holiday gatherings

thanksgiving, hanukka, christmas, new years--all common holidays to get together with family and friends. a time to look back on the past, look around at the present, and look ahead to the future--it's one of "the most wonderful time[s] of the year!"

this past summer, simon moved back to the east coast. one benefit, he gets back to canaan a good deal more than when he lived in boulder. and now on the cape, he's only twenty or so minutes from sawyer and hannah. i am down there some and can use that to see even more of him.


last time i was down, soy and i took advantage of that, and went over to his place for a delicious supper. i recruited him as an enthusiastic rider of NERT--new england roundabout tour--circumnavigating each of the six new england states next year. adventuring with si is always fun! he shows up in multiple goap! posts.

fun and si's organization was playing big this vacation. dropping a braid of holiday bread off at the pendelton house, soy and i sat for some tea and a few rounds of bananagrams. si inquired if i would be interested in hiking moosilauke the next day. i was in, but he would have to pick me up as sadie has my truck.

when i called the next morning to confirm my reservation, the plan for moosilauke had moved to cardigan, and the handful of people had doubled. by the time he picked me up, he was asking me to bring all my extra micro spikes--just in case. when we got up to the winter parking lot, all kinds of people popped out of their cars waving hi. one subaru wagon, a veritable 'clown car', even had two squeezed into the way back.

for a final count of eleven people, it didn't take us all that long to gear up and start off. not everybody was of si's age and fitness level, so we spread out into little pods and started sharing our stories. we gathered together again next to the shelter at the summer parking lot and de-layered some before hitting the trail.


where west ridge and south ridge trails split, we decided to loop up the steeper, icy south ridge and down the regular west ridge. my knees would appreciate that.

a bit under the big ice flow, si and i stopped to cut out a huge pine that had fallen squarely across the trail. if we did it right, we could make one cut and roll it to the edge of the trail. it was large enough that even that would still take a while.

switching out when our spm--strokes per minute--dropped, we had the log on the ground and moved downhill, off trail in short order. it was not too long before we caught up with the troops negotiating the ice fall.


i always enjoy this section of the trail--as long as i am hiking up! (goap! has a few pictures from last winter...) various brands of spikes folks had afoot, and their confidence on ice, made for an interesting crossing at the bottom flow. the picture here has katie lending a hand through the middle. several of the group, bypassed it all together meandering up a less icy, but steep, off trail route.


at the top of the ice, two of the group noticed they each had one spike on backwards. when they turned it around, they affirmed that made for much better traction! 


on the ridge part of the south ridge trail, you get a prime view of the summit of cardigan as well as the high points along the spine going south and east, over orange--or gilman--mountain. the last bit of our path to the summit, goes up the steep granite on the east side.


up at the summit, we gathered the troops below the tower. read from left to right, according to noses: diane, creek, simon, devon, claire, ruggen, barbara, katie, mozelle, molly, david.

at one point, simon mentioned that he had never stayed up top for as long as we were now. i could have reminded him of the hours watching the meteor shower once, hanging out post jell-o-thon races, or the MOC overnight we had up there--but it was getting cold standing around in the wind. we headed down.

for those of us who had removed our spikes going up the south ridge granite slabs, we stopped above 'turn around rock' on west ridge and remounted them. as they say in some circles, it was all 'downhill' from there. 

just above the waterfall, simon steered most down the ski trail, while i took ruggen and katie to the top of the waterfall. with wide grins and a few whoops, they started lowering themselves over the edge, using anything available for hand holds. the rest of us went down what i call the winter cut off and met everyone back on the trail.

after a few more splittings, we regrouped at the summer parking lot and took off down the road en masse, only to string out again relative to our individual speeds, or in my case good conversation and as self-appointed caboose. 







you can see in the faces, that it was a grand day to go outside and play! as a bonus, the younger folks planned to meet at simon's, eat some more, and play some indoors!!

bringing home the tree

today was the shortest day of the year, still four days ahead of christmas, perfect timing to go outside and cut the traditional tree!

pam and i, sans enfants this year, went out in our annual search for the christmas tree. with fewer people looking, that meant less discussion as to the relative merits of various possible trees. when the section you will be using is 30, 40, or more feet above your head, real aesthetic evaluation is subjective at best. "what about this, that, or the other one?" is the phrase for the day.

given that, we turned into the field heading toward pam's snowshoe loop, as opposed to up town hill way, where we got the last couple years' trees. during fall trail work, pam had spotted some possibilities along the stone wall at the far end of the field, a ways into the woods. we ruled out a few as we went along, "...too tall,  ...too thin, ...too many bare spots." finally, sure enough, right at the old barb wire over the stone wall, there were a couple trees that were, "just right". or at least only 20' up, they seemed like they would be.

with not too much debate, i chose the her original, chopped off the lower dead branches in the way, notched the trunk where i wanted it to fall, and sawed the back side. 'timber'--it went right where i wanted it to. 

i cut up the trunk some and moved it off the wall, to stay with the logger's rule--nothing left off the ground higher than 3'. a last cut gave us about 10-11'  off the top to take back to the house for final trimming. it looked a step above the usual 'charlie browner' we have been known to get, and felt good up on my shoulder.

good on the shoulder was welcome, as the walk back to the house was much longer than last year. i wasn't in any pain though, and only had to switch sides once, that mainly because my control hand got a bit cold up above the heart steadying the load.

back at the kitchen porch, a couple of quick measurements suggested the final trimming would not be as contentious as it can sometimes get. with the stand and ceiling height, we have just under 8' to work with. the branches also seemed more tame this year, not so over grown. i can be a bit ruthless with the clippers which always brings out pam's "nooo, nooo--stop!" 

cut close to length and the centering hole drilled, i took it inside and stuck it into the stand. there was one low branch that if the clippers had been in hand, would have felt the cut. instead, i just jammed it down, held it plumb as my eye could see, and tightened the stays. a quick check by pam and a minor adjustment was all it needed before the water was poured. i strung the lights and pam hung the ornaments. 

the full effect is definitely christmas-y. pam's instagram post already has several likes. even with no presents below, it puts me in the spirit--sort of. i am thankful that pam took her christmas music out to the kitchen. and even though i can still hear it, i am smiling. it was a great day to 'go outside and play!'

early for one, late for the other!

butt (and mine is a big enough one), as the saying goes: "make hay while the sun shines", which essentially translates to, if there is snow, ski it -- if there is no snow, bike it.

of course, where there is snow there are also potential objects in ones path, the most common being trees that blow over in the wind. my middle name being safe-t, i took the silky big boy on a couple of hikes on local ski trails: on the snowday a week ago monday, i cruised the 'fire road' on cardigan; on snowy friday that week, i went over and hiked a loop in the shaker wildlife management area.

there are enough of us skiers hiking cardigan fairly frequently that the 'fire road' or ski trail, is kept rather clear of obstacles, both large and small. i cut only one tree bigger than my arm which left plenty of time to contemplate and look at seeds.



the large pods on the left are beech, with one 'nut' fallen out. the tiny seeds looking like jet planes are from birch trees. i think there are two different species of those. the 'drope' to the far upper right, is likely a cherry, possibly a hackberry though i have never identified one around here. the 'samaras' are maple to the right, and your guess is as good as mine on the middle one. the larger seed in the middle looks like a 'achenes' from some sort of pine.

strolling along, it seemed almost calm in the woods. i put on my creepers at 'turn around rock' thinking that it would be blown off and icy above. cardigan, at only 3,155', had a major fire in 1855 which established it's bald top with a 'false' treeline. as i approached the summit, the wind still felt unusually light, given the cloud movement above and the storm going through.

a hundred feet from the top, a good strong blast of wind scored a direct hit in my face. that was the end of calm. when the wind is out of the north, the west and south ridge approaches are well protected until the very end. i actually stumbled into the bottom of the tower when entered the sheltered zone. i got out the camera, bundled up, and went back out and snapped shots looking east, north, and west.



on my way down, the wind died down as soon as i dropped below the summit again. i was able to unzip the jacket and loose the hood. by the time i got into the trees, i actually stuffed it into the pack. the snow depth was very encouraging and i made a mental note to call skip and suggest a go at it over the weekend.



on friday, with saw in hand, it was the shaker trails under foot. as i looped counter clockwise around the green trail, it started to snow. there was a fair amount to cut out, even a couple of bigger blowdowns that i left for another session with a chainsaw.













the picture on the left is looking down what skip and i call the little sherbie -- you may remember from previous years. it's a beautiful mile long descent, with some steep to it. multiple, bulldozed water-bars make for some excitement for those who want it as well.

where the trees were more open above, the snow piled a little deeper. as i worked my way toward the bottom, the snow kept coming, periodically in really large flakes. this was very promising. again, i made a mental note to call skip and see if he wanted to ski in the morning.

i got ahold of skip and convinced him of an early start--on skis and headed up before 8:00a. it had been a cold night and the snow's fluff was fairly deep for early december. even though we found a rock now and again we continued up, encouraged. 

cold conditions like make it fast pointed downhill. so at a certain point, finding more rocks, the trail narrowing, and our first run of the year, i suggested we turn around and buckle up. that sounded good to skip. i locked down my toes, jumped into the fall-line, made a few soft buttery turns, and set up for a photo shoot. skip went up to a higher access point and turned in--after donning his helmet!


























it was all fun and games after that--at least for me. i did hit a couple of rocks a bit harder than i would have wished, but the snow was so soft that even at well over a foot deep, it was skiing 'thin~ish'! we yo-yoed past each other several times, until i had to bail into the woods after a particularly large "kchkchkch". while i was finding my way back, i heard an even bigger "kchkchkchkchkch", with a shout and a thwump attached.


skip doesn't fall all that often, but when he goes down, it can be fairly dramatic. one, he wears glasses. and this was a face plant, read it was going to be a while cleaning up just to be able to see. two, falling like that right at the top of one of the steeper sections does not build confidence. and three, back upright, dusted off, and sliding again, the glasses started fogging up just in time for our favorite little drop. at least this grounding didn't involve a face washing. he looks happy sitting in that spot of sun knowing he avoided hitting the tree in front of him. i climbed back up to capture his beautiful smile!

we made it the rest of the way without incident--at least as far as i was concerned. yes, just so he could tell eben, "i fell more today than i did all last year!" he tumbled off the plowed hump, into the road. i missed the actual event, but he reported it wasn't pretty. 

like we expected, it was early. but, with no big injuries and silkie smooth powder, we were both wearing smiles stowing gear in the truck. back at skip's, we had a bite to eat with eb and lamented the forecast for a warm front to blow through on monday into tuesday. it was predicted to drop close to an inch of rain. that would not be good for skiing.

still, if all the snow melted and it got cold again, maybe there would be skating. if nothing else, i could ride the bike. sure enough, by tuesday it was almost in the 50s and there was .65" of water in my rain gauge. by wednesday morning, the temp had dropped back into the teens, but any snow out in the open had pretty much gone. 

thursday, i thought, "what the heck. get the bike out and go over to the shaker trails and loop the ones i hadn't done yet." not a bad thought, save for the temp down around 10~ish°F--i waited for noon when it got up to 20~ish. i put on a few extra layers and pedaled away. i had to pull my buff down to say hi to the neighbor. i am guessing he thought i was a bit zealous about bike riding. 


when i got down on the rail trail, i hadn't figured that it would be solid ice in the shady spots, which was a bit freaky for my back wheel. but sadie had the truck so i was committed. 

sticking to the snow on the edges, i could avoid most of the slipping and sliding. when i stopped to get a picture of the trail, i was amazed at the river next to the mill. i had been watching the trail so intently to stay upright, i hadn't noticed it was frozen solid.
















the dam on the left edge of the image, was roaring really loudly, spilling all that extra water from monday's and tuesday's rain. while the river ice was probably not safe yet, even here where the water slowed, i was thinking mascoma lake could be sweet. i would know in a mile or so.

and indeed it looked glassy, at least from the causeway. the cloudy ice on the left was forming where the current is restricted as it flows under the bridge. that usually makes for a lot of air in the water as it freezes, thaws, and refreezes. the rest of the lake was prime to add thickness tonight, when it drops down into the single numbers.

i made it over to drummond's to chat with brother cory and do my weekly sweeping. ok, and to thaw out some before heading across the road to try the trails. when i got over and into the woods, i was expecting some icy spots as it is even shadier than the rail trail. at what we call 'grand junction, where trails divide, i stopped to picture the split.



snow to the left of me, leaves to the right, here i was stuck in the middle, remembering "two roads diverged in a wood" frost's poem the road not taken.
...
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

i am not sure which path had actually been less traveled, but i went right thinking, it might make all the difference. a couple hundred yards up, the bike slid right out from under me and i went down, not hard, definitely awkwardly. still, i thought that wasn't too bad, so i kept climbing. a slip here and a slide there, i finally gave it up, spun around, and headed back. i wanted to make it past the rail trail before it got dark.

i did fine time wise getting home, but i took a couple of diggers that probably would have won some award for icy fails if caught on video. the second one, actually hurt when i bounced my ribs off a bridge before whacking my elbow on the ice. i am hoping it didn't undo the wonderful work sue just did adjusting my back. life goes on and i suspect i will heal. what's not to love about a chance go outside and play!

ps--in case you caught my dropping the possibility of skating, i will be careful if i do go out on the ice!

the start of winter.

a big storm has been blowing across the country, dropping 'feet' of snow in the mountains out west, promising to hit here tonight, and linger through tuesday morning. since late this afternoon, just as it got dark, the flakes have been falling and adding up to 3-4 inches so far. that gets me excited.

the month of november has seen lots of local biking and some on the cape, flying the power kite, local hiking & trail work, scouting new ski trails over in pomfret vt, hiking the AT on the after turkey trot, biking & hiking town hill--it has been busy on the adventure side.

back at the beginning of the month, at the tail end of a couple of days of high winds and more than an inch of rain, i rode the addict over to the top of love joy brook road. it would be bad enough to ride over a thick layer fallen leaves, and all the added water could submerge an already wet trail. i turned in shaking my head, but smiling and hoping i didn't meet a blow down on one of the steeper sections where it could be hard to stop--"adventure cycling!"

i came up with that mantra on a long tour, coming home from minneapolis. i still use it, even i'm not exactly 'off map' given i live here and have ridden a lot of these trails before. today's adventure was indeed slippery, very wet, and included a few blowdowns, fortunately on the flatter sections down towards the bottom. no matter the obstacles, it is always fun to ride for miles through the woods.

the next weekend, i was down on the cape, helping a friend move some of her things from up in scituate to her mom and dad's cottage in popponesset-mashpee. soy and han live just a few miles away, so i took some pedals and my shoes to ride while visiting them. soy has a luddite--a sweet single speed made by civilian, with a carbon front fork--in his stable and i was hankering to get on that saddle.

it was well the effort of taking his 'frozen' pedals off. and though i was a bit leery of stripping my own, i tightened them on and rode out to 'callie's beach', near 'dead neck' dividing the ocean and waquoit bay. soy had shown me a cool jeep trail that goes through the jehu pond conservation area much and hooks up with 'will's work road' out to the water.

i had my 3.5m kite with me and after some futzing with the launch from a narrow spit of land, full of bushes and things to rip nylon, i got it in the air. the wind was really blowing and constantly wanting to pull me into the marsh. a guy, wearing a full wet suit came down the path with a kite-surfing set up. i pulled my little guy in while he set his big one up. i was able to help him launch his which was cool. i had been wanting to see how it was done.


i watched a bit before riding back home. there was a large blowdown in the conservation area that i decided to grab a saw and go back to cut. sawyer got home while i was at the house and got on another bike to come help. it was work, but we stopped after one cut and just shifted the trunks so you could ride through without getting off the bike.

sunday afternoon, when i got back to new hampshire pam and i got in some trail work on town hill behind the house. there is still one monster pine down across the path just before it pops out onto hall's road leading down to the bear pond bog. i will have to get it with a bigger saw.

i did more biking going into the next weekend. i have bee trying to keep thursdays and fridays available to play. saturday, pam and i got back on town hill and cleared everything right to the bog, except for that monster pine and a couple of big hardwoods that you can easily step over. on sunday i went over to cory and melissa's in pomfret for a bit of house work and to scout a possible ski route up into the hills behind his place. we tromped about in crusty snow and figured a possible path, hooking up fields with maple sugaring roads. i am totally stoked with the possibility of a few miles of trail. the downhills will be fantastic with a foot of fresh powder!

on the friday after thanksgiving, we got a group together for the 19th (or so) annual after turkey trot going from goose pond road to the skiway and back. participation has waxed and waned over the years, with it on the waning side most recently. still, it's nice to see whoever comes.















this year, all the pendeltons, plus mia, noah's young one, made it, as did sawyer off cape, and laura from next door. the forcast was for some sun and moderate temps, but most people kept their hat and gloves on, if not their jacket zipped. it was definitely wintery, icy enough for people to wear creepers, which really helped up on the spine of holt's ledge. for posterity, i took top and bottom photos.




saturday, the sun actually did come out and warmed up some, at least when you were standing in its rays. i tried to tempt laura to roll out her new fat bike and ride a loop with me. she was on nephew ryder duty so after i took a spin up over town hill--to that big ol' downed pine--and back again, i changed shoes and hiked the same with the two of them. we stopped at the two classic landmarks for photo opps: the octopus tree, and the abandoned truck...

like an exuberant puppy, ryder was skittering all over the place leaping off rocks and tossing his spear, trying to stick it into a not so illusive prey, the ground. laura sent me a video from the day before that captures the gist of the game and ryder's fine form!

today, as the snow has stopped for a bit--still hoping the storm delivers a few more inches--i'm happy to finish this up and dream of the next adventure. no matter what december brings weather-wise, it's always a good day to go outside and play!

deep into fall.

past peak color now, it's that time of year when a lot of my outdoor time is spent doing lawn & garden shut down chores: digging the potatoes, canning tomato and apple sauces, rebuilding compost piles with this years leaves and the last of the grass clippings. 

despite all that, pam and i have been hiking at least once a week. two weekends back--right at peak color--pam went solo up to cole pond while i did garden stuff. her account was not as colorful as the pictures, but that might have been hard to match.

the next day, we both went up cardigan along with 'the squirrel', aka sawyer. i was in charge of transporting FOC, friends of cardigan, t-shirts to and from the orange fall festival so we got an early start. that was a good thing as the trails got more and more crowded as we came down.

at the top, i spotted the family we had been criss-crossing with on the way up and asked the kids "would you like to see the carving of the girl who chased her handkerchief over the cliff?" soy thought that was a bit bold, but they seemed game--that and their parents came with!

the family posed above the fading image and 188? date carved into the ledge.



when we got back down and to the upper parking lot, i had my key with me and opened up the cellar where the clivus multrum lives. sawyer was game to see the innards of a composting toilet. it was filling up with tp and would have to raked down soon. i actually biked up there thursday and took a picture of the works after i had consolidated things, but before spreading shavings, and 'watering' with the biological.

it's not too bad of job if folks remember to close the toilet seat lids--that keeps the fly population down. this summer wasn't too bad even with people forgetting.


last weekend pam and i went up the wolfboro road where last fall and again this summer we ran into the granite state offroad groups. we were hoping not to see them again. on the way up, i fixed my stream diversion project from july and built a second one where a good bit of water was flowing right down the trail. it was just us at the south peak. we stopped for water, a snack, and a photo shoot with pam demo-ing her leak picker uppers!



on the way down we didn't cross paths with any hikers, bikers, or four wheeled vehicles. which made for a very relaxed jaunt. we drove an alternative road home to go by the andrew place and see if they had any eggs for sale. about half way out, a half dozen or so jeeps and one truck were popping out of the woods at the top of love joy brook road--the end vehicle in front of us had a granite state offroad sticker on its rear window!







that made us both laugh. we were still smiling, even though there were no eggs in the farm stand fridge. the hike was peaceful and beautiful, despite being past peak--a lovely day to go outside and play!

summer may be over, but adventures continue...

wow, i didn't realize i had gone two months without posting a goap! time flies while you are outside playing!

giving you a long list would be tough, with way too much narrative. you probably guessed though, i didn't have a camera along for most of those outings. and when i did have it--like my last training ride with my senior, ken, who is off biking around sicily for two full weeks and a scouting ride with my junior, laura, working on an adventure-gravel route for a possible fund raising event for friends of mascoma--i only managed two shots...






that's ken on the left, in front of grafton pond, and laura on the right, with a turkey feather accenting her helmet. oh wait, i got another picture of 'someone' you might recognize. on both rides, i passed by the 'donald' out on a front yard. he wasn't pointing his finger and bad mouthing anybody as they passed, but he did have the long tie.







two fridays ago: 're-biked' a couple long sections that laura and i had considered possible adventure paths. lest you don't already know, height of land road in grafton, really does ascend a rather large hill--throw in some of spectacle pond road and you climb nearly 1000 feet in three miles. laura and i had pedaled 40-ish miles and climbed about 4000 feet. my solo route was also 40-ish with around 4000 feet of climbing. laura had told me, riding ten miles in new england averages 1000 feet of climbing. one benefit of all that climbing was getting a few good views of cardigan.



two saturdays ago: rolled out the mountain bike and went to check out the x-c trail i have been reestablishing over the summer, climbing a couple of hundred feet from the rail trail up to south road in a little less than a mile. i kept climbing up so. road, turning onto ibey and finding the top of an old snowmobile trail that dropped down to mud pond road. it was still rock-y and root-y where i remember it rocky and rooty and in really good shape everywhere else. coming onto so. road again, i pedaled back up to the top of the running trail. this time, going down hill afforded me time to snap pictures of the varied terrain.



the top starts out in pines coming back into the long abandoned road which leads to a very dense fern section, followed by a mixed fern and softwood section which camouflages some deep, awkward skidder ruts from logging 15 years ago. the last bit, a steep pitch down to the rail trail, goes through some fairly thick woods that obviously wasn't logged that last time.

dropping onto the rail trail at speed, involves turning 90°in about 10 feet before plunging over another steep bit down into some really thick woods. that always makes it pretty exciting--especially when i remember to wonder if anybody else might be using the trail.



two sundays ago: parked the bikes and hiked with pam. the weekend before we had gone up 2 miles on the AT to holt's ledge from the skiway. the idea was to prep for the 4 mile climb up smart's mtn. she was worried the 8 miles round trip would be too much--it wasn't. 

i took a picture at the rocky outcropping where the MOC stops for lunch on our deep freeze overnight. we had hiked it in sept. of 2016 and i took essentially the same view.

on the way down the ranger trail, pam found some fungus that attracted her attention. she is an avid mushroom photographer--as seen in the older post--and stopped to get a couple of images.







this friday past: pedaled past the donald again--now replaced by a fairly large trump flag--up to the huntley graveyard above grafton pond. laura and i were both interested in the abandoned, western end of kinsman highway, hooking that up with oak hill and mud pond roads to start the adventure ride. i had no idea where it came out of the woods but i knew it went in at the graveyard so i decided to ride it backwards. 




not a horrible idea, but it would definitely take some work in the rockiest, washed out sections. mud pond road was in fine shape despite the "no maintenance" sign on the south end. i was a bit worried given the last time i had ridden it with the MOC, we ended up pushing a jeep out of a wicked mud pit. the south gate was closed and locked this time, so maybe they are trying to keep 4 wheeled vehicles out now--that would be nice for us bikers.




this saturday past: speaking of maintenance, pam and i went up town hill for some trail work before winter sets in. there were a few blow downs, but i had a couple of saws along, a chainsaw for the bigger trunks, and a sharp handsaw for the smaller stuff. it was glorious weather and i got kinda lost in the work, coming back down the hill to pam washed up and waiting for me. we were a bit late for a dinner date up to our old neighbors on sawyer hill. 





all in all, we have been really active this summer and now into fall. going outside and playing! has been rich and rewarding. like pam always says, "aren't we lucky?!" indeed we are...