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Hiking

We went hiking this weekend. I took Audrial and my friend Luz (whom I board game with, who has been interested in hiking) on a hike on Lamentation Mountain. I intended to bring them up Lamentation, back down, and then up Chauncey and back to the cars, but we didn’t make it up Chauncey. They were both pretty tuckered out after Lamentation. Plus this was the first “real” hike either of them had been on (a 2+hr hike); Audrial’s sandals created hot spots (not quite blisters) on her heels.

I hiked with my ULA Circuit packed with most of my backpacking stuff. I didn’t have a bladder; Audrial was using my Camelbak MULE and Luz was using Audrial’s Osprey Ace. Luz is maybe 5’7” or so, and we were able to adjust the pack to fit her just fine. The Ace is a very versatile back in that regard. I’m sure it would fit me well as well.

My pack performed great. It was very comfortable, and the hipbelt pockets are, as everyone mentions, awesome. The Ace has pockets there as well, but they’re not as big, and the zipper goes in the opposite direction and that makes them difficult to zip back up again. The Circuit hip pockets are nice and large (in my right one, I had my compact binoculars and my camera, and had some room to spare). They zip from the back to the front, and the zipper goes about half way down the front.

Audrial arrived on Saturday at around 2pm. We went to Cabellas, which is awesome. They have an absolutely huge store with all kinds of taxidermy exhibits. They also have a cool aquarium, and a laser shotgun range for kids. They even have a grill on the second floor where you can order bison burgers and venison brats, amongst other things. We had a good time there.

We got home and unpacked, and went over to the Looks so Audrial could play with the kids. We left there a little before they were getting ready to eat (since we’d already eaten) and went home to relax. We were both tired. On the way though, we stopped at the park.

Audrial and I played with the Speedminton rackets, serving back and forth. She was having a hard time with it, so I gave her some instruction and a couple of drills, and she started getting better (though she got a little frustrated). We swung on the swings, and she showed me her monkey bar stuff. We went home and just hung out, watching TV.

On Sunday, we went hiking at around 9 up on Mount Higby. We set up her Hennessy Scout hammock up there and she relaxed in it for a while. I’d tied one end to one tree to show her, and she’d done the other end, but hers was too low and she hadn’t pulled the ridgeline tight enough, so her end drooped quite a bit. I tensioned it properly and moved it up a little, and she was all set!

40 lbs.

That’s what my pack weighed when I left home. Without a full water bag. I was a little apprehensive about that as I left to go pick Sven up. With a name like Sven, you don’t think of a big black man, but that’s who he is. Sven makes me think of a Scandinavian or something. Lederhosen and the like.

We met up with Janice and Kevin at a parking lot off of exit 47 on I-91. I left my vehicle there, and got into Janice’s mini-SUV. Kevin went along with Sven and our other companion Grigory. We drove north for a couple of hours, finally finding ourselves near the base of Mt Greylock, on the Appalachian Trail. We didn’t go south to Greylock, however; we went north, into Vermont.

Saturday

My usual gaming gathering on Fridays was a no-go this week, so I RSVPed that I’d be at the FCBG meetup. It was great to see a bunch of people I really don’t get to see that much of, plus some new faces.

Fairfield County Board Games

Matt Loter and Steve Wood were playing Memoir 44, and had out some kind of airplane expansion that looked pretty cool. Matt was also involved in a game of Blackbeard when I left, which is a game I’m definitely interested in playing from what I’ve heard of it. Don had his blimp game out, and another group was playing Hamsterrolle (a fun looking dexterity game).

When I walked in with this guy Ed, Ricardo and Greg were both idling. We looked over some games, and chose Glory to Rome. Ricardo had played before, but Ed and Greg had no so I taught the game. Ricardo was to my left, Greg to my right, and Ed opposite me. The first client I pulled in was a Merchant; the second a Craftsman.

I built a Storeroom first off, allowing my clients to act as Laborers. I gathered another Merchant client, added the +2 clientele and +2 vault cards. I don’t recall what my other card was, but I had a max of 11 cards in my vault at game end. I filled it, and ended the game with the Catacombs for 47 points.

Friday night after work I got together w/ the normal crew (sans Melissa, who was at Girl Scouts with Unique) and played some Glory to Rome. When Melissa got back we played a couple rounds of True Colors. This was the first time any of them had played and everyone enjoyed it (though I ditched a few of the more risque cards.

True Colors is a party game in the truest sense of the word, since you don’t play the game to win. The strategy of guessing what your opponents will do and you will attempt to counteract them doesn’t fit with a game like this, since that would corrupt the process. Honest play is the best. You shouldn’t “game the game”. I explained this, and then later in the game they accused me(!) of gaming the system. The audacity of it all.

Saturday: Hike & Games

We ended the games at around 10pm, so I was awake bright and early the next morning. I’d planned a hike at Mount Higby for 10:30am, and we had a beautiful day for it. Accompanied by 4 other intrepid adventurers, we braved the heights all the way to the terminus above the exit 19 rest stop on 91-N. Round trip the whole thing was 3 hours, so I was back by 1:45. I went home, gathered together a couple of my games, and headed to the board games event that Mark Casiglio had organized down in Stratford.

Friday night bowling

Usually I play board games in Meriden on Fridays. This past Friday was different in that the men’s ministry at the church had a bowling night. It’s been a while since I’ve bowled, and I was looking forward to it. I bowled 170 the first game, 155 the second game, and 114 the third game. There were two other scores amongst the 16 guys who bowled 3 or 4 games that night: 175 (I think perhaps Jay got that) and Nelson’s crushing 188! The other bowlers kept on speaking about the fluid style I bowled with, occasionally saying it was very “zen” and “smooth”.

I didn’t really tank on the third game. They turned the lights off and the black lights on, and had these runway lights along the bowling lanes. So you pretty much couldn’t see the lane, but the pins were lit up in normal yellow light. With that, I decided to “unzenify” myself and just toss the ball down the lane.

Normally when I bowl, I see and feel the pins and myself in relation to them. I feel the ball. I adjust my placement until it just “feels right”, and then I slowly walk towards the throwing line. I release the ball and send it, not fast, down the lane. I am able to be fairly accurate this way: even to the point of targeting single pins leftover for the second shot.

Excellent weekend! I thought it was going to be dreary all weekend long, and I stayed out late on Friday playing board games with John, Melissa, and Paul. John and Paul and I played Khronos (wherein I taught them how to play by soundly winning), Mhing (which was enjoyed by all), and Santiago (which was a hit, though I got crushed!). I didn’t wake up until 9ish on Saturday, and around noon I realised that it was really nice outside, contrary to expectations.

Hiking West Peak

I’d missed out on the AT hike Kevin & co were doing (since I’ve needed to have left around 7am to make the trailhead), so I went to my trusty West Peak around 1:30. I used my small Mountainsmith lumbar pack and Go-lite jacket (which soon found itself strapped to my pack, since it was so “hot” out), and the Marmot shoes I’d picked up over winter to deal with the rain and snow.

There’s this side trail off the main trailhead (the one that branches on to the road up the mountain) that goes steep up the cliff, and that’s the one I took. After a couple of rests going up the bluff, I found myself at the pavilion. There was a turned over, full sized propane grill inside of it (sans tank). I was pretty tired, and the sun was bright and the day was pleasant, so I just laid down on the rough mulch that’s been spread in that area and took a rest.

Well, I haven’t been very active here of late! That’s not to say I haven’t been writing. It’s just that my writing has been of a more board-game oriented nature, and hence I’ve done a number of geeklists and/or session reports:

• Recap Geeklists
• Starcraft Ruminations
• A game of Caylus
• Contemplating China
• Shogun

• Wizard vs Up and Down the River

Hiking

I’ve also done a fair amount of hiking over the past month or so. I went with a large group to do more of a nature walk, and then went out to lunch with a couple of the hikers about three weeks ago. This past weekend I went hiking on Sunday at Lamentation Mountain near Guiffrida Park in Meriden. I lead a group of intrepid souls into the wilderness, where we got slightly lost. For an hour or 2.

What an awesome, full weekend.

Housatonic Range Trail

(pics)

Saturday morning came and I headed up to a portion of the Housatonic Range Trail north of Danbury. I jumped in my car and listened to a book on the way up there. I left early just in case I got lost; most of the other people going were car pooling from near Hartford. I chose not to join them in this because they were scheduled to be returning at 6pm, and I had a gaming session scheduled for 6pm in West Haven. So I ended up getting there like a half an hour or 45 minutes early.

We were scheduled to meet at the trailhead for Tory's Cave. I found the trailhead, and hung out. I busted out with M­aelstrom and checked out some of the factions I hadn't seen before. I did some pushups. I went across the road and down over the bank and filled up my purifier water bottle from the river. When 9:15 came around and they hadn't arrived, I went back to the directions and made sure I was in the right place. I was, but that didn't stop me from scouting around in the car. I came back, waited a little longer, and Kevin came up in his caravan.

Shadows Over Camelot

I wasn't planning on gaming in Norwalk on Friday night, but traffic was so horrific that I ended up hitting the Norwalk exit at like 6:30ish, and so I decided to stop in and just game rather than sit in traffic. There were a large number of people there, and while some were just hanging out, others were involved in a game of Tsuro. I walked in barefooted and bearing no games, but there was a large array set out. Amongst them was Shadows Over Camelot, a cooperative game I'd heard good things about. It was supposed to be like rummy, but was a board game with miniatures.

Ricardo was the only one who'd played the game before (once) and that was a while back. He remembered some parts about it, but I had the rule book and so I just started reading the setup instructions. The board is very well produced (it reminds me of Battlelore), and includes a number of secondary boards as well.

The object of the game is to fill up the round table with white swords, and to have a majority of swords at the end of the game. Each player (from 3–7 players – we had 7) is given a character sheet, which provides a turn summary and the special ability of the character. He's also given a loyalty card. All but one of the cards say “LOYAL”, and one says “TRAITOR”.

Well, I had a good visit with Audrial this Labor Day weekend. She flew in on Friday afternoon, and we went to Fratellos in Manchester, NH for dinner with my parents and brother. I wasn't particularly hungry (since I'd eaten some Chinese near the airport, which was actually better than I was expecting), I ordered the “Italian Pie”, with a view that I could always take it home and reheat it. Audrial had some staple linguine and huge meatballs.

Over the weekend we played a lot of board games, and I played outside with Audrial a fair bit. Here are some pictures.