To GRID or not to GRID that is the question...

[torn&frayed]

I keep a grid, but I'm convinced that I will never complete it. I hike solo most of the time, so I don't always have a specific destination in mind until just before I pack my gear. If the weather forecast looks perfect then I head for the Presidentials or some other Alpine Zone. But when I need to go to Plan B or Plan C, then I look at my grid as a refernce to give me ideas of where to go to a peak that I haven't done in that particular month. For example, I have never hiked Garfield in August, so if this weekend's weather is less than perfect, maybe Garfield will be my choice.
Regarding summer trip reports, I look for information on water sources. I prefer to carry empty bottles if I can count on filling up along the way.

 

[roadtripper]

To me, doing the GRID is certainly an impressive feat. It's very hard - especially for the month of April due to rotten snow and swollen streams. Anyone who is working on the GRID or has completed it already really impresses me.

That being said, this country (and even the rest of New England) has so many other fantastic hikes to offer. If you limit yourself to focusing on just the White Mountains for this massive project, it probably means you are going to miss out on hiking in other spectacular areas, such as:
~ the Green Mountains
~ Baxter State Park (not just Katahdin)
~ Acadia National Park
~ The Adirondacks
~ The Catkills
~ Black Hills of South Dakota
~ Yellowstone, Grand Teton & Wind River Range of Wyoming
~ canyons & arches of Utah
~ mountains of northern Utah
~ The Grand Canyon
~ The Sierra of California (Yosemite, Sequoia, Kings Canyon, various national forests, etc.)
~ mountains of New Mexico
~ The Cascades of Washington & Oregon
~ Shenandoah / Blue Ridge Parkway
~ Rocky Mountains of Colorado
~ Sawtooths in Idaho
~ waterfalls of the Columbia River Gorge
~ all the other 300+ national parks & monuments you can hike at
~ etc!
~ etc!

However, if you can manage doing the GRID with also hiking other areas outside of NH, then the GRID sounds like a blast! I just see a lot of people who solely seem to focus on ONLY the grid. In my mind, they are REALLY missing out.

Just my two cents!

 

[Billy]

I wish I had the free time to even consider doing the grid......but then again, maybe I don't.
And I can't imagine even considering doing Owl's Head in April unless Jessica Alba was waiting at the top.

 

[TJsName]

Sites like NewEnglandTrailCondiitions and TrailsNH are definitely a very useful tool for volunteer trail maintainers - while we may get up to our adopted trails 3-4 times a year knowing what needs to be done (and where) makes our trips more effecirient. Before a recent trip to Caps Ridge I checked the sites to learn there were several huge blowdowns further up that were causing people to venture off trail so these were the focus of our trip.

This is exactly what we do (and why I file trail reports year round). Knowing a trail is clear might seem like a useless report, but it's still a data point. We saw the reports of a couple blow downs on the ridge of the Tripyramids, so we focused our first trips effort there. Apparently there is a lot of loose rock on the slides that needs mitigation - but that's been tabled for now. Just yell 'rock' if you dislodge anything.

 

[Snowflea]

That being said, this country (and even the rest of New England) has so many other fantastic hikes to offer. If you limit yourself to focusing on just the White Mountains for this massive project, it probably means you are going to miss out on hiking in other spectacular areas, such as:
~ the Green Mountains
~ Baxter State Park (not just Katahdin)
~ Acadia National Park
~ The Adirondacks
~ The Catkills
~ Black Hills of South Dakota
~ Yellowstone, Grand Teton & Wind River Range of Wyoming
~ canyons & arches of Utah
~ mountains of northern Utah
~ The Grand Canyon
~ The Sierra of California (Yosemite, Sequoia, Kings Canyon, various national forests, etc.)
~ mountains of New Mexico
~ The Cascades of Washington & Oregon
~ Shenandoah / Blue Ridge Parkway
~ Rocky Mountains of Colorado
~ Sawtooths in Idaho
~ waterfalls of the Columbia River Gorge
~ all the other 300+ national parks & monuments you can hike at!

Roadtripper, I had to giggle while reading your list. Somehow I managed to complete the grid and visit each of the places you mention above, except for the last one. Haven't quite visited ALL the national parks and monuments (and probably never will). The grid was completed before seeing most of the other places, but it doesn't have to be either/or.

 

[summitseeker]

Roadtripper, I had to giggle while reading your list. Somehow I managed to complete the grid and visit each of the places you mention above, except for the last one. Haven't quite visited ALL the national parks and monuments (and probably never will). The grid was completed before seeing most of the other places, but it doesn't have to be either/or.

Hi Sue and Roadtripper,

I am very impressed that you, Sue was able to complete the grid and see so much of what the rest of the country has to offer. Roadtripper, you make an excellent point. There are many Through-hikers who don't even know what the 4000 footers are and some who could care less how often someone does them.

Branching out from the Whites is something I hope to do once my son is a little older. My hope is that he develops a love of the outdoors and we can share many adventures, both here and abroad, together.

Here is a non-staged photo I took about a month ago. Clearly based on his preferred reading material he has designs on his own round of the 4ks and maybe many more.

Z

 

[sierra]

To me, doing the GRID is certainly an impressive feat. It's very hard - especially for the month of April due to rotten snow and swollen streams. Anyone who is working on the GRID or has completed it already really impresses me.

That being said, this country (and even the rest of New England) has so many other fantastic hikes to offer. If you limit yourself to focusing on just the White Mountains for this massive project, it probably means you are going to miss out on hiking in other spectacular areas, such as:
~ the Green Mountains
~ Baxter State Park (not just Katahdin)
~ Acadia National Park
~ The Adirondacks
~ The Catkills
~ Black Hills of South Dakota
~ Yellowstone, Grand Teton & Wind River Range of Wyoming
~ canyons & arches of Utah
~ mountains of northern Utah
~ The Grand Canyon
~ The Sierra of California (Yosemite, Sequoia, Kings Canyon, various national forests, etc.)
~ mountains of New Mexico
~ The Cascades of Washington & Oregon
~ Shenandoah / Blue Ridge Parkway
~ Rocky Mountains of Colorado
~ Sawtooths in Idaho
~ waterfalls of the Columbia River Gorge
~ all the other 300+ national parks & monuments you can hike at
~ etc!
~ etc!

However, if you can manage doing the GRID with also hiking other areas outside of NH, then the GRID sounds like a blast! I just see a lot of people who solely seem to focus on ONLY the grid. In my mind, they are REALLY missing out.

Just my two cents!

The Sierra's and the Rockies of CO are just priceless. I could not imagine never climbing their.