TABLE OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCTORY REMARKS AND SAFE TRAVEL REQUIREMENTS--pages 2 -16

PLANNING YOUR TRIP----------------------------------------------------------pages 17 & 18

WEATHER FORECASTS AND TRAIL REPORTS---------------------------pages 18 & 19

DIRECTIONS TO THE BASE-----------------------------------------------------pages 19 & 20

THE HIKE TO THE CABIN--------------------------------------------------------pages 21 - 25

WINTER AND SPRING HIKING--------------------------------------------------pages 25 - 27

KEY LOCATIONS--------------------------------------------------------------------pages 27 - 30

ORIENTATION------------------------------------------------------------------------------page 30

COOKING, LIGHTING, REFRIDGERATION & VENTILATION----------pages 30 - 33

WOOD STOVE, HEATERS, CAMPFIRES & FIREWORKS------------------pages 33 -39

BATHROOM AND WATER SUPPLY -------------------------------------------pages 39 - 42

SLEEPING QUARTERS-----------------------------------------------------------pages 42 & 43

THE TOWER---------------------------------------------------------------------------------page 43

MISCELLANEOUS DETAILS-----------------------------------------------------pages 44 - 46

BEFORE YOU LEAVE-------------------------------------------------------------pages 46 & 47

CAPACITY, COST, RESERVING, DEPOSIT, ARRIVE/DEPART TIME-pages 47 & 48

TRAIL DESCRIPTION--------------------------------------------------------------pages 48 - 50

SUMMIT ENVIRONEMENT AND VIEWS-------------------------------------pages 51 - 56

MOUNTAIN BIKING, FISHING, HIKING & GEO CACHING-------------pages 56 & 57

TRAVEL REQUIREMENT CHECK LIST, RELEASE & CONTACT INFO pages 58-61

INDICES, SUNSHINE TABLES, MAPS, REMINDERS & APPENDIX----pages 61 - 85

EAST HAVEN MOUNTAIN:

A GUIDE, ALMANAC AND HISTORY

INTRODUCTION

Dear friends and guests of East Haven, this 2009 edition of the Guide has been rearranged and much of the addenda has been incorporated into the body of text. There’s a fair amount of new material (as usual); some of it is important! 2008 changes are highlighted in yellow; please read them! Pink highlights are new for 2009. Please read them as well and be sure to review the reminders in the appendix! It’s of supreme importance that you read the section dealing with “SAFE TRAVEL RE-QUIREMENTS”!

Until you are very familiar with protocol, I strongly recommend you take the time to read carefully through this document; to date, the only parties experiencing difficulties (wrong turns, unable to finds keys, etc.) were those who neglected to do so. Even frequent visitors would do well to go through the document once a year to re-familiarize themselves with easy-to-forget but important details. Though there is a copy of it on the summit, I’d also suggest you take one with you on your first trip to the cabin—at least those portions dealing with directions and key locations (yes…folks have neglected to do this, have forgotten where the keys are kept and have then had to come all the way back out, find a local phone and call me for key locations before heading back up to the cabin)!

HEADINGS, CAPITALIZED and underlined sections and bold print serve to highlight important details. Weather statistics, photos, tables, maps, cabin floor plan, and other information (will eventually) appear at the back. You can skip certain parts (like “SPRING HIKING” and “KEEPING WARM”), depending on the season, and save (or dispense with altogether) the italicized sections, which appear in black and which aren’t essential to your survival, for a leisurely perusal once you’re on top, if you’d prefer. The cabin copy of the Guide is updated only once a year, at the end of December.

Since the guide is updated periodically, it’s always a good idea to ask for a copy of the changes at the beginning of each year, especially if you are a regular visitor to the cabin.

The cabin gets a lot of use these days...well over 200 days a year. Though I visit the cabin at least bimonthly to collect weather data, it is no longer always possible for me to get over to clean up between guests’ stays or to guide newcomers in on their first trip to the top. In the winter it’s about a 5 hour round trip for me! I am going to need your help: please go over the following material carefully if you’re a newcomer; please refresh your memory if you’re a regular visitor!

The use of tobacco products and alcohol in the cabin (and on the 58 acres I own surrounding it) by those of legal age is permitted; controlled substances and drunkenness are not. (By the way…someone has been smoking homegrown up there; there are seed burn marks on the recently refinished floor. This is a no, no: controlled substances are verboten, please).

When snow cover is absent, do not drop butts anywhere outside; use the can on the deck by the cabin door labeled “BUTTS.” What appears to be dirt is more often peat moss; when dry, it is easily ignited by improperly disposed tobacco products. To date, there have been 3 (!) fires started on the summit in this way. Please be careful!

Please do not leave alcoholic beverages at the cabin. Some of my guests are recovering alcoholics.

Cigar smokers, please note: the smell of stale smoke remains in the cabin weeks after your departure and is offensive to some; please do feel free to smoke inside. But crack the windows open and be sure to air the cabin well before you leave!

Unmarried couples may stay at the cabin provided they sleep on separate floors.

Since the cabin is often reserved by guests seeking to “get away from it all,” please respect their wishes by checking with me before making unscheduled visits; this would include even “day trips” when no more is envisioned than having lunch on the deck and taking in the view. As a general rule, parked cars at the base indicate occupancy, but since visitors access the cabin via alternate routes throughout the year, an empty parking lot is no guarantee of vacancy. (Hunters and trampers, year round, who have no intention

of going to the cabin, do park in Shorty’s Landing--and especially in the plowed parking area on the Victory Road--particularly on weekends).

Guests should inform unexpected visitors of their preference for either privacy or company by making use of the “Vacancy Sign” located on the main access trail just beyond the “SUMMIT” sign. But when you leave, please be sure the sign is configured to let visitors know that the cabin is vacant and that they are welcome to come up. Even better, you may wish to post a note prominently on the windshield of your vehicle stating your sentiments concerning unscheduled company during your stay. Just remember that during the winter, snow and ice may hide your note! Please also be advised that configuring the Vacancy Sign to assure your privacy is no guarantee thereof!

If you happen to be an unannounced visitor, please honor the wishes of guests occupying the cabin as expressed on the “Vacancy Sign.” (You could visit the main summit instead…to do so, follow the orange ribbons east from the “SUMMIT” sign).

Fire arms are permitted; PARENTS BEWARE: a 22 caliber rifle and live ammo are stored in the top bunk, downstairs! Feel free to use the rifle and targets but please bring your own ammo—and be careful!

Minors are welcome at the cabin with adult supervision.

This adventure isn’t for everyone: if you think it might be difficult to live without creature comforts for even a short time and don’t enjoy solitude or tramping uphill in the wild, East Haven might not be for you! This is definitely not the Comfort Clarion!

SAFE TRAVEL REQUIREMENTS

I’ve thought about eliminating this section dealing with travel requirements and release from liability (new to some of you): it surely comes across as reactionary and provocative…inflammatory is probably more to the point. But I’ve decided to leave it intact since it constitutes, at the very least, a reasonable guarantee to me that people who plan to visit the cabin or stay there, and who have contacted me regarding their intentions, have at least read through the salient portions of this very lengthy document and are, to some extent, aware of the potential for trouble that awaits them.

I don’t know that there’s much more I can do short of replacing the document with myself as “guide”(probably an even poorer guarantee); eventually, I fear, someone is going to be seriously injured or killed as a result of a visit (or attempt at it). God forbid that such a thing should happen! Obviously I need to do my best to prevent it, and no other ideas suggest themselves. So…in the meantime, please bear with me.

Thanks for your patience and understanding!

Many guests frequent the cabin without incident. But some of even the most experienced run into trouble from time to time (it has happened fairly often over the years). Newcomers are the most likely to have difficulty, especially if they are not “woods smart.” We’re all in the process of learning; none of us is born woods smart: No one has been to the cabin more often than I, yet I have also, not only run into, but actually created serious, life threatening situations for myself…and for others!! Over the years I’ve tried to collect and collate this trove of experience, good and bad, and based on it, to try to make every guest’s experience at the cabin as safe and enjoyable as possible by anticipating trouble and heading it off with Guide entries. Of course, there is no bullet proof way of doing this and, as the years pass by, and more people use the place, more issues surface and need to be addressed. I expect, as time goes by, I will have less to say, howeverJ…at least that is my sincere hope!

Back in a February in the early 1990’s a group headed for the cabin mid afternoon one day in deep snow. The trail, though well maintained and easily followed when snow free, had been traveled infrequently that winter. There was no evidence of a treadway and, apart from the ¼ mile markers, blazes of any sort were altogether absent. The leader of the group was familiar with the trail and mountain in the winter, was in excellent physical condition and well prepared. This was not equally true for everyone in his party, however. This group lost the trail and expended a great deal of energy trying to relocate it and the cabin. Unsure of their exact location, and having been finally overtaken by darkness, they conceded defeat but were able to retrace their steps to the trailhead. One member of the party was a diabetic; another was so seriously fatigued by the effort that he later admitted to me (along with his wife) that it had been months before he completely recovered from the ordeal. Had the leader panicked or run out of steam or been unable to keep his wits about him throughout this crisis, the ending might have been an entirely different one.

This experience precipitated the pink ribbons. Over the years, numerous other parties have missed or wandered off the trail and gotten themselves into varying degrees of trouble.

A party, attempting to reach the cabin following a two foot snowfall, got lost in mid February of 2007. Fortunately, the couple had sleeping bags and lights since they ended up having to spend a very uncomfortable and frightening night out on the mountain…on top of the snow and without shelter! It was a grievous ordeal for them, to say the least. They had gotten a late start on the afternoon of the ascent and were slowed and wearied considerably by the new snow. At the time, snow depth on the mountain was 30 inches or more. Apparently, other parties had tramped about both on and off the access trail prior to the more recent storm and in places these previous tracks, though largely filled in by the new snow, were still barely visible, as was the treadway of the blazed trail itself.

Just below the 2,700 foot elevation marker, the couple, rather than continuing straight ahead on the pink ribboned trail, somehow began following some of these other tracks instead, wandering east of the trail. They eventually relocated it and followed it to within 700 feet of the cabin. Had they, at this point, had enough daylight and continued straight ahead, following the pink ribbons for another 150 feet, the cabin would have been in view, but by this time, darkness had overtaken them. Having lost sight of the pink ribbons, rather than moving ahead in the same direction of travel, they went first 90 degrees right and then, circling back to their tracks, headed 90 degrees left, away from the access trail. They then became disoriented, then completely lost, and eventually became seriously fatigued by the effort of breaking out a new trail in deep snow while endeavoring to relocate the access trail and cabin. At this point they opted to break out their sleeping bags and hunker down for the night. Fortunately the night was not bitterly cold, with temperatures bottoming out in the low teens under mostly cloudy skies. Winds at the time were light. Their ordeal underscores once again how imperative it is to follow only the pink ribbons if the cabin is your destination. Had this couple not been prepared to bivouac, the night might well have ended tragically for both.

The day after this couple got off the mountain, another guest, who has stayed at the cabin dozens of times in all manner of conditions, was confused by the “Rabbit Trails” left by the previous couple and, though she finally got the cabin in sight, was too exhausted and cold at that point to manage to break trail up the final 700 feet to the cabin and had to abort the trip!