Hancocks (North and South) (4420, 4319)

Trail: Hancock Notch, Cedar Brook, to Hancock Loop.
Date: Saturday 8/12 2000
Attending: Gabe, Simone, John Chicoine, & Gary Gilchrest
Miles: 10 Time: 7 hours total.
AMC huts, / shelters / camping site:
Weather: Partly cloudy, 70 to 75

This was #35 & #36 of the 48, just 1 week before our second anniversary of our 4K-peak bagging obsession. We were all quite a bit apprehensive at the prospect hiking this set of mountains. It had been 10 month’s since Gary’s last 4K, and at least 6 weeks since ours. A ten mile loop, with two mountains bearing the phrase “un-relieving” as the AMC guide book described the last 1/2; mile to either summit, after a 2.5 mile easy to moderate approach. Terms like loose scree, steep, and 5 dangerous water crossings at high water (this has been one of the wettest summers in recent history), and last night was a deluge. I slept very little the night before; Were we up for the mileage? How bad was the heavy rain outside my bedroom window effecting those many river crossings, would the knees hold up?

The truth of this trail is that it may just be a bit over vilified in the AMC guide book. Not to take anything away from the effort it takes to bag these peaks, (a lot). But I compare the effort to any other 10 mile trek, like the Lafayette/Lincoln Franconia loop. The Hancock Notch trail is a very easy/flat walk on a well-trodden dirt path. Most of the Cedar Brook trail is the same. The trails have very little bolder hopping. Because of this they are prone to muddy sections. The upper sections of the Cedar brook trail are only moderately steep. The Hancock loop trail begins the only real steep hiking. Either approaches, north or south are almost identical in terrain, length, and difficulty. I recommend using the north approach to summit the pair. Having invested the effort the rest of the sag between North and South peaks is almost all down hill and from South peak it’s only slightly less steep than it’s north peak counterpart. As always it was a good time of fellowship with Gary and Gabe truly enjoys the endless conversations with Gary about everything from books to birds. The hike itself was a bit un-exciting, (we only had limited views for a short time as we ate lunch on the North Peak lookout and we were totally clouded in by the time we got to South peak). The trail is rather plain and other than .5 mile steep section, wasn’t any big deal. I do strongly recommend keeping the AMC guide and map handy and keeping very careful count of the river crossings because there is a lot of opportunity to loose track of the real trail. There are a lot of bush whacked trails that are heavily traveled and camped on lower sections of the Hancock Notch and Cedar Brook trails.

There were lots of opportunities for the foot washing and we took the first one we crossed on our trip back down. Even though we still had several miles and lots of water to cross to finish the hike it was nice to cool the dogs down so early in the trip. We hiked very close to book time (6.5hrs.) and we were all happy to complete the trip by 4:30PM. I don’t think I’ll ever forget the two characters we met on the steep section coming down from South Hancock. Not that they were particularly unique or anything or that we exchanged more than a few sentences with them. It’s more what they said that I won’t forget. As we passed them while they were taking a few moments to rest; they excused themselves for taking a break in the trail but they needed to give their “recently operated on knees a rest”. So what’s that about, two people hiking a ten mile loop, with two mountains, just weeks after reconstructive Knee surgery? Some physical therapy routine!

This was a day for another interesting conversation that has resulted in shifting our hiking experience into a new plane. Extended backpacking. It had been on my mind for a while now, (I think it was mostly an effort to get out of bagging 4K’s.) but as we were recovering from the hike in the car, I happened to mention that it might be cool to section hike the Massachusetts section of the AT. Gary’s eyes lit up like a Christmas Tree. It seems I’d surfaced a life long dream of Gary’s, (I mean really life long, he actually purchased the trail guide for the Massachusetts section of the AT in 1972.) From that moment on, it was going to be a done deal here it was August and we decided to do the Massachusetts Section next July during the first week of Gary’s vacation. We were all in! Now we just had to tell Shawn what to expect next summer.

Shawn gets head over heals happy when you take him hiking!

Mt. Isolation (4003)

Trail: Rocky Branch Tr, Isolation Tr, Davis Path

Date: Friday & Saturday, July 5’th & 6’th

Attending: Shawn, Gabe, Simone and John

Miles: 10.9 Friday/ 3.7 Saturday / 14.6 Total Time: 7.5Hrs. Friday, 3Hrs. Saturday

AMC huts, / shelters / camping site: Rocky Branch Shelter #2

“I care not what others think of what I do, but I care very much about what I think of what I do! That is character!” Theodore Roosevelt

 

Knocking off another 4K (#43). It sure has been a while since we’ve bagged one of these. This was supposed to be a 1-week AT hike through Connecticut. (It’s real tough to get the schedules of 5 people to work out so that you can pre-plan an entire week. It just wasn’t going to work out. No Problem! We just cut the trip down to 4 days and continue knocking off another section of the Vermont AT. More issues, more juggling and we’re down to 2 days on the NH AT… Transportation logistics issues with the two-car issue and we’re down to hiking Isolation for 2 days with 1 car. So many trails, so many trails.

A note to anyone thinking of making this into an overnighter. The Shelter at the foot of Isolation is on it’s last legs and is not going to be maintained. It is unlikely to be there much longer. The new camp site is located before the river crossing.

We started at the Rt.16 Rocky Branch trailhead. (Note! this is a pay parking lot but you can’t purchase a parking pass there.) Our annual pass expired 3 days before we hiked. It was getting later than I wanted to start hiking so we took a chance; the next trail head up, does let you buy day passes so we purchased one and used the drop box at the Rocky Branch for the money. (It worked!) The trail starts out with a 2.8-mile steady/moderate incline to the height of the land. (With full packs for the first time in a long time, and high humidity I would have to say this was a hard “moderate” stretch.) From the height of the land on Rocky Branch to Davis Path the trail was wet. We ditched our packs at the shelter and continued to the summit with daypacks. Showers that never amounted to more than sprinkles continually threatened the last 2 hours of the hike to the top. The summit was socked in with fog; No views! Bummer! But we were glad to be there nonetheless. Temps we app 50’ish, but with the steady 30+Mph wind it didn’t take us long to get cold, (considering the previous week was in the mid 90’s every day we were all happy to get bone chilling cold. Cool!)

We got back to settle in at the shelter by 7PM. We cooked the usual dried ramen / dried vegie meal and decided to set up the tents inside the shelter. By 8:30PM a moderate steady rain started for a few hours.
The next morning was still overcast, but nice enough for us to spend 30 minutes lounging around the rocks on the river before we packed out. I need to add one final note. PAIN!!! My body has betrayed me again! Within 100 yards from the summit on the first day, my left groin muscle tightened up so bad it was killing me to take every step. Boy was I glad to get back to the shelter and stop walking. On Saturday morning I thought I was feeling better but within the first ¼mile nothing was taking the edge off the pain of every step. Thank God we only had 1 mile of very moderate up hill and only 3.7 miles total to the car. I have got to get into regular exercise that solves that issue.

“The goal of life is to make your heartbeat match the beat of the universe,
to match your nature with Nature.”
Joseph Campbell

Mt. Jackson (4052)

Trail: Webster Jackson trail

Date: October 11 1998
Attending: Gabe, Simone, & John Chicoine
Miles: 5.2 Time: 5.5Hrs
AMC huts, / shelters / camping site: None
Weather: Rainny, 60 at base, 20’ish on summit,

This is a very nice trail. We didn’t get to the trailhead until 12:00 on Sunday, because we stopped at EMS to purchase our System 3 foul weather shells at the annual Columbus Day tent sail. (We paid too much, $80 bucks each, we found one for Noah for $40 at Peterborough that had some stitching problems inside the pit zips.) But! They made this hike do-able. It was raining! Just the right time to try out the new gear. It had been raining for the previous 4 days up in the Whites so the trail was saturated and 2″ deep mud. What wasn’t mud was a flowing stream down the trail. It was 1/2-inch deep water cascading over the stones. We loved it! At one point we had to ford a small river, we hooked our poles together to form a handrail for Gabe to hold onto while rock hopping. The summit is a 50′ hands and knees rock scramble up a bolder side onto the final peak (plenty safe in dry or even wet weather.). One minute you’re in the woods, and the next, you’re standing on a large krumholtz covered dome.

On the way up we kept noticing people all bundled up in winter gear, coming from the summit, we couldn’t figure it out, we were getting wet, but we were warm, in shorts even. But, as soon as we reached the summit we found out why people were so bundled up. The Temps with the wind chill had to be below 20, with horizontal rain/sleet. Needless to say we didn’t stay on the summit long. There was nothing to see beyond 60 feet, and it was so cold that we could hardly stand it long enough to snap a picture. I was afraid the rock scramble we just did to reach the summit, might start to ice up. We made it down to the car, at 5:30. Gabe was cold, we were all wet, and muddy. No foot washing today, but echo lake is just across the street from the Crawford Notch RR station where we picked up the trail. Quack Quack.

Read about other Jackson hikes

 

Mt. Jackson

Trail: Webster Jackson trail

Date: June 10, 2001

Attending: Gabe, Simone, & John Chicoine

Miles: 5.2 Time: 5.5Hrs

AMC huts, / shelters / camping site: None

Weather: Sunny, 80 at base, 70’ish on summit,

Where have we been? I can’t believe this is our first 4K this year. We’ve been so busy this winter snow shoeing and x-country Skiing that we never bothered to make the long trip up north. We tried for Ocseola in May, but Tripolli Rd. was still closed so we hit the ever wonderful Welch-Dickey loop. It seems I’d been fooling myself into thinking that I was staying in shape over the winter by doing lots of X-country skiing. Here in North Central Mass, we were X-country skiing the back side of Mount Wachusett to the summit into the second week of April. As soon as the skiing was done, we hit the bikes.

But! Nothing works the body like a true 4K hike. We enjoyed Jackson last time we hiked it, but there was such extreme weather (driving sleet and thick fog) that we couldn’t see 30ft. This time the sun was shining, the temps were warm, and the views were abundant. Jackson has a very nice viewpoint. I rather doubt that Jackson would ever take the place of Mt. Pierce as a winter hike, but the views are almost as nice. We were treated to an abundance of White Lady Slippers (we’re used to pink, and even yellow, but never remember seeing white). The Trilliums were out too, along with other flowers. Gabe even spotted a 4 petal Trillium. We had no idea such a thing existed. We took a picture in case no one believed us. There were lots of people out on the trails on this hike, and we enjoyed 45 minutes on the summit before we headed down. We were all tired from this one, (not bone exhausted, but tired). The hike down to the car took us as long as it took us to hike up. We had a few sun showers on the trip down, “Thanks God”. We did stop to enjoy a longer than usual, ritual foot washing in one of the rivers on the trail. This was a prep hike for our AT Massachusetts section hike in a few weeks. If this was a test, I failed! I am not in the kind of shape I need to be in for the rigors of an 8-day, 100 mile hike. My knees are not going to be my friends. (I’ve still got 3 weeks to work on it.)

“Great things are done when men and mountains meet.”
William Blake

North and South Kinsmans (4293, 4358)

 

Trail: Mt. Kinsman trail, Kinsman Ridge Trail,
Date: May 4 & 5 2000
Attending: Gabe, Simone, John
Miles: (day 1) 4 miles to Kinsmans Pond shelter, : (day 2) 3 miles round trip to South Peak, 3.5 miles back to Rt.116
AMC huts, / shelters / camping site: Kinsman Pond Shelter
Weather: Day 1 sunny, 70ish, very light winds. Day 2 wet, cloudy.

This was our first over-night backpacking trip this year. #’s 31 and 32. I was not in shape for it yet; I was beat after the first mile. If we would have met up with a lawyer on the trail, I would have filed for divorce. Simone just had to have this one. She just kept on moving up hill. I knew we were in for snow, ice, wet/cold boots, rain and possibly a very cold night, and Friday’s weather was iffy.

Day one: We hit the trail at 11:30, I was counting every step. The trailhead is not marked, but the AMC guide book gets you there. I don’t know why they didn’t mention the two stone gate pillars that are the trailhead. There are three nice river crossings, and several spots that you have to visit. There are some nice water falls just up stream from the lower crossing, and the flume is worth the 100 yard side trip. The views from the .1 mile trip to Bald Knob is well worth the time, for that matter,,, Bald knob is not a bad destination in itself. Here’s those stone pillars. The Franconia Town line sign is about 15 feet to the left of this picture. Just after leaving Bald Knob, the trail turned to mud, hard packed snow, and ice patches. The Ice patches were generally passable, and the hard packed snow held well over the running springs. We post-holed a few times, and all of our boots were beginning to soak up the wet. We got to the Kinsman Ridge trail at 5:00, where the trail was quite a bit more traveled and harder packed. Our trek down to the pond shelter took another 15 minutes of careful navigation. We expected to have the mountain alone, and we did. I set up our tent in the shelter hoping to help keep the wind off of us for the night, and hoping that if the predicted “possible showers”, turned into a snow storm, we would be a bit more comfortable. Fortunately the temps did not drop much below 40’ish, and we all had as good a sleep as one can have on a backpacking trip. The “posible showers” were a steady rain from 10PM to 6AM. PRAISE BE TO GOD, it stopped at 6AM!!! Regardless, I knew all that water wasn’t going to be a good thing, I suspected we might have to abort the attempt to bag the Kinsmans.

Day two: Within the first step out of the hut my fears were confirmed. Much of the hard packed snow that afforded good footing yesterday, was now large wet ice patches. Without Crampons, we had to take care to place every step, and plant those poles before each one. But, all was not catastrophic, I think the rain packed the trail on the Kinsman Ridge even harder. We dropped our packs on the trail at the Mt. Kinsman Trail junction, and with Grit, and Wit, we forged on, up to North Kinsman, and over the top towards South Kinsman. Again! PRAISE God, the south side of North Kinsman, was mostly clear, with only hard packed snow in the woods in the flat col between North and South. Not a view to be had, we were socked in the clouds, even the pictures of each other 30 feet away came out too foggy to scan. Although it wasn’t raining, everything was damp to soaked, and what brushed and or blew off the trees felt like a gentle rain. The wind was real mild, and the temps were in the high 40’s by 9AM.

Back at the junction, and loaded with our packs we soon found out that the less packed Mt. Kinsman trail had softened substantially from the rain. Today, we post-holed often, and none of the snow bridges were holding. Thank God we only had a mile of this type of hiking, it was painful and frustrating. The boots now were twice their weight with water, but we were on our way home, and the temps kept getting warmer as we dropped down the trail. Simone post-holed and bruised her knee just as we were leaving the last of the snow. The trail had lots of running water everywhere, and as we approached our first river crossing on the way down we knew the sound of the river had substantially changed from the river we crossed yesterday. It was fine, (It sounded a lot worse than it was.) but there was no way to cross without getting our feet wet a bit. (like it mattered at this point) We had to do the “hop, skip, plop and lunge for shore”.

 

Here’s a couple of before and after pictures, side by side of a spot on the river we shot on both days. Gabe and I are standing almost in the exact same spots in both pictures.

By the time we crossed our last river, the sun had come out, The Kinsmans were in clear view with just a few high clouds above, and the Trout Lilies were in bloom. The last mile was a great trek down a gentle dry cart road. The picture at the gate/trailhead was taken at the end of the trip. We were makin time, we were going home. All safe, slightly bruised, and completely victorious over our own challenges. Simone loved this kind of trip; I did too, but I wouldn’t set out to intentionally have an experience like this. She would! I think I could make a good case of cruel and unusual abuse of a husband. Why do we always have to hike up something?

I got lucky with my glasses on this one. I left them in the side pouch of the tent in the morning and rolled the tent up into a tiny little ball and stuffed it into the stuff sack. I didn’t notice I didn’t have my glasses until I got back down to the car and needed them to drive. This was beginning of the ten year long granny glasses tie loops phase. (I had those stupid glasses hanging around my neck for a long long time.)

In retrospect, we all had lots of fun, and I suspect when conversations start up about hiking in the Whites, (as they always do) this trip will get a lot of favorable press.

Read about another North Kinsman trip with an overnight stop on Bald Peak!

“I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.”
Henry David Thoreau

North Kinsman (4293, 4358)

Trail: Mt. Kinsman trail, Kinsman Ridge Trail,

Date: September 5 & 6 2009

Attending: Shawn White, Simone, John

Miles: (day 1) 2 miles to Bald Peak shelter, : (day 2) 2 miles round trip to North Kinsman, 3.4 miles back to Rt.116

AMC huts, / shelters / camping site: Kinsman Pond Shelter

Weather: Day 1 sunny, 70ish, very light winds. Day 2 sunny, 70ish, no wind.

Back to our favorite over night camping spot in the Whites, Bald Peak. It was nice to see that as of this year, Bald Peak/the Mt. Kinsman trail now has it’s own trail head parking lot, (located just 2 tenth’s of a mile from the old entrance of the trail head.).

Day one: We knew we had low mileage and lots of time to get to the intended tent site, so we didn’t get to the trail until 1:30ish. This was Shawn’s first time on this trail and as usual he hardly broke a sweat keeping a slow pace for Simone and I. This was Simone’s and my first backpacking trip in a year, come to think of it, this was our first 4K in a year. (We just aren’t doing this enough anymore!). Even with our packs relatively light, (Mid 30Lb’s), and considering the weather was perfect for hiking, we seemed to just slog along at a snail’s pace. Shawn on the other hand had spent a couple of weeks hiking the 100-mile wilderness on the Maine AT earlier this summer and was in great shape. Shawn had lots of light new gear, (his pack was under 30Lb’s) so that has to explain why he had such an easy time.

It took us just a little over 2 hours to get to Bald Peak. We got there about an hour before a spectacular sun set over the western mountains of New Hampshire and Vermont. At just about 2500 feet, Bald Peak is one of the nicest open exposure summits I would even consider setting up a tent for an overnighter. The views are wonderful and when the sun goes down, the sparse lights in the houses and towns below are a pleasant treat. Another pleasant treat was the evening Fireworks in one of the townships just within viewing range. But that was only act two of our wonderful evening. When the full moon rose through the clear cool mountain air over North Kinsman peak!!! That was wicked cool. Within minutes the place light up with moonlight bright enough to play cards by the moonlight. Really! Simone brought some cards!

The rock face of Bald Peak retained the heat of the previously sunny day for several hours, and Shawn couldn’t resist sleeping out beneath the stars in just his sleeping bag. (Remember the new gear thing,,, his 15 degree bag still keeps him warm down to 15 degrees. (Although we’re quite sure it didn’t get down much less than the mid 30’s.) Simone and I were just right in our bags in our tent.

Day two: Sunday morning was as nice a morning as anyone could ask for. From the clear mountain air, we watched as the thick mist in the valley below began to swirl upwards and burn off from the warmth of the morning sun. We cooked a pot of hot water for tea and oatmeal as we let the dry air dry due off of our tent and shawn’s sleeping bag.

Simone and I opted to ditch our full packs into the woods and complete the morning hike up North Kinsman with just a few snacks and a couple of liters of Gatorade in a day pack. Shawn hiked with his full pack. (Show off!) Even though Bald Peak is half way up the Kinsman trail, that second half on Sunday morning was still quite a serious haul for us old folk. Simone and I just didn’t expect that these last 2 miles up to North Kinsman would be such a tough slog. (The last and only time we did this hike the trail it was covered in several feet of snow, and we were 10 years younger.) I have to say, it was well worth the effort. The last time we hiked the Kinsmans the fog was so thick you could hardly see the person walking in front of you; This time the air was cool and crisp and the views were spectacular. We didn’t even know there was a view spot on North Kinsman, but what a nice spot, and what a great view of the Lafayette ridge. We must have spent at least an hour enjoying the view, and the company. It was a popular spot! We must have had 30 or more hikers join us in just that 1 hour.

The hike down to the car took us a solid 3 hours with just a short break to fill the water bottles. Both times we’ve spent a night there we’ve done so without guests. But, this really is a popular trail and Bald Peak is a top attraction for people on the Franconia side of the range. We will be doing this again; maybe next time we’ll see you up there.

Shawn taught us about his latest water treatment kit. He’s using AquaMira, a two part water treatment (replacement for the old iodine pills) that really doesn’t taste that bad. I’m sold! It’s a lot lighter and smaller than the full filter pump and a lot less hassle in sub freezing conditions.

“In the long run, men hit only what they aim at. Therefore, they had better aim at something high.” Henry David Thoreau

Mt. Lafayette (5266)Trail: Falling Waters, to Franconia Ridge trail (Part of the Appalachian Trail) to The Old Bridle path.

Date: Monday, September 25 1998

Attending: Gabe, Simone, & John Chicoine

Miles: 8.9-mile loop

Time: 9 hours , Little Haystack (4700), Lincoln (5089)

AMC huts, / shelters / camping site: Greenleaf hut Weather: Sunny, 70 to 75,

This is our first trip over the Lafayette Ridge. We parked at the Old Bridle Path trailhead on the north side of the Franconia Notch Parkway Rt93. We started up the Old Bridle path and veered off to the right up the Falling Waters trail to the top of Little Haystack (about 3 hrs). The lower part of the trail has lots of nice water falls and long switchbacks to make the hiking enjoyable. We enjoyed hiking this loop up Falling Waters; most people take the loop in the other direction but that way the falls are to your back. From Haystack we walked the Franconia Ridge trail to Mt Lincoln (not a spectacular summit, it’s nothing more than a peak on the ridge trail on the way to Lafayette, we didn’t even stop there to take pictures of us at the summit.) Mt. Lafayette on the other hand is quite a peak. It towers above all the rest and commands an audience. There is an old foundation on it’s summit from another age when there used to be a hotel there. Unbelievable! Our decent looped over to the Greenleaf hut via the Old Bridle path. The hut is about 1/4 of the way down, but it sits in a perfect location for views of the Franconia range. Gabe purchased a patch for his collection of hut patches. The hut was booked-up for the night, offering 80 people 2 meals and a bunk for $55 a night. The hike could be done in less than 8 hrs, but an hour for viewing and resting is just barely enough.

I don’t want to imply this hike isn’t a tough pull. 9 miles anywhere in the Whites requires a serious effort and with Lafayette being the 6’th hightest peak of the 4K’s it takes it’s toll. A warning to the wise, plan on being above tree line for close to 2hrs. and the weather can change on Lafayette in no time at all. Weather fronts from the west hit this high paek first and a nice sunny summer day can get wet and windy quick. This peak tends get socked in with fog a lot and if you’re doing this one in the winter, plan for potential worst case situations. Hardly a winter passes without several hikers getting into unexpected serious difficulties.

May God Bless and be safe!

Read about Lafayette trip 1:

Read about Lafayette trip 2:

Read about Lafayette trip 3:

 

Mt. Lafayette (5266)

Falling Waters, to Franconia Ridge trail
(Part of the Appalachian Trail) to The Old Bridle path.
Date: Monday, July 11’th 1999
Attending: Abby Trembly, Kevin Maycomber, Gabe, Simone, & John Chicoine
Miles: 8.9-mile loop Time: 9. hours, Little Haystack (4700), Lincoln (5089)
AMC huts, / shelters / camping site: Greenleaf hut
Weather: Sunny, 70 to 75

The 3 hour long car ride started @ 5:30AM: We got to the Falling Waters trailhead at 9:00. The trail parking lot is clearly posted on Rt. 93 just after the Flume parking lot. Simone and I packed the two Kelty Redwings with food, water, and vests for everyone.

This was Abby’s and Kevin’s first 4K hike. We knew that this isn’t a “first hike” kind of trip, but the views from the ridge are some of the best in the Whites. And if this is likeley to be the one and only 4K someone is going to bag, it’s one that will stick with a person for a lifetime. We all shared carrying the 25Lb. packs over the course of the day. Falling Waters trail is spectacular with more waterfalls than we could bother to shoot between the three cameras that made the trip. The summit of Little Haystack was a great spot for lunch and our first long break @ 12:30. By 1:00 we started the Franconia Ridge portion of the trip. 1.3 long miles above the tree line, walking the knife-edge the views over the Pemigiwassit wilderness were great. With the binoculars we could see the cliffs on Bond Cliff where we were just a few weeks before. To our west across Rt. 93, were the Cannon balls and the Kinsman’s. We met Beverly again,(The retired through hiker we met on our Bonds trip.). She was clipping brush just before the steep climb up Lafayette. She was staying at Greenleaf hut on the AMC’s tab while she spent a few days doing some trail maintenance. Our next extended break was on top of Lafayette, the 5’Th highest peak in the Whites. A few non-threatening clouds gave us a little shade as we started the next stretch down the rocky path to the Greenleaf hut. We got to the hut at a little after 3:00 and rested there until 3:30. Greenleaf provided us much needed fresh water and bathrooms for Simone and Abby.

Our final leg down the camel back of Lafayette on the Old Bridle Path trail was a bit steeper than I remembered. It took a full 2.5 hours to get to the footbridge where the Falling Waters trail and the Bridle Path complete the loop, just a quarter of a mile from the parking lot. We stopped at the river for the traditional foot washing and wash up. As we went splashing about knee deep in the river, washing sweaty brows, and pits,,,, Kevin didn’t seem to understand the appeal to this whole washing up and wading in ice water process. What fun is a tradition if it doesn’t cost you something.

Trip 3–>

Mt. Lafayette (5266)

Trail: Falling Waters, to Franconia Ridge trail
(Part of the Appalachian Trail) to The Old Bridle path.
Date: Sunday, June 13’th 2004
Attending: The Awesome Threesome, (Gabe, Simone & John)
Miles: 8.9-mile loop Time: 7.5 hours, Little Haystack (4700), Lincoln (5089)
AMC huts, / shelters / camping site: Greenleaf hut
Weather: Sunny, 70 to 75

Another great day for another great hike. Life is always changing for the Chicoine family and adapting to the impact on our world is sometimes a bit of a challenge. Gabes’ getting older now and his life is filling up with responsibilities of his own. He needs a job to keep his car fed and save a little bit for college. His school work for his Junior year has been taking a bit more time and focus. He’s got the pressure of SAT’s and ACT’s, finding and applying to a college, and trying to figure out what to pick for a major. With Simone working so many weekends at Cushing and with Gabe’s and my Royal Ranger weekend commitments our schedules are finding fewer and fewer connections. I’m glad for every opportunity we get to spend another day together.

This particular loop is a getting to be big investment for me; It’s definitely one I need the best of conditions for. This was our third time for this loop for us. The hike up Falling Waters is steep and relentless. We were under a bit of a deadline today, (We had to have Gabe home early enough to complete a major homework assignment.) so Simone and I did our best to keep the pace up. We sumitted Mt. Haystack in 2hrs 30 minutes (30 minutes under book time) and enjoyed a 30 minute lunch. The trek from Haystack to Lincoln took 35 minutes and from Lincoln to Lafayette another 40 minutes. It had been a tough hike for me to keep up this pace to get to that point in that time. (The combination of the hard miles and trying to “step up the pace” had made this hard work.) When I finally sat down on the Summit of Laffayett, I just melted into the rocks. Simone on the other hand was her usual self, pointing out various peaks we’ve been on, or even worse, (at that particular moment) pointing out various peaks we’ve yet to be on but are sure to get to someday. I must have been “one with the rocks” for about 20 minutes before we had to move on. Gabe wanted to see how fast he could get from the summit to the hut, (1.1 miles); so he bugged out on us leaving us to hobble along. His time was 20 minutes, ours was 42. It was obvious that we weren’t going to get back to the car by my intended 4:00 deadline; we were just leaving the hut at 2:30 and the book time said 2hrs 40 minutes back to the parking lot. The wind had stopped and the temps warmed up a bit for the last couple of hours. We kept up our pace as best as we could and managed to complete this last leg down the Bridal Path in 2 hours including a 5 minute stop to splash in the brook at the bottom. Now I really was beat and the drive home seemed endless.

There were lots of people on the ridge this weekend, if I had to guess at least 100 or so. There were lots of people in their 60’s (not unusual but they have my respect for sure). There was even one couple that brought a very young baby (3 or 4 months) in a Kelty Kid carrier. The Green Leaf hut looked full up for the night. Every time we hike this loop we can think of several friends that haven’t done this one yet that we know we just have to get them up here. The waterfalls on the Falling Waters trail are some of the best in the Whites, and for just an hour or more of hiking (app. 1 mile) it would be worth the trip up here for any avid shutter bug. I sure wish things had worked out with several of the people I invited to come along with us this time; then I could be assured that I wouldn’t have to hike the loop again soon. Nice as it is, I have to admit it just costs me too much in effort and pain to complete the loop. It took me a day to recover from this trip. If I could just loose about 50 lbs I’m sure that this one would be an annual hike. But, I don’t doubt that I’ll find my feet walking the Franconia Ridge at least a few more times in my life regardless of my weight.

Sad note: Between the last time we hiked this and now, a husband and wife from Massachusetts were traped in unexpected white out conditions above the treeline. These were very experienced hikers and well within their comfort level. They were rescued from the top after 2 days of a very difficlut time hunkered down in snow caves, but not in time to save the wife. It’s a risk most of us know exists, we plan, we pick our hikes according to our physical limitations and our experience/skill level, but the unexpected happens.

Boston News: Brenda and Russell Cox were married outdoors in the Vermont mountains seven years ago with a layer of new-fallen snow around them. Last Monday night, after the couple took shelter from a storm in a mountaintop cave in New Hampshire, Russell Cox reached for his wife, and felt that she had stopped shivering and her skin was cold. “Brenda died doing what she loved to do, and I think that that makes me happy,” Cox said Monday at Massachusetts General Hospital, where he’s been since rescuers found him last Tuesday outside the snowy cave where his wife died in the night.

My family wishes to extend our heart felt sorrows to this young man.

People that don’t hike don’t understand why or how anybody would invest this type of effort and accept these types of risks.

We keep hiking.

See ya at the top,

and May God Bless.

Mt. Madison (5367)

Trail: Valley Way up, Air Line down

Date: Saturday, July 13’th

Attending: Shawn, Gabe, Simone and John

Miles: 18.4Time: 8Hrs.

AMC huts, / shelters / camping site: Madison

Weather: Partly cloudy, high 70’s at the base, 50’s on the summit

Gabe with Mt. Adams behind him.

“Aim above morality. Be not simply good, be good for something.”
Henry David Thoreau

And a wonderful time was had by all on # 44 for us. Just 6 days after our Mt. Isolation hike we hit the road for another great adventure. This time we needed to hit the trail as early as possible so we opted to head for the mountains on Friday night to camp out at the Dolly Cop Campground. (Dolly Cop is a very nice place to drop a tent for a few nights. It was quiet, clean and the sites were nice; all for only $16 a night.) We’ll use this as a base camp again for sure. We got to the Valley Way trailhead by 7:30AM and divided up into two teams. Shawn and Gabe headed up ahead of us at their pace and Simone and I followed behind. Shawn and Gabe were going to bag Madison and meet us back at Madison hut for lunch. They would then begin their Northern Presidential hike over Adams and Jefferson, and then descend down the Caps Ridge trail. Simone and I would then go on to bag Madison for ourselves and head back down Madison over the Air Line trail to the car. If we timed it right, we would get to the Caps Ridge trailhead in sync with Shawn and Gabe. It worked perfect! We pulled into the parking lot just 15 minutes before they walked out of the woods. (A note for future reference; the Jefferson Notch road is off of Valley Road on Rt. 2. just a few miles up from Lowes garage.)

The Valley Way trail was just the moderate hike I needed. I was nursing a pulled groin muscle up the trail, and to my unspeakable joy, I completed the hike in no more than just a slight bit of discomfort. (I think I found a new day hiking trick, hiking in a pair of solid hiking sneakers with my Spenco hiking inserts.)

Madison is a great mountain peak in good weather but it would be 20+ minutes of total exposure in bad weather on .4 miles of difficult/ slippery rock scrambling above the hut. The Air Line trail is full of spectacular views into Kings Ravine, but not without a price. The lower 2/3 of the trail is much steeper than any section of the Valley Way trail and I invested as much effort going down the Air Line as I did hiking up the Valley Way. Shawn and Gabe loved the time and miles spent above the tree line. (3 new mountains for Shawn, COOL) The only regret I have is that we didn’t spend the night at one of the Randolph Mountain huts.