34, 35 and 36 Tom , Willey and Field -June 15th

This day was hotter than hell. No , wait I'm putting you on. It was hotter than the earth's inner core-which taps out at about 7,000 degrees. Good thing I wore boots or the soles of my feet would have scalded into black flakey embers. It was that hot, where merely running into other hikers on the trail would elicit comments like, "hot enough for ya?"

"Why no, since you ask, it's not hot enough for me, would someone please crank up the heat in this place?"

Well, it was still a great day hiking with Millie and Ruby even though I sweated gallons of perspiration and wanted to roll in the huge pile of snow on top of Willey, but I let the dog do that to her heart's content. Millie and I exchanged "lost key" stories- seems we both have our share, and Millie was on the look out for mountain birds. Millie is an amazing hiker, orinthologist, thru hiker and an even more amazing 4th grade teacher. It was fun to hike and our pace was pretty moderate due to the heat. She is leaving soon for the Long Trail, but wanted to get in a few climbs. We spotted some Canadian Jays on the top of Field, but they were reluctant to come too close. I think Ruby's presence held them back. We finished at Willey and I was tempted to tell Millie the story of the poor Willey "ghost" story, but she's not quite ready to tackle the ghosts. But, she's more than ready to tackle the rest of the forrested world! You Go! The poor hot dog finally collapsed in Kendron Brook and wouldn't budge. I didn't blame her. After the hike , Millie raced home and packed up her bird monitoring equipment and spent the night on North Kearsage in the fire tower. Wow!