Parnell Tower

Day 25 (10/25/09)
After a very long period of colder than normal temperatures we finally got a good day and it was on the weekend. At first we were planning on kayaking but the wind was pretty strong so we decided to go hiking in the kettles instead. I had heard of the Parnell Tower before but had never been to it. So we set out for the kettles and the tower. A lot of the leaves were already off the trees. The wind and rain had taken their toll. What were left were yellow leaves. There was evidence of red ones on the ground. Why they fell first is beyond me. Being fond of yellow, that was ok with me. When we got to the tower it looked like others had had the same idea as us. In spite of the crowds we decided to make the best of it. We started by climbing the tower. The vistas were as awesome as we had anticipated, well worth the trip to the top. We then decided to take the longest three and half mile hike we had ever taken. My first mistake was not looking at the trail map before leaving. After an hour of traveling in roughly the same direction we were starting to wonder if the trail made a loop as we had anticipated. It was late in the day when we started so now we are starting to question whether we should turn around or not. It had been some time since we had encountered other people. The trail was beautiful, carpeted with new fallen leaves of every color. Some areas were quite steep but again well worth the trip. About the time we starting to wonder if we would ever start turning back we came to the halfway marker and a map of the rest of the trail. Comforted with knowing that we would not end up spending the night in the woods we started back. Again, the trail was beautiful, but slightly treacherous with slippery rocks hidden under a blanket of leaves. We had to stack some just to make to place more orderly. We finally started seeing other people and realized the end was near. We vowed that we would go back some time earlier in the day and take more time to enjoy it. We made one final climb up the tower to watch the sunset. We stayed awhile but more and more people kept coming so we decided to make a break for it and come back at another time.