pete_hickey
06-12-2006, 07:34 AM
Friday was Street/Nye for a bit of blowdown clearing, Saturday was Dix for a lot of blowdown clearing with Rik and Eric, so I decide that Sunday was to be a day of recreational hiking.
Now, I'd like to tell you who I was hiking with, but there is something about that person and rain when said person hikes with me, so I will just say that the hike was with Xxxxx. After all, I don't want to destroy that person's name.
After a long day of trailwork, which involved getting up at 5:00AM, and getting back to the trailhead at almost 5:30, I hopped into my car and headed toward
The Other Side of the Lake.
About 4 hours later, I met Xxxxx at Lyons Hospitality Suite, in Twin Mountain in NH. Our plans were to climb N&S Twin and Galehead, but the rivers were kind of high, so that night our plans changed to a climb of Garfield.
Now, I'm not sure of the term I'd use here. I don't know if I'd say that NH hiking is more civilized, of if it's just that they're all a bunch of wimps over there. In any case, I SLEPT until around 7:00AM. I know, in the Adirondacks, I'm usually well on the trail by that time.
So, at a very civilized hour, we were at the trailhead, where we met Brian. Now, there was something fishy about this guy, but I couldn't quite put my finger on it. He wasn't a Pisces, working for scale, and he certainly didn't FLOUNDER his way either.
For the first few tenths of a mile, the trail was beautiful: soft and relatively dry. Before long, however, we were walking through mud and running water.
This was good. We had a stream to cross. I just took off my shoes and waded across, while Xxxxx decided to go upstream a bit to look for a better place to cross . She found a smaller stream, hopped across that, then worked her way onto an island, from which there was a difficult crossing to get to where I was waiting. We took off, and after about 15 seconds, we came to another stream crossing, which put us to exactly where Xxxxx had been BEFORE she got onto the island.
If it weren't for the mud and running water, this would have been a beautiful trail. A gentle grade, very few rocky sections; a trail on which to make good time.
Good time. Xxxxx and I are usually evenly paced, but on this day, she was a bit slower. Brian was moving a at a good rate, and I was talking with him, and before long, I realized that Xxxxx was no longer with us. I toyed with the idea of dumping Xxxxx, thinking that it might make the sun come out, but since she was my NH guide, I was afraid of getting lost, so we stopped and waited for Xxxxx to catch up. Xxxxx and I were talking about all kinds of things, and before long, Brian was well ahead, and out of sight. He had mentioned that he is used to hiking alone,
and setting his own pace.
As I mentioned, Garfield's trail is something like 4.8 miles of gentle climb, and only the last couple tenths were steep and rocky. We quickly got up this last part, and found Brian on the rocky summit. It looked as if it would have had good views had it not been a rainy day, but it was exactly what I had expected, since I was hiking with Xxxxx.
Now here was the best part. It seems that on the summits in NH, they give away beer. There was a guy there who gave us a glass of beer. One might think that that's a Views and Brews thing; remember; There were no views.
However, here you can see Xxxxx and I enjoying a Doppelbock:
http://newmud.comm.uottawa.ca/~pete/garfield.jpg
Did I mention that the weather wasn't great? It was cold and wet on the summit, and before long we started down. After talking about surfing, snowboarding, broken collarbones and smelly neoprene, Brian took off ahead, and left Xxxxx and I alone for the rest of the trip. Again, the gentle slope and smooth tread made this trail a joy to walk down. My knee thanked me, and we made good time.
Good time: In spite of the lousy weather, I did have a good time hikine with Xxxxx.
Now, I'd like to tell you who I was hiking with, but there is something about that person and rain when said person hikes with me, so I will just say that the hike was with Xxxxx. After all, I don't want to destroy that person's name.
After a long day of trailwork, which involved getting up at 5:00AM, and getting back to the trailhead at almost 5:30, I hopped into my car and headed toward
The Other Side of the Lake.
About 4 hours later, I met Xxxxx at Lyons Hospitality Suite, in Twin Mountain in NH. Our plans were to climb N&S Twin and Galehead, but the rivers were kind of high, so that night our plans changed to a climb of Garfield.
Now, I'm not sure of the term I'd use here. I don't know if I'd say that NH hiking is more civilized, of if it's just that they're all a bunch of wimps over there. In any case, I SLEPT until around 7:00AM. I know, in the Adirondacks, I'm usually well on the trail by that time.
So, at a very civilized hour, we were at the trailhead, where we met Brian. Now, there was something fishy about this guy, but I couldn't quite put my finger on it. He wasn't a Pisces, working for scale, and he certainly didn't FLOUNDER his way either.
For the first few tenths of a mile, the trail was beautiful: soft and relatively dry. Before long, however, we were walking through mud and running water.
This was good. We had a stream to cross. I just took off my shoes and waded across, while Xxxxx decided to go upstream a bit to look for a better place to cross . She found a smaller stream, hopped across that, then worked her way onto an island, from which there was a difficult crossing to get to where I was waiting. We took off, and after about 15 seconds, we came to another stream crossing, which put us to exactly where Xxxxx had been BEFORE she got onto the island.
If it weren't for the mud and running water, this would have been a beautiful trail. A gentle grade, very few rocky sections; a trail on which to make good time.
Good time. Xxxxx and I are usually evenly paced, but on this day, she was a bit slower. Brian was moving a at a good rate, and I was talking with him, and before long, I realized that Xxxxx was no longer with us. I toyed with the idea of dumping Xxxxx, thinking that it might make the sun come out, but since she was my NH guide, I was afraid of getting lost, so we stopped and waited for Xxxxx to catch up. Xxxxx and I were talking about all kinds of things, and before long, Brian was well ahead, and out of sight. He had mentioned that he is used to hiking alone,
and setting his own pace.
As I mentioned, Garfield's trail is something like 4.8 miles of gentle climb, and only the last couple tenths were steep and rocky. We quickly got up this last part, and found Brian on the rocky summit. It looked as if it would have had good views had it not been a rainy day, but it was exactly what I had expected, since I was hiking with Xxxxx.
Now here was the best part. It seems that on the summits in NH, they give away beer. There was a guy there who gave us a glass of beer. One might think that that's a Views and Brews thing; remember; There were no views.
However, here you can see Xxxxx and I enjoying a Doppelbock:
http://newmud.comm.uottawa.ca/~pete/garfield.jpg
Did I mention that the weather wasn't great? It was cold and wet on the summit, and before long we started down. After talking about surfing, snowboarding, broken collarbones and smelly neoprene, Brian took off ahead, and left Xxxxx and I alone for the rest of the trip. Again, the gentle slope and smooth tread made this trail a joy to walk down. My knee thanked me, and we made good time.
Good time: In spite of the lousy weather, I did have a good time hikine with Xxxxx.