dr_wu002
Well-known member
Around mid-week the forecast started to look bad for the weekend and basically everyone bailed. But not Rebecca and not Dr. Wu: I've bailed way too much in the past for bad weather and I ain't doin' it no more and I guess Rebecca is too cool to bail because of a little rain. And of course, we got a wicked awesome weekend of great hiking, a few decent views, and fun times at the campsite eatin' chili, drinkin' some brews and playin' about 100 rounds of Yatzee!
So, as I said, out of the 100 or so VFTT'ers that were originally going to Lafayette Campground, only 2 were actually heading up Friday Night. I got a bit of a late start... I knew Rebecca was ahead of me so I called her, "I'm at Mile 88," she says, "where are you?" Uh oh, "Ohhh, I'm in Massachusetts still" (in my driveway) and I have about 3.5 hours of driving to go. Lucky Rebecca is a good sport so when I finally pull into the campground in my noisy-ass car at like midnight, she's got not only the tent set up but also a sweet tarp over the picnic table and a few brews in hand. It was drizzling outside so we chilled under the tarp for a while, had a few drinks and chatted for a few hours before retiring for the night.
Kinsman & Cannonballs - Saturday
10am alpine start. How is it that if I was coming up from Easthampton MA, I'd be at the trailhead by 7:30 but when I'm a 20 second walk from the trailhead I get there by 10am? I guess it's just wicked fun to hang out at the campsite in the morning, drink coffee, eat bagels, make sandwiches, good company and relax... plenty of time to hike and that's what the weekend's all about, right!? Anyway, we hit the trail soon enough -- it had stopped raining hours ago and things were pretty well dried out by the time we reached Lonesome Lake. Then up to Kinsman Pond via the ridiculously easy and strangely maligned Fishin' Jimmy Trail. Great view of the Kinsmans from Kinsman Pond (which is a pretty location) and nice to see the new shelter. It looked like things were clearing out but by the time we reached North Kinsman we were all socked in.
Walked over to South Kinsman, had a long lunch and chatted about various things... I kept the pee pee poo poo talk to the bare minimum and me and Rebecca had some great conversations before we moved on. From here we went up the Cannonballs which are beautiful and mossy and green, no views here but there wouldn't be any that day to begin with. Still no rain though! Descended Lonesome Lake Trail to the pond and then, all of a sudden, the sky opens up! Great views... Franconia Ridge is completely in the open (we can see it through the trees) and some beautiful views from Lonesome Lake! Nice!
Just as soon as we're back to the campsite it starts to rain and doesn't let up all night. This didn't matter because we had a tarp and we had beer and we had board games....
Chili, Beer, Vodka, Whiskey & Yahtzee - Saturday Evening
Yo, can't forget about the camping part! I used to just do dayhikes... drive up from Boston, hike, drive back; so this is a whole new experience for me camping out and it's wicked fun! I can't believe what I've been missing. I had made some chili which we had for dinner (maybe a bit spicy for a girl from the midwest
) and then played multiple rounds of Yahtzee! It was interesting to see who seemed to hold their liquor better: my score steadily decreased from round to round (my low score was 12) while Rebecca only seemed to improve with each beer she drank. In a best-of-15 tournament I lost 3-7 or something like that. Then we retired for the night. Yahtzee! could replace Cribbage as the new standard game for camping...
Lafayette - Lincoln - Sunday
10:15 alpine start -- we're improving. On the trail, it's drizzling a little. Soaked by the time we reach the hut but still having a lot of fun. Actually, the Fun-O-Meter is still reading 11 in my book, I'm having a wicked great time! We see almost nobody despite the prospect of adventure, and hey, it's fairly warm out too! Just a little rain! We reach Lafayette in the clouds and rain and chill out at the summit. The first of about 5 groups of French Canadians that we'd see on the trail (almost no Americans) walks by. By the time we head over to "Truman" and then Lincoln, the rain has stopped and views are actually started opening up. This was the coolest part of the trip...
The foliage is getting close to peak in some areas and it was particularly cool looking over to Owl's Head and in to Lincoln Brook Valley... would really love to go in there now with all the gorgeous yellows and reds. Franconia Ridge (which is always so cool) as well had some gorgeous color... lots of plants turning fiery red, what a treat! It was really turning out to be a wicked nice day -- I was starting to think the clouds were going to soon completely lift! We got to hang out on Little Haystack for a while and I really just felt so great to be there. I had a hard time explaining -- it just felt good. I'm sure others here can relate
On the way down Falling Waters we passed by Shining Rock and about then it started to rain... then it started to pour!! Despite all the rain, the stream crossings along Falling Waters weren't bad at all but the waterfalls were quite impressive. So were the colors! Lots of oranges and yellows and even some reds. Still plenty of green as well -- it's only going to get prettier!! As the rain increased we decided to do some trail running and that was fun... what a great trail to be on!
Eventually it stopped raining and we reached the parking lot... just as soon as we were about to start changing though, the sky opened up and hemorrhaged rain onto us!! We got more soaked while changing than the entire hike! But it didn't matter, we had both had an amazing weekend! I was so glad that I didn't bail because as always, the weather was better than expected and also, it's always wet and sloppy fun to hike in the rain anyway. Certainly much better than rotting at home or thrashing around getting killed in some alligator pit. Even Lafayette Campground was wicked empty so we didn't have to contend with weirdo neighbors and could shake the dice cup as loud and flamboyant as possible during our 100 rounds of Yahtzee.
Then a mellow ride home for me -- the rain stopped and it actually cleared and the foliage in NH and VT was incredible. Not peaking at all, and Southern VT is at least 2 weeks away, but it was a great ride home chillin' to hypnotic Brightblack Morning Light and also The Hold Steady on the radio and takin' in all the sites... nice end to a great weekend.
-Dr. Wu
So, as I said, out of the 100 or so VFTT'ers that were originally going to Lafayette Campground, only 2 were actually heading up Friday Night. I got a bit of a late start... I knew Rebecca was ahead of me so I called her, "I'm at Mile 88," she says, "where are you?" Uh oh, "Ohhh, I'm in Massachusetts still" (in my driveway) and I have about 3.5 hours of driving to go. Lucky Rebecca is a good sport so when I finally pull into the campground in my noisy-ass car at like midnight, she's got not only the tent set up but also a sweet tarp over the picnic table and a few brews in hand. It was drizzling outside so we chilled under the tarp for a while, had a few drinks and chatted for a few hours before retiring for the night.
Kinsman & Cannonballs - Saturday
10am alpine start. How is it that if I was coming up from Easthampton MA, I'd be at the trailhead by 7:30 but when I'm a 20 second walk from the trailhead I get there by 10am? I guess it's just wicked fun to hang out at the campsite in the morning, drink coffee, eat bagels, make sandwiches, good company and relax... plenty of time to hike and that's what the weekend's all about, right!? Anyway, we hit the trail soon enough -- it had stopped raining hours ago and things were pretty well dried out by the time we reached Lonesome Lake. Then up to Kinsman Pond via the ridiculously easy and strangely maligned Fishin' Jimmy Trail. Great view of the Kinsmans from Kinsman Pond (which is a pretty location) and nice to see the new shelter. It looked like things were clearing out but by the time we reached North Kinsman we were all socked in.
Walked over to South Kinsman, had a long lunch and chatted about various things... I kept the pee pee poo poo talk to the bare minimum and me and Rebecca had some great conversations before we moved on. From here we went up the Cannonballs which are beautiful and mossy and green, no views here but there wouldn't be any that day to begin with. Still no rain though! Descended Lonesome Lake Trail to the pond and then, all of a sudden, the sky opens up! Great views... Franconia Ridge is completely in the open (we can see it through the trees) and some beautiful views from Lonesome Lake! Nice!
Just as soon as we're back to the campsite it starts to rain and doesn't let up all night. This didn't matter because we had a tarp and we had beer and we had board games....
Chili, Beer, Vodka, Whiskey & Yahtzee - Saturday Evening
Yo, can't forget about the camping part! I used to just do dayhikes... drive up from Boston, hike, drive back; so this is a whole new experience for me camping out and it's wicked fun! I can't believe what I've been missing. I had made some chili which we had for dinner (maybe a bit spicy for a girl from the midwest
) and then played multiple rounds of Yahtzee! It was interesting to see who seemed to hold their liquor better: my score steadily decreased from round to round (my low score was 12) while Rebecca only seemed to improve with each beer she drank. In a best-of-15 tournament I lost 3-7 or something like that. Then we retired for the night. Yahtzee! could replace Cribbage as the new standard game for camping... Lafayette - Lincoln - Sunday
10:15 alpine start -- we're improving. On the trail, it's drizzling a little. Soaked by the time we reach the hut but still having a lot of fun. Actually, the Fun-O-Meter is still reading 11 in my book, I'm having a wicked great time! We see almost nobody despite the prospect of adventure, and hey, it's fairly warm out too! Just a little rain! We reach Lafayette in the clouds and rain and chill out at the summit. The first of about 5 groups of French Canadians that we'd see on the trail (almost no Americans) walks by. By the time we head over to "Truman" and then Lincoln, the rain has stopped and views are actually started opening up. This was the coolest part of the trip...
The foliage is getting close to peak in some areas and it was particularly cool looking over to Owl's Head and in to Lincoln Brook Valley... would really love to go in there now with all the gorgeous yellows and reds. Franconia Ridge (which is always so cool) as well had some gorgeous color... lots of plants turning fiery red, what a treat! It was really turning out to be a wicked nice day -- I was starting to think the clouds were going to soon completely lift! We got to hang out on Little Haystack for a while and I really just felt so great to be there. I had a hard time explaining -- it just felt good. I'm sure others here can relate
On the way down Falling Waters we passed by Shining Rock and about then it started to rain... then it started to pour!! Despite all the rain, the stream crossings along Falling Waters weren't bad at all but the waterfalls were quite impressive. So were the colors! Lots of oranges and yellows and even some reds. Still plenty of green as well -- it's only going to get prettier!! As the rain increased we decided to do some trail running and that was fun... what a great trail to be on!
Eventually it stopped raining and we reached the parking lot... just as soon as we were about to start changing though, the sky opened up and hemorrhaged rain onto us!! We got more soaked while changing than the entire hike! But it didn't matter, we had both had an amazing weekend! I was so glad that I didn't bail because as always, the weather was better than expected and also, it's always wet and sloppy fun to hike in the rain anyway. Certainly much better than rotting at home or thrashing around getting killed in some alligator pit. Even Lafayette Campground was wicked empty so we didn't have to contend with weirdo neighbors and could shake the dice cup as loud and flamboyant as possible during our 100 rounds of Yahtzee.
Then a mellow ride home for me -- the rain stopped and it actually cleared and the foliage in NH and VT was incredible. Not peaking at all, and Southern VT is at least 2 weeks away, but it was a great ride home chillin' to hypnotic Brightblack Morning Light and also The Hold Steady on the radio and takin' in all the sites... nice end to a great weekend.
-Dr. Wu
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