dr_wu002
Well-known member
Mr. Kill, formerly known as Dr. Wu to some of you, and “complete jerk” to all of you, finished the NH48 on Wildcat “D” this past weekend. It actually took me about 25 years to do it. Some people erroneously thought that I had previously completed the 48 but this was in fact, fiction. The first real hike I ever went on was Mt. Washington way back in 1986 or something when I was 11 years old. I went with my dad during the summer and it was so cold that he had to wear underwear on his head and my mustache had i-cycles forming all over the individual hairs. It was the best day of my life at that point and still probably one of, if not the most, memorable hikes that I ever had.
I did Mt. Washington every summer after that with my dad but never anything else until about 2003 when I started hiking other things for real with my then girlfriend and now wife, Jess. For a little while I “worked” on the 48 but soon lost interest. I wanted to do another presidential traverse and not Passacornyway or whatever it was. Then I lost interest in presidential traverses and wanted to do completely random things or just drink a lot on the trails. Then Jess wanted to finish the 48 so I figured that if I was going to hike with her by proxy I was going to finish the 48. The problem was we didn’t really focus on her finishing the 48 either so I was basically stuck on 45 for a few years.
Then, this summer, Jess and I summitted the mighty Tecumser. That was a blast, especially running down it. Until Jess fell. Anyway, she basically needs all the Carter-Wildcat-Moriah peaks (except Carter Dome) so this past weekend we were going to hike into the Wild River Wilderness area, camp, and then knock off a few of them. It was pretty much inevitable that I was going to hit Wildcat “A” and “D” this weekend and I wasn’t going to be an ass and hide in the bushes 10 feet below the summit because I wasn’t really trying to avoid finishing the 48, I just wasn’t really trying hard. And also, Wildcat is a long and annoying drive for me so given the opportunity I’d rather do Hancock which is a lot closer and seemed to be a similar hike (it wasn’t).
So, Sunday we (Ryan, Kristiner, Jason Facebook (JF), Gillian, Jess, Scott (mookie) and I) went up the Rainbow Ridge Trail (nice) to Carter Dome, then to Mt. Hight. Ryan and Kristiner had to go so they left. Jason went over to South / Middle Carter but since I was sick I declined and we hung out on Mt. Hight for a while then went over to Wildcat. It was a steep climb up “A” and there was a lot more ups and downs on the ridge than I would have expected going over to “D.” Then I finished. All things considered it was pretty low key – I didn’t even have a beer with me. Then we left and went back to the campsite. Oh, and Jason Facebook somehow managed to fall asleep on Wildcat “A” so he also missed out on the big party that the 4 of us had on the nice, new platform on Wildcat “D”. There were some tchotchke lovers on Wildcat “D” that started arguing with us if that was Mt. Washington across the way that we were looking at. We didn’t really share any info about our big party with them, they seemed like they took a cable car up because they were dressed up for a guido party or something .
It was fun for the most part because I had never done the Wildcats and now people won’t be able to bug me about finishing “the list.” I’ll tell you one thing, I won’t be doing the grid anytime soon. Lucky for me it would take me about 300 years and I’ll be dead long before then. I would have to say though that I’ve hiked with a lot of people on this website. My first VFTT hike was with Sherpa Kroto, Tom Hillwalker and Mike P! We did the Hancocks in Winter!
-Dr. Wu
PS. A real funny thing is that my iPhone auto-corrects "Mt. Hight" to "Mt. Giggy". WTF is that supposed to mean?
I did Mt. Washington every summer after that with my dad but never anything else until about 2003 when I started hiking other things for real with my then girlfriend and now wife, Jess. For a little while I “worked” on the 48 but soon lost interest. I wanted to do another presidential traverse and not Passacornyway or whatever it was. Then I lost interest in presidential traverses and wanted to do completely random things or just drink a lot on the trails. Then Jess wanted to finish the 48 so I figured that if I was going to hike with her by proxy I was going to finish the 48. The problem was we didn’t really focus on her finishing the 48 either so I was basically stuck on 45 for a few years.
Then, this summer, Jess and I summitted the mighty Tecumser. That was a blast, especially running down it. Until Jess fell. Anyway, she basically needs all the Carter-Wildcat-Moriah peaks (except Carter Dome) so this past weekend we were going to hike into the Wild River Wilderness area, camp, and then knock off a few of them. It was pretty much inevitable that I was going to hit Wildcat “A” and “D” this weekend and I wasn’t going to be an ass and hide in the bushes 10 feet below the summit because I wasn’t really trying to avoid finishing the 48, I just wasn’t really trying hard. And also, Wildcat is a long and annoying drive for me so given the opportunity I’d rather do Hancock which is a lot closer and seemed to be a similar hike (it wasn’t).
So, Sunday we (Ryan, Kristiner, Jason Facebook (JF), Gillian, Jess, Scott (mookie) and I) went up the Rainbow Ridge Trail (nice) to Carter Dome, then to Mt. Hight. Ryan and Kristiner had to go so they left. Jason went over to South / Middle Carter but since I was sick I declined and we hung out on Mt. Hight for a while then went over to Wildcat. It was a steep climb up “A” and there was a lot more ups and downs on the ridge than I would have expected going over to “D.” Then I finished. All things considered it was pretty low key – I didn’t even have a beer with me. Then we left and went back to the campsite. Oh, and Jason Facebook somehow managed to fall asleep on Wildcat “A” so he also missed out on the big party that the 4 of us had on the nice, new platform on Wildcat “D”. There were some tchotchke lovers on Wildcat “D” that started arguing with us if that was Mt. Washington across the way that we were looking at. We didn’t really share any info about our big party with them, they seemed like they took a cable car up because they were dressed up for a guido party or something .
It was fun for the most part because I had never done the Wildcats and now people won’t be able to bug me about finishing “the list.” I’ll tell you one thing, I won’t be doing the grid anytime soon. Lucky for me it would take me about 300 years and I’ll be dead long before then. I would have to say though that I’ve hiked with a lot of people on this website. My first VFTT hike was with Sherpa Kroto, Tom Hillwalker and Mike P! We did the Hancocks in Winter!
-Dr. Wu
PS. A real funny thing is that my iPhone auto-corrects "Mt. Hight" to "Mt. Giggy". WTF is that supposed to mean?
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but have had it in my hair.
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