dr_wu002
Well-known member
The hike: Kilkenny Ridge Traverse S-N
Hikers: Little Sister, Mookie, LRiz, MEB (to Waumbek), Dr. Wu
Objective: Get wet, have fun, make love to Mookie
Success/Failure? Success!!
We said F the Pemi Loop b/c of high chance of Thundershowers... secretly I was psyched to do another long and new (for me) traverse instead of a boring Pemi Loop. I had a secret woody as well when Eric warned me of the possibility of floating bog bridges or something on the trail. Sounded like fun. Didn't tell my colleagues about that part, I don't think. Hell, I was even psyched about the freakin' car spot
We started at 8am, heading into light rain and clouds... up around Starr King, the woods remind me of some kind of Tolkien-ish Fangorn woods, dark, old, mysterious, shrouded in mist. The old man's beard in the spruce trees is particularly beautiful in the higher elevations all along this ridge.
By the time we hit Waumbek we were pretty well soaked but also wicked stoked to be there! For me, the next 20.6 miles (as the sign said) would all be new ground... same with Mookie; Larisa had done Cabot and Rachel had done Cabot and maybe the Weeks. MEB had to turn around at Waumbek. But it all seemed new to us regardless and we were in great spirits as we pushed on at a good clip over the mossy Weeks. Already I realized that although the views weren't much on this ridge, the remoteness and the quiet, beautiful solitude would more than make up for it. Add to that the muddy, gnarly conditions and there would be an added element of challenge as well!
The trail through the Weeks was at times obscure, lightly blazed and felt more like the Wilderness than many other places in the Whites. This definitely gave me a better appreciation of this treed-in ridge. We dropped down to Willard Notch, up Terrace, over some bumps, back down to Bunnell Notch and up to Cabot where I enjoyed a quick beer before blazing over to the freakin' Horn which has an awesome 360 view -- didn't expect this view point to be so incredible. Also, by now the sun had basically come out -- we had already warmed up on Bunnell Ledge or whatever it's called and now chilled for a few more minutes on the Horn...
Wouldn't last -- by the time we hit Unknown Pond the skies opened up: heavy, cold rain, hail, thunder, lightning, flooding, mud, you name it! I thought it was pretty freakin' cool... not sure how my colleagues felt but it was wicked pissah to be in the mix. I liked the challenge and the people I was with seemed to enjoy it as well. Somewhat at least.
Finally we reached this section that Barbarossa had mentioned... seems like beavers had turned a bog into a pond and the puncheons were freakin' floating in 3 or 4 feet of murky water! Definitely a "you've gotta be F'n kidding me" moment. Only solutions is to walk across the bog bridges, floating or not... no pictures, sorry. One of the biggest regrets was not photographing this scene of the 4 of us crossing a pond on floating planks. Maybe I thought it wouldn't even show up on the memory card because it was so unbelievable!
It would rain on us a few more times but never dampen our spirits. I even took two nasty falls... the second time I thought for a second that I shattered my knee but I fortunately had not. We kept moving, enjoying the woods although Larisa somewhat indiscriminately did not like Roger's Ledge and ran away from it once we got to the top. A few more miles and we were done... finished the 25 or so miles in 11 hours, not bad.
This turned out to be the best hike of the season for me and I'm not going to speak for Mookie, LRiz or Rachel but I think they really dug this hike too. Definitely better than a Pemi Loop on this day. There's something to really be said about the remoteness and the hidden challenges of this range that really made for an awesome day. It didn't hurt to have 3 awesome hiking partners (plus MEB for the first part!) to burn through the hike with. Great day!
Pictures: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=127262&id=768514618&l=2b36281c77
-Dr. Wu
Hikers: Little Sister, Mookie, LRiz, MEB (to Waumbek), Dr. Wu
Objective: Get wet, have fun, make love to Mookie
Success/Failure? Success!!
We said F the Pemi Loop b/c of high chance of Thundershowers... secretly I was psyched to do another long and new (for me) traverse instead of a boring Pemi Loop. I had a secret woody as well when Eric warned me of the possibility of floating bog bridges or something on the trail. Sounded like fun. Didn't tell my colleagues about that part, I don't think. Hell, I was even psyched about the freakin' car spot
We started at 8am, heading into light rain and clouds... up around Starr King, the woods remind me of some kind of Tolkien-ish Fangorn woods, dark, old, mysterious, shrouded in mist. The old man's beard in the spruce trees is particularly beautiful in the higher elevations all along this ridge.
By the time we hit Waumbek we were pretty well soaked but also wicked stoked to be there! For me, the next 20.6 miles (as the sign said) would all be new ground... same with Mookie; Larisa had done Cabot and Rachel had done Cabot and maybe the Weeks. MEB had to turn around at Waumbek. But it all seemed new to us regardless and we were in great spirits as we pushed on at a good clip over the mossy Weeks. Already I realized that although the views weren't much on this ridge, the remoteness and the quiet, beautiful solitude would more than make up for it. Add to that the muddy, gnarly conditions and there would be an added element of challenge as well!
The trail through the Weeks was at times obscure, lightly blazed and felt more like the Wilderness than many other places in the Whites. This definitely gave me a better appreciation of this treed-in ridge. We dropped down to Willard Notch, up Terrace, over some bumps, back down to Bunnell Notch and up to Cabot where I enjoyed a quick beer before blazing over to the freakin' Horn which has an awesome 360 view -- didn't expect this view point to be so incredible. Also, by now the sun had basically come out -- we had already warmed up on Bunnell Ledge or whatever it's called and now chilled for a few more minutes on the Horn...
Wouldn't last -- by the time we hit Unknown Pond the skies opened up: heavy, cold rain, hail, thunder, lightning, flooding, mud, you name it! I thought it was pretty freakin' cool... not sure how my colleagues felt but it was wicked pissah to be in the mix. I liked the challenge and the people I was with seemed to enjoy it as well. Somewhat at least.
Finally we reached this section that Barbarossa had mentioned... seems like beavers had turned a bog into a pond and the puncheons were freakin' floating in 3 or 4 feet of murky water! Definitely a "you've gotta be F'n kidding me" moment. Only solutions is to walk across the bog bridges, floating or not... no pictures, sorry. One of the biggest regrets was not photographing this scene of the 4 of us crossing a pond on floating planks. Maybe I thought it wouldn't even show up on the memory card because it was so unbelievable!
It would rain on us a few more times but never dampen our spirits. I even took two nasty falls... the second time I thought for a second that I shattered my knee but I fortunately had not. We kept moving, enjoying the woods although Larisa somewhat indiscriminately did not like Roger's Ledge and ran away from it once we got to the top. A few more miles and we were done... finished the 25 or so miles in 11 hours, not bad.
This turned out to be the best hike of the season for me and I'm not going to speak for Mookie, LRiz or Rachel but I think they really dug this hike too. Definitely better than a Pemi Loop on this day. There's something to really be said about the remoteness and the hidden challenges of this range that really made for an awesome day. It didn't hurt to have 3 awesome hiking partners (plus MEB for the first part!) to burn through the hike with. Great day!
Pictures: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=127262&id=768514618&l=2b36281c77
-Dr. Wu
