Bobw235
Senior Member
- Location
- Massachusetts
This is a shot I took on film many years ago. It's a shot of the town of Elmore, VT, taken from the summit of Mt. Elmore. This small mountain, just 2,608 feet in elevation was described as relatively easy, so on a hot day in May I talked my wife into going to the top so I could take some pictures. What we didn't know was just how steep this was....and just how out of shape we were for such a climb. I was much heavier then and we were climbing without water. My wife quit about half way up while I was determined to get to the top. Vermont woods at that time of year are filled with bugs and the flies definitely identified me as someone laboring to get up the trail. Still, I soldiered on. I passed two women coming down and they assured me that I was not too far from the top. I kept going, one foot at a time, panting and sweating like crazy. In the mean time, the two hikers came upon my wife sitting by the side of the trail. Naturally she asked if they had seen me, and they assured her that they had and that I appeared to be in a bit of distress.....possibly on the verge of collapse.
Finally I got to the top of the mountain, got out my camera and started taking pictures. Unbeknownst to me, my dear wife, certain that I was probably in need of medical attention had somehow summoned the strength to climb the remainder of the trail to find me. She was in worse shape than me, so we sat for a few moments so she could catch her breath. A minute or so later we saw small flecks of blood on our legs. Black flies, the dreaded scourge of the Northeast, parts of Canada and elsewhere had found us and deemed us worthy of biting.....incessantly. In no time we'd each been bitten several times around the ankles and elsewhere. Now, if you've never been bitten by a black fly, consider yourself lucky. While it may not hurt at the time you're bitten, these suckers itch like crazy within a few hours. And if you scratch the bites, they swell and itch even more. Well, it was bad and right at the start of a few days in VT. Went through a lot of Benadryl and over the following days.
But....I got the picture!!! Today Mt. Elmore is a distant memory, but every time we go to Stowe I ask my wife if she wants to try the climb again. We've not be back since.
