Pound the Presis 6/17/06

[Paradox]

I'll just say that I had a terrific time with the group of 7 humans (Abster, Adrian, Bubba, Daxs, Kea, 7 Summits, and Paradox) and two canines (Chips, Zippy)that left the Appalachia trailhead at 4:40 am. The weather was terrific, the views were wonderful, and the company par excellence. We were joined around Mt. Washington by 4000'er, and Umsaskis

Zippy finished everything in fine order and was ready to go this morning. Chips had me considerably worried during the hike with a couple of hurt paws and a couple of coughing/wretching fits. But, Chips seems fine today and got into the car while I was cleaning things out, I had a difficult time coaxing her out. So I think she had a good time in spite of her difficulties. I won't be bringing Chips on any thing like that again, though. Zippy is one tough hiker.

I missed bagging Jackson so my 48th celebration will have to wait a bit. Its actually pretty cool, as this will give me the chance to do the Webster Cliff trail, which I have always wanted to do.

pictures

 

[alpinista]

Nice pix, Paradox! Y'all looked mighty refreshed, even at the end!

 

[giggy]

nice ones! nice meeting ya. great day in the hills.

 

[Jay H]

Paradox, it was great to meet you, I hope you had a good time, nice running into you and Chips/Zippy on Madison, even though I was certain that would be the last time we'd see your motley group of hikers! Your enthusiam before and during the hike, made it easier for me to get motivated to do my planning... Summers are always busy for me lately with all my trips out west nowadays! I have to remember to think about the BTS hikes sometimes.

Hope to see you next year, maybe next time, you can bring a huge vat of ice cream, since I'm not much of a drinker!

Jay

 

[Artex]

Congrats to all of you who did the traverse! Keep the trip reports and pictures coming!

 

[HuiYeng]

Hey, it was very nice to meet so many of you over the weekend. Although it was the first time I met most of you, I felt like I've known you for a long time.

I had a great time walking on the ridge with all of you and thanks to the support folks for the candies, water, donuts and ice. Yum!

Thanks Jay and other folks who put this fun trip together (well, and the charity thing Looking forward to another great hike with you!

Paradox, please give many hugs and kisses to Chips for me please. Thanks!

Here are some pictures I took:
http://s94354335.onlinehome.us/hike/presidential_traverse06/index.htm

 

[Abster]

It is Monday and I STILL feel like I got my butt kicked!! I think I will feel like this tomorrow also! My legs are SORE.

I get a chuckle when I think about waking up early on Sunday to find that most of the firewood is unburned and much of the keg of Sam Adams is still full......and most everyone is sleeping like rocks in their tents! For all of our party planning, we sure ended up partying like pooped hikers more than rock stars!! Even Gig seemed a bit mellow

This was a great experience and my longest day hike ever. I meet some great new people and saw some good friends, and got an aweful looking sunburn above the sockline!

Thank you to everyone who helped coordinate, support and participate in this event!

Hanna

 

[Mike P.]

So when is the Jackson Party Paradox? I skipped it too. Maybe I'll join you if it's in the summer as I need it in summer for the 4 season list

Nice meeting everyone, now Sherpa will have to cut me some slack for not showing up to any VFTT events.

 

[spongebob]

Nice meeting everyone, I guess even SherpaK.

I was lucky enough to hike with a good group up Valley Way all the way to Pierce, and then to the Highland Center.

(Daxs, Bubba, Abster, Kea, 7Summits, Paradox, and later on with 4000er and Umsaskis.)

All the support people get A+ for the encouragement, goodies, and transportation.

Here is a link to my trip report.

Trip report/cheesy video/pictures

The 3 minute 46 video download is pretty neat if 23.6 MB isn't too much. And my webshots pictures are there, but I have not labeled them yet.

Adrian

 

[alpinista]

Spongebob: that video is priceless _ I'd say only the beginning party with that funky patriotic music is the cheesey part. The rest is awesome! A little herky-jerky there on the camera steadiness, but not bad!

 

[4000'er]

It’s pretty much all been said, so I’ll be brief.

This was my first hike with VFTT, so I didn’t really know anyone when I arrived at CMR Friday night. Everyone was cool and welcomed me in.


Saturday at about 4:00AM I started up Howker Ridge Trail with JayH and Giggy. First mistake… Those guys are fast! Howker Ridge Trail was everything it is said to be…steep and scenic.
At the top of Monroe, JayH and Giggy were off, and I hooked up with Gojeb (friend of Giggy) Abster, Adrian, Bubba, Daxs, Kea, 7 Summits, and Paradox (with Chips and Zippy) Somehow Gojeb and I took the wrong trail at the hut and got separated from the group. He and I would stick together as far as Washington where he would head down the mountain. I again hooked up with the above-mentioned group and didn’t get lost the rest of the day! We would later pick up Umsaskis. Later at Eisenhower Paradox would comment, “I was getting some sun.” I forgot to put on sunscreen! Second mistake.

This was pretty cool:

After the hike, Jay, Daxs, Umsaskis, and I were waiting for our ride at the Highland Center, tired and hungry, wondering what we were going to eat when we got back to CMR, when this gentleman comes up to us and says “You guys just off the trail?” “Are you hungry?” He brought us inside and we were treated to an awesome dinner of sausage, chicken, corn on the cob, and more. I can’t remember his name though, bill_the_hiker, or something like that. What a great ending to a great day.

Again, it’s all been said, but many thanks to:
Jay H for organizing the event, all the Trail angels, and all the people I was fortunate enough to hike with. I had a blast!


Presi Pix

If anyone wants HQ (300dpi) pix for printing, PM me.

 

[king tut]

Cool video Spongebob. The Gorillaz was a much better choice than the 1st musical selection. The only thing I was disappointed by was..... nobody mooned the Cog???

 

[skiguy]

Nice meeting everyone, I guess even SherpaK.

I was lucky enough to hike with a good group up Valley Way all the way to Pierce, and then to the Highland Center.

(Daxs, Bubba, Abster, Kea, 7Summits, Paradox, and later on with 4000er and Umsaskis.)

All the support people get A+ for the encouragement, goodies, and transportation.

Here is a link to my trip report.

Trip report/cheesy video/pictures

The 3 minute 46 video download is pretty neat if 23.6 MB isn't too much. And my webshots pictures are there, but I have not labeled them yet.

Adrian

Wow...You've got some serious talent Dude...can you be employed for "Bearly Live" ???

 

[spongebob]

Paradox, 7Summits & 4000er great pictures. (Even though you should have more Adrian pictures.) Or at least more Abster pictures for that dart board I was going to make!

The first part of the video with the music I was going for the "Hail to the Chief" song which is played when the president is around for the Presidential Mountains connection. But it is a bit annoying, I might have to edit it down. Head and those guys are the video gurus. I just have my regular picture camera and junky very basic editing software that came with the computer.

I can't believe many of you got sunburned. I'm casper white, and put on the sunscreen and came out ok.

 

[bubba]

Report from the western NE edge

All of you are excellent!! Pix are all the best and everyone has a different angle. 7summits - great report (again!); spongebob -- great pictures and the clip is wild!! (I knew you were whacked, but hadn't spent enough time with you to really know how you had perfected it!! Jim -- your work is pretty fine, too. You captured people nicely. I think I should have kept the FosterGrants's on all day... about all of the pictures of me capture very well that I wasn't having the best hiking day of my life!! Daxs may have saved me life, but it was like breathing fresh air after a nice moon down by the tracks… (_|_) Daxs (_|_) bubba

My impressions of the Northern Presi's was how rocky the peaks and trails were (like boulders everywhere). Then we got to hike up AND down on them boulders for another 5+ hours!! Ouch!! The heat got to me and maybe I overdressed for the hike -- I certainly over-packed food!! I'll be eating power bars, eating cheese and PB&J for the rest of the week.

I really enjoyed all who I hiked with and got to spend time with. Great that Sherpa could make it down (for us and himself??) -- I got the locals tour on Friday, Metsky is a classis!!, Seeker showed up and good to see her, my Gathering 3.5 bud, ChrisB rode up from the NH coast (have Harley/must ride!!), Patriot's looser Chomp (whoa... NEW love wagon). A treat to see Dennis on the top with treats (Adrian is correct, that's Peakbagger -- hailing from Gorham, NH, for now...) MtnMa, Bob/Gerri, Skiguy is the one who really waited (ha!) on us! Woody48 and his brother Allen had the family camping gear in full swing. Pudgy_Groundhog was the one I saw hanging over the grill for much of the nite grilling hamburgers and handing them out!!

I packed the prayer flags AND the wine -- figuring Paradox would earn celebration, but in the end we just needed to all celebrate each other's success!! I thought the Pinot Grigio turned out a nice hike selection. Hey, Sutter Home -- small plastic bottles pack well and then fall deep into the underbrush and eventually desintegrate over the years.

An overall highlight of doing the Traverse was that with ALL the PEOPLE on the trails there were so many Alligator eggs to be found!

Thanks Jay and Giggy for coordinating the event. Great time!!

Kudos to our wonderful team and all who hiked, supported us on the hill, and financially contributed to the Brain Tumor Society cause!!

 

[Jay H]

Hey folks..

Paul_the_explorer was the guy from VfTT we met at the little hut next to the Highland Center who offered us food. He is on adkhighpeaks.com and I've already looked him up there and sent him an email...

Jim: Nice to meet you on Howker, I eventually put on sunscreen I think on top of Jefferson, sunscreen is something that is really needed above treeline and some lip sunscreen is also good. My biggest mistake on Rainier last year was not putting on sunscreen on my lips, which got sunburned big time, it was ugly!

Going to see all your pictures now... My pictures should be uploaded tonight and I'll also probably write a trip report too. I don't have a PC at home (it's at my parents) so I have to go visit them and then upload them for now..

Jay

 

[chomp]

Spongebob - that video was hilarious. What software did you use to put that together?

Thanks everyone for a great day and for some many great photos. I have some photos that I'll try to get up this week, but I didn't take a whole lot, especially towards the end of the day.

 

[giggy]

First I want to thank jayh for making the event possible and thank the following for their help:

SK for the steak tips, beer after hike, rides, etc...
Skiguy for rides, and goodies
Mtnma mtnpa for the 3am coffee - how nice are these people?
bonandgeri - for the water fill ups at lakes
woody, allen and chomp for the nice gear to make life easier at CMR
paradox for the beer

and anything/one I forgot!


great day - won't bore you with all the details, pretty much hiked with jayh the entire time - started off with gojeb,4000'er, woody and allen - up howker ridge about 4:30am - what an awesome trail! This is a must do for anyone reading this.

saw the big croo coming down madison, met up with mtnpa on adams. leapfrogged team sherpa a couple of time (he was trail running), saw mike p on jeff, say mtnmajick and silentcal on the jewell/gulf junction, saw artex on washington, bobandgeri, mikej at lakes and then tuco below ike.

Felt pretty good all day and then finally felt some hot spots while heading towards mitzpah, busted out the moleskin there and continued on - (still had a few miles to go) - the day started taking its toll after jackson, feet were getting sore, was getting tired, etc.. The summit of webster was a welcome sight and the 2.2 miles down from there was tough on the feet and it took near an hour to get down that for us. rocky, wet - just slow going, esp with being a bit tired.

long day - but fun day. we pulled into highland exactly at 6:30pm - I am not much into times, etc - was just heading out to have fun - but I looked at Mohammed’s site and realized we beat book time by 2 hours. I was pretty excited to see that as its one thing to beat book time on a 10 to 12 mile; 3 to 4k day. I did not think I would beat book time on the traverse by any means - and wasn't trying. The final stats I think for jayh and I's route were 23.3 miles and 9300 elevation gain (with howker/web/jack)

Chomp even beat it by more - he started later than us and came very close to catching jay and I on the web jack trail!!

I think all 3 of us gave the big middle finger to that short climb up after the waterfall – where the trail splits up Jackson or back to 302

just a fun day - the few beers after relaxed the sore muscles a bit!!

when are we doing the pemi-loop?

 

[pudgy_groundhog]

Spongebob, I like the video. I wouldn't have thought to put Gorillaz to hiking clips, but it works nicely (although I feel a little dizzy now ).

I'm enjoying reading the trip reports and looking at the pics. 7summits, I like the set up of your image gallery.

 

[mtnmama]

Jay H ...thanks for putting it all together.
Met some really nice people this weekend.
Sponge Bob that video is very cool!
I didn't hike but made some sweets and fruit salad
for the gang especially SK. I missed Shizz.
You all did a GREAT job for a wonderful cause TBTS.
With people like us maybe somday they will have
a cure. Thanks you all so very much!