Chocoroua 7-19-09

So today Shelby and I decided that we really needed to get a medium length training hike in before our trip to Baxter State Park next weekend. We are planning on doing an 11-12 Mile Summit of Baxter and Hamlin Peaks on Katahdin next weekend and I have only hiked this distance 2 times and Shelby has never hiked this distance. Forget the 4000+' of elevation gain.

Shelby has had problems with her Patellar tendon. A while back we had been hiking smaller hikes and then jumped to a 9.5 mile trek of Moosilauke. Her doctor told her to build up the mileage to the levels she wanted to hike at, not just jump from 5 to 10 miles. My patellar tendons ache quite a bit while I'm hiking but once I'm in the car on the ride home, my knees are fine and I only have the typical muscle soreness that accompanies any strenuous activity. We decided that we would stick with around 8-9 miles and tackle Chocoroua.

We hit the roada bout 7:30AM and hit the trailhead about 9:10AM. We made pretty good time to the first trail junction but we did make it a point to hydrate well today. We have not been hydrating well during hikes only going through less than a liter on our last hike.

We kept on trudging until we reached the Carter Ledge as well as Nickerson Ledge. We ate a few handfuls of blueberries along the way until we reached this Scree field. We didn't see the hard right turn here and tried to make our way up the scree field until it was obvious that we were idiots and we turned around only to find the very obvious turn in the trail.



We kept on up along the ridge and eventually found our way on the very large rock slabs towards the summit of the sisters. There are 3 sisters North, Middle and South. We would be touching all 3 today.

Just as we touched the South Sister, Shelby took a fall. Her foot slipped out underneath her and she fell and scraped her leg and landed on her thigh. You could tell it hurt but it wasn't bruised yet. We sat down on top of South Sister until I could squeeze a smile out of Shelby and we kept moving.



This mountain has not been kind to Shelby. Last time we were up here, she was in newer boots and they bruised her ankle also, it was her first long hike at the time and she was not enjoying it so much. After she fell she pretty much had her mind made up that "I'm never hiking this mountain again!!"

We did keep pushing on however and soon enough came to Middle Sister where there is a small weather station in what looks to be an old shelter.



We made our way to Chocoroua and took a nap for about 45 minutes until we finally decided to head down. Shelby hates the steep scramble at the top of this mountain and finally laughed that I was taking her picture constantly trying to make her day more enjoyable.



On the way down I took a picture of the ledges that we had hiked over on the way up.


We made it back to the car and headed home. Shelby's legs hur the entire trip down but not because she strained her Patellar Tendon but because she twisted it on the trail. She's definately right. This mountain just isn't good to her. Hopefully she'll be ok before we take the 5.5 hour road trip to Baxter State Park on Friday.

Cannon 7-3-09 Basin 7-4-09

This weekend is the Fourth of July Weekend and Shelby and I both have Friday off. We are going to be camping with the Murdough's through the weekend but wanted to get at least one hike in.

We had originally planned on hiking Liberty and Flume as it was fairly close to where we would be camping but because of our late start, we decided we just did not have the time. We decided to do a fairly quick hike up Cannon Mountain with a detour on the way down to Lonesome Lake Hut.

We got everything packed up and hit the road at about 9:00AM. We stopped a few times and we stopped at the Lincoln Woods Visitor Center to get my new Annual Parking Pass. 25 bucks for a pass for 2 vehicles for the season. It's the best 25 dollars I ever spent. Shelby obviously from the picture below wasn't looking forward for the long ride ahead.



We arrived at the trailhead and hit the trail at about 12:30 and soon came across the sign stating that the hut was only a little ways up the trail.



The trail was muddy but not too bad and it seemed like it went on forever. It's only 2.8 miles from the summit using the Lonesome Lake, Hi-Cannon and Kinsman Ridge Trails.

A good ways up the trail, we came upon the first view of the day of the Hut below.


We continued along the trail and we knew we were nearing the summit as the non hiking tourist crowd was hanging around no the trails around the summit. We knew it would be busy up here as the tramway brings people up the mountain from the ski area.

It was cloudy today however and the only view of the day was to the west.



We stuck around just long enough to take a few pictures and eat a quick tuna sandwich and then we headed down the Kinsman Ridge Trail to the lonesome lake trail. The half a mile or so of the Kinsman Ridge Trail from the Hi-Cannon Junction to the Col between the Cannonballs is very steep and was very difficult for us. Half a mile downhill for us is usually 15 - 20 minutes. It took us 45 minutes to do this section. It didn't help that it was wet. Below is a picture of Shelby conquering the steeps.



Soon enough we came to the Lonesome Lake Trail and continued down until we saw this tree.



We thought the tree was pretty cool but continued on the trail and eventually we came upon Lonesome Lake. We turned right around the lake and walked on the tons of bog bridging that there is until it was washed out. We only had about .1 miles to go to the Hut too. This was disappointing.



With all the rain, it's no wonder the trail washed out and there are a ton of new bog bridging materials ready to be put together by the trail crews in this area.



Right after we turned around, we got a pretty good view of the Franconia Ridge. We're hoping to get up there again at some point in August. We're getting pretty good at the self portraits.



We turned around and headed back to the car and headed off to our campsite at Maplehaven in North Woodstock, NH.

We set up our tent and got a fire going and cooked dinner and of course it rained off and on, but we did get in an hour by the fire or so before we had to go in.

Ryan and Sarah Like Smores!



So do Shelby and I.



On 7/4/2009 we woke up early as it had rained all night and neither of us were in the mood to hang out in the rain. We went to Peg's for Breakfast after taking a very quick shower and cleaning up. We discovered Peg's a few years back and eat there whenever we're in the area. They serve Real Maple Syrup and the prices are very reasonable.

We would be going to the Basin area today to explore with Ryan, Sarah and their kids. They stayed in a cabin for the weekend while Shelby and I stayed in a tent.



We arrived at the Basin Parking area and crossed route 93 in the tunnel underpass and turned left to go visit the "Little Flume".



We then went and took a look at the Basin.



We did the loop around the Basin and back to the car. Shelby and I wanted to go look at the Indian Head view while Ryan and Sarah went back to the cabin so their kids could take a nap. They are only 1 and 2 years old.

Shelby and I found the profile view of the Indian Head but didn't climb the tower. The view was pretty good just from the parking lot. I wouldn't say that it was necessarily worth the trip however.

We went back to the cabin and spent the day just hanging out and avoiding the constant scattered showers that went overhead. Every time we would get a fire going or try to cook it would rain. Not fun.

We went to bed however just as the fireworks in Lincoln were ending and listened to the constant pop of bottle rockets for about an hour before finally falling asleep.

We didn't get rained on all night this time and we woke up fairly refreshed. We slowly cleaned up and packed up camp and took off with the Murdough's towards North Conway on the Kancamangus Highway.



We stopped at most of the viewpoints along the way and enjoyed the views. Shelby's enjoyed the lookout closest to Conway.



When we got to North Conway, we walked around for a bit and then headed home. Sunday was a beautiful day thank god. We haven't had many of these this summer so far. Thanks Murdough's for a great weekend.