More Peaks to Climb: October 2014

After finishing two different summit lists over the past couple of years I knew I didn't want to stop hiking so I began searching for a new list. I've finally come up with one --- it's another of my own making and I'm calling it my Always 20 More Hikes List.
I hope I can think of it not just as a list to be checked off but rather as 20 possible hikes I've identified as ones I'd like to do. I've tried a number of ways to not call it a list, but none work well for me ----- the not a list list just doesn't have a good ring to it. So I'll give in and call it what it really is --- another list of peaks (more or less) to climb. My plan is to keep the list updated so there are always at least 20 new choices that I can quickly refer to when I get the urge to be outside. If I'm eating lunch and decide I'd like some exercise that afternoon I'll pick a quick walk in the woods. If the long range forecast predicts a beautiful day that week I'll pick, and begin planning for, a longer hike.
Right now my list has twenty two ideas that include hikes to ponds, waterfalls, old growth forests, open ledgy view points, summits I may have already visited but would like to do by a different trail and a few short bushwacks to special places. Most are less than 4000 footers but more of the higher elevations will likely find their way on to the list as I go along --- I know I'll have the urge to be back above treeline sometime soon!
Today was the first day of actually working from my new list --- and I'm impressed. I think it will work! While eating breakfast today I realized that this week's weather forecast and my schedule dictated that this would likely be the last day available to me this fall for a good foliage viewing hike. Middle Sugarloaf in Twin Mt. was on my list --- it's less than a half hour's drive away and only a 2.8 mile hike. It fit, and it proved to be a lot of fun. A few photos of the hike: