Western Mountain Extravaganza

Time sure does fly when you go from adventure to adventure.

Last week, I was dropped off in Bethel. Rode my bike up to Grafton Notch via 26. With the wind coming straight at my face from the north, it did not make for a comfortable ride.
By the time I hit the parking lot of Old Speck, my feet were absolutely frozen.

I sat at the picnic tables and changed into my regular shoes and microspikes. This was right before the big snowstorm, so I really wasn't expecting too much snow until the top of the mountain. I hiked my bike up the mountain for awhile, and stashed it just high enough where I figured no one would want to be bothered with taking it down, and then went to work.
It was about 10am when I hid the bike, and I still had about 2.5 miles to go. The sky was cloudless and blue, and there was no wind.
I wanted to hit the peak and have the same conditions, so I flew up the mountain, on occasion going so hard that breakfast would try and escape my gut. The closer I got to the top, the slower I went.
It felt like I just couldn't take enough pictures of the snow on the trees with the perfect scenery in the background. The day, the scenery, the whole experience was just perfect.

There was lots of ice, but never a time where I felt I was making an unsafe move. When I got to the top, I took it all in and ate about 500 brownies. Food always tastes better at the top of a mountain. Especially on a day this clear.

My liquids started to freeze after 20 minutes, so I made short work of the descent. There were times you could get on your butt and slide for 50-100 yards at a time. It had just enough snow that the sliding wasn't too fast or dangerous. I was still wearing bike shorts under all my layers, so roots and rocks didn't really create issues for my behind.

I reconnected with my bike, hiked it down, and changed into my bike gear. It was only 2pm, but the sun was behind the big mountain, and I was COLD.
Quickly changed into bike gear and headed up 26 on my way to East B Hill Road. The rest of 26 was a 10 mile uphill, and my legs were super tired from going so hard up the mountain...the 40 pound pack that contained the week's food and drink on my back didn't make the climb any easier either.

Seeing a coyote let my mind wander for a while... I wondered what he was doing at this time of day, and whether or not he would choose to scavenge me should I die of mental misery.

Turning on East B Hill Road, I knew it was basically all downhill into Andover, where my camp is located, so I figured I was basically done. It was an unpleasant surprise to see that this road had snow on it. A road bike+snow and ice+pavement=severe danger. I stopped riding, started swearing, and changed into regular shoes, and basically walked the whole road....riding where there were patches of pavement.

By the time I hit Andover General Store, it was pitch dark. I got my lights on, bought some food and drink, and rode the last couple of miles into camp. Once I got the fire going, I had some Sam Winter, some food, shot the shit with my Dad, and crashed HARD.

The next couple of days were spent preparing the camp for some great people to join me for the weekend. We hit up Dunn Falls via snowshoe, went cross country skiing up Devil's Den, and visited the canyon...a staple for each camp visit. Extra curricular activities included sledding both downhill and behind car, deca-flipcup, olympic cheese ball eating, bonfire building, and chili enthusiasm.

I love being TentMan.

***topmost photo of canyon is Anneliese Behrman's

I'm sitting by the fire at camp on a sunny, blue sky morning.
About 8 inches of snow fell yesterday.

Every time I come here to our cabin in the mountains, I can't help but realize how much happier I am in such a basic setting. Here, civilization as we know it could be destroyed and I wouldn't have a clue as I went about the daily tasks of preparing food, shoveling, and getting wood and water.

We have so many "things" in our society. "This new ___ will make my life so much easier, and save me so much more time and money!"

I ask, how could things get any easier for us, and what are we REALLY going to do with our spare time?
We live in a world where everything is instantaneous. The only reason we work a zillion hours a week, is to afford the things that we don't need.

If we are lucky enough to have a day without work, our technology make it easy for us to misuse our spare time. God did not intend us to spend an entire saturday watching tv. And people wonder why they feel so lethargic, sitting around for an entire day. You string a couple of those days together, and lethargy turns into depression.

I think we need to go back a hundred years. You don't have time to be depressed when there's wood to be chopped, because let's face it, if you don't chop that wood, your going to die of hypothermia.

The formula is simple.
Stop it.
Do you NEED 300 channels? Do you NEED a new car when yours works fine and is paid off?
Edward Abbey said,"Growth for the sake of growth is the ideology of a cancer cell."

In this American society where bigger better faster stronger is the attitude, scale it back.
Enjoy life at the slower pace it was intended to be lived at!

krp

Piper Mountain

Yesterday we braved the snow squalls and headed for Piper Mountain, a 2044' mountain in the Belknap area in NH.

We parked at the gate and walked past the "Piper Mountain 1 Mile" sign.

Nicole had microspikes, and I forgot mine.
The trail was very frozen and super slippery in spots, so I tried my snowshoes, which have pretty aggressive crampons, but they were too clunky and really didn't offer the same traction that my microspikes had.
Chose to bareboot it, and made it all the way to the top, intermittently scrambling on all fours to keep from breaking my ass.

We hung out at the top for maybe 20 minutes, taking pictures and sitting on the cool rock thrones that someone constructed.

We didn't know the trails too well and had no time to "get lost", so we decided to go back down the way we came.
After a tenth of a mile we met up with some guys who were taking care of the trail. They noticed my lack of spikes, and offered to show us another way down that might be easier spikeless.

They brought us to the new trail, and gave us further directions...also offering me an extra pair of spikes to use on the way down.
I gratefully accepted, and we made our way down the mountain.

Overall, this was a super hike. Quick. Great views at the top.
If we had more time, we could have done a couple other peaks in only a couple extra hours.
The only downside was that the trail we took on the way down popped us out on an unmaintained road, and we had to walk maybe 3/4 of a mile down that. Someone had taken a sled and gone down the whole thing. Now THAT would be fun.

Also, we met a couple great guys and one SUPER COOL British Cream Retriever(google it!) who loved to eat snow and rip whole branches off of trees.

Great times!

Pleasantly Surprised

Sometimes when I'm on the way to somewhere, I look for short hikes for the fun of it. If time allows, I hike it.
Generally I don't expect too much from these smaller hikes. When you hike a lot, you kind of come to assume that the less time you spend going uphill, the less reward you get at the top.

Nicole and I were headed to NH, and our route took us on 302 west towards Fryeburg.
We drove past Shawnee Peak Ski area, and took a left on Wilton Warren Road.
A couple miles down the dirt road, we actually drove right past the trailhead and had to backtrack. The only sign is a small wooden one that says "Fire Warden's Trail".

We donned the snowshoes and started our ascent up Pleasant Mountain. The trail was well traveled and very open. There was no steep section to be had. We took our time, admiring the views of the White Mountains to the west. The weather was 50ish degrees. Very uncharacteristic.

One of the coolest parts of the hike was right before the top, on the east side of the mountain before getting to the lookout tower. There was zero wind. The sky was blue, and it had to be 50 degrees. I could've hung out there all day. If only we had brought a beer on this perfect day!

A quarter mile later and we were staring at some pretty amazing views of the Whites. On this side, the west side, a cold wind was blowing directly at us.
We sat on top until we were too cold, and then descended. About 2 hours to the top, and a little over an hour to the bottom of the 2009 foot mountain.

I think the gradual climb and short distance of this climb makes an awesome starter for your winter hiking season...and I am looking forward to hitting this one in the spring as well. The small streams are sure to be even more beautiful when they are flooded with runoff!

Happy Trails!

krp