Jazzbo
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This TR has 2 parts. First part is straight TR and the second is an adventure story with a happy ending.
PART 1 - This was AMC Joint NH/Boston Chapter Hike led by myself and Joe Comuzzi. We had total of 11 people + two hiking hounds Pork Chop and Paprika. Every one showed up promptly for the car spot at 7:15 at Basin Parking lot off Rt. 93. We were soon off to the trail head parking for the Skookumchuck Trail and were off and hiking by 8:00. Pretty amazing timing for this large of a group.
We headed up the Skookumchuck Trail in early morning sunshine. Skookumchuck is 95% snow free. We saw one big hardwood blow down requires 30” bow saw to cut located just below the rock steps. We saw 3 or 4 minor blow downs in the high altitude spruce cut-able by small bow saw. We had the Skookumchuck Trail all to ourselves. We saw no other people for entire 5.1 miles to summit.
We reached summit of Lafayette at 11:30. Franconia Ridge was quite crowded – no surprise for Memorial Day Weekend. The leading edge of the warm front was high overhead blocking the sun but not the views although views were subdued by lack of sunshine.
We have trail to ourselves approaching lafayette summit.
Owls Head in middle of Pemi
Summit photo of our group on Lincoln.
The way ahead. Liberty is nearest pointy summit and flume if other pointy summit.
Forecast predicted a warm front coming up from the south with chances of showers later in the day so we never dawdled very long in order to beat the showers. We were at Haystack by 1:00. Our group split into a fast group and one slow group. The dogs tended to stay with the fast group. The section of trail between haystack and Liberty had some minor snow patches of no consequence. The north facing trail leading to summit of Liberty had some long runs of snow on no consequence as well. The stretch of trail between Liberty and Haystack was not crowded.
We reached Liberty at 2:00.
We lingered longer here to enjoy the views since we figured we pretty much beat the rain. Flume the one element missing form this traverse.
Nice shot of Joe admiring the view. Cannon Cliffs in background.
We went rock hopping down the steep rocky Liberty Spring Trail. The Liberty Spring Trail was crowded with many parties all descending at same time. Our slow group which included the two leaders was stuck behind another large group who were slowly negotiating the rough trail. Our fast group got pretty far ahead. Our group had to stop for a bio-break at somewhere around 2500’. The slow group was approaching again so two of us went on lest we get hung again behind them. It was at this point Paprika must have run back to look for Joe, but he was in the woods. So begins …..
PART 2 --- Slow and Fast regrouped at trail junction with Flume Slide Trail when Joe asked where Paprika was. No one could say so we began calling and whistling. No answer! Joe, Rob, and Karen went back up trail to look for her. They started getting reports from other descending hikers about Paprika last seen trotting up trail towards the ridge so they sped back up trail to try and catch her. They reached the campsite where Joe stayed behind to talk with caretaker Rich and Rob and Karen went up to trail junction on ridge and called for her. No response and it was now 6:00 so they abandoned this and headed back down.
While this was happening I left Steve to stay with the packs of those who’d gone back up the mountain and I led rest of the party to the trail head so they could get back to their cars. I brought some sodas from Marlene’s trunk for the no-doubt thirsty search party. They returned to packs feeling badly about losing Paprika. We all returned to the cars by 8:00 and said our good-byes to rest of parties except for Sharon and Marlene who were staying at Joe’s place. We received additional reports by hikers who’d seen Paprika on Liberty summit. Now we were thinking she was going to hike all way back to Skookumchuck thinking we’d turned around.
Joe and I drove up to Skookumchuck TH to leave a car blanket incase Paprika managed to make it back to Skook TH. We drove down Lincoln to grab a pizza and visit the police station. We gave them information and obtained phone numbers for various authorities including AMC Pinkham Notch. Joe drove back up to Skook TH just to see if She had come down that way. No luck.
Joe woke 5:30 to check Skook TH again. No luck. Joe came back and we started calling around. The call that did the most good was one to AMC Pinkham Notch. Pinkham makes daily calls to various camp sites and huts early in morning. They put word out and quickly learned that Paprika had been brought down to Liberty Camp Site by a concerned hiker who could see she was lost. Caretaker Rich kept her at his tent site where she endeared herself to all the campers. We received a call from Pinkham that Paprika was with the caretaker and would wait for us to pick her up.
Now all we had to do was hike back up to Liberty Spring campsite. We were on trail by 9:00. This brought Joe’s mileage for the weekend up to 25 miles and mine for something like 22 miles. I don’t know about Joe, but my legs felt like lead. I couldn’t quite keep up with Joe so I had to settle for hearing delightful squeal of delight from Paprika when they were re-united. I’m pleased to say this story has a happy ending. Thanks to Caretaker Rich pictured here with Joe and the dogs! Paprika has the doggie pack and Pork Chop is golden retriever. BTW Pork Chop has done NH4K four times and Paprika two times.
As you can see joy was dampened by fact it was raining steadily at this point so we didn’t stay long. Hooray for all the great people who stepped in and took her in and to Paprika for cooperating with her human helpers.
PART 1 - This was AMC Joint NH/Boston Chapter Hike led by myself and Joe Comuzzi. We had total of 11 people + two hiking hounds Pork Chop and Paprika. Every one showed up promptly for the car spot at 7:15 at Basin Parking lot off Rt. 93. We were soon off to the trail head parking for the Skookumchuck Trail and were off and hiking by 8:00. Pretty amazing timing for this large of a group.
We headed up the Skookumchuck Trail in early morning sunshine. Skookumchuck is 95% snow free. We saw one big hardwood blow down requires 30” bow saw to cut located just below the rock steps. We saw 3 or 4 minor blow downs in the high altitude spruce cut-able by small bow saw. We had the Skookumchuck Trail all to ourselves. We saw no other people for entire 5.1 miles to summit.
We reached summit of Lafayette at 11:30. Franconia Ridge was quite crowded – no surprise for Memorial Day Weekend. The leading edge of the warm front was high overhead blocking the sun but not the views although views were subdued by lack of sunshine.
We have trail to ourselves approaching lafayette summit.
Owls Head in middle of Pemi
Summit photo of our group on Lincoln.
The way ahead. Liberty is nearest pointy summit and flume if other pointy summit.
Forecast predicted a warm front coming up from the south with chances of showers later in the day so we never dawdled very long in order to beat the showers. We were at Haystack by 1:00. Our group split into a fast group and one slow group. The dogs tended to stay with the fast group. The section of trail between haystack and Liberty had some minor snow patches of no consequence. The north facing trail leading to summit of Liberty had some long runs of snow on no consequence as well. The stretch of trail between Liberty and Haystack was not crowded.
We reached Liberty at 2:00.
We lingered longer here to enjoy the views since we figured we pretty much beat the rain. Flume the one element missing form this traverse.
Nice shot of Joe admiring the view. Cannon Cliffs in background.
We went rock hopping down the steep rocky Liberty Spring Trail. The Liberty Spring Trail was crowded with many parties all descending at same time. Our slow group which included the two leaders was stuck behind another large group who were slowly negotiating the rough trail. Our fast group got pretty far ahead. Our group had to stop for a bio-break at somewhere around 2500’. The slow group was approaching again so two of us went on lest we get hung again behind them. It was at this point Paprika must have run back to look for Joe, but he was in the woods. So begins …..
PART 2 --- Slow and Fast regrouped at trail junction with Flume Slide Trail when Joe asked where Paprika was. No one could say so we began calling and whistling. No answer! Joe, Rob, and Karen went back up trail to look for her. They started getting reports from other descending hikers about Paprika last seen trotting up trail towards the ridge so they sped back up trail to try and catch her. They reached the campsite where Joe stayed behind to talk with caretaker Rich and Rob and Karen went up to trail junction on ridge and called for her. No response and it was now 6:00 so they abandoned this and headed back down.
While this was happening I left Steve to stay with the packs of those who’d gone back up the mountain and I led rest of the party to the trail head so they could get back to their cars. I brought some sodas from Marlene’s trunk for the no-doubt thirsty search party. They returned to packs feeling badly about losing Paprika. We all returned to the cars by 8:00 and said our good-byes to rest of parties except for Sharon and Marlene who were staying at Joe’s place. We received additional reports by hikers who’d seen Paprika on Liberty summit. Now we were thinking she was going to hike all way back to Skookumchuck thinking we’d turned around.
Joe and I drove up to Skookumchuck TH to leave a car blanket incase Paprika managed to make it back to Skook TH. We drove down Lincoln to grab a pizza and visit the police station. We gave them information and obtained phone numbers for various authorities including AMC Pinkham Notch. Joe drove back up to Skook TH just to see if She had come down that way. No luck.
Joe woke 5:30 to check Skook TH again. No luck. Joe came back and we started calling around. The call that did the most good was one to AMC Pinkham Notch. Pinkham makes daily calls to various camp sites and huts early in morning. They put word out and quickly learned that Paprika had been brought down to Liberty Camp Site by a concerned hiker who could see she was lost. Caretaker Rich kept her at his tent site where she endeared herself to all the campers. We received a call from Pinkham that Paprika was with the caretaker and would wait for us to pick her up.
Now all we had to do was hike back up to Liberty Spring campsite. We were on trail by 9:00. This brought Joe’s mileage for the weekend up to 25 miles and mine for something like 22 miles. I don’t know about Joe, but my legs felt like lead. I couldn’t quite keep up with Joe so I had to settle for hearing delightful squeal of delight from Paprika when they were re-united. I’m pleased to say this story has a happy ending. Thanks to Caretaker Rich pictured here with Joe and the dogs! Paprika has the doggie pack and Pork Chop is golden retriever. BTW Pork Chop has done NH4K four times and Paprika two times.
As you can see joy was dampened by fact it was raining steadily at this point so we didn’t stay long. Hooray for all the great people who stepped in and took her in and to Paprika for cooperating with her human helpers.
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