Double Bow
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- Joined
- Apr 29, 2005
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"I shall be telling this with a sigh, somewhere ages and ages hence..."
Saturday was a gorgeous day here, in Southern NH. Having commitments in the evening but still wanting to enjoy the fine weather, I decided to ride my bike for the first time in years. I rode up to Lake Massebesic (sp) and took a ride on the trail and then the rail-trail. As I neared a crossroad in Candia, I went to get off my bike and somehow smashed my left knee into it really hard. I knew I wasn't going to be able to just shake it off. Not wanting to ride back through the mud, and figuring on better speed on the road, I navigated my way home through three towns via unfamiliar streets with the sun as my guide. It would have been a lot of fun, were it not for the extreme pain. Once home, I put ice on my knee, then heat. Still, it hurt and still I went out that night.
I weighed carefully that night whether or not I would be up for hiking with Sadie on Sunday. I felt that I could do it and that my knee would be feeling good enough in the morning. Indeed, in the morning it was feeling significantly better (not 100% but better) so, off I went. Sadie and I had decided before that we would do either Carrigain or Cabot. Figuring that I shouldn't push it, I opted for Cabot and that's were we went. Not wanting to get shot at and Sadie's not having an interest in doing The Bulge and The Horn, we decided to approach via Bunnell Notch Trail (though I hoped that once on the ridge, we might make a loop with those other two peaks). We were a bit surprised to find that BNT hadn't been broken out. We started off barebooting, but soon put on snowshoes. We also were a little surprised with how few blazes there are there. Normally, I don't like to see a ton of blazes but, there were some parts where the trail was a little hard to follow and a blaze to let us know we were going the right way would have been reassuring.
Eventually, we reached the trail junction with the Kilkenny Ridge Trail. This is where things started to go wrong. We searched everywhere and couldn't find any sign of the trail we needed to take up to the summit. This was when we made the decision to "just go up".
So, up we went. This slushy steep bushwhack was much harder than I though it would be. We alternated between using snowshoes and barebooting. While the woods aren't very thick, they were thick enough to give us some struggles and the mixture of slushy snow an ice made slipping and sliding the norm. While battling up, I managed to aggravate my left knee and also hurt my right one. Then the rain started and the fog came in... and on we went. We were sure that we'd hit the summit and then be able to take the trail down. Eventually, we hit "the top", but there was no summit sign, no trail, no blazes, no nothing. We looked around and couldn't find any more up. The fog was pretty thick and the rain wasn't helping matters any.
Now, we finally made a smart decision and we headed back the way we came. I took a few spills and hurt my left shoulder (and further pissed off my knees), but we found the going to be not nearly as bad as it had been going up. A little ways down, we came across additional tracks. It turns out that our friend whtmthiker and a couple of her friends started after us, followed our tracks for a ways and then turned around! From this point on, the track was much easier to descend and once we hit the trail, the terrain was easy. Unfortunately, I was in quite a lot of pain. Luckily though, we got back to the trailhead just as it became dark and we had no issues with the gate.
We knew that day that we should have taken a bearing before heading off whacking. The idea of just going up seemed to make sense at the time but obviously; it didn't work out. Sometimes, you make bad decisions despite knowing better. Still, we had a good time and a little bit of adventure. For now, I'll lick my wounds and rest as I look forward to getting back out there next weekend!
Saturday was a gorgeous day here, in Southern NH. Having commitments in the evening but still wanting to enjoy the fine weather, I decided to ride my bike for the first time in years. I rode up to Lake Massebesic (sp) and took a ride on the trail and then the rail-trail. As I neared a crossroad in Candia, I went to get off my bike and somehow smashed my left knee into it really hard. I knew I wasn't going to be able to just shake it off. Not wanting to ride back through the mud, and figuring on better speed on the road, I navigated my way home through three towns via unfamiliar streets with the sun as my guide. It would have been a lot of fun, were it not for the extreme pain. Once home, I put ice on my knee, then heat. Still, it hurt and still I went out that night.
I weighed carefully that night whether or not I would be up for hiking with Sadie on Sunday. I felt that I could do it and that my knee would be feeling good enough in the morning. Indeed, in the morning it was feeling significantly better (not 100% but better) so, off I went. Sadie and I had decided before that we would do either Carrigain or Cabot. Figuring that I shouldn't push it, I opted for Cabot and that's were we went. Not wanting to get shot at and Sadie's not having an interest in doing The Bulge and The Horn, we decided to approach via Bunnell Notch Trail (though I hoped that once on the ridge, we might make a loop with those other two peaks). We were a bit surprised to find that BNT hadn't been broken out. We started off barebooting, but soon put on snowshoes. We also were a little surprised with how few blazes there are there. Normally, I don't like to see a ton of blazes but, there were some parts where the trail was a little hard to follow and a blaze to let us know we were going the right way would have been reassuring.
Eventually, we reached the trail junction with the Kilkenny Ridge Trail. This is where things started to go wrong. We searched everywhere and couldn't find any sign of the trail we needed to take up to the summit. This was when we made the decision to "just go up".
So, up we went. This slushy steep bushwhack was much harder than I though it would be. We alternated between using snowshoes and barebooting. While the woods aren't very thick, they were thick enough to give us some struggles and the mixture of slushy snow an ice made slipping and sliding the norm. While battling up, I managed to aggravate my left knee and also hurt my right one. Then the rain started and the fog came in... and on we went. We were sure that we'd hit the summit and then be able to take the trail down. Eventually, we hit "the top", but there was no summit sign, no trail, no blazes, no nothing. We looked around and couldn't find any more up. The fog was pretty thick and the rain wasn't helping matters any.
Now, we finally made a smart decision and we headed back the way we came. I took a few spills and hurt my left shoulder (and further pissed off my knees), but we found the going to be not nearly as bad as it had been going up. A little ways down, we came across additional tracks. It turns out that our friend whtmthiker and a couple of her friends started after us, followed our tracks for a ways and then turned around! From this point on, the track was much easier to descend and once we hit the trail, the terrain was easy. Unfortunately, I was in quite a lot of pain. Luckily though, we got back to the trailhead just as it became dark and we had no issues with the gate.
We knew that day that we should have taken a bearing before heading off whacking. The idea of just going up seemed to make sense at the time but obviously; it didn't work out. Sometimes, you make bad decisions despite knowing better. Still, we had a good time and a little bit of adventure. For now, I'll lick my wounds and rest as I look forward to getting back out there next weekend!
I kept thinking of that scene from "Monty Python" while reading this..."I'm not dead yet !" 
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