Some 400-Footers For A Change

Hey, remember when I used to post things to my blog?

My original plan this past weekend was to head north to the Whites, join the AMC for a car camping weekend, and hike at least the 2 Osceolas. My tummy was pretty rumbly and grumbly though, and not in a good "let's have a snack Pooh Bear" kind of way. So I stayed put at home, chilled out, and then took my new hiking boots for a trail walk at one of the nature preserves here in town on Sunday afternoon.

I may not have climbed any 4000 footers this weekend, but I did bag 2 - count 'em, TWO! - 400 footers!

It's been several years since I was last at this preserve - usually I trek around at the one closer to me behind the High School. But this one has a little more varied terrain, which I definitely wanted so I could check out how the boots did.

It was almost 5 before I got on the trails. It's pretty flat going in for the first half mile or so on an old logging road.

 

Lots of swampy/marshy areas. The water is still pretty low in this neck of the woods, so there was a lot of mud, but luckily no mosquitoes this time of year.

Overall, the main loop trail is 4.5 miles long, with a lot of side loops and spurs in various areas. The nature preserve is 500+ acres in an area that used to be farmland, but for the most part the only place that's still open is the power line.

About a mile and a half in, the loop trail met back up with the power line, and I decided to cut the loop short and take the summit trail to the first of the immense mountains I would climb. Sadly, much like Zealand and the Tripyramids, it is a completely treed summit with no views.

 

Not even a USGS benchmark disk! Lame. I had to make due with a rock and a best guess for the summit location so I could take my usual feet picture, as well as the obligatory summit selfie.

 Headed back down to another old woods road turned trail. Some portions looked like they are still driveable, while other sections have had quite a bit of wash out over the years.

 

  The conservation department in town has discontinued some of the original trails, rerouted others, and created new ones. The originals are still pretty obvious. If it hadn't been getting so late, I definitely would have explored offtrail a little more. Good reason to go back soon though.
 

Note: do not enter the ground at this location. It is a dead end. Not sure if that notice is for the hikers, the snowmobilers, or the local wildlife.

I had joined up with the loop trail again by this point and started heading back towards the parking lot. But first I made a run up the other peak in the park. This one was significantly higher than the first at ~430' vs ~390'. Supposedly this was all pasture back in the day, but there appear to be plenty of trees nowadays.

As before, it was a little hard to tell where the summit was located. The free trail map at the park entrance was a little confusing in this area. Was the summit this lump of earth at the intersection with the mountain biking paths on the back side of the hill?

 Or was the summit this pile of rocks just off the trail after I turned the corner?

Ah-HA. Twenty feet further along, there was a side path to a clearing with a cairn (and campfire remains and an empty beer can. Sigh.) I was so excited to reach the actual summit that I forgot all about feet fotos and just took my selfie. Who knows if I will ever make arduous the trek back there again!

 It is much too early for there to be fallen leaves on the ground and I would like to register a complaint. There are still 2 more days of Summer left.

Back down off the mountain and heading back out to the trailhead, but there were still a few more sights to check out. There's a pretty good sized beaver lodge and dam just off the loop trail. No beavers were spotted this time! Since the last time I hiked here, they've added a couple of benches in this area, and it's supposed to be a nesting site for blue herons. It was definitely getting dusky by this time.

Headed back out the first woods road. About halfway between the beaver pond and the road, there's an old well just off the trail.

According to the town website, there are 2 old wells on the preserve property, and one is still useable.

I am thinking this well is not the useable one!

Overall, I wandered for about an hour and a half and covered somewhere around 3.5 miles. I didn't even come close to seeing half the preserve - I skipped the "back half" of the loop trail which is closer to 2.5 miles, and I didn't check out any of the spurs other than those heading to the 2 summits. There are at least a couple of old foundations on the far side of the property from where I was, as well as an intact segment of the King's Highway from the colonial era - a route created so that King George's tax collectors could move through NH more easily.

I also seem to recall an old rusted out jalopy hidden in the woods from when Merrow and I hiked this several years ago, that I didn't run across this time. Planning to go back soon when I have more time, more daylight, and a fresh camera battery.

Acceptable Reasons For Getting Up At 0-Dark-30

Saturday night I went to bed sometime after midnight-30, after spending the entire day celebrating Merrow and C's wedding.

Sunday morning the alarm went off at 3:45, and I (mostly) willingly dragged my ass out of bed at 3:49 and got dressed. Those of you who have ever seen me upright before 10AM know that I am NOT a morning person. So what made me get out of a comfy bed at the ass-crack of dawn?

The opportunity to watch the sunrise under perfect conditions from the highest point in New England, Mount Washington. The Mt Washington Auto Road opens early 3 times a year. Serendipitously, the last one for 2013 was the day after the wedding. J told me about it several weeks ago. I blew it off as an insane idea at the time - 3 hours of sleep to wind up socked in a cloud with freezing temps? No thanks. As the weekend got closer though, the forecast kept getting better and better. By Saturday night, the sunrise forecast called for 100+ miles of visibility, temps in the mid-40s, and "light" winds of 15mph. That's about as good as Mt Washington gets - EVER. We couldn't pass it up. 

So. Early morning alarm - check. Significant grumbling on Kate's part - check. Driving fast on dark twisty roads - check. Being on of the first 300 people to see the sunrise in the US - check and CHECK!

*Insert Jaw Drop Here*

Words do not describe how epically cool today was. We had a windy, rainy, chilly day, and I thoroughly enjoyed every second of it! I'm truly not sure either my words or my pictures can do it justice, so here's what you need to do.

Go to Iceland. Look up Sterna Travel in Reykjavik. Book their Golden Circle and Kerlingarfjöll Highlands tour. Try to get Gunnar as your tour guide, though I hear Cippy is also excellent. Do NOT wuss out of ANY of it, no matter what the weather conditions. Dress warmer and pack more dry clothes than you think you need, lest you wind up like me with souvenir wool long johns and wool socks! Eat the lamb stew at Gullfoss. Hear lots of stories of trolls and elves. Hike in some incredible areas and mud-ski back down. Touch a glacier. And maybe, if you are very lucky, your tour guide will sing you Icelandic drinking songs on the way home.

In Which the OMG I'm 35 Trip Turns Into the F*#% Yeah I'm 35! Trip

Sunshine in Iceland!

Today was another fantastic day. We wound up getting to bed earlier than originally planned last night - it was cloudy and the Northern Lights tour was cancelled. Made it much easier to get up early this morning!

We had a quick breakfast at our Guesthouse - cereal, fruit salad, homemade bread, cold ham and cheese, and coffee/tea/OJ. Delicious! Then we got picked up for our next tour, Reykjanes Peninsula and the Blue Lagoon.

The Reykjanes Peninsula is at the southwest corner of Iceland. Relatively flat, mostly covered with ancient lava fields, and very few houses or settlements. We saw a few "villages", some of which consisted of about 8 farmhouses. Very desolate area, even though I know this is one of the more populated parts of Iceland as it's less than an hour drive from Reykjavik. It was overcast when we started out, but the sun came out and we had such a beautiful day! Driving along the Atlantic coastline was just amazing. Again, pictures are coming (or if you know me, you can check the Book of Face) but the upload speed from the hotel is just really slow right now.

We got dropped off at the Blue Lagoon Spa around 11:30. Merrow and I were starving, so we hit up the cafe for lunch - Caesar salad and wine - before spa-ing it up. After my experience at the Dead Sea, I was expecting it to be much more sulfuric than it was, but the water was mostly just salt and calcium. The locker rooms open out into a huge thermal pool area. Some parts are warmer than others, depending on how close you are to the steam vents. We did silica mud on our faces, and then just chilled in the water for a couple of hours. It was sunny, the sky was bright blue, and it was probably about 55-60F outside. You can stand up and cool off when you get too warm, and slide back down into the water when you get chilled. No extra spa treatments for us, but we did partake of the swim-up bar. The white wine was good, but the strawberry champagne was better!

After the spa, we headed back to Reykjavik. Wandered through the local flea market, grabbed cold (non-alcoholic) beverages, poked through a few shops, and grabbed an early dinner at a place called Cafe Paris. Seemed fitting. We both had burgers, which we pretty much inhaled - long day! Unfortunately, as we were eating, the clouds started rolling back in. So strike 2 for trying to see the Northern Lights. One last chance tomorrow, which doesn't look good. Ah well, I will just have to come back!

And come back I will. Iceland is just incredible. The people are so nice and friendly, and the scenery is just amazing. Completely out of this world. Merrow and I were saying to each other tonight that we've run out of words to describe it - pretty unusual for either of us! So one photo for now, and good night.

Monday Montage

Which is posting on Tuesday. Oh well, at least I'm posting! Moving on....

Miss me? I've just been slowly going crazy with an overwhelmingly overloaded schedule here!

I spent most of Memorial Day weekend with my parents in the Lakes Region of NH. We went to the Canterbury Shaker Village on Sunday and hiking on Monday.

Earlier in June, I took this group of munchkins to Washington DC for 4 days. We had such a blast! The girls all had a fantastic trip - we got to tour the US Capitol Building, visited the Air and Space Museum and the American History Museum, spent almost 3 hours at the National Archives, walked all over the Mall, and went a giant Girl Scout Sing-Along at the Washington Monument. And I do mean GIANT:

We all had a blast at the concert, but I think the highlight of everyone's 90-degree day was when the Washington DC Fire Dept stopped by with their ladder truck. Giant sprinkler party!

Tired feet after a long day.

I left DC and flew directly to San Francisco for work. Do not pass NH, do not collect $200. I was only in town for a few days and most of it was spent either giving training classes or trying to catch up on some sleep. I did get a chance to walk around Pier 39, have a drink, and see the sea lions though! And I got to spend the night with Red and her awesome husband.

After a convoluted planes-trains-automobiles trip home from CA, my parents joined me at my house for another weekend and we hit up Ribfest. Ribs, pulled pork, bbq chicken, beer, grilled corn on the cob, fresh cut French fries, fried Oreos, and a really good Beatles cover band. Perfect weather, it was a great night.

Mom and I made a long-planned visit to see Auntie L, my grandma's twin sister. Today the twins celebrate their 83rd birthday! I will be seeing Grandma this weekend when I make the trek up to Maine for some family celebrations.

Backyard Rainbow

Home early this afternoon because of a midday dentist appointment, and was just in time to catch a late afternoon thunderstorm as it passed over. It quickly turned sunny again but kept raining, resulting in a rainbow in my backyard!

Hot Hot Hot

Right now, at 9:56 PM, The Weather Channel says it is 87 degrees in my town, and it feels like 98. I finally broke down and turned the air conditioning on in my house! I was hoping to just use it this evening to cut the humidity in here and then be able to open up the windows when I go to bed, but not if it feels like 98 a couple hours after sunset. Damn.

The cats are much happier now that I've turned on the AC - they were sad, wilty little beasties when I came home from work today. Stumbled up out of the basement all "Mom, we're hot. Make it unhot," and shedding puffs of fur.

I took advantage of my location in the center of town. Put on my bathing suit (tankini with a cover-up skirt), walked down to the chocolate shop and got a black raspberry ice cream cone, and then walked across the street to the park. This is the newest park in town, finally opened last year, and it's right along the banks of the river. There are a couple of paths down to the river bed and there is a great big sand bar, so it makes a nice swimming hole. I think about half the town has discovered this - even at 7 PM when it's starting to get dark there were a couple dozen people still there. I jumped in and sat in the water for about 20 minutes, just cooling off. The channel is deep enough to do a shallow dive into and swim around, but the rest of the water is only 2-3' deep, so once I got in and got wet, I headed back out of the main flow and just sat on the sandy gravel bottom in water up to my neck. Aaahhhhhhh.

First Hike of the Season!

Of which there are no pictures, because I forgot to check the camera last night and discovered partway up the mountain that the battery was dead. Ooops.

But I finally made it up Monadnock, which is effectively in my backyard and I had not hiked before.  Monadnock is supposedly the 3rd most-hiked mountain in the world, an internet factoid that I'm not sure I believe, but then again, it's a easy mountain not too far from Boston. It's certainly popular - even though it was Mother's Day and kind of overcast for the majority of the trip, there were plenty of other people.

I'm always amused by the wide variety of people you see on the trails on "easy" hikes. There were the 4 of us (I went with L and LaLa and L's brother) and we were all using it as a training hike - figure out what we forgot to put in the pack, remember where everything goes, determine what gear needs to be replaced, and in my case, remember which spots I need to tape on my feet before heading out. There was one serious hiker dude who was doing LAPS on the mountain - parking lot to top. He passed us heading up, passed us heading back down when we were almost to the summit, and then we met him going back up when we were about 1/4 mile from the parking lot. There was the guy on top in jean shorts who had put his bottle of grape soda down directly on top of the USGS marker, and couldn't understand why we asked him to move it. And then there were the 4 people just down from the summit who had hiked up with a radio, a videographer, and were doing interpretive dance. Yes, really. Good times!

Now my legs are pleasantly tired, I have a list of little things I need to find around the house to replace in the pack, and I'm itching to get out again and do something longer (and maybe something less popular). And remember folks, the USGS marker is not a coaster!