Jay H
09-09-2009, 01:58 PM
Could not have asked for a better weekend in the whites, having scheduled this and made reservations a few months ago at WatersRest in S. Woodstock, I gathered a small group of friends for a few climbs in the whites, Bill (Hoosier) (ahp.com) and I talked about heading to the Whites over July 4th and asked some friends if they wanted to go and share a camp. After settling down to Skip, Bill, and I, we added David Metsky and Mimi to our campsite last minute for a plan to do Franconia Ridge and other hikes in and out of the pemis. Friday, Mimi, Bill, and I headed to do the car spot, from Flume Gorge parking lot over to the trailhead for the Old Bridal Path, except we passed the lot... oops, so we basically just parked at Lafayette, rather than do another U-turn and waste more time... and we headed to Flume Gorge which we didn't miss this time :)
The ridge was fantastic, views out to Mars and not as crowded as the weekend would suggest... I needed lincoln and lafayette, Mimi needed them all, and Bill needed none, but we all enjoyed the traverse, with views towards peeks we needed (Kinsmans, Owl's head, etc.). Ran and chatted with a bunch of thruhikers and basically enjoyed the section immensely.
http://picasaweb.google.com/cycleslugyahoo/FranconiaRidge
Saturday, Bill, Skip, and I went down to (Want-to-lance-it?) to hike the Blueberry Ledges (blueberries were all picked!) up to Whiteface and over a nice escarpment to Passaconaway. Ran into a ranger on her way up and chatted with her around that old gravesite and the start of the ledges. The ledges were pretty cool, saw signs of the old metal ladders driven into the rock and scrambled up to great viewpoints of Chocorua and Passaconaway. There is a summit cairn for the viewless summit of Whiteface and no Memorial Highway! Onto Esth... I mean Passaconaway with a stop for lunch at a nice viewpoint on the steep ledge.. The summit of Passaconaway was reached and gummis were exchanged (thanks Bill!), there is a very nice refreshing stream before the final summit push and very confusing signs but with a check of the map, we get to the summit bump and also wander down that .3 mile spur trail which offers a great 180deg view towards the Kanc and peaks north.
p.s. HUGGGGGEEEEEE Spider on the trailhead Kiosk!!
http://picasaweb.google.com/cycleslugyahoo/WhitefacePassaconaway080509
Sunday, Sept 7th
Bill, Skip, and I head to do the Kinsman and Cannon (I have done cannon already), a similar 12 mile day, but an interesting drive to the trailhead for the Mt Kinsman trail on 116. A very nice easy graded road/trail that goes past a Sugar Shack and eventually meets up with the old woods road that was the trail up to recently. We gradually climb the easy grade to the AT trail junction just north of North Kinsman. A poke around the summit, we gain the summit rock (room for 1) with great views towards the Franconia Ridge. Over to South Kinsman which has a widish dome for a summit and a cairn and views towards the Moose as you go past the summit to the ledges beyond. Going over the Cannonball PUDS, we slowly make our way towards the crowds of Cannon.. Not wanting to smell perfume and cologne, we tag the summit and almost run back towards the Hi-Cannon trail which is a series of cliff-avoiding scrambles down with a great viewpoint towards Lonesome Lake and said hut.
http://picasaweb.google.com/cycleslugyahoo/KinsmanCannon090609
Monday, Skip has to leave and goes to tag Tecumseh while Bill and I have one more full day to play with.. Play we do as we headed out towards Tom, Field, and Willey from the Crawford Depot. A nice, mild 10mileish hike that has views towards the northern Pressies. Mt washington is in a puff of cloud for most of the time, with probably an undercast from the summit. We still get an early start and by the time we're done, around 1:45pm, we decide to go run up to tag Cabot, so we drive a loooooooonnng way past the Lancaster Fair (woooo ferris wheel, though not the Jason kind!) to Mill brook road in Stark and head up the trail at 3pm. Running into Roy Swkr (Hi Roy!), we get to the summit and assist Roy in his little GPS project before having to turn tail to get out. our 4 hour, 10 mile hike to Cabot gets out at 7pm and we rejoice in making great time, after TFW and getting out before dark. I even ran up to check out the Horn, which I was told not to miss and was rewarded with the best view of the day, I would almost dare say of the trip, it was great. I can envision backpacking into unknown pond and spending sunset on the Horn... ahhhhhh..
http://picasaweb.google.com/cycleslugyahoo/TomFieldWilleyCabot090709
Tuesday, Bill and I need to hike and head home so because we did Cabot the day before (our plan was to do Cabot on the travel day home), we decided to do Carrigain as it was another 10 mile hike but with more elevation gain than Cabot, we hike this, pass a few people and hit the summit fairly early. Pretty cool, can point out Tecumseh, Tom, Field, Willey, Bonds, Twins, Webster Cliffs, Mt Washington is still clouded over... Hancocks, etc. etc. Nice summit, platform is odd but we had the platform to ourselves for quite some time, but the drive awaits and we head back, enjoying the views from Signal Ridge and wondering about whacking straight up to that ridge from the river valley below...
http://picasaweb.google.com/cycleslugyahoo/Carrigain090809
Thanks to Bill, David, Mimi, and Skip for a great trip, too bad Mimi had feet problems and couldn't go on our longer hikes and again, missed chicken boy on the hike again, but sometime on my finish!
Thanks to Waterrest for putting us up for another day, despite they closing on Labor Day and thanks for the free-bees ;)
5 more hikes for me... sheesh, maybe I'll finish this year...
Jay:cool:
The ridge was fantastic, views out to Mars and not as crowded as the weekend would suggest... I needed lincoln and lafayette, Mimi needed them all, and Bill needed none, but we all enjoyed the traverse, with views towards peeks we needed (Kinsmans, Owl's head, etc.). Ran and chatted with a bunch of thruhikers and basically enjoyed the section immensely.
http://picasaweb.google.com/cycleslugyahoo/FranconiaRidge
Saturday, Bill, Skip, and I went down to (Want-to-lance-it?) to hike the Blueberry Ledges (blueberries were all picked!) up to Whiteface and over a nice escarpment to Passaconaway. Ran into a ranger on her way up and chatted with her around that old gravesite and the start of the ledges. The ledges were pretty cool, saw signs of the old metal ladders driven into the rock and scrambled up to great viewpoints of Chocorua and Passaconaway. There is a summit cairn for the viewless summit of Whiteface and no Memorial Highway! Onto Esth... I mean Passaconaway with a stop for lunch at a nice viewpoint on the steep ledge.. The summit of Passaconaway was reached and gummis were exchanged (thanks Bill!), there is a very nice refreshing stream before the final summit push and very confusing signs but with a check of the map, we get to the summit bump and also wander down that .3 mile spur trail which offers a great 180deg view towards the Kanc and peaks north.
p.s. HUGGGGGEEEEEE Spider on the trailhead Kiosk!!
http://picasaweb.google.com/cycleslugyahoo/WhitefacePassaconaway080509
Sunday, Sept 7th
Bill, Skip, and I head to do the Kinsman and Cannon (I have done cannon already), a similar 12 mile day, but an interesting drive to the trailhead for the Mt Kinsman trail on 116. A very nice easy graded road/trail that goes past a Sugar Shack and eventually meets up with the old woods road that was the trail up to recently. We gradually climb the easy grade to the AT trail junction just north of North Kinsman. A poke around the summit, we gain the summit rock (room for 1) with great views towards the Franconia Ridge. Over to South Kinsman which has a widish dome for a summit and a cairn and views towards the Moose as you go past the summit to the ledges beyond. Going over the Cannonball PUDS, we slowly make our way towards the crowds of Cannon.. Not wanting to smell perfume and cologne, we tag the summit and almost run back towards the Hi-Cannon trail which is a series of cliff-avoiding scrambles down with a great viewpoint towards Lonesome Lake and said hut.
http://picasaweb.google.com/cycleslugyahoo/KinsmanCannon090609
Monday, Skip has to leave and goes to tag Tecumseh while Bill and I have one more full day to play with.. Play we do as we headed out towards Tom, Field, and Willey from the Crawford Depot. A nice, mild 10mileish hike that has views towards the northern Pressies. Mt washington is in a puff of cloud for most of the time, with probably an undercast from the summit. We still get an early start and by the time we're done, around 1:45pm, we decide to go run up to tag Cabot, so we drive a loooooooonnng way past the Lancaster Fair (woooo ferris wheel, though not the Jason kind!) to Mill brook road in Stark and head up the trail at 3pm. Running into Roy Swkr (Hi Roy!), we get to the summit and assist Roy in his little GPS project before having to turn tail to get out. our 4 hour, 10 mile hike to Cabot gets out at 7pm and we rejoice in making great time, after TFW and getting out before dark. I even ran up to check out the Horn, which I was told not to miss and was rewarded with the best view of the day, I would almost dare say of the trip, it was great. I can envision backpacking into unknown pond and spending sunset on the Horn... ahhhhhh..
http://picasaweb.google.com/cycleslugyahoo/TomFieldWilleyCabot090709
Tuesday, Bill and I need to hike and head home so because we did Cabot the day before (our plan was to do Cabot on the travel day home), we decided to do Carrigain as it was another 10 mile hike but with more elevation gain than Cabot, we hike this, pass a few people and hit the summit fairly early. Pretty cool, can point out Tecumseh, Tom, Field, Willey, Bonds, Twins, Webster Cliffs, Mt Washington is still clouded over... Hancocks, etc. etc. Nice summit, platform is odd but we had the platform to ourselves for quite some time, but the drive awaits and we head back, enjoying the views from Signal Ridge and wondering about whacking straight up to that ridge from the river valley below...
http://picasaweb.google.com/cycleslugyahoo/Carrigain090809
Thanks to Bill, David, Mimi, and Skip for a great trip, too bad Mimi had feet problems and couldn't go on our longer hikes and again, missed chicken boy on the hike again, but sometime on my finish!
Thanks to Waterrest for putting us up for another day, despite they closing on Labor Day and thanks for the free-bees ;)
5 more hikes for me... sheesh, maybe I'll finish this year...
Jay:cool: