UNFROZENCAVEMAN
New member
Ok, so this isn’t an endorsement for Darn Tough Socks, although they are what I and several others were wearing, and they do make a great sock, but I digress…..
Day 1:
Cast:
dr_wu002
Rebecca Drummond
Jeffrey Klossner
7summits
Gillian
ferrisjrf
Juniper
Little Sister
yours truly
Recently an e-mail went out about backpacking over Memorial Day weekend –the plan was to either do The Mahoosuc Traverse or the Grafton Loop Trail, I shot a response back to Ferris and asked “Why not both?” And so it went, Ferris and I pushed through The Mahoosuc Trail over a couple of days and then met up with a group up on Old Speck that Saturday and proceeded to hike the Grafton Loop over the next 3 days. Somewhere around 70 miles and who knows what for elevation…probably 20k+ That was a pretty good workout.
Fast forward a couple of weeks:
So it was Ferris’s turn this time to ask “Why not both?” when there was a Presi Traverse planned for Saturday and a Pemi Loop planned for Sunday.
Now, I’ve done a bunch of Presi Traverses and a couple of years ago when I was hiking a lot I did a Pemi Loop – neither of these hikes scares me by themselves but back to back? Seriously? Ahh what the hell, I like challenging myself – besides, I’m trying to get in shape.
So Friday night we all met up at Barnes, decided we’d hike up Daniel Webster out of Dolly Copp, and then work our way across the ridge. This was going to be an “evil traverse” since we were doing it on June 6th and starting at 6 a.m. (666 yo!) but it was supposed to be a beautiful day and everyone was pretty pumped. So we put an abundant supply of fuel in the fire ring and stayed up late practicing the art of separating bottle caps from bottles and then emptying the contents of said bottles. Then after everyone else went to bed, Jason and I practiced our night time frisbee skills (flashflights rule!) for a while because sleep is for sissies, and my brother in law told me that God hates sissies!
Morning came quickly and if we were truly going to do this evil thing we had to get a move on….we wound up starting a little later than planned reaching the trail at 6:30 – close enough.
Heading up Daniel Webster is awesome, starts off pretty mellow and before you know it you’re above tree line – nice not to have to hike up from the hut then backtrack too – you get to keep going in the same direction all day – sweet!
Everyone seemed to be hiking strong and we managed to hit the summit of Madison around 9:00 – just in time to crack a cold one! Just kidding, we didn’t start drinking till later when we got to Madison Hut.
From there it was the typical traverse on a beautiful day. We did stop at the hut, used the toilets and water supply then off to bag Adams which we got to via Star Lake Trail – another nice approach.
Then we were off to Thunderstorm Jct. and headed towards Jefferson via Gulfside – somewhere between Adams and Edmands Col, Jason and stopped to play frisbee while everyone re-grouped.
The climb up to Jefferson was fun as there was a cool (pun intended) set of snow steps at one point and the “walls” were like 6 feet tall! Nice to be able to grab a handful of snow and refresh one’s self by rubbin down!
On Jefferson we met up with Mr. X and his brother who needs to get a better avatar name I guess….. And a nice young woman that wants on the board as Unstrung Harp – Darren, did you get the e-mail yet?
At this point Rebecca D. decided that she wasn’t going to make the traverse after all, she was trying to hike through a cold but it won out so we started making plans and phone calls to get her back to Barnes. At the junction of Gulfside and Sphinx we met an AMC leader who said she’d take her down Jewell trail just didn’t know where exactly it was.
Don’t worry Beck, you’re in good hands!
The rest of us pushed on heading up and over Clay via Clay Loop – beautiful views, warm without much wind, we stopped and consumed more (beer of course!) food for the push up old Georgey pooh.
Ferris, Little Sister, and I pulled ahead of the group at this point – Ferris dropped the hammer and we did our best to keep up! We summited between the summit building and the observation platform for a change which was cool, touched the sign then headed inside for some re-hydration, and of course to lighten our load – no need to carry everything out, that’s what trucks are for!
Ran into nartreb inside – hadn’t seen him since we did our July 4th traverse last year, he said he hadn’t been hiking much, but I hear he’s been hitting the climbing gym a lot!
Bla bla bla, we took Crawford Path to Lakes for a quick break, up over Monroe, Little Monroe, Franklin and then up to Eisenhower for another break and discussion of how to end this thing….most were content with bagging Pierce and heading out Crawford to the Highland Center but Wu, 7summits, Ferris, and I decided we’d head out to Jackson for the exercise.
7summits hadn’t ever been down to Jackson on a traverse before and I’ve never not done it so we all said goodbye to the rest of the group and pushed on.
At Mizpah we stopped again, I put some weight in my pack because it was getting too light and I knew I’d be thirsty later, besides, I’d been drinking all day, no reason to stop! I flirted with some girls inside who I knew wanted me to spend the night with them but I had mountains to climb so I bid farewell and pushed on! Sorry to break your hearts ladies
We cranked over to Jackson where we made a quick decision to complete the traverse by heading over to Webster – like the drinking thing: been hiking all day, no reason to stop!
Arrived at the Highland Center around 9:30 – 15 hours after starting, jumped in the car and headed back to Barnes. Stopped along the way and grabbed McDonalds for dinner as it was late, we were hungry and didn’t feel like doing anything when we got back, except maybe drink beer and burn stuff!
Crawled into bed around 12:30, didn’t have a hard time falling asleep.
Day 1:
Cast:
dr_wu002
Rebecca Drummond
Jeffrey Klossner
7summits
Gillian
ferrisjrf
Juniper
Little Sister
yours truly
Recently an e-mail went out about backpacking over Memorial Day weekend –the plan was to either do The Mahoosuc Traverse or the Grafton Loop Trail, I shot a response back to Ferris and asked “Why not both?” And so it went, Ferris and I pushed through The Mahoosuc Trail over a couple of days and then met up with a group up on Old Speck that Saturday and proceeded to hike the Grafton Loop over the next 3 days. Somewhere around 70 miles and who knows what for elevation…probably 20k+ That was a pretty good workout.
Fast forward a couple of weeks:
So it was Ferris’s turn this time to ask “Why not both?” when there was a Presi Traverse planned for Saturday and a Pemi Loop planned for Sunday.
Now, I’ve done a bunch of Presi Traverses and a couple of years ago when I was hiking a lot I did a Pemi Loop – neither of these hikes scares me by themselves but back to back? Seriously? Ahh what the hell, I like challenging myself – besides, I’m trying to get in shape.
So Friday night we all met up at Barnes, decided we’d hike up Daniel Webster out of Dolly Copp, and then work our way across the ridge. This was going to be an “evil traverse” since we were doing it on June 6th and starting at 6 a.m. (666 yo!) but it was supposed to be a beautiful day and everyone was pretty pumped. So we put an abundant supply of fuel in the fire ring and stayed up late practicing the art of separating bottle caps from bottles and then emptying the contents of said bottles. Then after everyone else went to bed, Jason and I practiced our night time frisbee skills (flashflights rule!) for a while because sleep is for sissies, and my brother in law told me that God hates sissies!
Morning came quickly and if we were truly going to do this evil thing we had to get a move on….we wound up starting a little later than planned reaching the trail at 6:30 – close enough.
Heading up Daniel Webster is awesome, starts off pretty mellow and before you know it you’re above tree line – nice not to have to hike up from the hut then backtrack too – you get to keep going in the same direction all day – sweet!
Everyone seemed to be hiking strong and we managed to hit the summit of Madison around 9:00 – just in time to crack a cold one! Just kidding, we didn’t start drinking till later when we got to Madison Hut.
From there it was the typical traverse on a beautiful day. We did stop at the hut, used the toilets and water supply then off to bag Adams which we got to via Star Lake Trail – another nice approach.
Then we were off to Thunderstorm Jct. and headed towards Jefferson via Gulfside – somewhere between Adams and Edmands Col, Jason and stopped to play frisbee while everyone re-grouped.
The climb up to Jefferson was fun as there was a cool (pun intended) set of snow steps at one point and the “walls” were like 6 feet tall! Nice to be able to grab a handful of snow and refresh one’s self by rubbin down!
On Jefferson we met up with Mr. X and his brother who needs to get a better avatar name I guess….. And a nice young woman that wants on the board as Unstrung Harp – Darren, did you get the e-mail yet?
At this point Rebecca D. decided that she wasn’t going to make the traverse after all, she was trying to hike through a cold but it won out so we started making plans and phone calls to get her back to Barnes. At the junction of Gulfside and Sphinx we met an AMC leader who said she’d take her down Jewell trail just didn’t know where exactly it was.
Don’t worry Beck, you’re in good hands! The rest of us pushed on heading up and over Clay via Clay Loop – beautiful views, warm without much wind, we stopped and consumed more (beer of course!) food for the push up old Georgey pooh.
Ferris, Little Sister, and I pulled ahead of the group at this point – Ferris dropped the hammer and we did our best to keep up! We summited between the summit building and the observation platform for a change which was cool, touched the sign then headed inside for some re-hydration, and of course to lighten our load – no need to carry everything out, that’s what trucks are for!
Ran into nartreb inside – hadn’t seen him since we did our July 4th traverse last year, he said he hadn’t been hiking much, but I hear he’s been hitting the climbing gym a lot!
Bla bla bla, we took Crawford Path to Lakes for a quick break, up over Monroe, Little Monroe, Franklin and then up to Eisenhower for another break and discussion of how to end this thing….most were content with bagging Pierce and heading out Crawford to the Highland Center but Wu, 7summits, Ferris, and I decided we’d head out to Jackson for the exercise.
7summits hadn’t ever been down to Jackson on a traverse before and I’ve never not done it so we all said goodbye to the rest of the group and pushed on.
At Mizpah we stopped again, I put some weight in my pack because it was getting too light and I knew I’d be thirsty later, besides, I’d been drinking all day, no reason to stop! I flirted with some girls inside who I knew wanted me to spend the night with them but I had mountains to climb so I bid farewell and pushed on! Sorry to break your hearts ladies
We cranked over to Jackson where we made a quick decision to complete the traverse by heading over to Webster – like the drinking thing: been hiking all day, no reason to stop!
Arrived at the Highland Center around 9:30 – 15 hours after starting, jumped in the car and headed back to Barnes. Stopped along the way and grabbed McDonalds for dinner as it was late, we were hungry and didn’t feel like doing anything when we got back, except maybe drink beer and burn stuff!
Crawled into bed around 12:30, didn’t have a hard time falling asleep.
