On the Summit of Little Haystack Mountain

Coming Down From Mt. Lafayette on the Old Bridal Path

Check out all the pictures from this glorious hike.

On Mt. Garfield Summit

Back Down, at the Famous Shell Station in Lincoln

On the Drive Back Home

See all the pictures from this hike.

Took my little samurai guys hiking up Mt. Flume this past Wednesday. Mt. Flume is one of New Hampshire’s 4,000-footers. I was prepared for them to turn back along the way but, by Gumby, they made it all the way up to the summit. Their first 4,000-footer–woohoo!!!

We got underway at the Lincoln Woods Trailhead at 11:30am and got back to the van at 6:00pm for a total hiking time of 6½ hours. That’s a long time for any 9 or 7 year-old to stay focused, but my little dudes did it beautifully and had a great time the entire 11-mile hike!

At the summit of Mt. Flume, I called in an audblog post on my cell phone that included cogent comments from Stephen and Sam but the call was lost before it could get posted. Well, forget audblog, check out all the pictures from this hike.

On the Ragged Mountain Ski Area Summit

Ragged Mountain hike,
swattin’ skeeters, pickin’ ticks.
Makes me miss winter.

I did this hike three years ago with some friends and remember it being long (17 miles), exciting (on the open summit of South Kinsman in pouring rain with lightning bolts striking all around us) but not especially painful. Three years ago, it was a long day hiking adventure in the White Mountains. This time, it kicked my sweet derriere up one side of the mountain and down the other.

I started at the Beaver Brook trailhead on Route 112 (“the Kanc”) accompanied, as always, by my three-year old, semper fi German Shepherd hiking partner, Ouzo (a.k.a., Bubba) and we headed north on the Kinsman Ridge Trail. This is a rugged, rocky section of the Appalachian Trail (AT) with lots of ups and downs going over three major White Mountain peaks: Mt. Wolf, South Kinsman, and North Kinsman, the latter two being 4,000 footers. The weather was much more cooperative this time, beautiful partly cloudy skies with temps in the low 70’s in the valleys and pleasantly cooler on the summits.

By the time we summitted South Kinsman, I started having doubts about being physically able to finish this hike–and we still had over six miles to go. These kind of thoughts are like a nuclear bomb on a long hike. Endurance hiking is about 30% physical and 70% mental. The body does what the mind believes. When doubts are allowed to take root, it’s game over. So, I did what any seasoned endurance hiker does when fighting mental demons: I called my wife on my cell phone and whimpered…in a manly way, of course. She offered to have a helicopter fly up to the summit to pick me up. This sounded like an excellent plan and I asked her how much time I had to take a nap before the chopper arrived. Turns out she was just teasing me and then proceeded to encourage me onward in her special way, calling me her “leetle girly-man.”

So, after that inspirational pep talk with the spousal unit, Bubba and I continued our northerly trek down South Kinsman, up North Kinsman, and then down the other side. At Kinsman Pond, we picked up the Fishin’ Jimmy Trail and tripped and stumbled for two miles to the AMC Lonesome Lake hut. Lots of treacherous ice patches on the upper half of the Fishin’ Jimmy Trail and I took some award-winning tumbles. Even Bubba, the most nimble and powerful canine hiker I’ve ever met, slipped a few times. At the hut, we picked up the Cascade Brook Trail and hiked to the Basin Cascade Trail. After eight hours of almost non-stop hiking, we joyously rendezvoused with the spousal unit and reproductive units as we were schlepping down the Basin Cascade Trail, about a mile from the Basin parking area. It was a Hollywood moment.

By the time we made it down to the van at the Basin parking area, it was about 7pm. We fed Bubba, piled into the Chevy Momma van and drove down to the Beaver Brook trailhead on the Kanc to pick up my Ford Econoline trailhog. Then we caravanned across the Kanc to the Shell station in Lincoln for Subway sandwiches and, of course, the essential post-hike medication, Sapporo beer. This hike required lots and lots of beer…all for legitimate medicinal use, of course. And all the more reason to give generously to my favorite charity, The United Samurai Beer Fund.

Happy Trails!

Headin’ Out

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On Bondcliff Summit

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The Triumphant Return

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Photo Links:

• Mts. Eisenhower and Pierce, 02/20/2004
• Mts. Lafayette, Lincoln, and Little Haystack, 02/02/2004

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Snowy mountain trek,
peaks emerge from misty skies.
Candy for your eyes..

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A superlative hillstomp last week up Mt. Waumbek, one of New Hampshire’s 48, 4,000-footers. This was number 43 for me–five more to go and I’ll have bagged ’em all. Then I can die.

Even though it was still October, we got an early foretaste of winter as we hit snow less than a mile into the hike. At the summit and ridge, we were hiking in about 5″ of fresh snow and the temp dropped into the mid 20’s. We were hiking in our summer hiking boots and didn’t carry any special winter gear other than knee-high gaiters, but we stayed warm…as long as we kept moving. Check out all the pics from this excellent hike here.

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It was a fine August day for a hike on the famously picturesque Welch and Dickey loop in New Hampshire’s White Mountains. I was hiking up Mt. Dickey, soaking up the sun, enjoying the superlative views and minding my own bidness, when this German Shepherd appeared out of nowhere and took a big bite out of a my little Mt. Dickey. I discovered another use for duct tape that day.

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Good hike.

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