Climbed Hamilton Mountain for the first time May 27, 2014, going up the Hamilton Mountain Trail and down the Hardy Ridge Trail. Going up the Hamilton Mountain Trail was suicidal and so I decided to avoid it this time. I went up the Hardy Ridge Horse Trail and intended on retracing my steps, but I got lost and walked in circles for at least an hour and climbed a gratuitous 500 feet before I figured out what I did wrong. I must have been brain dead to misinterpret the sign that told me the correct result. As a result, instead of the hike being a piece of cake, I ended up the last couple miles with my toes in pain.

Other than getting lost and working a lot harder than I should have, this wasn't a difficult hike, even with all the spinning of my wheels. Hiking distance should have been 7 miles, but it was more like (at least) 8 miles. Got on the trail about 7:00 AM and hiking time was 6 hours, 54 minutes, and 28 seconds, but should have been more like 5 hours.

I knew it was going to be cloudy, but I didn't think it would rain. It actually had periodic rain showers all day. Fortunately, I never got wet, but distant views were entirely socked in. So I was forced to take mostly flower and other vegetation photos.

Took 142 photos of which 75 made the cut.