able to catch some of the sun's rays reaching down through the clouds. I think I need to do some more experimenting with HDR but I think I like it. For those of you who don't know much about HDR, a camera that has HDR settings takes three photos each bracketed anywhere from one to three stops (your choice) and blends them into one photo! I chose 3 stop intervals but should have experimented with 1 and 2 stops to see the difference but I was to excited to think about it. Hope you enjoy the shots and make some time to try this Adirondack climb too! |
Julie MetottNature Photographer, wife, mother, lover of outdoor adventure! Archives
November 2022
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