July
I had a booth set up at the ossipee fair in Maine for the weekend. But it had been slower than normal and we really wanted to get a hike in. I was supposed to be there at 9 am on Sunday but I felt that arriving at eleven would be okay. Besides there were people around to make sure nothing got stolen and I also figured fair-goers would either be at church or sleeping in so it should be even slower.
But we had a hike ahead of us and so we still needed to get a super early start. We woke up at about 4 am and went to get Scott from his house. But we didn't get on the trail until a little after 5am. Book time said seven hours but we were hoping to do it in five.
Once we got started Scott took off super fast. He knew we were in a hurry but I was not in that much of a hurry! We figured he must of been excited and just ready to get going. And thankfully, sorry Scott, but thankfully he burnt himself out and slowed down. The sun was up by the time we started so there was no need for headlamps. And we got to the top of Tom in 1 hour and 27 minutes. We took a quick picture and carried on our way. It wasn't to far to Field but poor Scott discovered he had a blister there. So we took a little bit longer of a break so he could put some moleskin over his heel. And we all devoured Scott's delicious trail mix. I need to figure out where he bought that from because it was sooo good!
We reached the top of Wiley in 3 hours and felt we were making good time. So we stopped and enjoyed some more trail mix and rested our weary legs. We knew the downhill was going to be pretty steep because Tony and I had already done this hike back in the fall. So we all took it slow and just kept going. I felt bad for Scott because the steep trail was probably not being kind on his legs and blister. We remember how beat up we were when we first started hiking. But Tony and I had a few hikes under our belts this time and we felt great.
So Tony and I were a little ways ahead of Scott on the downhill and it was the funniest thing ever. I look down at two people hiking up the trail and recognized Ryan, Tony's classmate and his wife Lauren. So out of all the trails in NH, the fact that we weren't supposed to be hiking at all, and that we really don't know that many people in the state it was so crazy that we happened to run into someone we knew. So of course we sat and talked with them for a bit. They had done some backcountry camping and were headed up to finish out their trip. But Tony and I were in a hurry so we had to say goodbye and head on our way. Scott was pretty confused about who they were.
Along the hike Scott informed us about the Wiley house story. Apparently there was this family,the Wileys that lived in this home. There was this storm coming and they were scared that this boulder above their house would become unlodged in a mudslide and crush their house. So they (two parents and child) went into the shed to wait out the storm. Well unfortunately the slide came through and took out the shed, killing the family but the house was untouched because the boulder protected it. The house and the boulder still stand today and can be visited. But unfortunately we didn't have enough time to check it out.
We finished the hike in 4 hours and 50 minutes. And I got to my fair without missing anything!
Monday, July 25, 2011
Tuesday, July 19, 2011
16. Owl's Head ( 4025')
July 4
Ah the dreaded Owl's head. It's a long hike, but we had heard it wasn't too difficult because the first 8 miles were relatively flat. The last mile is where the climbing takes place. Tony and I had contemplated running it but we were concerned about a few things. We knew there were some creek crossings and didn't know if we would get our shoes wet and be miserable. We also didn't want to carry a pack because that would be hard to run with and without a pack we were stuck with the clothes we could wear, the water we could carry, and same with the food. So we said let's just stick with the normal hiking.
We wanted to get another early start because there was of course a good chance of afternoon showers. So we got on the trail again at 8 am. The first two miles were super flat, wide trails right by the Pemi river. Tony and I were creating silly games to keep us entertained...it was going to be a long day. After a bit the trail turned to single track and we met up with this guy from Buffalo, NY who comes out every year to get some hikes done. Owl's head was going to be his 43 peak!!! So only 5 more to go. That's so exciting. Once we came to the first river crossing we ended up leaving him though because he was super slow crossing and then took a break there. The river crossings were typical but we were glad we didn't have tennis shoes on. Because we spent so much of the hike near rivers it was very buggy which sucked. And the trail was pretty narrow/overgrown so I was constantly walking through spider webs. Most of the webs aren't that bad but there are some times that there is huge web with the big spider right in the middle. If you don't see it you'll walk right through it and it could be on your face or your body!! As you know, I hate spiders so this is one of my least favorite things about hiking. I've figured out that if I use my poles to swing ahead of me then it breaks most of the webs down.
Anyway, we got to the last mile within 3 hours. Which we were jacked about because book time was saying 10 + hours and if all we had left was a mile we'd probably finish in seven hours, tops 7 and half. Ah, little did we know. The last mile, was one of the steepest we'd encountered. We may have seen things just as steep but it was not as long. This was actually considered one of the "slides" and it's exactly what you would think a slide is. You are just scrambling up loose rocks that occasionally slide when you step on them. And the entire mile was completely exposed to the sun. It was nice to actually get some color on our skin but the heat was even more exhausting. I definitely went into zombie mode. 1/2 mile in the terrain changed some. Instead of loose rocks it was a really narrow trail and you would have to grab on trees to help you up. And then the last 1/4 mile was on top of the ridge and so frustrating because you felt you had finally reached the summit and should be done but it kept hiking you along the flat section that was really overgrown. Finally we made it to the end though. We sat down for once and ate our lunch with Mark, a 55 year old guy who was on his second round of hiking the NH 48. It was one of the longest breaks that Tony and I have taken while hiking. We watched Mark as he really enjoyed it; kicking his boots off, creating a little seat, the whole nine yards. We thought it was neat but agreed we'd never be able to take our boots off on a hike otherwise we wouldn't be able to put them back on.
Well the downhill was just as slow going as the uphill because it was so steep you really had to be sure-footed. Once a bee was bugging me and I got distracted trying to swat him. I took a step and this little branch caught my foot and I almost went head over heels down the slide. That would have been really bad, especially for Mr. Tony who was below me. But Tony and I made it safely down and then realized that whole 2 mile endeavor took us three hours! We were thinking it would take us 30-60 minutes. WTF?
Needless to say we wanted to make some good time on the way back. Besides stopping to pump some water we were cruising. But the last three miles were so long!!! Especially because the last two looked and felt like the end. But after 8 hours and 43 minutes we made it back to Pikey. We grabbed our flip flops and headed straight to the river to let our feet soak; it felt absolutely amazing. So the trail we took was the Lincoln Woods trail to Owl’s Head path and it was 18.4 miles with 2900 feet elevation gain.
Ah the dreaded Owl's head. It's a long hike, but we had heard it wasn't too difficult because the first 8 miles were relatively flat. The last mile is where the climbing takes place. Tony and I had contemplated running it but we were concerned about a few things. We knew there were some creek crossings and didn't know if we would get our shoes wet and be miserable. We also didn't want to carry a pack because that would be hard to run with and without a pack we were stuck with the clothes we could wear, the water we could carry, and same with the food. So we said let's just stick with the normal hiking.
We wanted to get another early start because there was of course a good chance of afternoon showers. So we got on the trail again at 8 am. The first two miles were super flat, wide trails right by the Pemi river. Tony and I were creating silly games to keep us entertained...it was going to be a long day. After a bit the trail turned to single track and we met up with this guy from Buffalo, NY who comes out every year to get some hikes done. Owl's head was going to be his 43 peak!!! So only 5 more to go. That's so exciting. Once we came to the first river crossing we ended up leaving him though because he was super slow crossing and then took a break there. The river crossings were typical but we were glad we didn't have tennis shoes on. Because we spent so much of the hike near rivers it was very buggy which sucked. And the trail was pretty narrow/overgrown so I was constantly walking through spider webs. Most of the webs aren't that bad but there are some times that there is huge web with the big spider right in the middle. If you don't see it you'll walk right through it and it could be on your face or your body!! As you know, I hate spiders so this is one of my least favorite things about hiking. I've figured out that if I use my poles to swing ahead of me then it breaks most of the webs down.
Anyway, we got to the last mile within 3 hours. Which we were jacked about because book time was saying 10 + hours and if all we had left was a mile we'd probably finish in seven hours, tops 7 and half. Ah, little did we know. The last mile, was one of the steepest we'd encountered. We may have seen things just as steep but it was not as long. This was actually considered one of the "slides" and it's exactly what you would think a slide is. You are just scrambling up loose rocks that occasionally slide when you step on them. And the entire mile was completely exposed to the sun. It was nice to actually get some color on our skin but the heat was even more exhausting. I definitely went into zombie mode. 1/2 mile in the terrain changed some. Instead of loose rocks it was a really narrow trail and you would have to grab on trees to help you up. And then the last 1/4 mile was on top of the ridge and so frustrating because you felt you had finally reached the summit and should be done but it kept hiking you along the flat section that was really overgrown. Finally we made it to the end though. We sat down for once and ate our lunch with Mark, a 55 year old guy who was on his second round of hiking the NH 48. It was one of the longest breaks that Tony and I have taken while hiking. We watched Mark as he really enjoyed it; kicking his boots off, creating a little seat, the whole nine yards. We thought it was neat but agreed we'd never be able to take our boots off on a hike otherwise we wouldn't be able to put them back on.
Well the downhill was just as slow going as the uphill because it was so steep you really had to be sure-footed. Once a bee was bugging me and I got distracted trying to swat him. I took a step and this little branch caught my foot and I almost went head over heels down the slide. That would have been really bad, especially for Mr. Tony who was below me. But Tony and I made it safely down and then realized that whole 2 mile endeavor took us three hours! We were thinking it would take us 30-60 minutes. WTF?
Needless to say we wanted to make some good time on the way back. Besides stopping to pump some water we were cruising. But the last three miles were so long!!! Especially because the last two looked and felt like the end. But after 8 hours and 43 minutes we made it back to Pikey. We grabbed our flip flops and headed straight to the river to let our feet soak; it felt absolutely amazing. So the trail we took was the Lincoln Woods trail to Owl’s Head path and it was 18.4 miles with 2900 feet elevation gain.
Monday, July 18, 2011
13. North Kinsman (4293') 14. South Kinsman (4358') and 15. (Cannon 4100')
July 3
So it was actually on our agenda today to hike the Presi Traverse but our lovely weather kept calling for thunderstorms. We aren’t afraid to get wet but because the Presi is mostly on an open ridge we didn’t want to be out there during a lightning storm.
Instead we opted for the Kinsmans and Cannon hike. I wanted us to get an early start to try to beat the rain, so we got on the trail about 8 am. I know, not that early, but we did wake up about 6:15. We just had a few chores to do and a drive ahead of us. On this drive we were lucky enough to see another moose and a fox, so Kelli was happy.
We started at Lafayette Campground and hiked to Lonesome Lake first. Man was it a rough hike. Not necessarily because the trail was hard but we were just both in a very sluggish tired mood. Tony had the best excuse because he biked one of the hardest trails on Friday, I had an excuse of work. Which I know we all work and it’s not that good of an excuse but it’s three 9 hour days of not being able to sit down, so my little, or big, feet do get tired. Anyways, it was pretty funny to see us; we both were doing the zombie walk and not enjoying it. But we eventually made it to the lake and it was very pretty! We even saw a solo female thru hiker which was cool. After the lake we wound our way towards North Kinsman on the Jimmy Fishin Trail and it started to lightly rain. We threw on our rain jackets to keep dry, but it was warm so it got muggy.
We reached what seemed to be a summit and had a great viewpoint but there wasn’t a cairn. I wanted to keep moving so we headed on our way towards South Kinsman. This was a very busy trail. It was part of the AT so we saw lots of thru hikers, Tony missed his chance to talk to two guys that were coming from Maine. He’s been wanting to know what the Maine AT section is like and most of the people we see go south to north. He was bummed and I laughed . Well we reached South Kinsman and didn’t find a cairn again and got a little concerned of what summit we actually were at. Could we really only be to North Kinsman? That was a daunting thought. But pretty quickly a couple from Massachusetts came up and said they thought this was South Kinsman as well. Tony and I took a picture and called it good. We started the hike back towards North Kinsman and the first few steps were on some slanted, wet rocks. Well my darling Tony wasn’t paying too much attention and he started to slip. He was leaning back and his right leg kicked out as high as my head, thankfully I was to the left of him so he didn’t kick me in the head. And with his spry, quickness he was able to level himself off and not actually fall flat on his butt. I don’t know how he managed to escape that one but man did he look scared during the process. Little did he know that 35 minutes later farther down the trail he actually did slip on another rock and fall down. It was the slowest, controlled fall ever and the entire time he was looking at me with a look that said, “Okay, I’m going down but I’m okay. I’ll just place my leg here, yes it’s bent weird but I’m okay. Alright I’ve landed in a good position, on nothing jagged. Okay we’re all good.” Honestly, you could see that thought process by the expressions on his face.
Anyway, we moved along fairly quickly after those few little falls. We eventually came to the last ascent to Cannon. We had made a pretty long descent, which we always hate to do because we know we’ll just have to go right back up. And up we went. A very steep half mile to the next trail juncture. We saw a few people coming down and felt scared for them because one group had a dog and the 5 people didn’t look like they knew what they were about to hike into. The trail was obviously wet but it was so steep at this part that going down seemed very treacherous. We couldn’t even imagine how a dog would get down some of those spots. But we came off the very steep trail to a more commonly used path and ran into another group of people. One of the guys in their group didn’t have shoes on! It was crazy because this trail (even more so then other NH trails) was soooo rocky. His feet either hurt like hell or they were super super tough. As we were staring at his feet this Chinese man comes barreling down with a really confused, worried look on his face. He barely spoke English and tried talking to all of us. Tony, the nice, heroic man he is told Mr. Chinese-man that we would take him back to Cannon mountain lodge. We were about a half mile away and on not too dangerous of a trail, but it was raining out and this guy was in jeans, sneakers and a zip up jacket- so not dressed for hiking. So we just assumed he got turned around and needed to get back to the lodge. Cannon mountain is actually a ski mountain and in the summer people take the gondola ride up to the summit to see the views. But that half mile with Danny (Tony was disappointed in his common, uncool name) was pretty entertaining. We felt bad for him because he was really shook up and even told us at one point he was scared. He kept making Tony go back and help him over rocks and such. He was from Hong Kong and was travelling by himself. Poor Danny. But Tony took care of him and he made it to safety.
The lodge was a funny place because we come hobbling in, dripping wet and people are just sitting around with massive meals and delicious looking beers. Man did a beer sound good. But we didn’t bring our wallets which was probably a good thing. It was nice to be able to eat our bagels in a warm, dry environment-even though everyone around us had steaming hot plates of pizza and sandwiches. After drying off some we decided to get going as the rain had let up a little. We did get to use a real bathroom and get our waters filled out of the drinking fountain, much easier than a stream.
We ended the hike in 8 hours and 22 minutes. Slower than we were hoping but with the wetness it made it so slow-going and tedious. And like always on the way home I looked up to the slopes of Canon mountain and saw a bear walking around. Every time I look at the slopes in the summer I always see a bear. I thought we’d see one hiking but apparently they like the front, gradual side of the mountain versus the steep, rocky section we were on.
So it was actually on our agenda today to hike the Presi Traverse but our lovely weather kept calling for thunderstorms. We aren’t afraid to get wet but because the Presi is mostly on an open ridge we didn’t want to be out there during a lightning storm.
Instead we opted for the Kinsmans and Cannon hike. I wanted us to get an early start to try to beat the rain, so we got on the trail about 8 am. I know, not that early, but we did wake up about 6:15. We just had a few chores to do and a drive ahead of us. On this drive we were lucky enough to see another moose and a fox, so Kelli was happy.
We started at Lafayette Campground and hiked to Lonesome Lake first. Man was it a rough hike. Not necessarily because the trail was hard but we were just both in a very sluggish tired mood. Tony had the best excuse because he biked one of the hardest trails on Friday, I had an excuse of work. Which I know we all work and it’s not that good of an excuse but it’s three 9 hour days of not being able to sit down, so my little, or big, feet do get tired. Anyways, it was pretty funny to see us; we both were doing the zombie walk and not enjoying it. But we eventually made it to the lake and it was very pretty! We even saw a solo female thru hiker which was cool. After the lake we wound our way towards North Kinsman on the Jimmy Fishin Trail and it started to lightly rain. We threw on our rain jackets to keep dry, but it was warm so it got muggy.
We reached what seemed to be a summit and had a great viewpoint but there wasn’t a cairn. I wanted to keep moving so we headed on our way towards South Kinsman. This was a very busy trail. It was part of the AT so we saw lots of thru hikers, Tony missed his chance to talk to two guys that were coming from Maine. He’s been wanting to know what the Maine AT section is like and most of the people we see go south to north. He was bummed and I laughed . Well we reached South Kinsman and didn’t find a cairn again and got a little concerned of what summit we actually were at. Could we really only be to North Kinsman? That was a daunting thought. But pretty quickly a couple from Massachusetts came up and said they thought this was South Kinsman as well. Tony and I took a picture and called it good. We started the hike back towards North Kinsman and the first few steps were on some slanted, wet rocks. Well my darling Tony wasn’t paying too much attention and he started to slip. He was leaning back and his right leg kicked out as high as my head, thankfully I was to the left of him so he didn’t kick me in the head. And with his spry, quickness he was able to level himself off and not actually fall flat on his butt. I don’t know how he managed to escape that one but man did he look scared during the process. Little did he know that 35 minutes later farther down the trail he actually did slip on another rock and fall down. It was the slowest, controlled fall ever and the entire time he was looking at me with a look that said, “Okay, I’m going down but I’m okay. I’ll just place my leg here, yes it’s bent weird but I’m okay. Alright I’ve landed in a good position, on nothing jagged. Okay we’re all good.” Honestly, you could see that thought process by the expressions on his face.
Anyway, we moved along fairly quickly after those few little falls. We eventually came to the last ascent to Cannon. We had made a pretty long descent, which we always hate to do because we know we’ll just have to go right back up. And up we went. A very steep half mile to the next trail juncture. We saw a few people coming down and felt scared for them because one group had a dog and the 5 people didn’t look like they knew what they were about to hike into. The trail was obviously wet but it was so steep at this part that going down seemed very treacherous. We couldn’t even imagine how a dog would get down some of those spots. But we came off the very steep trail to a more commonly used path and ran into another group of people. One of the guys in their group didn’t have shoes on! It was crazy because this trail (even more so then other NH trails) was soooo rocky. His feet either hurt like hell or they were super super tough. As we were staring at his feet this Chinese man comes barreling down with a really confused, worried look on his face. He barely spoke English and tried talking to all of us. Tony, the nice, heroic man he is told Mr. Chinese-man that we would take him back to Cannon mountain lodge. We were about a half mile away and on not too dangerous of a trail, but it was raining out and this guy was in jeans, sneakers and a zip up jacket- so not dressed for hiking. So we just assumed he got turned around and needed to get back to the lodge. Cannon mountain is actually a ski mountain and in the summer people take the gondola ride up to the summit to see the views. But that half mile with Danny (Tony was disappointed in his common, uncool name) was pretty entertaining. We felt bad for him because he was really shook up and even told us at one point he was scared. He kept making Tony go back and help him over rocks and such. He was from Hong Kong and was travelling by himself. Poor Danny. But Tony took care of him and he made it to safety.
The lodge was a funny place because we come hobbling in, dripping wet and people are just sitting around with massive meals and delicious looking beers. Man did a beer sound good. But we didn’t bring our wallets which was probably a good thing. It was nice to be able to eat our bagels in a warm, dry environment-even though everyone around us had steaming hot plates of pizza and sandwiches. After drying off some we decided to get going as the rain had let up a little. We did get to use a real bathroom and get our waters filled out of the drinking fountain, much easier than a stream.
We ended the hike in 8 hours and 22 minutes. Slower than we were hoping but with the wetness it made it so slow-going and tedious. And like always on the way home I looked up to the slopes of Canon mountain and saw a bear walking around. Every time I look at the slopes in the summer I always see a bear. I thought we’d see one hiking but apparently they like the front, gradual side of the mountain versus the steep, rocky section we were on.
Saturday, July 2, 2011
12. Moosilauke (4802')
June 27, 2011
So Tony and I drove out to Ohio over the weekend of June 25th for Grandpa Bart's funeral. We were very happy we had the opportunity to attend the funeral, go to my cousin Kim's wedding and spend our one year anniversary at Cedar Point. But going away for the weekend means missing out on hiking and we were super bummed to have to miss a hike so early on. We were supposed to hike Canon and the Kinsmans. But we knew it was more important to go to Ohio.
Well we got almost half the drive done on Sunday evening so then Monday we only had 7 hours of driving. We decided to suck it up and leave super early and get into New Hampshire in time to get a hike in. We figured Moosilauke would be a good one because it was a shorter hike but pretty far from North Conway, and it was basically on our way from Ohio home. So we got to the trailhead about 3pm and got on our way.
We had actually already done this trail in the fall with Gina and it took us 5 or 6 hours. Book time is about 5 hours so we hoped to be done in 4. We took the George Brook Trail up and it was so much easier than we remembered! It would start to get a little steep and tiring and then flatten out just in time so you never felt like you had to stop. It was great.
And the summit of Moosilauke is very gorgeous when it's a clear day. You have a great panorama of the mountains all around you. The last .5 mile or so is above the trees.
It took us 1 hour and 36 minutes to get to the summit and we were quite happy with that. We saw a few thru hikers at the summit because the AT goes through there. The hike down was pretty uneventful, but quick so that was nice. The entire hike took us 3 hours and 11 minutes. It was 2295 feet elevation gain and 7.9 miles.
And we were super excited to get at least one hike in that weekend!
So Tony and I drove out to Ohio over the weekend of June 25th for Grandpa Bart's funeral. We were very happy we had the opportunity to attend the funeral, go to my cousin Kim's wedding and spend our one year anniversary at Cedar Point. But going away for the weekend means missing out on hiking and we were super bummed to have to miss a hike so early on. We were supposed to hike Canon and the Kinsmans. But we knew it was more important to go to Ohio.
Well we got almost half the drive done on Sunday evening so then Monday we only had 7 hours of driving. We decided to suck it up and leave super early and get into New Hampshire in time to get a hike in. We figured Moosilauke would be a good one because it was a shorter hike but pretty far from North Conway, and it was basically on our way from Ohio home. So we got to the trailhead about 3pm and got on our way.
We had actually already done this trail in the fall with Gina and it took us 5 or 6 hours. Book time is about 5 hours so we hoped to be done in 4. We took the George Brook Trail up and it was so much easier than we remembered! It would start to get a little steep and tiring and then flatten out just in time so you never felt like you had to stop. It was great.
And the summit of Moosilauke is very gorgeous when it's a clear day. You have a great panorama of the mountains all around you. The last .5 mile or so is above the trees.
It took us 1 hour and 36 minutes to get to the summit and we were quite happy with that. We saw a few thru hikers at the summit because the AT goes through there. The hike down was pretty uneventful, but quick so that was nice. The entire hike took us 3 hours and 11 minutes. It was 2295 feet elevation gain and 7.9 miles.
And we were super excited to get at least one hike in that weekend!
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