Mount Helena

I drove over Bear Mountain several times over the course of my life, to Elmira College, to Iowa, a general upstate destination, you name it, but I only hiked the trails a handful of times. That’s why when I got to Helena and was told by Lauren to “head toward to mountain thing and explore,” I decided to take a look at what this mountain had to offer.

All in all it seems like a pretty normal mountain thing - several trails marked by colored lines over a diagram adjacent to the parking lot, the same trails marked by colored string on trees where the terrain may seem a little less certain… but by god I am determined to master every one of those colored paths.

Last Friday was my first jaunt up the thing, I had just begun really exercising vigorously again and so I decided to take what seemed like the most harmless route, as it was the longest and made a sort of loop around the back of the mountain… turns out I should have read the description of the trail that lie next to the diagram. Note to un-experienced hikers: the blue route? It kind of gets lost in some semi-steep rock formations. Sadly, I had to retreat to another off shoot trail to climb the mountain… I am still not sure what this particular trail was but it worked out just fine.

Monday I thought was going to be a new day – I ran into another hiker at the parking lot who claimed to be from Buffalo, New York. Hey I thought! To get to Buffalo I have to drive over the Bear Mountain… good sign. This gentleman, Mark, told me to take the red path… I decided this time to glance at the description, which said that the red path was the most popular route, although significantly shorter than the blue route -in my mind this means steeper. Turns out my mind is pretty sharp and so were the turns I had to take through the mountainside, zig-zagging paths like little Z’s up the mountain. After about an hour I ran out of water and decided it was best to turn back… dehydrating on Mount Helena is not quite how I pictured my adventure.

Yesterday I decided to hike once again, this time though I had limited time as I was supposed to go to the historical society (upon Lauren’s request). I decided that I would try to find my way around those silly rocks on the blue route… because you know, in the movies, you persist and you look like an ass at first for being stubborn but then you succeed in the end! Turns out, my being right was a Monday thing because I still couldn’t make it past those damn rocks, AND I was on a time crunch so I had to head down the mountain in defeat.

There are still a few more colored paths up the side of Mount Helena and as god as my witness I will conquer them as well as route red and blue… you just wait... and maybe I’ll tell you about it.