up mt washington--an 'ode' to billy

the day: the 25th of july, yet another beautiful day in the neighborhood! and more importantly, up in the white mountains. sunny and somewhere in the 70's. not too windy save for some breeze up top. not bad at all for "the worst weather in the world."

the adventure: if you live in new england and love to go outside and play! hiking up mount washington is likely on your bucket list. iona asked me 'to do' it a while back, and her father billy's death last year, shifted it to the front burner.

there are dozens of paths up washington, but since billy and i met and had many adventures out of the amc pinkham notch complex, we planned to start there. and what better path to take than the tuck trail, directly through the bowl, over the alpine garden, ending at the summit. 

we came down lion's head back to the tuck trail. then between 2nd and 3rd bridge we cut over to the sherburne ski trail--"far from the madding crowd."

the memories: way too many memories--past and present--to record here, but all of them had me smiling. i had a little déjà vu filling iona's water bottle at the pump next to hermit lake, just below tuckerman ravine. as we climbed into 'the bowl' it struck me that i hadn't been up here in the summer, in a long time. 

without snow, things didn't look familiar until things started to get steep and i saw a person, perched on a rock playing a recorder. when we came up to them, we were greeted with a "hello. is that koby..." it was a former student, danny and what pam calls "a koby sighting." he was there supporting sea to summit triathlon racers. it was sobering that some of the top finishers passed us on the way up.

as we got closer to the top, we started to hear people and vehicles--and a loud cheer for one of the triathletes. it was a bit of a shock for iona. lots of people up there. after a bit of a sit, we found one of them to take a summit shot standing on an overlook. you can almost see lake of the clouds hut off behind us--back in the day billy worked there some. 

going down lion's head, i got a shoe caught and took a tumble.
iona saw it and thought it somewhat elegant, until the blood started pouring out of my hat. ever up to an emergency, she cleaned & patched things up and we continued to descend. 

knees for iona and my quads significantly slowed us on the down. after we crossed over to the sherbie and we got to a steep little headwall i thought i remember, i pronounced it the "last steep section...i think." iona was not convinced but thankfully, there were only four more after that, before we eventually got to the bottom. we were about spent, but down.

notes:

• just like a long bike ride, bring electrolytes--blueberries are nice too!... 
  
• going up is always easier than coming down--and not just because you are knackered...
• hiking with iona is as much fun as it was with billy--even with shoes on...
• tomorrow, take iona, tracey, and pam up square ledge--if our legs still work...

go outside and play!

a birthday bike ride

the day: july 17th, another beautiful day in the neighborhood! and beyond, all the way across central new hampshire into maine... sunny but not hot, in the low 70's, a decent breeze most of the day. given it is mid- july and air quality has been crazy bad with smoke from the wildfires in minnesota and ontario, it was pretty much heaven with cool~ish, clean air--just for our ride.

the adventure: taylor and i have been thinking of riding over to maine to visit kevin & mariel and clayton, their oldest. i've been biking to kevin's for years, always trying to whittle a few miles off. so far, it seems like all my shortcuts end in the name "...hill"! 

taylor lives--and runs the 'last stop bike shop'--on province road in dorchester, a favorite shortcut. the last time i rode home, i cut over that way from the back side of plymouth, through hebron and groton. there's a sweet 'untraveled' gravel stretch, with a washed out bridge a mile or so from taylor's house. no cars = very pleasant riding! it made a fine start!!

we went around a couple of the other "...hills" but mostly stuck to my shortest version. not even sure how far we actually road, but probably in the neighborhood of 80 miles. 

the memories: we did go over the durgin covered bridge--off of "fellow's hill"--between sandwich and tamworth, as it was not washed out. later, going up a long steep "moody hill," we were passed by a police car with lights and siren on, going fast. a half mile further, going down an even longer steeper "glines hill," four police cars, lights still flashing, were parked, dealing with an suv, perched precariously down in the ditch, nearly flipped over.

tactfully avoiding "sam brown hill"--we actually missed our turn flying down another hill on the brownfield road--we ended up carrying our bikes across another river, as we headed up to kevin's. how à propos, a bridge out - river crossing on the first and last mile!

notes:

• pack light but for gosh sakes bring electrolytes and stay hydrated... 
  
• "...hills" might make the trip shorter, but they are not always your friend (as the driver of the car in the ditch--taylor heard the cops giving him a ticket as we passed)...
• thank you pam, a last slice of the birthday cheesecake was a delicious treat...
• ride--and ski!--with taylor more often...

go outside and play!