Homer
Member
- Joined
- Aug 10, 2005
- Messages
- 65
- Reaction score
- 7
Sad to say that this was my first opportunity to get up to my favorite place in the world this year (The Whites). Anyway, it was a last minute decision to pack up the two labs and my son and head north for a couple days. School was out, I was off from work and by God we were going hiking! So we headed up to Lincoln and decided to get a good nights rest and hike the next day. My 7-year-old son was really looking forward to it, since he had done his first 4000 footer (Mt. Hale) last summer en route to Zealand Falls Hut. He is now hooked! So after finishing the NH 48 last fall myself, I'm going to be doing them all over again with him. Of course, living in Connecticut this will be done over the next several years, but that's o.k. Anyway, my son is an early riser naturally so we drove up to the Dartmouth Outing Club's Ravine Lodge and started up the Gorge Brook trail at 0815. We both had our daypacks on, his only contained his water bladder and raingear, mine with all the rest of the stuff. I'm still trying to make sure he can do this uphill stuff without making him miserable and never wanting to come back again. But he did just fine, with minimal stops along the way. Nothing more than the occasional stops to take a breath. Of course, I did have to go about half speed, but there was no way I was going to push him to the point of hating me or wanting to head back down. It was a beautiful day, however there was a threat of afternoon thunderstorms, which eventually did come well after we were down off the mountain. So after 3.7 miles we reached the summit at 1045. Not bad time considering our moderate pace. The trail was in excellent shape, and afterwards we heard that some of the Dartmouth Outing Club volunteers were up there doing some trail work the day before. Thanks guys. Up on the summit there were already two other people, one northbound thru-hiker who left on March 4th, and another guy who was out for a week of section hiking. Views were awesome to the east. I was able to show him many of the other peaks by name that we would hopefully bag together as well. So after the high fives, usual photos and an early lunch we headed back down the same trail at 1100. Made decent time heading down with even less stops, and reached the Ravine Lodge at 1315. Plenty ahead of the late afternoon thunderstorms that ripped across the sky as we ate dinner. All in all a great day, great trail conditions, and few bugs. Now he's got 2 under his belt and cannot wait to get more. We'll be up again the second week of July and hopefully we'll get another 5 or 6 then.
Homer
P.S. I still have to get my TR in for my trip out to Yosemite including a hike of Half Dome. It was INCREDIBLE!!!!!!
Homer
P.S. I still have to get my TR in for my trip out to Yosemite including a hike of Half Dome. It was INCREDIBLE!!!!!!
