White Mountain Redlining

[rocket21]

Front page article in today's Conway Daily Sun - a gentleman is planning his last trip today to hike every trail in the White Mountain Guide. Pretty neat!

BIIIIIG .pdf: http://www.laconiadailysun.com/pdf/2008/7/19.pdf

 

[dug]

Very impressive. A goal of mine that I know will never be realized, but it's worth picking at here and there.

 

[Bobby]

Awesome job. Let's hope for a great day for Tony's finish.

 

[rocket21]

Awesome job. Let's hope for a great day for Tony's finish.

Not so sure about that! Yesterday the forecast called for a Mostly Sunny day...then suddenly it changed to cloudy with chance of thunder storms. Arg.

 

[Amicus]

That's a nice touch - saving his back yard mountain, No. Moat, for last. I've thought about this feat since I heard Larry Garland, the excellent cartographer of the AMC White Mountain Guide, say a few words about his completion of it at a function a year ago.

I've been redlining my own c. 1980s Delorme White Mtn. trail map (increasingly obsolete) for two decades now, so I've been working on this too, but at the rate I'm going, I'll finish only with the aid of cryogenics. (Me and Ted.)

 

[dug]

That's the map I use, Amicus. Since I started this after completing the 4Ks, what I found is there are a lot of .5 sections of trails that are 5 miles from the trailhead that have not been completed. Essentially, I will need to go back and 're-hike' some hikes. I'm saving those for last, as the time I get to them it will be like 3-4 decades since the first time so maybe it will seem 'new'.

What I enjoy about it is on crappy days, you can just head to Appalachia or something and hit 5-6 trails and never approach a higher elevation.

 

[RoySwkr]

I believe the gentleman mentioned used to be well-known in orienteering circles, maybe in retirement he sticks to trails

That was one of my goals 30 years ago, but it stalled at about 90% when I had done most of the ones that sounded appealing and was left with the other kind - often with vague descriptions and estimated mileage. And now I would have to decide whether to repeat trails with minor relo.

The WMG has been improved since then but I'm not sure how you would build an unambiguous list, such as when it mentions a trail but does not give a mileage.

There was one of the previous guidebook editors who lived in the Conway area and not only hiked the trails but pushed a measuring wheel but he may not have got 100%.

 

[rup]

What are those boots and shinguards??

 

[ColdRiverRun]

The shoes are trial runners. Brooks Cascadia 2's.

 

[kltilton]

I know Tony from our local running club. He is a very interesting guy. He hiked the AT(fully supported) right after he retired. After running many of the NH 4k's he decided to start redlining. I know he has run many of the trails, and has hiked a lot of the more remote stuff solo. Congrats to Tony.

 

[rocket21]

Nicholas Howe (author of Not Without Peril) wrote an article about his red lining experiences in today's Conway Daily Sun.

Page 6 of this BIIIIIG .pdf: http://www.laconiadailysun.com/pdf/2008/7/22.pdf

 

[Grayjay]

Tony ended up going with two friends---Larry Garland, the AMC cartographer who has also redlined, and Rod Forsman, who has done the AT three or so times. The views were very hazy, but the clouds kept the temp down to a confortable level.
Al three are known for being soloists. Afterward Tony pointed out that for three solo hikers, they had gotten along well.

 

[rocket21]

Tony ended up going with two friends---Larry Garland, the AMC cartographer who has also redlined, and Rod Forsman, who has done the AT three or so times. The views were very hazy, but the clouds kept the temp down to a confortable level.
Al three are known for being soloists. Afterward Tony pointed out that for three solo hikers, they had gotten along well.

Today's Conway Daily Sun has the recap on page 12:

BIIIIIG .pdf http://www.laconiadailysun.com/pdf/2008/7/23.pdf

 

[RoySwkr]

“red lining” all the trails on the trail maps of our mountains.

I believe that's what Larry Garland did originally, it's not clear whether he hiked all the trails in the book. Note that doing all the trails on the maps is much easier than doing all the trails in the book since many of the more obscure ones aren't on the maps.

 

[John H Swanson]

I remember Larry saying "all the trails in the White Mountain National Forest" when discussing this subject.

 

[Tony]

I should live so long.

 

[dug]

I think, if this is your cup of tea, to just pick a map and go for it. The Delorme map has, for example, a trail for Lost Pass. This does not show up on the AMC WMG books (at least my latest revision and I don't always update them immediately). So, I will end up doing Lost Pass because, well, it's on my map and it's kinda calling out to me.....

 

[Dr. Dasypodidae]

Congrats to Tony Federer! I remember working with him and his colleagues at Hubbard Brook Experimental Watershed when I was just out of college.

I believe that Dave Govatski, now retired from the USFS, completed redlining of the AMC White Mountain guidebook's current edition quite a few years ago, and has been working his way through the abandoned trails (he has a complete set of AMC Guides back to the first edition)

I believe that Stinkyfeet was very close to finishing before she left for California, and Steve Smith is very close to finishing (that makes sense for one of the current guide's authors, eh?).

I seem to recall that Larry Garland is the only person to have completed the NH 200 highest in winter and the 1420.8 miles of WMNF redlining (any season).