Broken finger? Who cares. Let's hike.

After a tendon-snapping injury to my finger in flag football Saturday, I was in no mood to sit around brooding all day. So Sarah and I drove up to NH to hike Mt. Isolation.

Pretty good view of the Prezzies from Isolation

Kind of a late start, getting up to the trailhead at 9am. Oh well. But this was my first time driving something other than 93 to get to the Whites, so it was a grand adventure filled with new gas stations, and later at night, BBQ.

It was a damn fine day for snowshoein'. Damn fine. Well, we started in microspikes, but later switched because we were sinking into the snow. When we first got there, a huge group of people about to start the trail were like "we're not bringing snowshoes; everything is packed down." Ok. Big mistake. I'm glad we brought ours, because when we passed them on the way back down, they were attending strugglefest 2012. Except one guy in that group impressed the hell out of me. A blind guy, hiking up the mountain, being led by his seeing-eye dog and another dude leading him with a pole. THAT was a humbling experience. Way to go dude. So impressive. And to have friends with the patience to help lead him up. They weren't going so fast though; there's no way they got up and down before it got dark out. I felt bad for them. But damn is that impressive.

The hike was something like 14 miles round trip. Long, but relatively flat. The bad part about doing it in the winter: carrying so much gear got a little exhausting. The good part: all the river crossings were MUCH easier.

This is me hiking over a river. Normalsauce.

As my 25th 4000 footer peak thus far, it is currently competing with my least favorite hike along with Waumbek. Probably a combination of length, hurty ankle, and an torn hand tendon. But the view at the top makes it WAY better.

It is a pretty awesome feeling when you take a random picture and later realize you've hiked all the mountains in the background before

The most important part of this hike is the sheer intensity of pink shooting out of Sarah's gators and burning into my retinas

It felt like a BILLION MILES back to the car, but was probably only 7. Still, the Sun had already set and it was getting darker by the time we made it back, exhausted with achy knees. And ravenous. We had some fantastic BBQ at a place on Rt. 16. Best part of the day.