king tut
New member
My random climbing of the New England 67's continued this weekend. It all started Saturday morning when I decided to throw my shoes and backpack in the back of my car before I made the trip from former Great Lake Champlain over to one of the nicest cities on the Atlantic, Portland Maine. I grew up a little north of Portland, in Lewiston Maine, so it was nice going back to Maine for the weekend and seeing sights that I had not seen in a while.
The weekend revolved around seeing The Rustic Overtones play their first concert in Portland since they re-united after being broken up for a few years. So Saturday night revolved around visiting various establishments in the Old Port and seeing the concert at The Asylum. Great show, fun times! Lots of good local brews in the Old Port, and great pizza at 1 o clock in the morning.
So I slept for a few hours and woke up and had some brunch in the Old Port before driving back thru NH,VT, and Maine. I decided to take the Kanc and see if I could find any hikes off of the highway that I had not climbed yet. My first stop was near the top of the pass. I found out that this was the parking lot for the Hancock hike, but after consulting my hiking book, I found out that it was about a 10 mile hike and since it was already after 1 o'clock, I decided that I did not feel like doing a long hike this late in the day. So I got back in my car and headed on down the highway. The next stop that I found was the lot for the Greeley Pond trails. After looking at the map at the trailhead, I realized that these trails would lead over to the Osceolas. I was not sure how far the hike would be, but I put my boots on and headed up the trail around 1:30 in the afternoon.
After and easy 1.3 miles, I arrived at the first trail signs and realized that it would be another 2.5 miles to the top of Osceola. This did not seem like too bad of a hike, so I decided to continue on. The forecast was calling for scattered t-storms during the afternoon, so I decided to do the hike at a quick pace. Shortly after the junction to go up the Osceolas, the trail started to get pretty steep. I was moving quickly and I was starting to get a bit tired and the sweat was literally pouring off my body and onto the trail as it was very humid and warm. It was at this point that I was relying on my breakfast burrito to power me through this long uphill. I started to fade a little near the top of the first climb up East Osceola, it was really turning into a lot harder climb than I had envisioned it would be. But I just put one foot in front of the other, and soon I was on top. I took a look around and realized that the next peak was a bit of a ways away, a mile, and there was still plenty of work left to do.
The mile over to Osceola went by pretty quickly and I took about 15 minutes on top of the ledges to soak in the views and check out all of the neighboring mountains. I snapped a pic for a group of three hikers and then decided to get moving downward as the skies were getting darker and things were looking ominous. I wanted to get down the steep sections of the climb before the rocks got wet. So I went down into the col and back up to East Osceola and then begun the hike down to the Kanc. The hike down went well and luckily the rain held off all day. I did a little trail running down the last 1.3 miles as the trail was relatively flat, and I had visions of a large steak cooking on my grill in Vermont just waiting for me. I made it back out to the trailhead around 4:30 with sweat still pouring off of me, and I was happy to be back in my car and looking forward to the rest of the drive home behind Winnebagos, motorcycles, and the other random assortment of drivers who enjoy living life well below the speed limit. Oh well, gives me plenty of time to stare out my windows at the rolling countryside and the random cows and farmyard animals staring back at me.
It sure was a great weekend. Got to see the Ocean, a great city, some fun night life, and a peaceful drive thru southwestern Maine and through the hills and mountains of New Hampshire. It makes working all week seem worthwhile. Now I will have something to daydream about in the cubicle this week when I am looking at my TPS reports. These hikes brings me up to #46 and #47 out of the 67. Only 20 mountains in NH left to climb when the stars align and my trips bring me thru the granite state again.
The weekend revolved around seeing The Rustic Overtones play their first concert in Portland since they re-united after being broken up for a few years. So Saturday night revolved around visiting various establishments in the Old Port and seeing the concert at The Asylum. Great show, fun times! Lots of good local brews in the Old Port, and great pizza at 1 o clock in the morning.
So I slept for a few hours and woke up and had some brunch in the Old Port before driving back thru NH,VT, and Maine. I decided to take the Kanc and see if I could find any hikes off of the highway that I had not climbed yet. My first stop was near the top of the pass. I found out that this was the parking lot for the Hancock hike, but after consulting my hiking book, I found out that it was about a 10 mile hike and since it was already after 1 o'clock, I decided that I did not feel like doing a long hike this late in the day. So I got back in my car and headed on down the highway. The next stop that I found was the lot for the Greeley Pond trails. After looking at the map at the trailhead, I realized that these trails would lead over to the Osceolas. I was not sure how far the hike would be, but I put my boots on and headed up the trail around 1:30 in the afternoon.
After and easy 1.3 miles, I arrived at the first trail signs and realized that it would be another 2.5 miles to the top of Osceola. This did not seem like too bad of a hike, so I decided to continue on. The forecast was calling for scattered t-storms during the afternoon, so I decided to do the hike at a quick pace. Shortly after the junction to go up the Osceolas, the trail started to get pretty steep. I was moving quickly and I was starting to get a bit tired and the sweat was literally pouring off my body and onto the trail as it was very humid and warm. It was at this point that I was relying on my breakfast burrito to power me through this long uphill. I started to fade a little near the top of the first climb up East Osceola, it was really turning into a lot harder climb than I had envisioned it would be. But I just put one foot in front of the other, and soon I was on top. I took a look around and realized that the next peak was a bit of a ways away, a mile, and there was still plenty of work left to do.
The mile over to Osceola went by pretty quickly and I took about 15 minutes on top of the ledges to soak in the views and check out all of the neighboring mountains. I snapped a pic for a group of three hikers and then decided to get moving downward as the skies were getting darker and things were looking ominous. I wanted to get down the steep sections of the climb before the rocks got wet. So I went down into the col and back up to East Osceola and then begun the hike down to the Kanc. The hike down went well and luckily the rain held off all day. I did a little trail running down the last 1.3 miles as the trail was relatively flat, and I had visions of a large steak cooking on my grill in Vermont just waiting for me. I made it back out to the trailhead around 4:30 with sweat still pouring off of me, and I was happy to be back in my car and looking forward to the rest of the drive home behind Winnebagos, motorcycles, and the other random assortment of drivers who enjoy living life well below the speed limit. Oh well, gives me plenty of time to stare out my windows at the rolling countryside and the random cows and farmyard animals staring back at me.
It sure was a great weekend. Got to see the Ocean, a great city, some fun night life, and a peaceful drive thru southwestern Maine and through the hills and mountains of New Hampshire. It makes working all week seem worthwhile. Now I will have something to daydream about in the cubicle this week when I am looking at my TPS reports. These hikes brings me up to #46 and #47 out of the 67. Only 20 mountains in NH left to climb when the stars align and my trips bring me thru the granite state again.
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