Garfield, Isofailtion, Tecumseh, NH, 02/07/09, 02/08/09

[rocket21]

Act I
In which I ascend Garfield from Trudeau Road.

Though I normally do not endorse Canadian Prime Ministers, this day I felt compelled to park at Trudeau Road. After an excruciating walk down US 3, I soon arrived to see this sign:

I'd subtitle this next section as 'The Bridges of Grafton County,' but the movie I'm referring to was crap. I shelled out $25 for the Bridges of Madison County DVD, hoping that perhaps there were some good Clint Eastwood shoot out deleted scenes. Why the heck would someone put Clint Eastwood in a movie without a gun? I can just picture the Hollywood execs who pitched that stupid movie - "Hey, after we make that movie in which Tom Hanks talks to a volleyball for two hours, what if we have Clint Eastwood take photos of bridges for 2 hours? That sounds like a great idea!"


A few minutes down Gale River Road, I came across this:

Being that I'm illiterate and couldn't read the sign, I pressed onward.


A few minutes later, deja vu:

A bridge like that never stopped the Dukes of Hazzard!


And finally, numero tres:

All three bridges were easily bypassed by snowbridges. If/when those bridges melt, I think one will still be able to get across (that is, until spring runoffs start).


On the Garfield Trail, I think I saw the Stimulus Package everyone's been talking about:

It was overcast by the time I reached the summit, however the views were still pretty good:

Back on the Gale River Road walk, there was one last trace of blue sky:

Stay tuned for Acts II and III

 

[rocket21]

Act II
In which I fail to ascend Mt. Isolation from Rocky Branch.

I was at the Rocky Branch parking lot just after 7 AM, hoping to get an early start. While I knew the forecast was poor, I decided to take a shot at Isolation anyways. As I readied, a mini downpour of rain started. Not wanting to get soaking wet prior to the forecasted drop in temperature, I headed up to the visitor center for awhile.

On trail at 8AM, the drizzle down low gave way to sleet and then snow. About 4 miles into the hike (near the end of the bushwhack I believe, I turned back because a) the wind was absolutely howling b) I had no visibility into the valley or at the ridge c) the tracks (previous day's hiker as well as mine) were filling in rapidly with blowing snow).

Intermission

After this failed hike, I decided to head southwest, hopefully out of the precip and to a more sheltered peak. The ride up Crawford Notch and then down Franconia wasn't exactly pleasant - a quarter inch of ice at the top of 302 at Crawford resulted in dozens of cars being stranded, including an overturned truck. At the Zealand winter lot, a vehicle had launched off a snowbank. In Franconia Notch, a few more accidents slowed traffic dramatically.


Stay tuned for Act III

 

[rocket21]

Act III
In which I ascend Tecumseh and run into a bunch of celebrities.

After a failed attempt at Isolation, I decided head up Mt. Tecumseh. Arriving in Waterville, I was glad to see the weather was dramatically better.

I'm not a fan of the first part of the Mt. Tecumseh Trail, so I prefer to mingle with skiers and knuckledraggers up to the viewpoint junction. The views along this stretch make it worth it:

At the viewpoint junction, I noticed some familiar faces loitering. Sure enough, it was Donna and Stev-O (who were there for my previous aborted hike...jinxes?), along with mtnpa and arm.

Donna tells arm that I'm a Stoogent


Feeling pretty tired, I was sort of like Bernie from the Academy Award winning Weekend at Bernie's film - they had to prop up my body and drag me around.


The views from the top were amazing:

(L to R) mtnpa, Donna, arm, Stev-o

(L to R) mtnpa, arm, rocket21, Stev-o


Things were going well for awhile at the summit, that is until Stev-o declared he was a Yankees fan. Fortunately for him, he was prepared for my reaction:

Descending at a fairly fast pace (Stev-o was letting out "woo woo woo's" whenever bootsliding), he soon ran into another familiar face, davebear!

Apparently the Osceolas weren't enough for one day for him!


Back on the ski trails, arm and Stev-o decided to pose for a photo in front of the Tripyramids. As Stev-o turned to face the camera, he started sliding backwards downhill:

Back at the base, it was hard to walk past this photo op:

While post-hike plans were being discussed, I quickly interrupted the group when I saw this:

fin.

 

[1HappyHiker]

Jeremy, besides your boundless energy & finely honed hiking skills, you’re a superb comedy writer!!

There’s a wealth of untapped hiker-humor out there just waiting to be published. The market is already flooded with books such as trail guides, history of the mountains, etc., etc. So now . . . enter Jeremy stage right . . . watch him “rocket” to fame & glory with his series of hiker humor books.

Oh! And then there are the movies based on the books series! You can hire VFTT folks as actors, producers, directors, advisors, etc . . . then we can all profit and become rich & famous . . . WOW!! Talk about a stimulus package!!

 

[rocket21]

Thank you, John...I consider myself to be the Rob Schneider of Views from the Top

 

[grouseking]

Haha, I like the "fail" picture.

Sounds like a great weekend in the whites.

grouseking

 

[J&J]

Hey Rocket-- what is it with Smokey's left hand? Anything subliminal there?

 

[TrishandAlex]

Haha, I like the "fail" picture.

Ditto. Your reports always crack me up. Keep 'em coming, hike on!

 

[Silverfox]

Nice report Rocket..those shots of the bridges really clear up all the questions about that stretch of trail..

Tecumseh a good back up plan when weather doesn't cooperate..You can always find some one there..and on this day you found quite a crowd!!

 

[Dave Bear]

Another fun TR Rocket! Awesome running into you guys on the trail, its always good for a laugh or two! I'll throw my pics in from meeting you on the trail and the answer to your question.

http://good-times.webshots.com/slideshow/570020274EtNlqi

 

[Amantio]

Great gags as usual, Rocket. Nice to see you could fill out your weekend, even under adversity.

DaveBear, was that you coming off East Osceola at about 2 in the afternoon? I was up there with BobC, bobandgeri, et al, and I do believe we encountered your bear-like form at the tail end of our hike and in the parking lot on the way out. If so, it was nice to make your aquaintance.

 

[The Hikers]

Never could figure out why Clint got himself into what was a pure love story......but then a man's gotta know his limitations.

 

[Dave Bear]

Great gags as usual, Rocket. Nice to see you could fill out your weekend, even under adversity.

DaveBear, was that you coming off East Osceola at about 2 in the afternoon? I was up there with BobC, bobandgeri, et al, and I do believe we encountered your bear-like form at the tail end of our hike and in the parking lot on the way out. If so, it was nice to make your aquaintance.

No Tony I was up the next day, 8-1:30. Maybe some other time!

 

[Steve-o]

That's Bern-E
Fun hiking this weekend!
That's weird running into you and Dave again. Almost freaky.
Stop following me!
Nuk Nuk Nuk...

 

[rocket21]

Hey Rocket-- what is it with Smokey's left hand? Anything subliminal there?

You'll have to ask arm about that one

Another fun TR Rocket! Awesome running into you guys on the trail, its always good for a laugh or two! I'll throw my pics in from meeting you on the trail and the answer to your question.

http://good-times.webshots.com/slideshow/570020274EtNlqi

Nice running into you as well! Great photos, and thank you for answering my sunset question! I guess I may have to venture up there some evening!

Never could figure out why Clint got himself into what was a pure love story......but then a man's gotta know his limitations.

No kidding...though, there was a good deleted scene on the DVD. I believe it was a satire of how Austin Powers takes photos while shouting "yah, baby," Eastwood walks up to a bridge, snarls, "do you feel lucky," takes a single photo, then spits at the bridge. The orchestral score sort of gave it a serious tone, but it was pretty funny.

Stop following me!

A wise guy, eh? Why I oughta...