2008 Stats

Where this is my second full year being a "hiker" I am keeping better track of my stats. 

2008 Stats
4000 foot peaks - 13
Hikes - 22
Miles Total - 118.1
Elevation Gain Total - 41,530'

Average Miles Per Hike - 5.36
Average Elevation Gain Per Hike - 1,887'

I hiked a lot of smaller peaks this year in training.  I hiked Mt. Agamenticus and Bauneg Beg mountains 2-3 times each and started picking away at the Belknap County Sportsman Associations List. 

Highpoint of the year was summiting Washington.  Nearly cried at the summit and I don't really know why.  Just an incredible feeling of accomplishment.

Jackson 12/28/08

Today I am going hiking for the first time this Winter but for the last time this year with my Brother In-Law Garrett Robinson. This I believe is his first winter 4000' peak and the second 4000' peak that I have done with him. The forecast for the day is windy with temps in the 40's and rain after about 3:00. When I saw the forecast, it said 60 - 100 mile an hour gusts. I wasn't sure if this was after the rain started or all day, but soon on the trail we realized that it was going to be a beautiful day for a hike.

Here's a picture of Garret starting off the day with Mt. Tom in the background. Mt. Tom was my first winter 4000' peak.

We got on the trail at about 9:15 and quickly hiked around Saco Lake. We figured we would park at the Highland Center never even thinking that there was actually a parking spot where the trail actually started. This would add about .6 miles to the day.

We decided to pass up the .2 mile trip to Elephant's Head and possibly hit it on the way back down if we had time, but we did take a look at Bulge Cliff. I didn't get too close to the edge due to the icy conditions but the view here is great.

We found the trail well packed out however there were a few post holes of snowshoes and a few people we passed who were postholing their way up the trail barebooting. I had confidence that they would turn back but we ended up seeing them near the summit on the way down in Crampons. They didn't posthole the trail too bad but they did put a few holes in.

Soon we reached the trail junction to Jackson and turned left up to the Summit. Only 1.2 miles to go. Soon we also passed a few stream crossings and reached a view of the Summit. Here's a picture of Garrett excited about his first Winter 4000' peak. It's times like this where I wish I had a decent camera.

In no time at all, we were at the Summit and enjoying the Wind. We figure the wind was about 50 - 60 MPH and it was enough to peel my hat back off my head. Here's a purely presidential View. Here's Garrett enjoying the Wind. Here's Garrett at the Summit of Jackson...His first Winter 4000' Peak. We stayed at the summit only long enough to snap a few pictures and play with the Gray Jay's and we headed down.

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Garrett loved playing with the Gray Jay's and on the way down we at a little lunch out of the wind and they followed us all the way to the Junction. One was bold enough to try to eat Garrett's Bologna sandwich while he was trying to feed it a goldfish cracker. He learned pretty quick to guard his food.

We made it down before the rain started and were in the truck at about 3:00. Under 6 hours for this hike was pretty good considering how much time we wasted playing with birds, eating, and taking pictures. It started to rain just as we got in the truck for the long ride home back to Maine. I can't wait to hit this peak in the summer as I can tell there are probably a few good napping spots up there. This marks Winter 4000' number 3 for me and 18 on the all season list. I'm 3/8 of the way there for the 48. 12 4000' peaks for me this year is twice as many as last year. I actually did Eisenhower twice which means I got to start "The Grid". It 15 or 20 years, I may even finish the grid.

Bauneg Beg North 12/3/2008

Today I was driving home from work and I was itching to burn a little bit of energy and I had been thinking of hiking Bauneg Beg Mountain for quite a while. I haven't been doing any hiking lately. This time of year life always seems to get in the way and finding the time to do any hiking is difficult. I decided that where there was still an hour or so of daylight left, I would do a quick hike up Bauneg Beg Mountain.

I arrived at the trailhead off of Fox Farm Hill Road in North Berwick and took a peak at the map. It looks like they cut a new trail in to the North Peak. I don't know the elevation of the peak but it looks to be between 820' and 860'. The highest of the 3 Bauneg Beg Peaks is 866'. I began my hike at about 3:37PM and I started up the trail. I decided that I was going to go to the North Peak as I had never been there. The Great Works Regional Land Trust (GWRLT) Has done a great job of aquiring this land and cutting the trails.

At the junction to the trail to the North Peak, I headed up to the North Peak. Near the top you cross an old stone fence which at this time markes the border between the Town's land and the GWRLT's land. I arrived at the top and took a peak around. There really isn't any views as the summit is surrounded by trees, but it is fairly open at the top.

I was going to head over to the Main Peak but I heard some shotgun rounds being fired in the distance. I realized that it was still hunting season and I probably should have some orange on if I was going to be out here. I was wearing a blue fleece and a burnt orange hat, but I have absolutley no confidence in hunters. ***Disclaimer*** I am a hunter but with as many stories as I see in the local papers about people shooting themselves or others, I have learned that no matter how safe I am, other hunters aren't alwasys as safe.

I decided to just head down the mountain and head home. Not bad for a little hike.

Wildcat D & E 11/9/2008

Well it’s been a while since I hiked last. I haven’t hiked since Shelby and I went up to Carrigain with Van and Jessie in August. The forecasts are mixed for the day depending on which place you look. The Mount Washington Observatory says that there will be a mix of sun and clouds with light winds at 10 miles per hour, and falling termperatures into the low 20’s by sundown. Also, snow is possible up high. Weather.com says the rain will stop at 8am with a 10% chance of showers throughout the day. Today I was going to try to tackle the Wildcats. I know that the Wildcat Ridge Trail is extremely steep and there is some exposure, but I figured if it was too bad, I could bail out down the Ski slopes and walk the road the .9 miles back to Pinkham.

I decided to gear up try to cross the Ellis River from the Glen-Ellis Falls parking area, but the parking area was closed for some reason. The map shows it as open all winter, but maybe things have changed since the map was printed. I continued on up to Pinkham and found the Lost Pond Trail. I would be taking the lost pond trail over to the Wildcat Ridge Trail to begin my Ascent. The Lost Pond Trail and the Wildcat Ridge Trail are both part of the Appalachian Trail

The lost pond trail was extremely wet and leads me to believe that crossing the Ellis River would have been difficult if not impossible and extremely dangerous. The bog Bridges were almost all very slippery and some were completely submerged. Clearly I would need to watch my step today. I do a lot of Solo hiking and when soloing even in wet weather although not obvoiusly dangerous, It always makes me really concentrate on every little thing to try to make the day a safe one.

After about a half mile, I reached the lost pond which was relatively calm today. The trail itself was quite difficult with the wet conditions, and the footing was not ideal. I did happen to lose my way for a minute as the Blazes were seldom, but I eventually found my way to the Wildcat Ridge Trail.

Immediately upon starting up the Wildcat Ridge Trail, the Ascent begins and it’s a steep one. I took off my fleece at the junction and opted to just wear my t-shirt. I kept my hat on, but I was still building up a sweat on the steeps. Being so long since my last hike, I was a bit out of shape and found the going slow. Partly due to the wet and rugged trail, partly due to my conditioning. I got to the point where the trail was so steep, that I wasn’t sure I was going to be able to make it as it was wet, and I figured that if I did make it, I would have no choice but to bail out at the ski slopes. Going down this trail would not be pleasant with the slick conditions. Believe it or not, the picture to the left is of the trail. A few minutes after passing this section, the rain began to fall, only lightly, but enough rain fell to make me put on my rainshell. I decided to press on and I came to a unique set of steps. Someone has put a lot of work in on this trail. I continued on, and notice that the rain had turned to snow. Huge flakes of snow were falling all around, and this made the going easier as I wasn’t collecting rain anymore, just small amounts of snow.

I figured that I must be coming close to the summit of Wildcat E and soon realized I was wrong, there were a few PUDS (Pointless Up and Downs ) and I figured that now I might be close. Soon I crested the hill and found that there didn’t seem to be anything higher than me. I looked around and found a rock in the woods about 10’ off the trail to the north. According to the book, this should be the summit.

I continued on and went down hill a bit until I reached the Wildcat Ski Area. The gondola would be a much faster way down today, but it doesn’t appear to be open.

I started up the ascent to Wildcat D and felt a twinge in my left quad. It seemed to occur every time I stepped up hill. I stretched it a little and kept moving and it seemed to go away. In no time, I was on the top of D peak, but didn’t realize it. I kept walking and noticed that I had gone down quite a ways. I had gone what I felt to be a tenth of a mile or so too far.

I turned around and started up, and the pain in my quads started again. I stretched again, and started up hill and it never really went away until I hit the summit of D peak. The summit has an observation tower on it, but it is boarded off so you can’t actually go up the tower. Looking in the book after I got home, this is the summit of D peak. I took the parallel trail back to the ski slopes and started my way back down to the car.

About 10 minutes after taking the gondola picture, I took this picture. It appears it was beginning to clear.

The original intent today was to hike over to Wildcat A, but with my quad hurting and the going slow with the weather, I figured it was best to bail now rather than hike to A peak and not be able to walk back down. Starting down the slopes, the weather started to clear. I looked for a place to get out of the wind and found a rock near the trees. Behind the rock was a geocache. This is the second geocache I’ve found by accident while hiking. I signed my name and put it back. I then bundled up because the wind was whipping pretty good and there’s not much to stop the wind on the ski slopes. I ate my tuna sandwitch and then kept moving.

I believe that this picture is of the Great Gulf Wilderness, but I'm not 100% sure. The sky never completely cleared for me to be able to see anything 100% recognizable.

There was a lot of water on the slopes, but I was pretty well soaked anyway. My boots held up surprisingly well, and in about an hour and a half, I was back on the road. I never realized that hiking the slopes down would be so quick. It was however, quite painful on the knees and I found myself walking down in a zig zag pattern just as the skiiers do to try to avoid excessively steep grades.

I also figured that taking the green and blue trails down would be a better idea than taking the black diamonds. Once home, I tried to figure out how long the hike down the slopes was, and I figure that it was about 2 miles or so from the top of the gondola to the road. The road walk was another 9 tenths of a mile or so.

Once down the slopes and on the road, I began my road walk. I soon passed a historical Marker marking where Darby Field started his original Ascent of Mount Washington.

The walk to Pinkham wasn’t that bad, and overall this trip was ok.

***Note to self*** Never ever hike the Wildcat Ridge in the rain again.

I’ll have to make sure that the weather is perfectly clear if I ever want to hike this again. The hike was worth it however, and Wildcat D marks #17 on the 4000’ list for me of New Hampshire.

With every new hike comes new knowledge. Today I learned that I should never fear bailing out on a mountain when it just isn't my day.

Carrigain 8/31/2008

Today, Shelby and I are going to join Van and his daughter Jessie on a hike to Carrigain up the Signal Ridge Trail. They are much more experienced and faster hikers than we are, but they are willing to hike with us Newbies anyway. Thanks Van and Jessie.

Shelby had never met Jessie before, and they seemed to hit it off fairly quickly. Van and I let them take the lead for the first 1.7 miles until we hit the junction of the Carrigain Notch Trail. The water crossings were no problem at all today. It also looks like someone has thrown a few rocks on the river to aid in stepping across easily.

The first two miles or so are fairly flat and easy going. We were able to keep a good pace, but we were not really going too fast. I think we averaged book time for the first two miles or so. One thing that Shelby and I try to make clear when hiking with others is that we are not out to hike to race up the mountain. We are really out to just enjoy ourselves and get to the top and look at the views and relax.

The picture above is of Jessie, Van, and Shelby up on Signal Ridge which is arguable the best part of the hike. It is the only part of the hike where there are views except the top of course.

From signal ridge, you can also get a good view of Vose Spur (NH 100 Highest) and Mt. Lowell and its slide.

After a few more minutes, we reached the top where we saw a very well constructed Tower used now as a viewing station rather than its previous use as a forest fire watch tower. According to my map from Map Aventures, it shows that Mt. Carrigain's summit and the 50' or more around it is in the Pemigewasset Wilderness, but you do not see the sign saying you are entering the wilderness until you are at the top going down the Desolation trail which we are not going to be taking today.

I did not get a picture of the fire tower, but if you were to climb to the top, apparently you can see 40 of the 48 4000' peaks. I did get a picture of Signal Ridge as I though it was pretty cool to see.

All in all, this was a fun trip with great people and great views. Also, these 4000' peaks were numbers 16 for me, and number 7 for Shelby. I'd hike with Van and Jessie again, anytime as long as they don't mind Shelby and I being so slow. They stopped multiple times today to wait for us. The trip down was fairly uneventful as it usually is, but always necessary.

Madison 8/28/2008

Today I have decided to take the day off from work. I have built up a little bit of Comp-time and I might as well take it. I decided to try to get Mount Madison today. It will bring me to another hut I haven't seen yet as well as add another peak to my list.

I decided to take the Valley Way up as it is a quick and direct route to Madison Springs Hut. Soon upon entering the woods I passed through a powerline Right of Way. I always find these interesting being that I work for a power company and all. I also found this sign fairly quickly. I love taking pictures of signage.

The trail starts off easy enough and is not really steep. There were all kinds of mushrooms along the trail as there have been through the last month or two due to all of the rain that New England has seen this summer. Here is a picture of what I may be "Destroying Angel" although I am not really sure about that. FYI Destroying Angel's are extremely toxic.

I kept trudging along the trail which follows Synder Brook fairly closely although for a large portion of time, you would never know it. I was making very good time when I crossed the Watson Path. I was 50 minutes ahead of "book time" at that point and figured couldn't believe I was making that good of time. I am not a fast hiker by any means, but I do try to keep a steady pace with few breaks. I was getting hungry though as it took me 2 and a half hours to get to the trailhead from my house which puts me well behind normal eating schedules on the mountain. I sat down and had a cheese stick and continued on.

Before I knew it, I was at Madison Springs hut. It took me 2 hours and 40 minutes to get to the hut which is an hour ahead of book time. This is a good day for me already. I went inside the hut and took off my pack and ate a granola bar and decided to continue on up Mount Madison. I thought of leaving my pack for the .8 mile journey to the summit and back, but figured I might need the water so I brought the pack along with me.

The trip up Mount Madison from the hut is not really strenuous, but it is tough on the footing a bit. There didn't seem to be a very well defined path as you are basically rock hoping most of the way to the top. The cairns are well placed though so you know where you are going, and if you get lost... Go up, and you'll get there.

At the top you can see great views in all directions. Washington is of course visible and so are some of the other 4000' peaks, but what grabs your attention first is probably Mount Adams.

I stayed at the top for a few minutes and met a nice gentleman from Brunswick, Maine. This is his second hike this season, and his first above treeline. I stayed for a few minutes and chatted with him and headed down.

I stopped again at the hut and ate my lunch. I was hankering for a bowl of soup that the hut offers, but they were just starting to heat up a new pot so I decided to pass. I had originally planned today to hike Adams as well as Madison, but I decided I had enough for one day. I am not particularly used to this type of elevation gain in a single day and I could feel my quads burning.

I did decide however to hike up and over to the Air Line trail to hike that down. I have heard that the Durand Ridge is very impressive. This trail is also a good way to stay above treeline just a little bit longer than you would on the Valley Way.

On the ridge I was able to see King Ravine. King Ravine is very impressive and is a glacial formed feature of the mountains. Some day I will have to hike the King Ravine trail. I imagine that it is extremely challenging and steep.

Going down the Air Line, you also see the trail Chemin Des Dames which is the "Ladies Trail." I believe that it is about at this point where you get a particularly impressive view of Mount Madison with the Madison Springs Hut. I never realized that Mount Madison had such a distinctive summit. I know that it is fairly steep climbing up, but it is almost a perfect triangle from this angle.

Here is another picture of King Ravine.

On the way down, after I dropped into the woods, the trail just seems to go down and down forever. However, it did not take long to get to the bottom of the mountain.

On the way down, I did notice some Maple Syrup Lines. I don't know if they are legal or not but I imagine if they were illegal, the forest service would have noticed by now as they did look old.

All in all, this was a great trip with some spectacular views. It's also the single greatest elevation gain that I have tackled in a single day. This trip was 200' more than Washington and Monroe but 1.8 miles shorter. This trip's average elevation gain per mile is over 500'. This makes two consecutive trips to 4000' peaks that are personal bests as far as elevation gain goes. Also, this makes Mount Madison 4000' peak number 15 for me. I am almost 1/3 of the way there.

Hedgehog 8/23/2008

Last week I had my heart set on hiking Carrigain. Shelby decided to join me and when we got to North Conway, she realized that she had forgot her boots. Needless to say, her boots now have a permanent place in my trunk. We don't have the time this week to do anything like Carrigain, because we want to say goodbye to Shelby's Brother Garrett before he heads off for his senior year at Western New England college. I thought we could get a smaller hike in so we decided to hike Hedgehog Mountain.

Hedgehog is a mountain that has great views and the only list it is on is the 52 with a view list. In fact, it's the last peak on the list as it is only 2,532' in elevation. We decided to do the full UNH loop on this hike to try to get smoe extra mileage in. The loop is 4.8 Miles total and 1,450' of elevation gain. We figured it would be a fairly easy day.

Our suspicions were correct at first. The first 2 tenths of a mile or so are flat. No elevation gain what so ever. This would be welcomed more later in the day than at the beginning. In a few minutes we had reached the Loop junction and we decided to do the loop clockwise and hit the east ledges first. Shelby did this hike when she was in middle school. Over 10 years ago. She remembered the trail being fairly easy, and she said there would be great views at the top.

This year has been dubbed by some as the year of the mushrooms, and this trail is no exception. There has been a lot of rain this year so far and the mushrooms seem to have sprouted up all over the place.

On a personal note, Shelby and I have been working really hard lately. We haven't been able to get a hike in since we hiked Washington over 3 weeks ago. Shelby has started a new job and the first month or two for her is going to be very stressful. I have also been fairly stressed out at work with the summer being very busy due to all of the thunderstorms. Thunderstorms cause power outages and outages cause complaints which I have to deal with. Needless to say, we are both lacking good sleep and needing this hike to "get away from it all." We thought that this hike would be easy, and it was a very easy trail, easy footing for the most part, but us being tired, did not help and we had a hard time getting to the top of this one.

As tough as it seemed, we soon made it to the first little ledge. We actually sat down and took a nap in the shade for 20 minutes before continuing on. When we did, we got this great view of Mt. Chocoroua.

We took only a minute at the east ledges to take a look, but from here you can see Mt. Mexico, Square Ledge, Wonalancet, and the ever ominous Passaconaway. Hedgehog sits very close to the northeast flank of Passaconaway and it is a very daunting view of the legendary mountain. I never realized exactly how steep it was on its north side as I have never seen this view before.

I climbed Mount Passaconaway last year and had a very hard time with it. I hiked Whiteface and Passaconaway as many people do in a loop, but it was only my second major hike so I was underestimating what this mountain would take out of me.

The east ledges are very steep, and again, I cannot understate the views here, they are absolutley spectacular. I can see already why this mountain is on the 52 with a fiew list. Here is a picture of me on the East Ledges with Passaconaway in the background. Shelby hates it when I get this close to the edge of cliffs and ledges. Anything for a good picture I say.

Here's a picture of Shelby following the trail to the Summit. The south and east of this mountain is filled with these ledges.

As we were hiking down, we noticed that Washington was there in front of us and who knew... it was out of the clouds. I had to take a picture. I believe that the ledges you see are Owls Cliff and Tremont to the left as well as Bartlett Haystack to the right. The Montalban range is also visible just before Washington.

We headed down the trail from here and the trail was filled with roots just like this. For the first half mile or so, the trail was really "rooty", but it got better and we were at the car before we knew it.

We had a little time and I wanted to get some new hiking poles. I have been using cheap Wal-mart ones and well... You get what you pay for. I had broken my second pair in less than a year. The locking mechanism inside is made out of cheap plastic and the screw strips the fitting which causes them to break.

We went to the newly located and expanded EMS in North Conway and looked around. It is a lot like the Portsmouth store except there is more gear and less clothes it seems. I bought a pair of Komperdel poles and a new bandana. You can never have enough bandana's. After that, we went home and showered up and said goodbye to Garrett for another year. Good Luck Garrett.

Washington & Monroe 7/30/2008

Today's the day. Shelby and I have been wanting to hike Mt. Washington for a while now. I have wanted to climb it since I drove to the top with my parents 10 years ago. It's a goal that 10 years ago, I never thought would have been possible.

I know that most people take the Tuckerman's Ravine Trail up their first time, but I had heard that one of the best loops to do would be the Ammonoosuc Ravine to Jewell Trail loop. I decided that we could probably handle this hike so we drove to the trailhead and started off at about 9:10AM.

We hiked on relatively flat ground for a bit until we passed where hikers coming from the Cog Railway parking lot would be coming from. The trail steepens from here and heads up over mostly decent footing with some rough spots. There were quite a few stream crossings that I imagine are there year round, but there were also quite a few that must have been formed from the recent rains. The trail was wet in places as well, but we were able to stay dry.

At about 2 miles, we hit the Gem pool. This spot is worthy of hiking to alone just to take a look and hang out. The cascade is probably higher now than usual due to the rain, but this is truly a tranquil spot.

We sat down here and ate some trailmix and chatted with the other hikers we would see throughout the day. We knew that we could not stay for long if we wanted to get to Washington today so we only stayed for a second.

Soon we came to a series of flat ledges that were a little more difficult to get across. The rain again made these tricky and we did get a little wet at the stream crossing at the top of the ledges.

soon after crossing these ledges, we started to get some views down into the valley and of the Cog Railway. We could also see that the clouds were fairly low and that the hope for getting decent Views rom the summit was probably a long shot. We decided to keep on trudging as we were having a good time and the day was still young. I did manage to snap this picture of the Cog going into the clouds before it was too late.

As we kept on trudging, we knew that the Lakes of the Clouds Hut couldn't be far off. I knew it was located in the col between Washington and Monroe, but I still didn't know how far away we were from it. I was hoping that the hut would come soon as I had only packed 1.5 liters of water. I figured that I could fill up at the hut and again on the Summit of Washington if the day went right. Before we knew it, the hut was in view and we were able to run inside and fill up our water supply.

I had been planning to "bag" Monroe while we were here, apparently I failed to tell Shelby this, and she didn't think she would have the energy to get Monroe and Washington today so she stayed at the hut while I ran to the top of Monroe and back.

I stashed my pack in the hut and off I went. I was at the top in no time, and stayed only long enough to take a few photos and then I hiked back down. I didn't want to keep Shelby waiting long. I was back in about 25 minutes.

When I returned, I took this photo of Mount Monroe. From the hut, it looks much more formidable than it really is. It's a fairly easy hike with only one difficult spot. There is a false summit though, so be careful.

When I got back to the hut, we ate the sandwitches that we had packed up. There's nothing like some horseradish mustard to get you going. It is also worthy to note that the water that you can get from the hut is extremely cold which is an excellent thing. I know that by the time I am on the way down from most hikes, my water's warm. Having cold water available is definitely a plus.

After eating lunch, we realized that we were only a mile and a half from our goal for the day.

One great thing about hiking above treeline is that you can see where you walked because all the trails are worn down. Here is a picture I took on Mt. Monroe of the Hut and the Lakes. There were not too many people at the hut while I was there, but the Hut is often called "Lakes of the Crowds" due to the large amounts of people who tend to flock there.

After a few minutes of hiking up the trail towards Washington, we were able to actually see a break in the clouds. The clouds were lifting and there was a chance we would see some views from the Summit today. We have seen some views already being above treeline, but it's always nice to have a view at the pinnacle of your day.

It's always nice to turn around from a grueling hike and see a view like this. The southern Presidentials and I believe Mt. Willey in the background.

After about 5 hours, we could finally say that we did it. We had reached our Main goal for the day and the Highest peak in the Northeast United States, Mount Washington. A lot of people call it George, but I always felt that I couldn't call it George until I had been aquainted with it. Now I can call it George.

The clouds cleared by the time we hit the summit,and we were able to see some spectacular views. One view I couldn't resist was the Cog that was parked waiting to board passengers.

We went inside, and again, refilled our water supply, ate a sandwitch and started to head down the mountain. we took the Trinity Heights connector to the Gulfside Trail. The clouds were beginning to roll in again as a cog went by. It was only a few hundred feet away, but we couldn't barely see it through the clouds.

As we moved towards the great gulf, the Northern Presidentials became quite evident. It doesn't show in the pictures, but these mountains are absolutely massive. From left to right you are looking at Jefferson, Adams, and Madison.

As we moved closer to the Jewell Trail, I took the last picture of the day which is of the ridge we would follow on the way down.

All in all, this was a great trip. Great views. It's also the single greatest elevation gain that Shelby and I have tackled in a single day. Maybe we will make this a yearly trip. Also, these 4000' peaks were numbers 13 and 14 for me, and number 6 for Shelby.

East Osceola 7/26/2008

It has been over a month since I have done any serious amount of hiking. The last 4000' peak I "bagged" was Mt. Osceola. We got caught in a thunderstorm up at about 3000' which kept us from going up and over Mt. Osceola to the East peak. Today we figured that since we were getting a late start, we should try to "bag" East Osceola.

We arrived at the trail head or the "base" as Shelby likes to call it at about 10:45 and found the last parking spot available. It was on the grass, but with the new vehicle, it has a little more clearance than my Jetta so we were able to avoid the larger rocks. At 11:00 we hit the trail and soon hit our first water crossing of the day. The water was very high due to the extreme amounts of rain and thunderstorms we have been having lately. All the crossings of the day were crossable despite the high water.

The rain also caused a lot of muddy patches, but we were able to get through all of them without getting the boots muddy. Only one area caused much of a problem, but with some creative thinking we were able to get around it.

The Greeley Ponds Trail was nice and flat, too bad we only got to be on it for about 1.3 miles. The day after all was about trying to get a view and getting some exercise so we had not choice but to take the Mt. Osceola Trail at the junction.

As soon as we diverted off the Greeley Ponds Trail, the trail steepened and dried out a bit. The trail seemed to relentlessly climb. I see how quickly I can get out of hiking shape after taking some time off. I'll just have to take less time off.

The steepest part however was the easiest. For the most part we were stepping over roots and rocks and everything else, but the steepest part was this ledge with great footing.

Soon enough, we were at the top. There were very limited views from the top, but we were able a quick picture with the Cairn. There were only a few people at the top. Most of the traffic that we saw was headed to Greely Ponds to hang out for a bit. Next time, we'll have to walk the extra half hour and take a look at the ponds.

We had intended on hiking over to Osceola today, but because we hadn't hiked in a while, we could feel our legs already so we decided to start on down the way we came. On the way down, we did get some pictures at the viewpoints that were there. When there are no views from the top of the peaks, it's always nice to have a view or two on the way. Just another reason I like hiking above treeline so much.

I believe that this picture is of the Hancocks and Carrigain.

All in all, another great trip in the whites.