grouseking
Well-known member
Friday was an important day for me, and my girlfriend. She has been wanting to take a hike with me for months now, ever since I gave her a taste of the White Mtns last October near peak foliage. We went up Cannon via the tram, then drove the loop thru Crawford Notch, Bear Notch Rd, and back on the Kanc. Since then, she has wanted to do a hike, but one major thing has got in the way: She has a heart condition, and is very out of shape in the first place. I don't want to go too far into the condition, but she has had 3 open heart surgeries in her life, and really, is lucky to be alive. She is an amazing at fighting through adversity, so I figured she would be able to make it thru a hike, as long as it was within reason. So I decided on French's Ledges in Meriden, taking the easiest way up.
I have been worried for months that something awful would happen if we went hiking, but she insisted she'd be fine, as long as the hike was within reason. We parked at the trailhead, which was in a beautiful open area.
A small path thru a field led slowly uphill to the main trailhead. Not even into the hike yet, Tabatha (my girlfriend) was already huffin' and puffin' a lot. I was concerned but hoped she would get her lungs going after we walked for a little bit.
Off into the woods we went-it was a beautiful pine forest with easy terrain that occasionally rolled up or down hill. The trail was blazed in yellow and then met up with the main French's Ledges trail that was in red.
We took many breaks, and relaxed as much as possible along the way, as I could tell she was in rough shape. Perhaps I listen to her body too much, but I could hear her breathing heavily and dragging her feet along the flat sections of trail too much for my liking, and that made me a bit nervous. Still, she trudged on and made the pace to her liking.
We got to another trail junction, and I could tell she was dead tired. Her heart wasn't bothering her at all, it was just conditioning. She looked at me and said, "how much further!?" I knew we were more than half way, but wasn't sure how much further, so I told her over 50 percent complete. THen she said..."good! Thats what I needed to know!" And then she got a burst of energy and quite a 2nd wind. I guess all she needed was reassurance that yes, we were making progress. After a 5 min break, she trudged down the trail with a new bounce in her step, and then stopped at the foot of the actual climb. She couldn't see past it, so she didn't know how much she'd have to climb. I could tell that this was the final (and only) major ascent to the ledges. It probably climbed about 120 feet in a tenth of a mile, so it wasn't unlike those steeper pitches in the Whites.
At this point, my nerves went away. I knew that mentally, she had made it this far, so she could make it up this final hill, as long as she took it slow. We tackled the steep pitch in chunks. I would point out a tree for a goal, and then we'd stop there, and rest for a few minutes. Then it was onto another tree. We repeated this 4 or 5 times and before we knew it, there was an opening in the trees and the ledges were in plain sight. My normal adrenalin kicked in and I ran up to the top, accidentally leaving her at the bottom of the rock ledge. I caught a glimpse of some awesome views, but then went back down and walked the rest of the way with her. When she got to the top, she screamed out aloud, and sat down and rested for a good 5 minutes, letting her heart slow down. I was overjoyed that she made it to the top. At that point, I don't think she really grasped what she had just done, but she would as we sat there and took a break.
When she opened her eyes to check things out, this was one of the views that she got:
continued in a minute
grouseking
I have been worried for months that something awful would happen if we went hiking, but she insisted she'd be fine, as long as the hike was within reason. We parked at the trailhead, which was in a beautiful open area.
A small path thru a field led slowly uphill to the main trailhead. Not even into the hike yet, Tabatha (my girlfriend) was already huffin' and puffin' a lot. I was concerned but hoped she would get her lungs going after we walked for a little bit.
Off into the woods we went-it was a beautiful pine forest with easy terrain that occasionally rolled up or down hill. The trail was blazed in yellow and then met up with the main French's Ledges trail that was in red.
We took many breaks, and relaxed as much as possible along the way, as I could tell she was in rough shape. Perhaps I listen to her body too much, but I could hear her breathing heavily and dragging her feet along the flat sections of trail too much for my liking, and that made me a bit nervous. Still, she trudged on and made the pace to her liking.
We got to another trail junction, and I could tell she was dead tired. Her heart wasn't bothering her at all, it was just conditioning. She looked at me and said, "how much further!?" I knew we were more than half way, but wasn't sure how much further, so I told her over 50 percent complete. THen she said..."good! Thats what I needed to know!" And then she got a burst of energy and quite a 2nd wind. I guess all she needed was reassurance that yes, we were making progress. After a 5 min break, she trudged down the trail with a new bounce in her step, and then stopped at the foot of the actual climb. She couldn't see past it, so she didn't know how much she'd have to climb. I could tell that this was the final (and only) major ascent to the ledges. It probably climbed about 120 feet in a tenth of a mile, so it wasn't unlike those steeper pitches in the Whites.
At this point, my nerves went away. I knew that mentally, she had made it this far, so she could make it up this final hill, as long as she took it slow. We tackled the steep pitch in chunks. I would point out a tree for a goal, and then we'd stop there, and rest for a few minutes. Then it was onto another tree. We repeated this 4 or 5 times and before we knew it, there was an opening in the trees and the ledges were in plain sight. My normal adrenalin kicked in and I ran up to the top, accidentally leaving her at the bottom of the rock ledge. I caught a glimpse of some awesome views, but then went back down and walked the rest of the way with her. When she got to the top, she screamed out aloud, and sat down and rested for a good 5 minutes, letting her heart slow down. I was overjoyed that she made it to the top. At that point, I don't think she really grasped what she had just done, but she would as we sat there and took a break.
When she opened her eyes to check things out, this was one of the views that she got:
continued in a minute
grouseking
Last edited:
