Backpacking the Pemi Loop

FINALLY!  Backpacking happened in my life!  It's been a while, but the weekend of June 16 I went on a grand expedition with Sarah "I like peanut M+Ms" Holland and Sterling "The" Wall to the White Mountains to backpack what's called the Pemigewasset Loop.  I don't know if there are enough synonyms for the word "awesome" to describe this adventure.  I'll assume there aren't and will just say "we had fun."

Sunrise from Mt. Bond over Mt. Washington.  Meh.

Friday night we got out of work, and after equal parts of raw oysters and traffic, were on our way to the Tufts Loj, blasting Lonely Island all the way there.  You know your weekend is going to be great when you have soup and brownies waiting for you.  So my night included a few "5-minute mysteries," organizing our backpacks, and burning the absolute fuck out of my mouth on delicious, boiling soup.

We woke up on Saturday, gorged ourselves (well, at least I did), and drove to the nearby Lincoln Woods trailhead to start the loop.  Even though our packs were heaviest at this point, we had a lot of... I don't know... spunk?  Whatever you want to call that "adventure excitement energy" (adxcitergy?), we summited Flume before we knew it.  The weather was perfect and the views were amazing.  Have I ever mentioned that urinating off the top of a mountain is like one of the top things you can do?  Well it is.  And this would be the first of many such excretions of liquid waste.

Peeing off mountains.  Like... one of the top things you can in life.

A couple more miles (and a couple more conversations discussing the vast wealth of Sterling's gear knowledge) and we were at Liberty.  Another great view, and at this point Cannon is starting to come into view.  Awesomefest 2k12.

Two summits down and morale is still high

The rest of the Franconia Ridge is pretty great, because you get views on BOTH SIDES.  To the west: Cannon and the Kinsmans, to the east: the entire Pemi loop and Washington beyond that.  And hiking along an exposed ridge... with GOOD weather (being inside a pingpong ball while hiking the Presidential Ridge is a little lackluster)... is amazing.  After summiting Lincoln and Lafayette, I started getting a little annoyed by how many times I said "this is the coolest thing ever" to myself, but then finding that I was wrong after hiking a little more.  Needless to say, the views from Lafayette were astounding.

The Franconia Ridge is preeeeeeetty great

I don't have a sassy comment for this picture

Then came what was probably my least favorite part of the trip: the long, painful downhill from Lafayette and the following uphill to Garfield.  My knees exploded so many times, like, you don't even know.  But the view from Garfield was totally worth it.  Just as clear and windy as last time, but this time it isn't the winter.  With our bodies banged up and an army of hungries knocking at our stomach doors (this is a sentence I'm proud of), we made our way to the Garfield campsites, which were actually farther than we were hoping.  But oh man!  Filling up on water, making some dehydrated dinners (which actually turned out DERICIOUS), it was good to just sit and not use our feet for a little bit.  Once we cleaned up a little, we played some card games in a cozy three-person tent, which devolved into reading "Marmot Facts" on Sterling's deck of cards from the gear company Marmot.  Ughfest.

We woke up Sunday morning in time to see sunrise just as a big fog cloud was creepin over the mountains.

The morning fog rolls in right after I take this picture

The rest of the morning's hiking was accomplished inside a humid cloud.  We refilled some water at the Galehead Hut, but a view from Galehead just wasn't possible with all the fog.  It was a nice break though, because it was just a short round-trip mile out-and-back up to the summit, so when we dropped our packs, it felt like we were nimble little forest critters or some shit like that.  We then rampaged up a fairly steep segment of the trail up to the South Twin summit.  Luckily, it was above the fog-line, so the view was pretty amazing.  We just saw a ring of summits, with clouds creeping over the lower parts and filling the Owl's Head valley.  So cool to see.

Sarah loooooooves those super steep hills

Similar to Galehead, we dropped our packs and made the longer out-and-back to North Twin with just a little bit of water.  Views weren't as good as from the South Twin summit, but by the time we got back to South Twin, the fog had all cleared up and it was sunny skies and awesome views for miles.

There is a very good reason for why I am doing this.

We then did some more trekking to Guyot Mountain for another out-and-back with no packs to Zealand.  The hike AND summit of Zealand were annoying, painful, and disappointing.  Which leads me to think that after hiking 41 of the 48 4000 footers, Zealand might be my least favorite.  SO GLAD it was just a short out-and-back, part of an already awesome loop.  Because if that was actually our destination for a day hike, that would be so shitty that there aren't any words in existence to describe exactly how bad that would be, so I'm forced to make one up: tunfortunate.  It's like a ton of unfor- you know what?  Don't worry about it.  It's a word now and it describes a hike to Zealand.

This is the best that Zealand has to offer

It was a pretty short hike to Guyot campsite, where we would make our homes for the evening.  We arrived fairly early.  I suppose you could continue on to all the Bonds and finish later in the evening, but... no, you wouldn't enjoy the Bonds as much and your knees might actually explode rather than the type of exploding that I use in my hyperbole.  Plus, after hiking all that in one day, you'd probably finish at about... oh just kill yourself because it's going to be damn late.  Luckily, taking the 3-day-backpacking option, we had some time to relax a bit at the shelter we decided to occupy (rather than set up a tent again).  NAPPYTIMES ENSUED.  And then food.  We then decided to try to see sunset from West Bond.  Unfortunately, there were some seriously low-hanging clouds that blocked most of the view, but what we were able to see what pretty amazing.  Awesome views around the valley with parts lit up as some of the Sun's rays got through the bottom of the clouds.  Not the best sunset in the world, but it was all Jurassic Parky and cool looking.

We woke up Monday morning at fuck o'clock, still dark out, so we could hike up to Mt. Bond to catch sunrise.  And holy crap, that shit ruled so hard.  It comes over Mt. Washington.  I don't think I can describe the sea of clouds and the mountain tops appropriately, so here are some pictures.

wat

What.





WHAT!?



Yeah, what the fuck.  Also, I ate like a whole bag of honey-nut cheerios waiting for the Sun to come up.  It was a pretty cool hike along an exposed ridge to Bondcliff, but unfortunate that fog started rolling in as we got there.  Still an awesome summit, so I'll probably have to go back.

It was definitely a fun place to romp around

The fog started getting SERIOUS

After that, it was just... 9ish miles on a relatively flat, long hike back to the trailhead.  Ok, the first mile was steep, and then the rest was COMPLETELY flat.  And by the end of it, I had about a million bug bites and my feet were killing me.

Overall: great hiking, finally got to backpack, and the views were phenomenal. And a shitload of frogs and toads EVERYWHERE.  We did not taste them however.  But we did opt for a huge BBQ meal after the hike.  Best decision ever.

Hiking the Wildcats

I hiked the Wildcats on June 9 with a few hiking enthusiasts.  Best part: awesome views of Tuckerman's Ravine.  Worst part: my knee was at "exploding" levels of pain at the end.

It was an amazing day for hiking.  With the intention of getting back to Boston early, Sarah picked us up around 4:45am, so after driving through up to New Hampshire and through some of the Whites, we got started around 8:15.  After crossing a pretty big stream, the hike started out pretty damn steep.

X-Treme River Crossing

After half an hour, we were all silently considering going back to the car.  But we didn't, and after a few handfuls of peanut MandM's (the blag doesn't like when I use ampersands?) we made it to the first summit: Wildcat D.  Part of the Wildcat Ridge is a ski mountain, and there was actually a working gondola by the summit.  Awesome views of the east side of Mt. Washington.

Views weren't too bad

I can't believe I skied that shit last year...

A few ups and downs along the ridge, but after that first big uphill, it wasn't too bad.  We went along some other summits (Wildcat C, Wildcat B) that don't "count" in terms of 4000 footers, and in fact it was difficult to tell when we were at a summit.  We made it to Wildcat A, or "Wildcat Mountain," for a great view of Carter Dome and some lakes.  Apples and peanut M+M's were had by all.  Best part about the summit: adorable golden retrievers pupping around all over the place.
The hike back down was... let's just say... fuck.  My knee took a serious beating.  But after what seemed like an eternity (but probably wasn't) we made it back to the river crossing.  At this point we were so hot, sweaty, dirty, and in crazy knee pain, that we all took our boots off and waded across.  Seriously, why can't I end ALL my hikes like that?  So insanely refreshing.  It scratched me right where I itched.

Haiku-a-Day Challenge: Week 50

HOW IS IT WEEK 50 ALREADY.

Caturday 6/16/2012
Just hiked fifteen miles
My knees will surely explode
Mt. Lafayette rules


Sunday 6/17/2012
Early backpacking
Another amazing day
I will eat so much

Monday 6/18/2012
Finishing the Bonds
A spectacular sunrise
And a looooong walk out

Tuesday 6/19/2012
Making some edits
Busy with work and thesis
I'm making progress

Wednesday 6/20/2012
A much needed break
Went swimming at Walden Pond
A cure for the heat

Thursday 6/21/2012
Sweltering potluck
The only way to cool off
Is six popsicles

Friday 6/22/2012
Four margaritas
A good pre-game for Lincoln
to kill some vampires*
I think vampires is two syllables?  Well it is now.

Presidential Traverse

Katie Rizzolo, Graham Rogers, Mike Brown, Paul Michael Richard, and I joined together to form a band of warrior poets and hiked the Presidential Traverse on July 30.

This picture was taken just as our knees were about to shatter. Just a few more miles and a few thousand feet of elevation change left!

And when I say "Presidential Traverse," I of course mean a 21-mile death-hike summiting 8 of the White Mountain peaks, including the 5 highest mountains in New Hampshire. It's the kind of thing that would make a normal person say "I'd rather not destroy every muscle, bone, and joint in my body. I'll just stay over here playing Jenga and wait for you to get back." I don't know why, but apparently this fictional person is playing Jenga. This person is an avid Jengist. But anyway, we beasted that hike in about 15 hours. And that included a decent amount of rest time at the top of Mt. Washington.
We drove up to the Tufts Loj Friday night and basically all we did was make infinity PB&J sammiches and go to bed. The stars were RIDICULOUS, but there wasn't much time to stargaze, because our plan was to get up at 3am to start this monster hike. So we took all the sleep we could get.
The next morning we awoke stoked as fuck, ready to destroy some mountains with our ENERGY LEGS. Katie Rizz was super pumped about a sandwich someone had left her. This is hilarious, because "Katie" was written on it, but there was definitely another Katie staying at the Loj, and I guarantee this other girl was going to wake up, find that some wretched asshole had stolen her delicious sandwich, start plotting vengeance on said sandwich thief. But whatever, it was time to start the adventure, we'll worry about our sandwich issues later. Graham, Mike, and PMR road in one car, and Katie and I road in the other, parking it at the end of the trail. We then packed into one car, drove to the trailhead by Mt. Madison, and rocked that mountain like a hurricane. And by that I mean we hiked with our headlamps on (we started hiking at 4:30am, and the Sun was being a little bitch, so we had about 45 minutes before sunrise) in an intensely humid forest.

We are dinosaurs. Sometimes.

We actually saw a moose near the Madison hut (well, most of us did). We turned a corner, and there it was: a Babe-the-Blue-Ox sized moose staring directly at me in a patch of small trees. No joke, it was probably less than 10 feet away from me. I only had time to utter the words "oh fuck," praying it wouldn't charge at me for interrupting it's breakfast by singing Disney songs, before it decided to leap OVER ENTIRE TREES and back into the forest. Third moose sighting of my life, first in New Hampshire. Win column. The first summit was a bit of a scramble, but not too difficult. At the top we realized that our day might not provide as many epic views as we initially assumed, because we were literally inside a cloud. The inside of a ping pong ball isn't really the view I signed up for, but what can you do. After some planking, we headed back down to go tackle the next mountain: Mt. Adams, second tallest of the White Mountains. It wasn't too long of a hike, but it was pretty damn steep. Quite a bit of scrambling. My arms were all "hey wait a second, I thought we were hiking. You know, the kind of thing you do with your LEGS. We never signed up for this shit." Too bad, arms. Deal with it. Same as before, not much of a view. The fog was thick, and as a result all our clothes/packs were somewhere between "moist" and "drenched." The rocks were also super slippery, which made the downhill trek slow-going and painful. My knees were not so pleased with their predicament. But hey: 2 peaks down, 6 to go.

Check out that incredible view!

Jefferson was the next. Similar to the first two in fogginess and slipperiness, so not much to tell. Oh, the wind was going nuts, which made urination a fun adventure! But we hit the summit and started on our way toward Mt. Washington. It was a bit strange, because we couldn't see all that far ahead of us, but we could hear the Cog Railroad somewhere in the mist. We crossed the tracks (more planking) and made it to the Mt. Washington summit around noon.

Chris Severino: he died the way he lived. Planking on railroad tracks?

It was great timing, because the only thing I could think about was how much food, measured in metric tons, could I logistically consume. It turns out the answer was a bowl of chili, a PB&J, half a bag of trail mix, some pepperoni, peanuts, and three granola bars. Yum-tastic. We also took our picture by the Mt. Washington summit sign, which is a goddamn zoo, because there are children and old people and other randos who took the train up the mountain. GTFO, I'VE BEEN HIKING FOR SEVEN HOURS.

6288 ft. For all intents and purposes we still consider this "sea level" in the aviation industry. STILL COOL THOUGH.

Next up was Monroe. Nothing spectacular. More of that lovely fog view, and the muscles and knees were starting to get a little sore, but everyone was in good spirits about actually getting close to the end. When we got to Eisenhower, we started coming out of the cloud, and we actually got to see a lot of the surrounding mountains.

You can kind of see some stuff! THINGS ARE MARVELOUS.

It was incredible. The weather was getting nicer, we only had two more mountains, we were in good spirits. What could possibly go wrong?
Not much, really. Sorry to leave you hanging with that "uh oh, is something bad going to happen?" type cliffhanger, but no. Things were pretty great. Pierce was next, and, while there were quite a few trees blocking what could potentially be a really amazing view, we were fine with it. Just one peak to go, so we sat for a bit and nommed on our various trail mixes. It was good to give the legs a little break, because they were starting to get all up in my bidness. My right knee, the one I had ACL surgery for, felt like it was made out of pure jello. That's typically not the feeling you'd like your knee to feel.
We then went downhill for a bit, passed the last lodge, and came up to the last peak: Mt. Jackson. It was the shortest mountain of the 8, but I think we were all fairly tired from the rest of the hike that it felt a bit taller than it actually was.

Ugh I can't BELIEVE I was looking the wrong way in this picture! Stupid stupid stupid!

Great views, great weather: it was an awesome way to end the Traverse. Well, mostly the end. We still had that final downhill. Which is incidentally the most painful part of the entire hike. My knees were held together by nothing more than sinews and good intentions. Paul and I took some ibuprofen, which helped considerably. Instead of "oh my god I don't think I'm going to survive," it was more like "there's only a 90% chance my knees are going to shatter. I like my odds." But we made it down to the car just as the Sun was setting, which was great, because we got to look at the beautiful sunset colors during the entire ride back to pick up the other car.
As is wont, we grabbed some beers at the local brewery for a celebratory "hey guys, we did it! And we're still 40% alive!" I ate as much food as the Loj could provide and literally passed out in a chair with beer in hand as Mike played Metallica songs on acoustic guitar. I can't think of a better way to end the night.
The next day my legs were barely attached to my body and I couldn't really use them for locomoting, but we got an early start and headed back to Boston. Once there, Rizz and I joined up with some friends to bike to Walden Pond (yeah, adding a 30-mile round-trip bike ride was an interesting choice when my body was 80% pain...). I figured the biking and swimming in the pond would be good training for a Triathlon I signed up for in September. After that little endeavor, every step I took was a moment of sheer agony. But it was totally worth it. Who needs to go up and down stairs this week? I climbed MOUNTAINS. But seriously, I wish my apartment had an elevator.

I can haz naps time nao plz?