And here I thought I couldn't do more stupid than taking on a titanic load of stuff to do for the summer today I climbed and old dam, while the water was really high. Smart? Hell no. Fun. Yes. Yes very. The experience was almost indescribable. Anyone that knows me knows that I love climbing things, heck Ive been climbing trees since I was a little kid-let, so this was an almost everest like achivment for me.

The hike starts on a small path near where I live. We had tried to go on the path last night and it was flooded because of the water being 4 or 5 feet higher than normal so it was terrifying last night when we went. Today it was easier because well we could see. So we walk along a relatively normal path until we get to the gorge. This is where it gets tricky. What was normally a beach was 5 feet submerged underwater so we climbed along the wall until we got to a relative clearing.

Heres where is gets silly.

So we climb up these old drainage pipes, that are about 6 feet in the air to a small out cropping with some brush on it. At the end of the outcropping there is a ladder. Now I want you to get the right picture. The term ladder is used here to loosely describe a 2 by 8 with 2 2 by fours nailed to it. The ladder is leaned up against the top story of an old pump house. The entrance we are trying to get into was a old door frame with rotted wood along the side of it. What you have to do is jump a little to get a hold of the brick behind the rotting wood and pull your self up into the decaying pump house. Thats pretty fun. From here we are ontop of the the old damn about 30 feet up. That was fun. Then after that we climb up a tree something that I love doing. This tree has 3 branches and 2 boards nailed into it. This makes for amazing fun. After you scale this tree you are about 70 feet up on one side and 50 feet up on the other. The obstacle is a fence that extends about 5 feet off either side of the platform you are standing on. This fence and a small climb are all that stand between you and the view. So you climb around the outside of the fence (its funny it says that the fence is electrified but it isn't) over a 50 foot drop into murky water :D. We did it.

After this it is a small climb on top and island in the middle of the river. This veiw made all of the stupid risks worth it. It was a view from about 100 feet about this water fall at one of the newer Winooski dams. The view was breath taking and standing there it was really inspiring. It certainty made me happy.

So following back through the fence we then tight walk across a steal beam around a piece in the middle of it, and then climb over onto a rickety bridge hanging 50 feet in the air, climb over power lines, and then end up on railroad tracks.

This being said, I really don't think anyone should ever ever ever do that but It really made my day.

At any rate I thought I would share my adventure. Back to work ^_^.