hiking on the AT...

with a man who seemed lost and some 'smelly boys!' for about a month now pam has been talking about hiking the AT from goose pond road going south, up moose mtn. this past saturday we finally made it happen. the topo below shows the trail in red within the pink border of the white mountain national forest. we started from the top of the map and followed the dotted line toward south peak at the bottom.

http://www.mytopo.com/maps/

parking at the same pull off we use for MOC's annual turkey trot to holt's ledge and dartmouth skiway, we went across the road and headed south and uphill. not too far in the trail turns hard west and angles up even more. the land falls away to the north and the valley goose pond road follows. every once in a while a little flat spot offers a perch with a view. it was at one of these, about the size of a small kitchen, a man stood against a tree, his tent still set, and various gear spread about.

i stopped to talk as pam came up and we discovered he was from toronto and hiking the AT in new hampshire. if i were to say anything about him at this point i would comment on how soft spoken and unhurried he was. he spoke of stopping early the night before because he was tired, waking for breakfast, and then falling back asleep. it was around 10 and although he was gazing out over the valley, he was thinking about packing and getting moving.



we moved on as well, still climbing steeply and in a short bit, headed back south, more along a ridge. looking into the woods, you could see ledge paralleling us. in a few places the trail ran across exposed granite in the 'spine'. pam took a shot of one root system that spidered over a particularly large section of ledge.

looking up as we climbed, i got a picture of the area covered in a couple of feet of snow--it was a perfect glade. the trees were well spaced and the under growth small enough to be covered by a good couple of dumps. skip would be excited to see this and i wondered why he had not suggested ski up here before--maybe he and linda had not been up here since his freeheel turns got more solid. i remember we had skied the south peak and wolfboro road areas a number of years ago--we would have to come back to this side.

the ledge stuck up more and more as we got higher. the trail went by several long sections well above our heads. i went off trail over to one open spot about the size of a big house, covered in berry brush and fern. old fruit trees, crab apples and cherry, hung around the edges. it was a cool place only exploring it at its high point left me with a sketchy scramble down over a lichen and moss edge, with an overhanging drop of about six final feet. i managed, but pam was on the trail wondering what all the noise was.

below the north peak slab, three through hikers hung out on a broad overlook back to the north toward smart's mountain. there is a cabin up just off the peak with its fire tower. i imagined they would be staying up there that night--about 10 miles away, with a good bit of vertical to gain in two sections.

we topped out soon after that but i had not been there in so long that i suggested that we just keep going. pam was thinking i was just scheming to hike all the way to south peak, but i really was not all that sure. i think i figured it out about a mile of ridge later. walking through the woods without any distant spots for reference is a east coast thing. one has to go up to the whites to hike for miles above treeline. at some point pam's hunger started to perk up and she wondered about turning around. i thought of the potatoes and onions i had to harvest and agreed it would be a good spot to spin.

as we were coming back up to the north peak four through hikers--the 'smelly boys'--went roaring past us at speed. pam guessed that they would be headed to that north looking overlook and would stop and stink up our lunch spot. sure enough they were, so we kept on finally stopping on one of the outcroppings in a nice shady spot. we each had an apple and pam had 1/2 of her third cliff bar...granted the first two were the small sized ones. we took off again thinking that any minute the train of 'smelly boys' would blow by again. if you don't know pam, she gets hooked on certain phrases and repeats them in her child's voice--i heard 'smelly boys' a bunch of times before two of them actually did pass us--this time with a girl.

they caught us right at a log foot bridge covered with the toronto hiker's gear and him sitting on it. i went around on some larger rocks and stepped off trail on the other side of the creek. i didn't talk to the guy this time but the 'smelly boys' did. the guy had advanced much less than a mile--down hill--and had three of four water bottles out along with a filter. he was said he was filling up for day, but it was already after 1:00 and he had barely moved. it was probably at this point, pam started to worry about the 'lost man.'

we got back to the car shortly after and she told me she was worried about the guy. given that he had all the gear, food, and now water, i thought he would be ok. the AT is well traveled too, so i was not too concerned. i probably was also thinking about the potatoes and onions as i drove right by goose pond with out stopping and making good use of the swim suits pam had thoughtfully packed. it was hot and we were sweaty, but it was going to get worse for me, bending over and digging. i suspected that i would be even more in need of a swim in a few hours.

sure enough i was, and i thought maybe that was why pam was headed to the garden with her camera. but no she wanted pictures of her annual garden. to be sure the flowers this year have been spectacular, but what's not to love about a dirt-streaked, sweaty old man bending over a hill of potatoes?

i'll leave it at that...

biking with the masses...

in mass...and vermont too! friday after work i loaded my road bike and headed south to sawyer and hannah's place in sunderland mass. dinner was sautéed summer squash with noodles and pesto--yum! i had a second go at it, thinking about carbo-loading for the next day. sitting with them at the kitchen table made me think of summer garden meals back in day, when pam and i first started growing food. i remember coming home from school one evening only to see a backhoe digging about the yard and drive, some of the garden plants tilting into the hole--a rhubarb already fallen in.

the 'kids' had invited me south to ride on saturday, in the d2r2--the deerfield dirt road randonnee. they have been doing this ride for the last few years and had a small group built up. two couples from boston were slated to come, one of them matt munsey and his partner kailyn, the other cory and josh. unfortunately, kailyn had been in a bike-car accident with her on the bike. she was unable to ride so i volunteered to cover her entrance fee.

josh and cory pulled in shortly after it got dark. we chatted some, decided on an early start, prepped the teeth, and crawled off to bed--cory, josh, and i in tents out by the garden. i woke the usual dark o'clock and went inside for first breakfast--deckard the cat had his early too. by 6:30 we were packing bikes and gearing up. we took off for deerfield to the gathering and second breakfast, at least for me. matty was probably just leaving boston. he would catch us somewhere--the beast on a bike he is.

we pulled in behind hundreds of cars parked in a huge field with stakes and string marking off multiple 4x football field sized lots. things seemed to be filling up at a good clip. bikers of all shapes, sizes, and sexes were pedaling about, some already heading out on the route. we registered, fastened on our numbers, and went at the food tent. i don't know exactly what time it was but it struck me as very motivating to see so many folks into biking their saturday away. soy and i were taking in all the lovely rides around us, from vintage "japanese steel" to the ultramodern carbon fiber--and everything in between. likewise, bodies sported a rainbow of jerseys and shorts. kits--as a rider's clothing is called--advertised just about everything and everywhere. it was a feast for the eyes!

despite the urge to gawk, we--our 'gruppo' pictured above--did finally get out of the gate. it felt good to ride in a little pack, chatting with each other. for a couple of miles we kept a steady pace and i smiled each time a group of riders flew by us on their hot bikes and in their 'fit' kits.  i like to climb strong and i particularly remember see sawing one particular couple, passing them on the longer uphill, and them passing us back on the downhill or flat. soon enough we got off the pavement and went into the woods on a dirt back road. if things stayed this 'rural' and rough, i would be pumped.



after the first big hill--josh skipped his chain off to the spokeside of his freewheel twenty meters from the top--we got back on pavement for a fast descent. on the next big hill, the beast caught us--snuck up fast while we were even talking about him, "matty, you're here!" let's get the party started.

there were enough riders doing the 100K like we were that it was easy to follow the flow, everybody heading to the first water-snack stop. a fairly big crowd made it hard to miss. we didn't spend too much time, but i made sure and down a mini cup of 'pickle juice' to ward off the dreaded cramping. it was another quick decent going away, with a couple of hairpins thrown in just when you wanted to be looking at the wide valley views.  as we climbed back out of the low spot we just rolled into, i was chugging ahead a bit when i heard my name, several times. "koby, come back, you missed the turn. this way has more rocks and is steeper...!" so much for following the flow.

as we were headed off onto another woods road, we got stopped by a fire vehicle. a police car and an ambulance crept by and parked at the bottom of a steep section where a rider had crashed and was sitting off to the side with paramedics attending him. we were single file and slow getting past that point. it occurred to me that i was wearing a helmet. though i get a big raft of grief, i don't usually use one unless i am with students--and going fast through the woods or down mountains. it is a choice that seems to garner a lot of criticism but americans tend to make safety decisions based on fear rather than solid research. then again, maybe it's my dutch heratige--that and the damn things are hot.

hot helmet and all, after another really long climb up a dirt road, we launched into a couple of miles of steep downhill. i remember at one point letting it go and passing matty, unusual in and of itself, but as i went by i gave a little hop out of a dip in the road and got airborne. the challenge was on, and he zoomed back by when i got conservative and stuck behind a threesome of gents going much slower, two sometimes three abreast. before the down let up completely we came to the river, the covered bridge under renovation, and lunch. i could hear matty's brakes in tandem with mine. another unusual occurrence, matty braking--or even having working brakes!

lunch was a good break but i should have taken a couple of pickle juices there. the only time i felt a twinge of cramp was following the river for 5-6 miles leaving lunch. it sort of worried me as it was basically flat and right before the big turn up 'apex' hill--




the hill was so called because the apex orchard water and snack stop is perched at the tippy top of the longest and steepest hill we would ride over. the word on the road was that the 'peach lady', normally there and handing out the tasty fruit, was not going to be there this year. i want to say, thank the fruit godesses and gods, that was not true. i got a juicey ripe delicious peach and three mini-cups of pickle juice--both hit the spot! hannah and cory seem to be happy with their peaches too.



we had a couple more ups and downs after that, the craziest being down hawk's hill, one of the steeper and without question the roughest and sandiest. sawyer's comment was "this is why some people suffer riding a mtn. bike the whole way, just for this." we made it down safely, but two police cars and an ambulance went screaming by us and up hawk's for someone who didn't.

at the bottom of hawk's we reversed the roads we had started on and came back to the parking, food tent, and for some, the all important beer stand. sixty two miles, a few stops, and some great riding brought smiles to our faces as we crossed the finish line and got into the refreshment ones. soy made a gif out of the racewire pictures taken--it takes some work but sometimes it does 'scroll'.

it was a grand day out, as 'wallace' would say...and i do believe i would do it again if the 'gruppo' invites me back!

hill is in a road's name for a reason...

...and not just to make it sound quaint. i just found out that i am going to be riding with soy, han, and matty in the d2r2, a back road extravaganza down in western mass and southern vermont. i thought a few longer sessions in the saddle pedaling on gravel would be appreciated, especially toward the end of whatever route they are taking. if i remember right they usually go between 100-160K, or 62-100miles for us americans. the franklin land trust people who put on the event must think kilometers is hip--i can understand that. i got two 60+ milers, or about 100K for you hipsters, about half of which was on gravel of varying condition.

tuesday, instead of turning the front wheel toward school, i went left. (i practice an anti-regan, always go left when you can, system of making choices--someday i will explain...) it was early, cool, and not much wind so i was pretty quickly ten miles or more east on rt 4 when i caught a brief glimpse of my coworker's orange prius c heading west to work. it is one of my favorite car colors--habanero--and usually would have jumped right out at me. i must have had my head down and my legs spinning hard. she told me wednesday she definitely saw me and recognized my bright orange head scarf.

my scarf and i were going to newfound lake to visit some friends i used to teach with way way back in '94. glenn and susan had a summer gig running camp walamut for years, but now they were there as campers for a couple weeks. taking mostly paved roads got me there much earlier than we had guessed, even with my stopping a couple of times and asking folks if i was on the right road. the two had been working on a totem pole and had just about finished painting it. they took me over to see it, still lying prone on a couple of bunks but ready to be raised. i also got a bit of a tour of the camp featuring some tree damage from that microburst i wrote about a couple of weeks ago.

turns out their end of the lake got hit hard and dropped several pines--one through a roof and the floor of a cabin and another sheering off a porch. it makes our forty feet of trees lying in the field seem fortunate. campers and guests got right on it, the new roof on and floor being sanded when we went by. the porch was waiting to be rebuilt after they turned the cottage ninety degrees to face the lake.

after the tour, we sat at a picnic out in front of their cabin, drank tea, and talked for a time. glenn did ask me if i planned on working that afternoon, but i was toying with taking the back roads up and over the southern shoulder of mt cardigan. that would be much slower than the mornings paved route--i could always work another day. i finished a nice crisp apple and two mugs of tea from my hosts and a cliff bar that i had in my bag. it was time to pack, get in a couple of solid hugs, and pedal off.

i got to the corner of washburn road, where the gravel started, in a short time and committed. i knew it was going to be a climb, but maybe not quite so relentless. i topped out onto wild meadow road five miles later, and 1500 feet--457 meters--higher. it was a good pull and i earned some downhill doing it, but i still had 6 or 7 miles of gifford hill, brock hill, and burnt hill roads to get me over the height of land at the cardigan winter parking lot. washburn--why wasn't that road a hill?--turned out to be in the best condition of all, packed fairly smooth. the others had suffered in the dry and developed a good amount of 'washboard'. i even had to hop off and hike 20 yards of one steep and really loose section when my back wheel got too squirrelly.

but like i told jalil last year, grinding up some "big ass hills", as he came to call them, if you keep pedaling, you keep moving. i admit, i was at times moving pretty slowly, but kept going and in time i crested all the hills and set up to fly down. the top half mile or so is gravel and two tourist cars were taking it slow. i followed behind and waited to cut loose until i passed orange basin and the road went pavement. i ended up passing one of the cars that kept its slow pace. there was some pedaling involved getting to canaan, but with a heavy gravity assist. after town, for the last 4 miles i took to the rail trail and avoided all traffic. i got up to stark hill, on the fairly flat side, and cruised into the drive way, tired and happy.

the rest of the week was hotter than blazes, but nightly swims at goose pond and shutting up the house during the day, kept us cool. i switched over to the drilled well to save the dug well level. the dug is gravity feed to the house and i would hate to loose the syphon. we hadn't used the drilled for years so it was good to try it. iron in the water is still showing three days later. pam is wondering if she will ever be able to wash her load of whites...

saturday morning was cloudy and looked like it would rain at any minute. the coolness finely convinced me that a bike ride was worth it even if it did rain. i suited up, told pam i was taking the    rt 4 -- 4A loop,  and pedaled away. at the end of our road, i went left (of course), and started thinking of all the hills on 4A and the roads getting over there. i decided to attack them first and not leave them for the end like i did on tuesday. out past grafton pond the gravel got really rough as they were doing some serious ditching--it looked like they were even having to blast ledge. it was slow going there and up hardy hill. a mile over the height of land the gravel ran into pavement and i flew down to 4A...and turned left.

right away i noticed that i was headed almost directly into the wind. i had a few miles and about 500ft of climbing before i would start dropping, and a head wind would not make that any easier. i stopped and took a picture of my shirt blowing the opposite way my bike was pointed.



i figured i could stop going home and take a similar shot, especially if the wind changed into my face again going west. last year with jalil i struggled with wind and get a bit bummed when it blows at my nose.

through wilmot, onto 11 and into andover where i turned west on rt 4. it was a cross wind, pushing me toward the ditch so the first chance i had i slipped into the woods and picked up the rail trail. ah--no wind in there. i started passing WRJ granite post mile markers--B going the other way--and did some quick math. i had about 25 miles behind me and about 25 ahead. i decided to stop and take a halfway break. a few miles later i stopped and took a picture of one of the markers.



things were going well when i thought i felt a heavy drop on my bald spot. the rain was finally coming. the next chance i had i got back out to rt 4 as wet gravel loves my chain and i had just cleaned it.

not long after i made it onto pavement, the rain came down in earnest and i had about a five mile shower until i heard a "koby!" at the green in grafton center. brewster was sitting out on his front porch and invited me up for a break. he is on the mvrsd school board and i have always had fun talking with him--it was a good chance to wring out my shirt!

a half an hour later it had pretty much stopped raining and i said goodbye. ten-eleven miles and no complications after that, i was home. pam came out on the porch to welcome me. she was wondering why i was gone for 4+ hours--i don't think she understood the 4A -- rt 4 55-ish mile loop thing. no matter, i was home, i hadn't melted, my legs still had some life in them, and we were planning on 'eating out of the garden'--new fingerling potatoes, tender green beans from our plot, and fresh sweet corn from another local farm!

rain rain, don't go away...

stay at least another day! the word around the state is draught and even though we have had a few inches this july, it has been fairly hot and dry. so when a quarter of an inch came through last friday am, i was disappointed we didn't get more. the forecast was for an inch or so on sunday so i didn't jump off a cliff or anything. saturday was sunny and cool-ish, which would have been the day to take a hike, but pam and sadie were having a massage session and i had plenty of lawn and gardening--which is nice to do when it is not beastly hot out. so we planned for sunday.

pam's idea was to go explore the AT trail from goose pond road up to moose mountain, but we got to cleaning and organizing things way too seriously and it was raining steadily--yeah! so we didn't get out of the house until after two in the afternoon and decided to go up and over town hill, our backyard hike.

as soon we started up the wood's road we met the first of dozens of red efts. the rain was more like drizzle at the moment but things had been wet down a good bit and what pam dubbed FLFs--frail little fellows--seemed to be there every few steps.  i had her take out the phone and snap some photos thinking this would be a cool blog post...

the little orange newts live the first few years on land and can be seen quite readily when it is moist out. they mature, turn olive green, and spend their days in a pond or lake. as adults they are called red-spotted newts or eastern newts, sometimes even salamanders. we were seeing all sizes of FLFs, sometimes they would scurry off, sometimes just sit there, maybe under a leaf, maybe not. we got shots of various stages--one very early almost a translucent orange, lots of middle bright orange, and one late turning green and really hard to see.



we had to be careful not to step on them. a couple of them were scurrying around so that pam suggested taking a video. that didn't work out so well for me as the FLF was hard to keep on screen let alone in focus.

when we got to the other side of town hill and were headed down the south end of the old bear pond road we ran into a huge top of a poplar, probably blown over in that microburst the weekend before. we got around it and i grabbed a small leafy branch to wave about my head to chase of the deer flys. they were pretty bad, but fairly easy to swat or shoo away. as we got to the upper beaver damn and marshy area, i was excited to see it dry enough to cross over and continue on the road. well, dry enough, but really squishy--my crocs sunk in right to the edge of my socks. pam announced that it was a good place to turn around.





on the way back we saw a green frog and pam got a great picture of it poised to jump. we also spotted a wood frog, and several american toads--one TLT, tiny little toad--along with dozens more of the red efts. the wood frog took some really close observation to sort it out from the dirt and leaf litter. we went through a pretty good raspberry patch and did a little picking of the red, easy to see fruit.





although our bodies were damp, our spirits were high as we came down our side of the hill and hit stark hill road. it wasn't moose mtn and the AT, but we got quite an amphibian show without driving!
i was thinking about a hot tea, maybe some chocolate if i could find any when we got home...

a microburst with a macro effect...

it would have been better to get more rain, but the wind was exciting! we have had a fairly dry year, with a few big rain events that have kept the garden somewhat in the game. i am not much of a waterer, but have had to haul buckets this year just to stay viable. our hopes were up on saturday as the storm clouds gathered and a couple of showers swept through the area--as in blew in and blew out, quickly.

at one point the rain was whipping about enough i went upstairs to close the peak window in the northern gable. up on the ladder i had a great view of the field and woods so i stood and watched the wind swirling the trees every which way. the standing seam roof was 'wooble-woobling' like it does when it's blowing hard. there was some serious wind and i thought, if this isn't a microburst, maybe it's a tornado.

right as things really got going, i saw the three cows running full tilt from the top of the field down hill, just like they used to when clovis dube would bring them old bread. in fact, they were running for food, only it was a half dozen poplar trees that had toppled over, putting a mass of leaves in reach. cows like poplar leaves.

along the edge of the woods, running from the upper field, down hill, and off our land, is an old drainage ditch. it has filled in with trees over the years but a gravely bed kept the roots shallow and tangled together. the result was when a couple of the bigger poplars were caught in the gusts, it took a line of more that 40 feet down. the mystery picture on the left is a silhouette of a section of the root masses sticking up a good 10 to 15 feet into the air. the line of trunks in the picture on the right are sticking out into the field. had i been thinking, i would have gotten a shot of the cows feasting on the leaves where you can see the tops of all the trees against the backdrop of the woods.

besides taking the pictures above, pam also sent me one off facebook that showed a huge pine across the road at the bottom of talbert hill at the dam end of goose pond.

the power of wind and water is always impressive...






a funny note about the storm was that i had stopped to pick blueberries at our local u-pick spot, darling's berry farm (i taught both their kids years ago), and had asked pam if she wanted to pick saturday afternoon. that would have put us in the patch right as things got crazy windy and wet, but she was on call that weekend and having to talk quite a bit to the wise volunteer so she opted out. good thing, going sunday morning was much sunnier and not quite as windy. in nearly perfect picking conditions, we filled three buckets in about an hour!






the power of the fresh, ripe blueberry is equally impressive...and tasty too!