king tut
New member
I took a look at the calendar last week, and suddenly realized that it was mid September. Where did the time go? I realized that I had spent the last two months of my life travelling, going to weddings, and building a patio for my lovely girlfriend. Mostly building the patio, seen below just prior to it's finished state.
I figured it was time to go out for a hike again before the snow started to fall. Since i had been neglecting the Whites the last several years, I decided to head out to NH, and finish off some of the 8 remaining peaks that I had left. My plans had to wait a week though, as i got sick last week. So by this Friday, I was back in health and had found all my backpacking gear in the garage, wiped the cobwebs off of everything, and tossed them in my car.
I took Friday off from work, because i figured hiking would be more fun than working. When isn't it? I got to the York Pond Road just before 11 in the morning and headed up the trail to Unknown Pond. The trail was pretty moderate and I arrived at the pond after a little over an hour. Next I headed up to the Horn, one of the NE 100 highest peaks, and as it turned out, the coolest peak of the day. The last 20 feet or so of the hike was up a large slick rock, which took about a minute or so to find a nice crack to climb. I wonder how many people get to this spot and get turned back from the top by about 10-15 feet?
The views were nil, so I just kept on moving, went over The Bulge, which was another NE 100 highest, just a small ridge on the trail, not really a peak. Then off to Cabot, which was a minimal climb on the ridgeline. I navigated my way down via the Bunnel Notch trail, checking my GPS a few times, making sure I was headed in the right direction. I arrived back at the car a little after 3:30, happy to make it back out from the Berlin Fish Hatchery before they "closed' the gate at 4 pm.
Happy to be out of the woods, I decided to take a pit stop at Burger King in Gorham and pick up a soda and some burgers. Healthy Living! Then i grabbed a 24 ounce pounder of Steel Reserve, a nice classy malt beverage at the gas station and threw it into my backpack. I headed the 7-8 miles south on route 16 and parked at Nineteen Mile Brook, and packed up my overnight backpack for a trip into the Carters. I made it up about 2 miles up Nineteen Mile Brook, and then daylight started fading, so I found a nice spot on the opposite side of the brook and pitched my tent for the night. I pulled out the aforementioned Steel Reserve and drank it while soaking my feet in the brook, and then polished off a nice can of Beefaroni. I retired to my tent, slept a few hours and then woke up a little later in the night. I wasn't too sleepy, so i turned on the radio, and the only station i could find was the John Tesh radio show. Surprisingly, it did not put me back to sleep, instead I believe it gave me John Tesh induced nightmares. Or maybe I was just waiting for a bear to come eat my food stash out in the woods? I did manage to get a few ZZZ's, waking up to the wind sounding like a freight train straight from hell. Good thing i am fat enough to weigh down my tent.
I packed up around 5 in the morning, turned on my headlamp and slowly lumbered up to Zeta Pass. The moon light was brilliant that morning, I barely needed my headlamp, and i expected the sunrise to be spectacular. Unfortunately by the time I got up and over South and Middle Carter, the clouds had rolled in over the Presidentials, giving me limited views. I decided to ramble like a moose down the North Carter and Imp trails and made quick time down, until I got to the area where the trail meets Cowboy Brook. I remembered reading that there was a shortcut somewhere around there, but I did not see one. Fortunately I ran into a couple of guys around this section and they informed me that there was a road 1/4 mile down the Imp Trail. So I decided not to bushwack down the Brook, and it turns out that I found the right shortcut where they mentioned it would be, and I was quickly back onto route 16, and on my way home around 10 in the morning, excited to go home and watch some College football.
3 more 4k'ers knocked off on this trip, just another 5 left to finish up the 67'ers. With the pace I have been going at, I should be done by 2013.
I figured it was time to go out for a hike again before the snow started to fall. Since i had been neglecting the Whites the last several years, I decided to head out to NH, and finish off some of the 8 remaining peaks that I had left. My plans had to wait a week though, as i got sick last week. So by this Friday, I was back in health and had found all my backpacking gear in the garage, wiped the cobwebs off of everything, and tossed them in my car.
I took Friday off from work, because i figured hiking would be more fun than working. When isn't it? I got to the York Pond Road just before 11 in the morning and headed up the trail to Unknown Pond. The trail was pretty moderate and I arrived at the pond after a little over an hour. Next I headed up to the Horn, one of the NE 100 highest peaks, and as it turned out, the coolest peak of the day. The last 20 feet or so of the hike was up a large slick rock, which took about a minute or so to find a nice crack to climb. I wonder how many people get to this spot and get turned back from the top by about 10-15 feet?
The views were nil, so I just kept on moving, went over The Bulge, which was another NE 100 highest, just a small ridge on the trail, not really a peak. Then off to Cabot, which was a minimal climb on the ridgeline. I navigated my way down via the Bunnel Notch trail, checking my GPS a few times, making sure I was headed in the right direction. I arrived back at the car a little after 3:30, happy to make it back out from the Berlin Fish Hatchery before they "closed' the gate at 4 pm.
Happy to be out of the woods, I decided to take a pit stop at Burger King in Gorham and pick up a soda and some burgers. Healthy Living! Then i grabbed a 24 ounce pounder of Steel Reserve, a nice classy malt beverage at the gas station and threw it into my backpack. I headed the 7-8 miles south on route 16 and parked at Nineteen Mile Brook, and packed up my overnight backpack for a trip into the Carters. I made it up about 2 miles up Nineteen Mile Brook, and then daylight started fading, so I found a nice spot on the opposite side of the brook and pitched my tent for the night. I pulled out the aforementioned Steel Reserve and drank it while soaking my feet in the brook, and then polished off a nice can of Beefaroni. I retired to my tent, slept a few hours and then woke up a little later in the night. I wasn't too sleepy, so i turned on the radio, and the only station i could find was the John Tesh radio show. Surprisingly, it did not put me back to sleep, instead I believe it gave me John Tesh induced nightmares. Or maybe I was just waiting for a bear to come eat my food stash out in the woods? I did manage to get a few ZZZ's, waking up to the wind sounding like a freight train straight from hell. Good thing i am fat enough to weigh down my tent.
I packed up around 5 in the morning, turned on my headlamp and slowly lumbered up to Zeta Pass. The moon light was brilliant that morning, I barely needed my headlamp, and i expected the sunrise to be spectacular. Unfortunately by the time I got up and over South and Middle Carter, the clouds had rolled in over the Presidentials, giving me limited views. I decided to ramble like a moose down the North Carter and Imp trails and made quick time down, until I got to the area where the trail meets Cowboy Brook. I remembered reading that there was a shortcut somewhere around there, but I did not see one. Fortunately I ran into a couple of guys around this section and they informed me that there was a road 1/4 mile down the Imp Trail. So I decided not to bushwack down the Brook, and it turns out that I found the right shortcut where they mentioned it would be, and I was quickly back onto route 16, and on my way home around 10 in the morning, excited to go home and watch some College football.
3 more 4k'ers knocked off on this trip, just another 5 left to finish up the 67'ers. With the pace I have been going at, I should be done by 2013.
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