Kevin and I had a seasonably warm day with hardly any wind for this outing. We parked on the AuSable Club road at the trailhead for Round, where we'd be coming out, and hiked a short distance up the road to the Noonmark Trail. Signing in, we noticed that no one had been on the trail in a two days, so there were no fresh tracks, but the trail was still well broken. We followed the Noonmark Trail a ways until we reached a junction at which point we turned right onto the Stimson Trail to head up the mountain. We hadn't used our snowshoes yet and it was looking like we might not even have to. Finally, though, we decided on a little diversion from the trail to climb up some rocks, and reaching the top we needed them. Even though I've done a bunch of snowy winter hikes before, this was the very first time I'd ever put on snowshoes. They were pretty cumbersome, but I got used to them relatively quickly. The rest of the climb wasn't too bad, but I was really pooped, thanks to the snowshoes and probably my being out of shape and getting older (!). Kevin was toasting me on the trail. It was very clear and there were great views from the peak. We counted around 15 other high peaks that we could name (well, Kevin could name most of them) from there. We ate, and slid around on a big sheet of very smooth ice, providing us with our entertainment for the day. At one point, Kevin tried to jump up onto a rock but the foot he was pushing off with sank deep into snow (our snowshoes were off at the time) and he smashed his shin really hard. Nothing that affected his climbing, just a cut and some serious pain.

We continued down Noonmark on the Felix Adler Trail, sliding and romping all the way in our snowshoes. Taking a left at the Dix Trail junction, and then the next right, we found ourselves on the Round Mountain Trail. The climb was moderate, but I was again exhausted. We lost the trail a couple of times for maybe 10 minutes or so, but eventually found it again. The summit of Round also had some real nice views, despite the fact that it's not a terribly high peak. After laying out on the rocks and nearly falling asleep (in 40-degree temperatures no less!), we again skipped and slid our way down the mountain on our snowshoes, coming out right where we'd parked.

Me, myself and I had one helluva physically exhausting weekend--I'd hoped to go on a hike Saturday, but got asked by not one, not two, but three people who needed a goalie to play hockey. At 9pm Friday, as I was about to settle in for a nice sleep before my trip the next day, I checked e-mail and found that I was being asked to play the next morning at 7am, and again Sunday at 8:45am. Crazy (stupid) as I am, I decided that I'd go play some hockey and still go hiking. I slept terribly, and after 5.5 hours of ZZZs, I hit the ice for what turned out to be a refreshing, eye-opening skate. I was psyched to climb, and at 8, I high-tailed it outta Thompson Arena and hit the road, headed for the mountains. I finally got on the trail at 10:30, and hiked quickly down the relatively flat Livermore Trail that connects to both the North and South Slide Trails up Tripyramid. I passed by the South Slide Trail and continued to the North Slide Trail for my ascent. The slide was very cool, with views all the way up--just turn around, look back and you can see for miles. It was hands-and-feet much of the way up the slide, which was a challenging but exciting climb. I tried to keep moving as the guidebook said it could take around seven hours, which would put me at 5:30--not including breaks--and I wanted to make sure I got out before it started getting dark. Leaves were all over the ground, and the trail was a bit tricky to follow at times. The three peaks were wooded, but you could peek over the small pines and catch some very nice views in the right places. The South Slide Trail is a little more loose and rocky than the North Slide, and not nearly as exciting, though there was certainly no lack of views from it. After the slide, the hike out was pretty leisurely and uneventful. Needless to say, my legs were pretty wiped out, and I wasn't terribly psyched that I had to play hockey again at 10pm, but I napped, played, and all went well--same for hockey the next morning and again Sunday night at 7:30, though at one point my legs started shaking, without my consent, as I was standing in the crease. I think I'll keep these kinds of weekends to a minimum ....

Kevin and I had a battle with the elements on this one. It poured all day Saturday and then snowed on Sunday, with high winds the whole time. We ended up scrapping the second half of our hike due to a lack of preparedness for what Mother Nature dealt us.
We started up the Great Gulf trail from the parking lot on Route 16 at about 11am Saturday, and followed that trail up until it intersected the Wamsutta trail. There we set up camp at one of the designated tent sites. We then took our day packs and headed across the Buttress Trail to the Six Husbands Trail, which we took to the summit of Jefferson. The Six Husbands Trail was a lot of fun, but incredibly steep and treacherous, especially with the driving winds and pouring rain. There were some scary scrambles near big drop-offs, and a couple of cool boulder caves to squeeze through. Once on Jefferson, we headed over to Clay on the Gulfside Trail. We then backtracked a bit to the Sphinx Trail, and took that back down to the Great Gulf Trail and to camp. After sleeping with the pounding rain and loud, whipping wind all night long, we arose to find that the rain had turned to snow. The temperature was 36F. Looking up through the trees toward Madison and Adams, which we had planned to do on Sunday, we saw that everything was covered in white, the snow was coming down fast, and the wind was still whipping. The skies were somewhat clearer near us, but the peaks were still engulfed in huge puffs of white. With our boots and half of our clothes still soaking, we decided that we just weren't prepared to finish the trip as planned, so we headed out the same way we came in. Considering the weather, the trip went about as well as it could have. Those trips make you appreciate good weather all the more ....

Anna and I had a great day with nice views for this climb. We started at Tripoli Road and took the Mount Osceola Trail first to the peak of Osceola and then to East Osceola and back. It did threaten thunderstorms later in the day, but never did more than rain lightly for a short time. The trail to the main peak was pretty easy, though between the two peaks it got pretty steep, and included a chimney which was most certainly the steepest, most difficult part of any regular hiking trail that I've even seen. It was fun to climb, though! At the peak of Osceola there was a very friendly Canadian Jay that would perch on and eat right out of your hand. I also witnessed what seemed to be a "mini-tornado" move across the rock at the peak. It sounded like a plastic bag blowing in the wind, and I watched as it flung pebbles up into the air, but I couldn't see a thing--it was truly a fascinating and bewildering sight!

Katya, Denis, Sunshine, Celine and I didn't get much cooperation from the clouds as we had very few views on this trip. We took the North Twin Trail from FR304 and crossed North Twin first, continuing on the North Twin Spur to South Twin and along the ridge on the Twinway to Guyot, where the clouds finally broke just enough to give us some views of the nearby mountains. Guyot was treeless and very round on top, and pretty boring in my opinion. We all stopped there, snoozed a bit, and Denis had dreams of ravioli. We looked at Bond and West Bond to the south, but decided not to go since the views would be pretty lame. So we continued along the Twinway to the Zealand Falls Hut, but there was still too much fog and cloudiness to see anything cool from the Zeacliff outlook along the way. The riverbed of the Zealand River, when we crossed it, was pretty cool, though. It was solid bedrock for a while, and the river had worn out interesting shapes in it. From the hut we were finally able to get a glimpse of the cliffs as things cleared up just a bit, but it was nothing magnificent. We took the Zealand trail from there back out to FR16 and followed the road a bit to the Pelekhovs' car, which we had parked at the start of the Hale Brook Trail.

Cousin John and I and Lucy the puppy did this short climb on an overcast day, but it was plenty clear enough for great views from the peak. We saw lots of folks along the way, and Lucy, though still pretty small, had by far the most energy of the three of us. It threatened rain, but we made out it without seeing a drop.

Jon, Anna and I came in on the Garfield Trail from FR92 straight to the summit, where we had great views of the surrounding peaks. The weather was fantastic, though it was somewhat windy on top. We then headed east on the Garfield Ridge Trail, and took the Gale River Trail back north to FR92 again, which we took back to the car to complete the loop.

Kevin, Ethan and I had very foggy weather for a while as we hiked past several people on the Long Trail toward the summit. Instead of going to the summit directly, though, we headed over to check out the Adam's Apple and the Lake of the Clouds, the highest lake in Vermont. We followed the Hell's Brook trail to where we thought the lake would be, but missed a poorly marked intersection and started down a steep slope, which we climbed for about 10 minutes before deciding to turn back. We found the intersection that we'd missed, but still no lake. We started following the trail toward the Adam's Apple, and for some reason, Kevin turned around at some point. When he did, he noticed the lake behind us, so we turned around again and followed a very narrow trail to the lake. We had been getting very wet all the way from the condensation and dew on all of the trees, but this trail did us in for good--we were completely soaked. The lake was cool--very desolate and shallow. Finally, we headed back up toward the Adam's Apple. As we walked out of the trees into the open, the clouds seemed to suddenly lift and we could see the peak of Mansfield right in front of us. The cool wind was making us very cold, however, so we changed into some dry clothes, and all wished we'd brought mittens and hats. After a few minutes, we ascended Mansfield's main peak (the chin), where we had lunch and looked out over miles of fantastic scenery, including much of Lake Champlain. The last part of the trail to the peak was pretty steep, though up to that point it had all been pretty reasonable. After eating, we headed along the ridge, and found The Subway, a short trail running parallel to the main ridge trail which passed through a boulder field and a very cool boulder cave. Kev and I wandered off the trail a bit into one of the caves, which was pitch black. One at a time we each squeezed to the end of the cave and looked up, where we could see a tiny point of natural light squeaking through from who-knows-where. Shortly after, The Subway connected back to the main trail, and we continued along the ridge, across the lower and upper lips toward the nose. The nose trail was closed for the season for some reason, so we started heading down. We took a trail (whose name I've forgotten) which followed a downhill ski trail down the mountain. It was all open, and we felt like we were running the whole way--very stressful on the feet and knees. The trail was supposed to cut away from the ski run at some point, but I think we missed it, so we just went all the way to the bottom and to the main road, which we followed a bit back to our cars to complete the loop.

Astrid, Anna, Chris, Mark and I all ventured up the Tuckerman Ravine Trail and back down over the Lion's Head. It was a gorgeous day, and there was still snow, and a bunch of skiers, in the bowl of the ravine. It was a nice hike, but the last portion of the trail I found to be very tedious--climbing over endless medium-sized rocks, no trees or other vegetation. And at the top, of course, there was the screaming whistle and black smoke of the cog train, a bunch of buildings, cars, and lots of tourists. That aspect of the trip definitely dampened the excitement for me--the serenity and solitude are a large part of the reason I love to hike. But all of the great views along the way--including more spectacular ones from the Lion's Head on the way down, made up for the disappointment of the peak, and made for a successful trip overall.

Fred, Anna, Mark and I headed down Route 113 to find the trail to climb Doublehead, which is along the same ridge as Morgan and Percival, but despite spending well over an hour driving and walking up and down the road, we were never able to successfully determine which of the many old roads and trails into the woods was the one we wanted. So, we finally gave up and went a mile down the road to the (well-marked) trailhead for Morgan and Percival. We made a loop by going in on the Mount Morgan Trail, along the Crawford-Ridgepole Trail over the two peaks, and back down on the Mount Percival Trail back to 113. The climb was relatively easy for the most part, though there was a split in the Mount Percival Trail for a short divergent path through some boulder caves, which we took. The caves were great fun, and we had to really squeeze through some tight spots. The weather was cooperative, and we had nice views of Squam Lake and the surrounding area. We also got a hack at each peak. (Originally, we had planned to do the Tripyramids this weekend, but with Fred's invitation to visit Bearcamp, we decided to make it a small one so we could spend some time swimming and doing other camp stuff.)

Sunshine, Celine and I had an absolutely fantastic day for this outing. We hit the road at shortly after 5am, and after having a little trouble finding the trailhead, hit the woods at about 8:30. We took the Hammond Trail to the Liberty Trail and up to the summit of Chocorua. After taking in the spectacular views, eating some lunch, and basking in the sun for a while, we continued over part of the Three Sisters on the Middle Sister Trail to the Carter Ledge Trail. From there, we followed the Carter Ledge Trail to the Nickerson Ledge Trail to the Piper Trail. At that point, we followed the Piper Trail a short distance to the Weetamoo trail which we took back across to the Hammond Trail. From there we just followed that trail back out to the car. Except at the peak, where we saw lots of folks who had apparently come up the popular Piper Trail, we saw almost no one the whole way. There were many great viewpoints along the way, and we managed to find some blueberries to snack on along the way as well. At one point along one of the trails (that first unnamed one, I think), we spent about a half-hour searching for the trail in an open area where it was difficult to follow. The hike went pretty smoothly otherwise, though we did encounter some very strange purple "stuff" on the ground which seemed to be a colony of zillions of miniscule bug-like creatures jumping around. I still wonder what the heck that stuff was. [Note: There's a chance that we took the Middle Sister Trail all the way around in a big loop instead of the "unnamed" trails I described ... I can't remember for certain, though I'm pretty sure we didn't.]

NOTE (09/22/99): After a bit of studying the map (two years later), I'm 99% sure we didn't take the Middle Sister Trail the whole way around.

Anna and I headed up the Beaver Brook Trail at about 5:30pm, hoping to meet Mark and a bunch of others at the top to watch the fireworks. We'd then hike down the other side of the mountain to the Moosilauke Lodge. The trail was extremely steep and damp from the nearby brook, with lots of handrails and man-made steps. I thought it was great, though I don't think it was Anna's idea of fun. After the steep part, the ascent was gradual, but the wind was picking up, it was getting foggy, and it was much colder. At about 7:30 we were walking along an open part of the trail where there was an incredible amount of blowdown, and the wind was coming across steadily. We were just thinking of putting on what few pieces of warmer clothes that we had when we passed a hiker who expressed his concern about us heading up to the top. He scared me a bit with his description of how cold, foggy and windy it was, and I began to wonder if Mark and the others would decide not to ascend the mountain and meet us after all. Not having climbed in the dark myself in ages (if ever), being with an inexperienced hiker, and not being fully prepared for bad weather conditions was starting to make me worry. Additionally, on the steep part of the climb up, Anna had expressed strongly how glad she was that we didn't have to go back down such a steep trail because the steepness made her very uncomfortable. So we stopped for a little while, studied the map, and laid out our options. We could continue the climb--we figured we were within a mile of the peak--but in doing so we'd risk being alone, cold, and possibly lost (I suspected that the peak might be rocky and bare to some extent, making it tricky to follow the trail), all after dark. We could go back to the junction not too far behind us and take the Asquam-Ridge Trail over to the lodge, but that trail was longer overall, and along a ridge which was sure to be exposed and cold, and we wouldn't make it before it got dark. Finally, we could turn back and head out the way we came in. If we hurried, we could probably make it out before dark. We had about 1.5 hours of light left, and it had taken us about 2 hours to get to where we were. Predictably, Anna did not want to go back down the way we came, but I strongly recommended it, since it seemed like a better option than hiking down unfamiliar trails after dark in cold, foggy weather. After some debate, we turned around and headed back down. It was slow-going down the steep part, with many slips, but we made it out about 10 minutes after turning our flashlights on. I guess the trip was successful in that we made it out safely!

Travis and Kevin came into town to pay me a visit before Trav headed down to Florida, and since Kev hadn't seen The Barn yet. We headed up Smarts in overcast weather, and never had many views as it drizzled and got more and more foggy as we approached the summit. It was a relatively easy climb, and we hiked up the tall old fire tower when we reached the peak. When we got up to the top of it, we found four med students who had just finished their first year and were celebrating with champagne. We all squeezed in, as the top was enclosed and the wind and wetness outside were cooling us off fast. We ate lunch with them and chatted for a while before they took off. After fiddling around in the tower for a while, we headed back down as well. We played Ghost a good part of the way up and down the mountain, and chatted and reminisced quite a lot too. It was the first time in ages that the three of us had done anything like this together, and may have been the last time for quite a while. Despite the weather, we all had a great time talking and laughing about all kinds of random brotherly stuff.

Anna, Laura, Matt, James, Mark, Chris, and I made this climb on a beautiful day. The bare, open top was pretty cool, and there's a small fire tower that actually still has someone working it. A bunch of us went on a quest to find some caves that supposedly lie between Cardigan and Firescrew, but after bushwhacking through thick growth for a while on a hardly-used path, the best we could find were some big boulder overhangs--still not sure if these are what they meant by `caves' or not.

Aaron, Anna, Senthil, Mark and I headed out in the late afternoon for this relatively short, but nice, hike. The black flies were nasty, but the hike went OK and there were nice views from the top, although as I write this months later, I can't remember them very well ....

While I was in the middle of my pilgrimage to the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto, Andy decided that he'd take me and his cousin Paul to learn a little bit about rock climbing. We went to a place called Buffalo Crag escarpment near Milton, Ontario, Canada. This crag is part of the 2000 kilometer long Niagara Escarpment. After a short hike in, Andy taught Paul and I a few things, such as how to wear the equipment, how to tie a top-rope properly, how to belay someone, and what the standard lingo is to help ensure safe climbing. We hiked up to the top of the roughly 60-foot high ledge, tied our rope to a tree, and then dropped it down. We hiked back down and began taking turns climbing.

I remember that Paul was like Spiderman--he just flew right on up the face with ease. I, on the other hand, was pretty slow and tentative. I remember being full of fear at one point when my arm muscles were really tired and I thought for sure I was going to fall off. I honestly felt like I was going to plummet to my death, forgetting that there was a rope to hold me! I never did fall, except for one short practice fall, and I did make it to the top of the ledge before the day was over. All in all, though, I wasn't too excited about going rock climbing again. I guess my fear of heights was still preventing me from enjoying the fun of the climbing itself--I can't deny that I do love climbing things.