Ray Chaput

[RoySwkr]

The 2/22 issue of the Coos County Democrat describes Ray Chaput's retirement from the Twin Mtn Fire Department at age 74. Ray took early retirement from high-tech to own the Boulders Motel in Twin Mtn, where in his spare time he served as arson investigator, ambulance driver, and selectman. He retired from the motel several years ago, and is now thinking of moving to Denver.

Of more interest to this group, the article mentions that he had hiked all the 3000-footers in NH and has only 40 miles left on the Long Trail. What it doesn't say is that he was only the second person to do the NH3k, back in the days when there were no accurate maps and nobody who'd been there to ask, and that he left a wooden sign on most of them. (In retirement, he also put signs on some 3000-footers without 200' cols such as Flat Top and South Sugarloaf.) And while there were probably farmers and river drivers who walked the length of New Hampshire, Ray may be the first recreational user to do so, piecing together a route on logging roads in the North Country (long before the Cohos Trail was imagined) to connect to the developed trail system in the Whites. And now it sounds like he's heading west.

 

[spencer]

Go West, Old Man....

thanks for the story, Roy.


spencer

 

[HAMTERO]

Would he be the "Snow God"? The old sign on Flat Top says something about the Snow God on it.

 

[dms]

Thanks for the info Roy. Thankfully, some of his signs survive to this day! Amazing accomplishment of self navigation.

 

[John H Swanson]

I enjoyed his imagination when signing some of the peaks. For instance "Kitten" on little wildcat gave me a good laugh when I needed one. There were some others that slip my mind.

Now if we could just figure out the meaning of the "gas" sign on aziscohos (if there is one)...

The other story I would buy a beer for is the idea behind the loggers helmet nailed to the tree on the summit of West Cananda Mtn in the dacks.

 

[Dennis C.]

It's good that you came up with a tribute to one of our NH peakbagging pioneers, Roy. Ray was out there when most of us were just beginning to climb our first peaks (and that's going back some!). I remember his signs well. And as Dennis mentions, perhaps a few still remain to this day.

 

[bill bowden]

Favorite signs

Mounts PAM and SPAM (south Pam) were favorites of mine (love to know the story) while "Zeale" (halfway between Zealand and Hale) was another.

I suppose we are too environmentally sensitive, or just too serious to do such a thing today.

 

[CohosRidgerunner]

It is great reading about Ray Chaput. He is still in the area and is back to hiking. He is currently the oldest man to thru hike the Cohos Trail (at 76) and is going to do it again this year when the snows are gone.

cohosridgerunner

 

[WSC]

He finished doing the trail south to north last year, no he plans to do it north to south, he calls it "unwinding"

 

[David Metsky]

FYI - In case people didn't notice, this thread was started 2 years ago and just bumped recently.