The beautiful Sandwich Mountain | And my beautiful sandwich snack

Now that I think about it, all of my hiking trips up until now, and seriously all of them, have been such outlandish experiences. I mean, don't get me wrong, they all have been extremely pleasant and the views from the top of the mountains have all been, really charming and enchanting and mesmerizing, but there's always one thing, just one tiny bizarre thing that is bound to happen, in one form or another, and I always end up in a funny situation. For example, sometimes I get so tired and frustrated that I sit on a lonely rock and cry about how much more of the "irritating hike" is remaining. Other times when I get too bright-eyed and bushy-tailed seeing the charm of the nature, I stumble on the tree roots in the ground and fall on my face. Oh! and I'm not going to lie, but there was a time when I had to finish the hike barefooted, because my fragile and puny sport shoes decided to die, midway through the hike.

Whatever it is, it gives me an excuse to tell you yet another waggish story, and so here I am. However!! all things considered, this one particular experience was stunning and awesome, albeit, a little off beat. We had some really close friends with us on this hike, and I don't even want to imagine, how the hike would have turned out, if we all were not together.

So, due to certain mysterious and indescribable turn of events, at 12 pm in the afternoon, we all decided to go for a hike. At 12 pm! yes! Usually people start the hike in the morning, and are hiking down at this time of the day, but us? Oh no-no! We decided to go for it. So after packing our delicious lunch (which I'll talk about in a second) and driving for 2 hours we finally reached the starting point of this trail.

The starting point (at 2000ft) gives you an option to chose between the Sandwich Mountain trail and the Drakes Brook Trail. We completed this loop trail starting with the Sandwich Mountain trail and went up to Jennings peak junction (3406 ft.), and then further up to the peak of Mt Sandwich (3957 ft.). After this we came down again to the Jennings peak junction and then descended via the Drakes Brook Trail. I personally found that Drakes Brook trail was very, very rocky and also quite steep, and given an option would descend down via Sandwich Mountain trail. However, it is a fun adventure and with the right shoes and a hiking stick you can get through it.

So here I am, happy and carefree at 2pm, at the beginning of this 8 mile hike.

A mile or so into the hike, and we encountered a river. It wasn't that deep though, and had huge rocks placed in it, so was easy to cross, however the rocks can become really slippery when wet so watch out!

After you cross the river, there is a gradual ascent, with a few rocks here and there. This part was really charming and pretty as a picture. Tall trees, quiet stream flowing by, everything looked so gorgeous. The trail is marked very well too.

The Jennings peak junction came after completing 3 miles, of a pretty standard ascent. All of us were happy, enjoying, chatting, making plans of where will we eat dinner and ice cream afterwards.

We were obviously tired, but were happy with our progress and by 6-6:30pm we reached the top of Mt Sandwich. The top is actually a very small and compact open area which is basically a rock. The views from here, of the far off ranges is simply spectacular.

The hike up, via the Sandwich Trail is fairly easy, except if you do this hike in winters, and the river is either frozen or icy. We did this hike in September, and so the weather was perfect, the river wasn't swelled up and we had longer daylight hours.

And now I get to talk about my sandwich. You see, people make fun of me for giving so much importance to food, especially when you're hiking, but the joy of eating while watching a mountain from the top of another mountain which you just climbed, is something that cannot be expressed in words, you have to take a bite of it. Thank you Anvita for taking these pretty pictures!

Then at around 6:45-7pm we started the descend, and since it was September and the sunset time was around 8:15-8:30, we were feeling ok, going down the Drakes Brook trail.

However slowly and gradually, we started losing light, and before we knew it, it was completely dark. It was just the six of us, on a very rocky and very crooked trail, without any headlights or flashlights. With the help of our phone's flashlight we descended. The thing that helped us the most was that we were all together, and everyone was trying to maintain a happy vibe. Most of us, including me, were hiking in this sort of setting for the first time, and so no doubt it was a bit petrifying, but we made it through!

On the Drakes Brook Trail too, you will encounter the river, but that comes very much in the end. As far I remember the water flow here was a bit rash, but hey, we crossed it at night, without any light, so I guess it's doable. Although we did take a huge risk. After crossing the river, we reached the parking lot within 5 minutes, although we did get lost for a few minutes, but together we found the right way. Yay!

My biggest take away would be to never start a hike after 12 pm, and even if you do, make sure you're doing it with your amazing friends, so that if you're stuck you have an encouraging, funny and a happy company with you. Always carry a headlight on a hike and never-ever forget to pack a mean sandwich with you. The only way we could survive this hike, was because of the sandwiches we ate on the top of the sandwich mountain.

See so happy, the reason behind those smiles - sandwiches! and also Mt Sandwich!

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