hiking local...

with pam and MOC! i have been home nearly a month now and have enjoyed getting to see the end of peek foliage...

a week of teaching physics and chemistry for my dear friend ann--despite a cold...

and a couple other weeks of the usual tech support work: plugging in computers; blowing dust out of cpu's; resetting memory sticks; futzing with smart boards--including plugging them in; giving students email addresses; reconnecting chromebooks to wifi--basically plugging them in; all sorts of various and sundry low-tech tasks.

thank goodness for 'mountains'--it is harder to use that term after spending time out west. the sunday after 'that tuesday' pam and i were both hike ready. given a scheduled MOC event, we stayed local. we went over to wolfboro road and hiked up the back way to the AT between the north and south peaks of moose mountain. it was a lovely mild day with plenty of sun and no wind to speak of. about half a mile from where we parked, a tractor of some sort had come over from the hanover side and scraped, making a bit of a mess. i had not been up on wolfboro in ages--the last time was on skis over feet of snow. this grading was fresh, maybe just done, pushing aside a foot of leaves. it had been such a dry summer, maybe they thought they could avoid the usual mud. turned out, even in very dry weather, wet trails don't ever drain completely.

while i was dreaming of a deep snow smoothing it all out, i sunk--a wee bit over my crocs--into a mud pit, hidden by a deep layer of leaves. at the height of land, we crossed the AT and turned off headed for the south peak. the trail was leafy but not 'graded' so there was no mud or loose rocks. i don't think pam had ever been up there so she was quite pleased with that section. we stopped at the top for pictures and lunch.

from our lunch rocks, there was a good view to the south beyond the high school and mud pond and to the east past goose pond and cardigan. if you knew where to look, you could just make out our upper field over on west side of town hill.

when we came back down we crossed right over the road going toward the north peak. pam wanted to see the shelter about a quarter mile up. the view from there was not nearly as grand, more what they call 'local!' the shelter though is sturdy and i started dreaming of snow again, thinking about coming up in a storm, laying in while it built up, then skiing out in trackless powder.

back down to the road i pointed out a few spots where i remembered skiing and even biking once. we avoided the mud hole and had a very pleasant descent especially when the trail paralleled closely the brook draining the area we just hiked through. new england may not have the mountains the west has, but the woods here are places of wonder. and a late fall day was a perfect time to take a hike.

a late-fall evening, with a super moon rising at about the same time the sun is setting would be just as perfect. i have been trying to do a hike--once a month--for a good number of years now to get above treeline and catch the moon and sun doing their thing. it started when i took some folks i was teaching with at sead up cardigan, aptly dubbed the moonrise-sunset hike. when mascoma started that year, i kept promoting the hikes with MOC and it got somewhat popular--depending on the weather.

the weather was still really fine and though there was some wind coming up, it was dead clear. i got up to the cardigan parking lot where a couple of students were waiting. before we started hiking, three more showed up. not the biggest crowd, but they were enthusiastic.

and they hiked quite fast. we made it to the top in about 30 minutes--young legs. that gave us a bit of wait time, but it was so beautiful out, nobody complained. there were a couple of other groups up there and two MOC parents showed up just as the super moon crept above the horizon. it was indeed super and doubly rare to see it directly at the horizon.

after snapping a picture of the crew with the moon, we moved over to the west side and got a shot of the sun sinking into the green mountains.

as we gathered our packs to head down, one hiker from another group announced, "i'm freezing! i was not prepared for this." i was glad our group had the equipment needed to stay warm. we made it back to the parking lot just about as it got dark enough to warrant a head lamp.

in the words of wallace and gromit,
it was a grand day out!

or as MOC says,
go outside and play!

man these trees are big...

and they are the small ones! 


sawyer flew into vancouver a day 'late', one after me, but in plenty of time to jump on a bus and head over the bay to north vancouver where we found endless biking. they had our rental 29ers ready to go. they also had the bike bags we had ordered and had shipped there. we put the framebags on and fit the rest into our backpacks and rode back across the bay to the airbnb to pack gear for an early start in the morning.



packing for a trip that you have to carry everything you bring, makes you think twice, maybe even three or four times, about each piece of gear. it was fun seeing what i was thinking of bringing along compared to what soy was contemplating taking. i tend to go with big picture items and he often thinks of the little things. after several iterations, we satisfied ourselves and each other enough to go to bed. 

in the morning the bags still looked ready. a hot breakfast of five grain cereal filled our fuel tanks. we shouldered our backpacks and rolled away excited. vancouver is super bike friendly--union street, where our apartment was, is a designated bikeway. we fit right in with the commuters and made our way through the city, down to the waterfront, and back over the stanley park bridge. i snapped this picture just as we entered stanley park.

over the bridge and onto marine drive, we headed north toward horseshoe bay and the ferry that would take us to langdale where we could strike out to find the sunshine coast trails. they were somewhere over the bay, under those clouds in the picture soy took as the ferry started the crossing.

our plan was to get into the forest and go north for three days. at one point i was dreaming that we would go the 75 miles to the far end of the peninsula. sawyer's view was more realistic and had no fixed end point--just ride some cool single track.

after debarking and riding into north gibsons, we climbed a 21% grade and found spin cycles, the bike shop we had originally talked to about rentals. we were after some advice and bought a paper map to take along. soy had also loaded a trail app which gave us plenty of directional aides to ponder over as we tried to figure out exactly, "where the heck are we?"

i studied that paper map outside the iga grocery while soy went in and bought the rest of our food along with a bottle of alcohol for stove fuel. fully loaded, we headed uphill and into the woods. we had gotten some advice at the bike shop to avoid certain trails, so we aimed for hwy 102 to start the ride. getting there was easier said than done. we tried two access points--one a dump for old building supplies and rusting large machinery, the other chocked with himalayan blackberry (a local called them russian blackberry, maybe because of their foreign, nasty thorns)--before taking a woods road that took us where we wanted to be. finally, on some single track, we started winding through the tall trees, along steep banks, some with streams at the bottom.






it was one of those very drop offs that i pitched into soon after we started. my 29er tires didn't exactly 'roll through' a tangle of tree roots and i left the bike with a shout, tumbling down headed for a splash. somehow i managed to stop and clamber back up just as sawyer was coming to the rescue. he later told me he was questioning his judgement "bringing his old papa on such a trip?" i was glad he waited to share that, falling was embarrassing enough. what he did say at the moment, was that shouting every minute or so, was the new bear safety protocol--let them hear you coming. making noise is key at bearsmart.com where they also recommend you "put the ipod away and pay attention..."

as if on cue, only minutes later, i stopped at the top of a hill when i saw a runner coming up the trail, fiddling with his phone. i am not making that up, he was totally oblivious to us. when he did finally notice, it was with a good dose of surprise and a dash of wonder. even more interesting though, were his last words, "ride safe and watch for grizzlies..." the next time we stopped we had a chuckle at such warnings given his attention to a device rather than the surroundings. but, we did register the possibility of a bear encounter and started giving a shout "hey bear" now and again. i also felt vindicated having asked soy the night before, if he had any cord to tie up a bear bag in the evenings. ever attentive to the little details, he had some.

around four o'clock-ish, his attention fixed on water as we passed a good stream. he suggested stopping and setting up camp. while he filtered a few liters i scoped out some flatness for tent and bivy. we met back at the bikes, successful on both accounts, although the flat i found was not nearly as abundant as the water supply. we cooked up a fine supper, brewed a thermos of tea, and set about pitching our shelters. darkness settled in as we brushed our teeth and then hung the food bag. after a bit of a chat we crawled into bed.

i managed to only crawl out once to go pee, easily getting back to sleep right through to the rain and fog at first light. by the time sawyer popped out of his bivy, the oats were ready and the tea was brewing. he added a good handful of nuts from one of his numerous little bags and voila, breakfast was served. we decamped, shook off as much water as possible, and packed, wetter and heavier than day one, but happy to wake up and be out in the forest. 

not two hundred yards down the trail, the forest suddenly disappeared. we came out into a substantial clear cut and stopped to take it in. often, people have really hostile reactions to logging, but doing it like this, 10-20 acres at a shot with some clumps left for seed trees, makes sense--if you are going to log at all. i would guess that many of those complaining live in houses built with a fair bit of wood, so i don't put too much stock in their gripes. soon enough, our path went back into the trees. check out this grin! 




one of the coolest features we rode on were the bridges. they went over gullies, streams, and even huge fallen logs. riven 'boards' of ceder and fir were nailed over logs stretching across the gaps and up and over obstacles. the 'boards' could be really slick in the wetness, so most had wire mesh laid along the center. each bridge was unique in width and pitch--some as narrow as six inches and leaning heavily to one side. many were not at all straight, curving or angling around whatever. at first we walked the scanty or questionable ones, but as we got acclimatized, we started going for all but the most likely to cause a spill. soy stopped at one shot a funny movie of me 'racing' across an easy one.

at the end of 102, we took the westridge trail but after a fine start, it had so much pushing that we ultimately decided to turn around and descend. it was our first big downhill run of maybe a mile, and even though it was quite rocky--reminded soy of back east--it gave us both a solid rush. we made it back to the start of 103, the route we avoided as the map guy at spin cycles had said it was too narrow and tricky. we did have to go up and down a funky, awkward ladder over a huge log and took off down the hwy! 

unlike the guys in the video above, we were whooping and hollering most of the way--single track is so much fun, even on a foggy day. like we were warned, there were some technical sections, including some really odd bridges, but most of the crazy ones you could ride around. i missed a turn at one point and started down a black diamond. after about a hundred yards of extra focused riding, i realized it was way steeper, with lots more roots and rocks than on 103. i was able to stop without crashing and climbed back up. when i got back to sawyer, we took off in the right direction, and found some really lovely riding.

some of the best of that, went across bridges, including my favorite one pictured above. it was a fairly narrow affair, starting at the bottom of a steep s-curve with a smooth curve threading the trees at the far end. directly behind where i took this shot, we stopped for lunch at a ragged tarp over a log table and benches. while eating, we also got out the paper map and fired up the app trying to figure out a path to take us up as high as we could get before camping. we decided on trying the health trail which ended just across the logging road from the end of 103. 

we finished lunch and 103 quickly, and hit a logging road going up past the end of health, headed for its start. turns out that riding on a road, even a rough one, was much faster than riding single track. hence, we overshot the established top end of health and didn't stop until we found a new section, a mile or more further up.






we tried that new section, but found it was wicked sketchy with more pushing than riding, even though most of it was downhill. the picture at left shows the start of it, just off the logging road--the barely developed, overgrown path should have given us a clue to what it was like in the woods. we turned back sooner than the last false start. and continued up on the old four wheel drive roads.










we got back onto a single track called the wagon trail which took us even higher to an enormous, ameoba-like clearcut. the picture shows only one of the psudopods, maybe a 10th of the whole. the trail meandered across the opening, sometimes on skidder roads, other times through those lethal blackberries, until sharply veered off and dropped us back into the woods. given the time and where we were, we decided to camp high, and blast down and out to the road in the morning.



this time we set up a cool sawyer-made tarp--another small detail he pulled out of a little bag--to cook under as it was already spitting rain. we cooked and ate, brewed and drank, heartily and mostly dry. after we cleaned up we scouted about for sleeping sites. not surprisingly, flatness for tent and bivy were at a premium. soy ended setting up right beneath the tarp and i found a spot just beyond a huge blowdown a few feet away. brushing our teeth and hanging the food bag brought us to dark and a steadier rain, so we crawled in with minimal chatting.

as we lay there waiting for sleep, the rain increased along with the wind. i did not have my anemometer with me--being the big picture guy, i had unpacked it as 'extra' back at the airbnb--and anyway, would have had to climb one of the giant trees to get a maximum reading. but from my experience, we were dealing with some really strong wind, up in the storm, whole gale force winds category. i decided setting the tent next to the large diameter blowdown was a wise choice as it would take the brunt of a tree that got blown over. unless a branch ran me through, i would be safe--enough. 

soon after these comforting thoughts, a light appeared outside the tent and sawyer voiced his concern. "i just reset the tarp so it wouldn't dump the gallons of water it was collecting on me, but if things get really desperate, is there enough room in there for me?" it was a solo tent, but how could i say anything but "sure"--he's my only son, flesh and blood, and all that. we would make it work. i never heard from him again and managed to sleep fairly well, again with only one pee break, albeit a wet and windy one.

the morning was pretty murky, the forest floor littered with tree detritus, but it was not raining too hard and the wind had calmed considerably. as i was boiling the water for cereal, soy emptied--as in dumped out--his bivy bag of at least a pot full of rain. thank goodness he had a thick pad for a float, and that it never got really cold. we finished cooking our oatmeal, emptied the 'nutbag', and filled our stomachs. that definitely made us feel good and ready for the last day's decent.

all packed, things even wetter--and heavier--than yesterday, we started out toward upper tube and the downhill rush we had planned. soon enough the wagon trail took us to the top of upper tube and we dropped in. 

it had all the promises of downhill singletrack, berms, series of berms, drops, launches, the only thing i don't remember were bridges, but it went fast and i may have missed them. we emptied out onto the logging trail we had taken the day before. our big smiles only grew as we rolled back into the woods onto lower tube. too soon, given the joy of flying through the woods, we popped out onto another logging road. it was there we met with the aftermath of last nights wind and had to drag the bikes and ourselves under a large aspen blowdown. around the corner, somebody had already cut out another big maple. trees in the roads were definitely getting thicker and we were happy to duck back into the woods again. but at downhill speed, that only lasted a while.

onto the main trunk road, our speed only increase all the way down to hwy 101, the paved road on the sunshine coast. there across the street we spotted a bus stop--how convenient.  




when the next bus came along, we 'front loaded' the bikes, dropped in some change, and sat down satisfied. at this rate we would make the 10:30a ferry and be able to get back to north vancouver by 3:00p, our witching hour to return the rental bikes. 





the rest of the bus ride and on the ferry we both said, the only thing that could have been better, was an additional week, or month, or year, maybe even endless...that would be sweet!

picking navel lint...

up in the sawtooths with my dear friend paul! life is sweet...of course to get here--one of the many mountain ranges in idaho--i ended up flying out of boston, through salt lake city, into haily/sun valley idaho. flying is something i like to avoid, for many reasons, but sometimes it seems worth it.

on the boston end, eben p met me at the bus station and hustled me to a tai restaurant were we met matt and kailynn. after swapping old moc stories--eb and matt were both stalwart alums--and finishing a tasty meal, eb and i continued onto his apartment where he graciously shared enough floor space to roll out a sleeping bag. i also snagged a couple of his mom's famous cookies for a bedtime snack. one could not ask for a better host!

eb had arranged for an early cab so i got up about four o'clock-ish, in time to finish kailynn's curried rice she offered the night before. a short bit later the cab picked me up and whisked me to logan in good time. had i used that time to inspect my carryon luggage, i might have found the old swiss army knife buried and forgotten in my little back pack. if i knew it was there i could have easily transferred it to my checkin duffle and saved it from whatever they do with the thousands of sharp objects they probably find. i told the tsa agent that it would do my heart good if he took it home and used it or gave it to his favorite relative--he smiled and shrugged his shoulders.

having effectively curbed any latent terrorist inclinations i might have, the flights out west went smoothly. and, given the two hours mtn time gave me back, just after noon i was waving at paul waiting to pick me up in haily. flying over the mountains, some well covered in snow, was very pleasing knowing full well that paul would have a hike planned to get us out into them for few days.

sure enough, the plan had us packing that evening for two nights and three days. day one, we would go leisurely up to goat lake out of stanley and set up camp, hang out some, take a swim, the usual 'this is such a beautiful place' stuff. day two, after breakfast, we would summit thompson peak, and then the last day, hike out, maybe in time for a second breakfast at the stanley baking co. & cafe. i got to catch up with paul and his wife renée as we packed. even with the large gap between our visits, it was a joy and the years quickly melted. 

at a certain point, our energies also melted and we headed off to bed. the next morning we final-packed, loaded the truck, and drove north. unfortunately, renée was still recovering from a sickness and couldn't go with, but she gave us a wave and wished us luck. the road to stanley took us up and over galena pass, where i had learned to telemark ski, way 'back in the day' when i had come out to be best man at paul's and renée's wedding. i had returned--and skied galena again--a few times, once with kevin when we were heading to alaska and denali. the pass was snowless for the moment, but i could remember the many lines, and envision hundreds more; just a few feet of snow would open up a world of joy. 

we pulled into stanley and the cafe and fueled up on their famous pancakes. paul mentioned that a breakfast stop here was the tradition whenever they passed by. i was honored to get in on that. pam and i had actually gotten stuck in stanley when we were hitchhiking home from a visit--again, way 'back in the day'. the baking co. wasn't there in '76, i recall we ate breakfast in the lodge after spending the night there to avoid -52°F outdoors on the roadside.



well fed and back on the road, a few miles west of town we got out to the iron creek campground and the trailhead to enter the sawtooths from the north end. we swapped crocs for hiking shoes, shouldered our packs, and started, one foot in front of the other. hiking out west is not all that different than the trails in the white mtns back east, only it is much much dryer here and instead of all dirt with rocks and roots, there is a good amount of gravel on the footpath. 



being dry and gravelly also means the fallen trees don't rot nearly as quickly which makes for lots and lots of grey sticks of all sizes littering the forest. such excess would make our trail crews back home really jealous of all the material for water bars, steps, bridging, shelters, whatever. just when we turned off the main trail and headed toward goat lake, we crossed a three log bridge. paul said each log had been floating in much deeper water back in june. they were a couple of feet above water now.



as we rounded a shoulder coming out of the thicker forest, paul suddenly stopped and whispered, "stone troll...don't wake it or we're in trouble." we took a water and snack brake under its gaze and shot a couple of pictures. looking south--the direction the troll stared out--we started to see the higher peaks. 





a bit further along, we came to the next turn off, semi-hidden and going steeply up to goat lake. the path was super gravelly and the slope had clearly burned off at some point.  for a long while, you could hear a large amount of rushing water but we didn't get a look at it--goat falls--until passing an outcrop near its top. i imagined there would be some great ice climbing in frozen times.

the closer we got to the lake the more i noticed how hot i was and suggested to paul that we take a swim. he was not at all enthusiastic about diving into 'freezing' cold water, but i figured if i went in, he would join me. it would be good to wash off the sweat we worked up and get clean for dinner. i stripped and dove in. it was heaven, only a bit colder, though if i had to guess not all that different than the atlantic on the maine coast. 

the temperature might have been similar, but the view was certainly unique. after i got my boxers back on paul took this shot. the tiny triangle in the center distance is thompson peak, where we would be headed the next day. at 8000 feet plus, the water was snow melt coming down from patches like the ones you can see above the lake. oh, and paul did go in, up to his neck even.

we set up our tent just above the swimming 'hole', and cooked dinner on my new, ultra-lite alcohol stove. after cleaning up, we talked of life well into the evening. 




it cooled off quickly when the sun dipped behind the ridge line to the west, but there seemed to be a warm air mass moving up from the south. there were no clouds to clue us in on the direction of those upper winds, but that made for some super star watching. before i crawled into my sleeping bag, the milky way had washed a bright strip across the sky. when i woke up and went to pee a couple of hours later, the lake reflected all that starlight making for quite a show below the feet as well as above the head. 

in the morning, i fired up the stove again and boiled water for oatmeal and hot cocoa. we were about done eating when the sun started to hit that western ridge line and i snapped the picture below.

the stanley baking company had great pancakes, but atmosphere like this at breakfast would be hard to beat. yes, that is snow at the water's edge.

speaking of snow and edges, we soon took off around the perimeter of the lake, hiking up the chain of lakes, around and over a few patches of the frozen. most of the snow patches were solid from their top down to rock. this one below, had a nice arched tunnel that the melt had carved out enough to scare paul around it. he stopped and took a shot, intimating that at any moment things were going to collapse and i would be toast. 

of course i reminded him that if that did happen he would have to carry me out...he stopped saying anything, but he might have kept worrying. 










we circumnavigated one of the lakes by edging along a ledge about 5 meters above the water. i suppose this sort of 'trail' is not for everybody, but it got me excited and kept me focused on something more than the good distance we had left to go. truth be told, i am not all that big a fan of hiking. being out in the western mountains was nice though and with a rock 'climbing' section now and again, i was smiling.








not too much further, a drainage from another lake in the chain made me think of pam's love of moss. a couple hundred yards of thick, soft green, made a lovely path up through the rock. when paul had been by here in june, it had been under more than a few feet of snow. that got me guessing that the high plants only lay exposed for about 4 months, and some of that under water. you have to be hardy to grow up here.











we got to the saddle leading up to thompson peak and paul snapped a picture that showed a few of the lakes over my shoulders. goat lake, where we were camping, is the farthest blue spot to the north. it seemed like a fair distance, and we still had the peak above us to finish.


climbing through some pretty gravely scree, we worked our way up and around the western flank to the southern couloir and scrambled up. i got a nice shot of paul looking up that slot, just under the summit. 

topping out, we scouted around the several of the 'false' peaks along the summit spine. looking out to the south, one really gets the idea why this range is called the sawtooths. i respect that pam would never move out here, but i could see myself living near these mountains. skiing and climbing out our backdoor is possible in new england, even fairly decent given our proximity to the white mtns. but here, going outside and playing in the backyard would be like dying and going to heaven. just so i would remember it, paul took a picture of what we were looking over as we settled down to eat lunch at the summit register...

the view definitely put big smiles on our faces! after a multi pitch climb, my expression was a bit weary here--maybe it was a bad hair day. this picture was taken 40 years ago, somewhere out there in that view above, on the finger of fate, a stone spire in the sawtooths. i led one of paul's best friends, steve ollila, up there just so he could take this picture of me--jk. steve died a few years back but we opted out of a memorial climb so that we could actually set the camera and sit together on a summit...

the march back down to goat lake, didn't take as long as coming up--gravity has a way of making that work easier. although it was not just a hop, skip, and a jump, we did make it before dark and were able to cook without headlamps. that night, clouds did start moving in and we got a rain shower or two before breakfast. chocolate milk in our oatmeal fueled us through packing and hiking out--in time to hit the stanley baking co. cafe for 2nd breakfast!



well fed, we got back in the truck but, before driving back over galena pass we stopped at redfish lake to relax in the shallows of the river feeding it. i couldn't have asked for a nicer end to such a wonderful three days.

windy and cool...

a perfect time to run up a local mountain and camp--especially in the dark! i was entering data at school and saw an email from sawyer pop up--" i was thinking of sleeping up on xxxxxxxx tonight to see how the gear holds up in a potentially wet and cool environment...any interest in coming along? i could pick you up around 6:30..." sweet; i was all in.

i packed up quickly and pedaled home to cook a 'fast' meal for us. soy pulled in, we ate, we final packed the essentials, and we pulled out. even with all that quick, when we started up the trail it was dark. the head lamps came on when a slip at a rocky creek crossing told us, despite the moon at almost full-bright, it was hard to see potential obstacles at our feet.

hiking in the dark with a headlamp can be problematic for me. after a time, maybe 20 minutes or so, i start losing acuity and depths go haywire. rocks float up and tree branches sink down. things take on new dimensions that fool with my bearings. i reminded soy how our long standing debate about using car high-beams, was the same thing. my eyes must get tired and the brain stops automatically refocusing. my right eye has not worked in sync with my left since i was a child. i had an operation for being cross-eyed and have not had binocular vision that i ever knew about. when it happens hiking, i take the light off my head and hold it below my waste--that helped.



our 'head' lights were turned off totally when we got up above 'turn around rock', the boulder in the middle of the trail just about tree-lien. i coined the nickname in reference to where conditions often deteriorate for skiing. more often than not, the snow--if it exists at all--is scoured and icy making it a sketchy ski at best. we didn't turn back, but stopped and put on a wind layer. soy's new rain jacket made for good contrast in the dark. the rest of the way, we were glad to have protection as it grew more and more blustery the higher we got. guessing at the speed is always interesting. i carry and anemometer along to check and have dialed in my predictions pretty much according to sound and feel. soy had it pegged at 30mph as he had checked mountain weather forecast, a very informative website he found. i always go to the low side, as humans tend to exaggerate. maybe we do that because it feels so different, especially comparing it to what we call normal. 




at the top we stopped out of the wind and watched thin clouds scud past the moon at high speed. the moon's brightness dimmed, then re-brightened, and made for an almost eerie effect. almost, as it was really frightening, not even spooky, but definitely strange. we scouted out our possible tent site under moon light and decided to set things up. the wind gave us a bit of a challenge from flapping my fly like crazy to blowing one of soy's poles off. i snapped a shot of the bivy tucked tight to the granite.

i had pangs of regret for not buying myself one when soy got his--the two pole model has been discontinued. it lay low and quiet, while my solo hubba--not all that tall, but maybe 2x higher than the black diamond--whop-whop-whopped a steady beat in the 'breeze'. my room to move inside was the trade off for sawyer's low profile. depending upon the situation there are positives for both. given that i love to go stealth, and get caught in the wind as much as i do in the rain, i still was a bit jealous.

after brewing a cup-pot of tea, with the lid safely back after chasing it down the east side, and some more windspeed testing--i did see-feel one gust over 30mph--we tucked into our respective sleeping quarters. one of the reasons we had come up was to test some gear. soy had just bought a down quilt, an ultra light sleeping cover--not a bag--that promised warmth down to 20°F. it was not going to get that cold tonight, but we could have temps down in the 30's and with windchill it would give us a taste.

after tossing for an hour, i forced myself to get up and go out and pee. i got back in empty and settled. years ago i learned that if you pee you stay warmer as you don't have to keep all that liquid body temp. it works for me. the next time woke, i noticed a pink glow on the eastern horizon--time to rise and prep for the shine. soy had been a bit anxious about getting an early start in order to make it to work on time, so i woke him. his smile seemed a good advertisement for the effectiveness of his new sleeping kit. the flash may have blinded him but he cheerily gave me a starred review of his comfort. he mentioned that the bivy-tent size, seemed to limit the loft his quilt could achieve, but he stayed toasty.

having slept warm in my primaloft 'puffy' and a t-shirt, in my 35°primaloft bag, i was less jealous than over the bivy-tent. one reason i love primaloft is its bombproof water resistance. new england is a wet environment. most of the places i go are wet, potentially, very wet. we are headed to vancouver island. the pacific northwest, especially the coast is home to one of the few remaining strong holds of the temperate rainforest.






i suggested just packing and jumping. soy, still in his quilt, looked puzzled, "without waiting for me?" no, but not hanging around to see the sun actually top the horizon. the quick exit off saved us 15-20 minutes, and got us down to the car in plenty of time to make work for both of us. the descent was uneventful, though i noticed much more in the light than i did going up in the dark. like pam and i saw on our hike a couple of weeks ago, mushrooms were in 'full bloom'. even though some rain helped the decomposers to go wild, the creeks were nearly dry, save for a few puddle-pools fed by the remaining trickles. i also took note of several blowdowns that would have to be cut out before ski season.








soy dropped me off and headed toward dartmouth's media services. i switched backpacks and went to school. soon enough i saw several MOC students that reminded me tonight was the monthly moonrise--sunset hike. i had not forgotten, and after a day supporting all things tech, i got up to the parking lot. when i pulled in, ben j, a MOC grad now in college, was tailgaiting with a can of tuna, cheese and crackers. we waited 10 minutes past the published start hiking time, and picked up one more student, andrew p. we took off hoping to make the top to see the moon pop up and figured any stragglers would make the sunset. we made it as the moon emerged from behind a gauze of haze low in the east.

a group of five more MOCers made it up just before the sunset and we snapped a few pictures. (i am still waiting julia f...) two other mascoma alum came up as well. we went down in two groups, making our way at our own speeds. gathering in the parking lot, i was feeling so good that i made up a riddle for the group: today, i went up the mtn once and came down the same mtn twice...how does that work? olivia s. was equally excited and recruiting folks to go up in the morining to see the opposite of tonight's show, sunrise--moonset. i didn't hear any immediate enthusiasm but figured if anybody could rally the troops it would be olivia.

sure enough, at school on friday, olivia gushed that she and a couple of others had made the trek and gotten an equally great, clear show, horizon to horizon.

no riddle here, go outside and play! it's always good...

we took to the woods...

for some cross-country action and more AT hiking. after a long week answering to all sorts of problems with computers, smartboards, projectors, phones, and assorted other tech, i was fairly relieved to hop on the bus with the cross-country team at 2:00 on friday afternoon. our usual coach, rev. tom, had a wedding to do and i was 'volunteered' to fill in. it was a bit of a bus ride, but i had a swell time with three of the runners that i knew well. olivia, justin, and i laughed a lot at lincoln as he made crazy statement after crazy statement--clearly "numbers baffled him!" we got a lot of milage out of his jack's beanstalk-esque 1000 foot tall pine tree. "it was so high up there, you couldn't see the leaves."

the meet was at fall mtn regional high school (put the map on satellite and zoom in a bit for a look at the area we ran in) and their x-c coach met us as the bus pulled into the lot. we got the basic run down of the event and wandered over to the starting line area to wait for the 'coarse jog' around. we watched a couple of teams go off and followed a ways behind. i ran along with the team sporting the bright blue crocs. we made it around, a bit more than a mile and a half and finished circling their track. the actual race would be 2x around and finishing with most of one lap directly on the track.

the boys ran first and olivia, lincoln--he couldn't run yet as he hadn't gotten in all his paper work--and i placed ourselves strategically and cheered when the mascoma boys went past. as the racers spread out we moved a few times to see them. olivia and lincoln ended up at the finish line taking times while i went up the track and spurred them on toward the end. justin ran really well for their first meet, almost breaking 20 minutes at 20:32. devon and henry ran a respectable race as well. i think lincoln was frustrated he hadn't gotten in his consent form as he wanted to race as well.

soon enough the girls were lining up and olivia fit into the middle of the pack. she seemed to not take off as fast as the group, but said she passed a bunch of them fairly soon after they got in the woods. that seemed like a better strategy than burning out early. she looked very steady every time we caught sight of her at a vantage point. she finished strong as well and came off the track with a smile and getting her breath back. it was a fine outing for all even though i elected to skip the traditional stop at mcdonalds.

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

sunday morning was hiking day, and pam got herself out of bed and into breakfast just after 7:00a. her goal was to get on the trail early and make it to the top of smart's mtn. usually we have just looped the lower section and going to the top would add some distance as well as vertical--about 8 miles compared to 6.5. i thought that it would be wise to take the ranger trail up and the AT down as there is more gradual up on the former. of course that would give us some steep down, but gravity would assist.


to get to the trailhead, we drove over the turnpike road, past dartmouth skiway, and up towards reservoir pond. the parking area was almost full, but considering it was vacation weekend and the sky was nearly cloudless, it was to be expected. packs on the backs, we set out.


the first thing we noticed. and stopped to take a few pictures of, were the huge caps of an extensive and varied mushroom crop. after about the third photo stop pam mentioned aloud what i had been thinking--fungi could be a great thread for this post. i tried to come up with a hiking joke ending in the punchline "why not? i'm a fun-gi!" but gave it up for concentrating on where i was placing my feet to avoid stomping on any. here are four interesting examples...









the purply-blue flower picture is of bottle gentian. pam remembered betty collins telling her that, way back in the 1960's. (it always cracks me up that she thinks she has alzheimer's when she can't remember something.) gentians are woodsy perennials that love wettish feet. fortunately for those who kept an eye out, these had found a moist spot in this dry year.





speaking of moisture and lack there of, as we got higher and higher in elevation, i wondered if the fungi would disappear. things don't rot as fast in dry environments and fungi are part of the 'rotting' system. but, there seemed to be fewer of them, and even at the top i saw them tucked into a shady spot or three. along the way, pam broke out her poles to help coax the legs along, but she did something funky to her shoulder. even though she said she was determined, i thought uh-oh. we did eventually make it and i steered her toward the tent site with a friendly, grassy overlook. she sat down happily to adjust her hair and eat a slice of pizza.

from that vantage point, we could see all the surrounding hills and mtn.s to the south, from cardigan in the east, to just west of moose. we tried to name all the ponds in view, but there were a lot, and it got a tad confusing with some of the bigger ones partially hidden. the picture below shows most of cummings pond at the bottom and firescrew and cardigan mtn at the top. i believe that is ragged mtn in the far back on the right. angles from different perspectives--i.e. standing atop different mountains--can throw you way off.

refreshed, hair in place (for those who have it), and one last picture, we started down. the heat of the day was not too bad up high and in the breeze. much of the time too, we were in the shade. at the ranger-AT junction, we turned off, onto about a quarter mile of steep rock stairs dropping you quickly down to the high valley between the AT ridgeline, where we were headed, and the ranger trail, where we had come up. it can get really wet through here but not this summer. the numerous bog bridges and stone steps were all 'high and dry'.




as we got up on lambert ridge, it got even drier, especially out in the sun on the 'bald spots' where the ledge was exposed. i took a screen shot of the satellite view where you can see the white granite dotting the green. if you zoom in on google maps, the AT is labeled and you can get a good idea of it. it yo-yo's along for quiet a ways. i think maybe this is when i heard pam start muttering, "just two more miles...one step at a time." so far, she had been quite a trooper, even though she crumped her shoulder way back on the ranger trail.


as we were going down after an up, we did have a bit of a surprise that distracted pam from the "never ending" part of things. another hiker had just stopped below me and i thought to myself--that looks like the "lost" toronto guy we had seen last weekend over on moose mtn. sure enough it was same person i mentioned in my last post!


we chatted a bit but i tried not to get too involved as i remember he liked to ramble on verbally. he looked healthy and seemed to be in really good spirits so when pam came along, we gave him a good luck and goodbye.


a bit later pam was making up titles to a new guide book: hiking the AT--one mile a day! a new twist on the old 'dollar-a-day' guides they used to put out. over and above the super slow pace he was setting, about six miles in seven days, seeing him there, pam was mostly relieved of the worry she had for "lost man". seeing him alive and well put a spring back in her own step.


well and good she perked up, as we still had about a mile to descend. i took a couple of pictures of her in fine form at 'the corner' where MOC commonly stopped to eat lunch on our way up on the deep freeze overnight. she usually is not so game about getting close to any edge let alone one with a 60-70 foot drop, but maybe she was feeling frisky and starting to "smell the barn" as they say.



after squaring the corner, we passed over a few final ledgy parts and got solidly into the woods. at one point the trail goes through an opening in an incredible stone wall. every time i cross through that gap, i marvel at whoever the heck built that beauty way the heck up there. one last picture doesn't quite do it justice but it is still in fine shape. trust me, or better yet take a hike and see it for yourself.



after the wall, we could start to hear vehicles laboring up the gravel down below, and then turning a corner i heard grant brook. the car was waiting for us when we popped out of the woods. there was no bus blocking us in, which was a bit of a possibility given the couple dozen teen looking hikers that passed us headed up to the summit cabin for the night.

ourselves, we were headed home eventually, with a trip over to pam's sister's in springfield to pick tomatoes and a swim in lake kolelemook. that would certainly be refreshing!