sleeping bear
New member
Dr. Wu and I waited at the North Twin Trailhead for about a half an hour for MEB, Little Sister, Giggy and Woody. They didn’t show so we headed out. They were spotting a car and then planning to take a different route (starting at the same place) than us, so we were unsure if and how their plans had changed. Dr. Wu figured they would have called if they weren’t coming at all.
It was soggy right from the start, although for a while the rain was kind of nice. Dr. Wu managed to keep his feet dry on the stream crossing, I on the other hand… am not a big fan of slippery rocks so I though it would be WAY easier just to stomp right through the stream. I’m pretty sure the water came in over the top of my gaitors.
Whoops.
“that farting/sucking sound is coming from my sloshy boots, I swear!”
Once we were above treeline the wind really starting whipping, and the rain wasn’t nice anymore. On South Twin it was like, yeah, okay let’s go. From there on we were both pretty wet, and the wind was really cold. Just before we came out above the trees again on Guyot, I decided I had to put on another layer or I wasn’t going to make it to the campsite. My hands were so cold I could barely get my pack open. I put on another shirt and discovered that the t-shirt under my rain coat was totally soaked. Immediately after we had a short climb, which did well to warm us up. Going across Guyot we got just blasted by the wind, which we later estimated was probably about 40 mph, and some sort of solid-like precipitation.
We arrived at the Guyot shelter where the caretaker told us the shelter had a bunch of people in it already. We went over to check it out and sure enough, all bundled up in their sleeping bags on the bottom shelf was Woody, Giggy, Little Sister and MEB.
“Whoa, what’s up guys!” Let the slumber party begin!
I think it was 2 pm when we were warm, dry and sitting in our bags staring out the door at the mist and rain. “so, what do you guys want to do?”
Let’s see, I think things started off with talk about Dr. Wu being able to defend himself in the night with his hiking poles, his “parachute” sleeping bag, we watched MEB make a rain coat out of a trash bag, laughed out a$$es off while her and Little Sister argued about finding stuff in their sleeping bags, talked about mice, and spent a long time discussing the “ins and outs” of some holes in the floor of the shelf above us. I also learned that most everybody really likes asparagus.
Giggy decided he hadn’t been wet and cold enough for one day, and that he needed to go hike to West Bond. He’s going to begin working on the 43. W. Bond in the rain counts.
When he came back we all cooked dinner. I think every one of us brought our own stove, it’s amazing we didn’t set the shelter on fire. MEB’s stove didn’t work and she accused Little Sister of breaking it when she fell earlier. Fortunately, I was able to fix it for them by turning the valve the correct way.
Did I mention there was a boy scout troop on the upper level of the platform? Yeah, I don’t think they could hear our conversations, which was really a good thing. They did manage to drop a lot of trash down from up there though.
Somehow, between the laughter and the snoring we all got to sleep.
“I think a mouse pooped in my mouth last night because my breath stinks!” was one of the first things I heard Sunday morning. That pretty much got the ball rolling…
After breakfast we were off. We dropped our packs and headed over to West Bond. On the way over we found bear tracks. Apparently the AMC lies, as they say bears don’t go that high. Uh huh.
“look, the sun is coming out”
“just another half hour and this will all burn off”
“another hour and this will burn off”
“look, the fog is burning off”
“if we wait another hour, this will all burn off”
“I think it’s starting to clear up”
Suuure…. The clouds kept teasing us.
We got peeks of the Pemi and West Bond from Bondcliff. The rocks were super slick out to the standard photo spot, which was pretty freaky. Little Sister later confided that she was really worried that if one of us fell, the rescue effort would delay getting to eat pizza. Good thing nobody fell of the cliff.
Led by MEB and Little Sister, we flew down to the Wilderness Trail and out to Lincoln Woods at mach speeds. Seriously, we did the last 3 miles in 45 minutes. Insanity.
This was a fantastic trip, even with the rain, wind and cold. In fact, I can’t think of any better way to spend a soggy weekend.
Some photos are here.
It was soggy right from the start, although for a while the rain was kind of nice. Dr. Wu managed to keep his feet dry on the stream crossing, I on the other hand… am not a big fan of slippery rocks so I though it would be WAY easier just to stomp right through the stream. I’m pretty sure the water came in over the top of my gaitors.
Whoops.“that farting/sucking sound is coming from my sloshy boots, I swear!”
Once we were above treeline the wind really starting whipping, and the rain wasn’t nice anymore. On South Twin it was like, yeah, okay let’s go. From there on we were both pretty wet, and the wind was really cold. Just before we came out above the trees again on Guyot, I decided I had to put on another layer or I wasn’t going to make it to the campsite. My hands were so cold I could barely get my pack open. I put on another shirt and discovered that the t-shirt under my rain coat was totally soaked. Immediately after we had a short climb, which did well to warm us up. Going across Guyot we got just blasted by the wind, which we later estimated was probably about 40 mph, and some sort of solid-like precipitation.
We arrived at the Guyot shelter where the caretaker told us the shelter had a bunch of people in it already. We went over to check it out and sure enough, all bundled up in their sleeping bags on the bottom shelf was Woody, Giggy, Little Sister and MEB.
“Whoa, what’s up guys!” Let the slumber party begin!
I think it was 2 pm when we were warm, dry and sitting in our bags staring out the door at the mist and rain. “so, what do you guys want to do?”
Let’s see, I think things started off with talk about Dr. Wu being able to defend himself in the night with his hiking poles, his “parachute” sleeping bag, we watched MEB make a rain coat out of a trash bag, laughed out a$$es off while her and Little Sister argued about finding stuff in their sleeping bags, talked about mice, and spent a long time discussing the “ins and outs” of some holes in the floor of the shelf above us. I also learned that most everybody really likes asparagus.
Giggy decided he hadn’t been wet and cold enough for one day, and that he needed to go hike to West Bond. He’s going to begin working on the 43. W. Bond in the rain counts.
When he came back we all cooked dinner. I think every one of us brought our own stove, it’s amazing we didn’t set the shelter on fire.
MEB’s stove didn’t work and she accused Little Sister of breaking it when she fell earlier. Fortunately, I was able to fix it for them by turning the valve the correct way. Did I mention there was a boy scout troop on the upper level of the platform? Yeah, I don’t think they could hear our conversations, which was really a good thing. They did manage to drop a lot of trash down from up there though.
Somehow, between the laughter and the snoring we all got to sleep.
“I think a mouse pooped in my mouth last night because my breath stinks!” was one of the first things I heard Sunday morning. That pretty much got the ball rolling…
After breakfast we were off. We dropped our packs and headed over to West Bond. On the way over we found bear tracks. Apparently the AMC lies, as they say bears don’t go that high. Uh huh.
“look, the sun is coming out”
“just another half hour and this will all burn off”
“another hour and this will burn off”
“look, the fog is burning off”
“if we wait another hour, this will all burn off”
“I think it’s starting to clear up”
Suuure…. The clouds kept teasing us.
We got peeks of the Pemi and West Bond from Bondcliff. The rocks were super slick out to the standard photo spot, which was pretty freaky. Little Sister later confided that she was really worried that if one of us fell, the rescue effort would delay getting to eat pizza. Good thing nobody fell of the cliff.
Led by MEB and Little Sister, we flew down to the Wilderness Trail and out to Lincoln Woods at mach speeds. Seriously, we did the last 3 miles in 45 minutes. Insanity.
This was a fantastic trip, even with the rain, wind and cold. In fact, I can’t think of any better way to spend a soggy weekend.
Some photos are here.
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