2007-01-05--2007-01-07: Grey Knob and Adams

John and I picked up some food on the way out of Lebanon and ate on the
drive up to the DOC's Billings Lodge, on Route 2.  It was very rainy and
warm outside, fairly depressing weather, especially for January.  We got
in to the cabin without any issues, made a fire, and packed up our
backpacks for tomorrow.  We got to sleep maybe around 21:30.

In the morning it was still rainy and warm.  We had oatmeal for
breakfast, then headed down the road to the Appalachia parking area and
started down the trail around 07:20.  We hiked in summery clothing up
the Amphibrach and Hinck's Trails, over sometimes icy but mostly just
wet trails, up to the Randolph Mountain Club's Gray Knob cabin.  It
rained on and off, though we also got quite wet with sweat, despite
dressing down considerably as we made our way uphill.  We met the
caretaker, named Matt, and had a long lunch, starting at about 11:30.
We changed into dry clothes, too, as we were pretty drenched by the time
we arrived.  We met two hikers who'd stayed there last night and just
came down from a little jaunt up towards Mount Adams.  After lunch we
hiked up towards Adams ourselves, through high winds and still nearly
snowless trails.  Thankfully, the rain had stopped, though it was still
very cloudy/foggy.  We got to Thunderstorm Junction, where we passed two
other very wet-looking hikers, and decided to turn back rather than
attempt to summit Adams, since it was about 14:15 and we wanted to play
it safe with daylight possibly running short.  The hike back was quick
and the fogginess started to clear at lower elevations; we could see the
valley below.  Got back around 15:40, made a short run to filter some
water from a nearby spring, and then relaxed throughout the evening,
talking with Matt and eating.  Matt made a fire for a short while, which
helped us dry out our drenched clothes.  We headed to bed upstairs in
the loft by 21:00.

We got up around 07:00 and had hot oatmeal for breakfast.  I was feeling
itchy on my wrists and lower legs, felt like little bug bites or a rash
or something.  I tried not to let it bother me.  We packed up our full
packs, said bye to Matt, and hit the trail at about 08:50.  It had
snowed a few centimeters during the night and gotten colder.  We hiked
over to the Crag Camp (another of the Randolph Mountain Club's cabins,
which I'd seen many times before from afar, but never been to), took a
brief look, then headed up the Spur Trail to Thunderstorm Junction
again.  Everything was white and frosty today, and rime covered just
about everything too.  It was still pretty windy, but a little less so
than yesterday.  We decided to go over Adams, and started up pile of icy
rocks, following the cairns in the thickening fog.  Someone else had
already been up and back down, and I saw their prints frequently.

We made it up a little before noon, and the wind was crazy up there,
blowing at about 60-70 miles per hour, or so we estimated based on the
weather forecasts from the Mount Washington Observatory.  We stayed up
there for about five minutes trying to figure out the right way to
continue, then headed down the Gulfside Trail, though our map had it
labeled as the Air Line, I thought.  It was tough going down, and
finding the cairns was not always easy (because of the thick fog), but
wasn't too bad.  We passed one solo hiker on the way, then continued on
down, without any trouble, to Madison Hut.  There we met several other
hikers and chatted with them while eating a hearty lunch on the leeward
side of the hut.  We then headed down Valley Way, which was mostly snowy
but a bit icy in spots, and turned onto the Lower Bruin Trail to
the Brookside Trail, both of which were tough trails--bad footing,
steep, lots of roots and some blowdown.  Eventually we took the Kelton
Trail to the Inlook Trail and got some nice views of the valley and back
up the mountain--both peaks were now free of fog under blue skies.  We
made a steep descent back to the Valley Way, then took the Fallsway
trail and Maple Walk toward the end of the hike.  We talked to a friendly
older couple back at the parking area, then packed up and hit the road
at about 16:00.

2007-03-17--2007-03-18: Grand Canyon via Bright Angel Trail

Sherry and I drove west toward the Grand Canyon after visiting her
friends on the Hopi Reservation, stopping at a grocery store in Tuba
City to get snacks and hiking food.  Once in the park, along the south
rim, we passed several parking areas and viewpoints, and got some views
from the car as we drove past.  It was magnificent, even more amazing
than I'd expected.  It made me think of a fractal, because it's really
not just one canyon, but includes all of the side canyons of the main
Colorado River canyon, and side canyons of those canyons, and so on and
so on.  We only stopped at one parking area, and only for about a
minute, since we wanted to hike and needed to start as early as
possible.  We got to the backcountry office at about 12:05, only to find
that they were closed from 12:00-13:00--how frustrating!  But we spent
the time wisely, going through our gear and getting our packs all ready
to go, and getting changed.  We then went back to wait for them to open
and chatted with a friendly Canadian guy who was also looking for a
permit for the Bright Angel Campground, the main campground at the
bottom of the canyon where we hoped to stay.  He kindly said that we
could have first priority in case there was only one spot left.

Finally the desk reopened and sure enough, there was only one spot left,
so we took it.  The lady park ranger was stern about how late we were
starting and how long it would take, but she seemed satisfied that we
knew what we were getting into.  We got the permit, hiked over to the
rim of the canyon from the parking lot, and started down the Bright
Angel Trail at about 13:30.  It was not too hot out, but very sunny and
dry.  The trail was, as expected, full of switchbacks alongside of cliff
walls.  But only in a couple of spots was it so narrow and exposed that
it made me a little nervous.  We encountered many tourists and amateur
hikers on our way down, and lots of backpackers, many of them looking
miserable, who were heading back up.  Going down was tough on our legs
and toes, and I was really regretting having brought boots that I knew
weren't very comfortable.  In truth, we didn't stop to think much about
the difficulty of the hike; some friends had recommended this particular
trip to us, and for some reason I just assumed it was reasonable.
However, it was 9.6 miles each way, and about 4000 feet of elevation
change, which actually adds up to two pretty tough days, especially
considering it's a desert climate.

Nonetheless we continued steadily down, taking in the amazing views
while cursing the thousands of erosion-control logs placed across the
pathway.  We also passed a couple of mule trains carrying tourists, a
couple of rest houses (though we didn't go in them), and even saw some
old pictographs on a boulder in one spot.  We made it down to Indian
Garden, roughly the halfway point, in about 2.5 hours.  There we used
the rest rooms, filled our water bottles, and sat on a bench in the
plentiful shade.  While resting, we chatted with a solo hiker who said
he'd been hiking since 01:00 and had traversed the canyon to the north
rim and was now on his way back up to his starting point.  He was
friendly, and clearly very fit, and we had a nice chat.  I recommended
the NH Presidential traverse to him, and he'd heard of it.  We continued
from the garden, which had a campground that we probably should have
stayed at instead of going all the way down, in retrospect.  It also had
a number of trees, including one kind that was sporting colorful violet
buds, and was very pretty.  We passed a junction with the Tonto Trail on
the right, and a trail on the left going out to Plateau Point, which
from above looked like a hike to a nice viewpoint, but which we didn't
have time for.  We continued down from Indian Garden, now following a
small stream in a miniature canyon of its own.  We paused for rests and
drinks frequently, though still managed to get somewhat dehydrated I
think.

The temperature rose as we descended, but one benefit of our late start
is that it wasn't nearly as hot lower down as it was during the day (it
was supposedly 95F at the bottom).  On our last significant descent of
the day, views opened up into the lower canyons, and it was wonderful to
see all of the color and shape variations in the layers of rock, both
close to us and in ever-increasing distances over each consecutive
horizon of the canyons within canyons within canyons.  The last steep
descent began by following the path along the side of a steep cliff
before going through a few tight switchbacks down into a side canyon of
the Colorado River.  While walking through that side canyon, we heard
what sounded like the bleating of sheep.  As dusk set in, I squinted to
find these elusive animals down in the reeds of the stream in the small
canyon below us, but to no avail.  Eventually Sherry figured out that it
was frogs!  Sure enough, we did spot a few frogs--not even very
big--bellowing out.  The sound was quite loud and very eerie echoing off
the canyon walls, but we loved it.

We had the canyon to ourselves, not having seen more than a couple of
hikers since leaving Indian Garden.  There were two Asian guys who were
a little ways ahead of us, but that was about it.  After hiking the
gentle downslope of that side canyon for a bit, we reached one last rest
house, where we took a short break.  Just after that we reached the
Colorado, and though it certainly wasn't a raging river, it was wide,
muddy, powerful, and certainly daunting.  The trail followed the river
for about a mile, perhaps one or two hundred feet up on a cliff wall for
a while.  There were some narrow spots in the trail with steep drops
right down to the river which gave me the jitters, but for the most part
it wasn't very scary.  Eventually the lower canyon widened somewhat and
the trail was not so precarious.  It passed through a couple of sandy
dunes, and our feet were thankful for the softness underfoot.  The trail
zigzagged into short side canyons a couple of times, maintaining its
elevation rather than dropping down and back up.  In those spots we
started to see bats flying around, and they buzzed us a few times.

About a half mile along the river we got a look at the Silver Bridge,
which we would eventually use to cross over to our campground.  That
gave us a little extra motivation, since at this point we were pretty
worn out and couldn't wait to reach our destination.  I was also getting
concerned about the darkness, too, though we did have headlamps.
Eventually we made it to the bridge, and just before doing so we passed
the two Asian men who'd been in front of us; they were heading back the
other way.  It surprised me--they had a long way to go if they were
returning to Indian Garden.  All they had on were day packs, and I was
really tempted to ask them if everything was OK, but I didn't, so I
guess I'll never know.

Crossing the bridge was a little scary, since it was so long, and you
could see right through the metal grates underfoot down to the mighty
Colorado.  It didn't help that the grates rattled fiercely, and you
couldn't help but wonder how recently they'd been safety-tested.
Luckily at least the railings were tall and sturdy, and the bridge was
generally solid so that it wasn't swaying or anything like that.  Even
at a quick pace it took a couple of minutes to get across because the
river is so wide.  We were relieved to have that behind us, and
continued on.  Also visible from farther away were some nearby
buildings, perhaps stables for mules and horses.  We hiked past those
and around a bend to a second, much smaller bridge across the Bright
Angel Stream.  We were getting close.  We crossed that, made a left turn
at a junction, and could see lights across the stream from other
backpackers in the campground.  We were annoyed that to get the
campground we had to hike a little ways further up the trail, cross
another bridge back over the stream, and then hike in the other
direction back through the campground to find an empty spot.  At this
point, we just wanted to stop hiking and rest our feet, and wished the
bridge had been at the closer end of the campground.

As it turned out, as soon as we crossed back over, the first two sites
were empty.  We dropped our packs and walked to the rest rooms (at the
other end of the campground), and spotted a couple of other empty sites
along the way.  It was shortly after 19:00, and just about time to get
out headlamps.  Still, I guess we weren't the last party to arrive for
the night.  The bathrooms were not what you'd expect in supposed
backcountry--they were like what you'd find in a drive-in campground,
including sinks and flush toilets.  I'd have been more surprised, but
the ranger had mentioned it when we were getting our permit, and we'd
also seen signs of the water system (pipes buried under the trail) as we
hiked along, as incongruous as it seemed in the otherwise primitive
backcountry.

We decided to move our gear to a different site, slightly more private,
and got our tent set up right away.  During that process I realized that
the batteries were dead in one of my headlamps, so we had to work with
just one.  Then we took out our food to eat, as we were pretty hungry by
that point.  I realized I had failed to bring utensils, so we had to
make do without.  Mostly we used the knife on my multitool.  Our food
was in atypical packaging for a backpacking trip, having picked it up at
a grocery store earlier in the day.  We had some small flour tortilla
shells, which we laid down on ziploc bags and plastic hand-warmer
packages as plates.  Then we used the knife to spread refried beans,
direct from the can, onto them, followed by slices of fresh orange bell
pepper that I cut up on the spot, and finally followed by salsa, direct
from a glass jar.  It wasn't the best dinner in my opinion, but it
satisfied both of us.  We cleaned up, got our gear into the tent, put
the rest of our food in the provided metal bins, and headed off to
dreamland.

As usual, I slept so-so, and so did Sherry.  We both had lots of dreams,
not always pleasant, which seems to be the norm for us while hiking.  I
kept dreaming about animals getting our food, or rain getting us wet,
and such other potential problems.  At around 04:30 we both got up and
made our way to the rest room.  For a while after that it was tough to
sleep because a number of other campers were up and about, talking and
shining their lights around.  I guess because of the high temperatures
in the canyon, some die-hards like to get a really early start.

Eventually I fell back to sleep, with the aid of earplugs, and I did
manage to get a good bit of rest in the end.  We slept in till around
08:15.  We took our time getting up, eating some nutrition bars for
breakfast, and packing up the tent.  We started hiking, retracing our
route from yesterday, at 09:45.  It was another beautiful day, and
though the sun was beating down, the temperatures in the bottom of the
canyon were still comfortably low.  We recrossed the two bridges over
Bright Angel Stream, taking the time to read an informational sign about
the area.  We also dunked our hats in the stream to cool off a little.
Then we passed the buildings near the big Silver Bridge.  We heard a
hissing sound (which I'd heard last night, too) and determined that it
was water spraying from pipes (intentionally), to keep the plants around
the buildings growing, I guess.  Then we crossed the big bridge, which
was much less scary for some reason--probably because it was nice and
bright out, and we weren't feeling wobbly on our legs like we were last
night.

We continued along the trail on the other side, snapping photos and
passing day hikers here and there who were probably just coming down to
the river from Indian Garden.  We also saw a few rafters pass by on the
water.  It was cool in the shade, but hot in the sun.  Soon we were back
to the side canyon where the trail departs from the Colorado.  We
stopped near the rest hut just up that canyon to dunk our hats and cool
off again.  We continued dunking as we crossed streams all day, until
Indian Garden at which point there was no more running water.  The views
were even better on our way up, owing to the higher sun and shorter
shadows.  We saw a bunch more lizards than yesterday, too, and they
varied in size and coloration.  We stopped and watched them, sometimes
bobbing up and doing (doing push-ups, it appeared), or skittering along
a rock.  One even seemed to be going to get a drink of water from a
stream.

We continued up steadily, making fairly good progress, considering we
were still a little worn out from yesterday.  We reached Indian Garden
around 13:00, and found a shady spot in the campground (under a
man-made roof) to eat lunch.  We had the same meal as last night's
dinner, though this time we discovered that my Nalgene bottle
insert--the little plastic thing that makes it easier to drink from the
wide-mouthed bottles--made a pretty good scoop for refried beans and
salsa.  After eating, we made our way back downhill a short distance to
refill our water bottles.  The downhill was pretty painful, irritating
our aches and blisters from yesterday.  Going uphill on the other hand,
was much less painful.

After refilling, we continued, much more exposed to the sun for the next
few miles.  We didn't move quickly, and took breaks frequently to rest,
drink, and snack, yet still we passed more people (all day hikers) than
passed us!  In fact, only a few people passed us the whole time, to our
surprise.  We chatted with a few people here and there--a friendly young
couple who offered us some food (we declined, we still had some) and an
older woman who asked us to relay a message to her husband that she was
OK, just going really slowly.  It turned out he was just around the
bend, and we didn't have to give the message.  We also talked to one
young woman who was hurrying down, hoping to make it to Indian Garden
and back, though we told her that might be tough.  We saw her later on
and found out she didn't go that far, which was probably a good thing.

I thought we would really be dragging as we got nearer to the rim, but
we actually maintained our pace really well.  We certainly were getting
pretty tired, but the prospect of being done motivated us.  We started
seeing a lot of tourists near the top who were just wandering short
distances down the trail.  We weaved our way through them, and one
friendly guy real close to the end seemed very happy for us, and after
talking to him briefly, he started humming "We Are the Champions" as
Sherry and I held hands walking up the final stretch.  It was pretty
goofy, but made us laugh.  We reached the rim at about 17:10, very
happy, and very tired.

2007-06-23: White Rock Mtn. and Mt. Hunger

After some trouble finding the trailhead, Sherry and I hit the trail at
11:30 for this approximately 6 mile hike.  The Middlesex Trail went
through the woods briefly, then followed an open old road for a while
before re-entering the woods.  As we walked, I tried to identify a tree
or two, eventually getting obsessed with birches, specifically, trying
to figure out which was which between the two kinds I could see (one
with very white bark, one with silvery-gray bark).  I'd brought my tree
field guide, but still couldn't figure it out with certainty.  I figured
the two kinds were probably paper birch and gray birch (aka white
birch).  Shortly after the trail re-entered the woods, there was a trail
register, and we signed in.  Five others had signed in before us, one of
whom we'd passed shortly after starting in.  We signed in ourselves and
continued along as the trail started getting a little steeper--the first
section had been very flat.  Before too long we reach a trail junction,
and turned left to head up toward White Rock Mountain first.  Eventually
we'd loop back around to this junction before backtracking out.  The
trail got much narrower, overgrown and steeper at this point, with a lot
of tough little sections to scramble up.  At one point Sherry spotted
two little gray moles scurrying down along the trail, and we managed to
get some good looks at them.  A moment later, I hiked around a bend and
found a dog, which perhaps explains the scurrying moles, though maybe it
was just a coincidence.  We passed the dog and his friendly owner and
continued on, soon emerging from the trees to the exposed bedrock near
the summit of White Rock Mountain.  There were excellent views all
around as we climbed and scrambled our way up a few challenging spots,
making our way to the true summit around 13:00.  We took in some views,
then found a little sheltered spot and ate lunch while staring out over
the valley to the east.  We put on warm clothes and hats, as it was
quite windy and chilly.  After eating, we set out for Mount Hunger, and
found the trail quite rough.  It was wet, narrow, rooty, and all-around
difficult.  We each slipped a few times, and at one point Sherry slammed
her knee pretty hard, cutting it.  We stopped and cleaned it out and put
on a small bandage, and she was able to continue without a problem after
the initial sharp pain had faded.  Eventually we reached a junction just
below the summit of Hunger, where the trail clearly became much more
heavily used.  I guess the western approach is much more popular.  We
scrambled up the steep rocky trail to the summit, passing a bunch of
people coming down, and took in the views once again.  We wandered
around the rocky summit area and found a nice spot to sit down for a
snack.  It was about 14:30.  After this nice break was over, we found
the trail that headed east and started down.  It was even steeper than
the hike up, and the exposed--and sometimes slippery--bedrock made for a
tricky and unpleasant descent.  Just as we were reaching the last of the
exposed rock, we encountered a friendly group of four that were hiking
up with an awful lot of dogs--seven in all.  It seemed a little over the
top to me.  While talking with them, they heard one of their dogs back
down the trail, apparently unable to make it up a steep part, so Sherry
and I headed down to try and encourage him.  He was leery of us, and I
couldn't really do much to help him, but eventually he found a way
through the woods around the steep, wet rock that was troubling him.  It
really was a tricky spot, about 20 feet long and tough enough that
someone had installed a rope to help hikers out.  We continued down from
there, thankful as the trail got less and less difficult.  Despite that,
I still managed to have a good fall when an otherwise good stepping
stone became very slippery when a fern got between it and my foot--as
bad as a banana peel, it seemed.  Unfortunately, I had my camera in my
pocket, unprotected, and though I came out unscathed, it did not.  I had
broken the fragile LCD screen, and was upset with myself for not having
kept it in it's usual case in my pocket.  It still worked, though, and
soon we reached a beautiful little waterfall, it's spray glistening in
the afternoon soon, and I took some shots.  Soon thereafter we rejoined
the main trail and completed the loop.  We backtracked our way out from
there, stopping briefly here and there to look at trees or bugs or other
curiosities of nature.  We passed a few more people, and a couple more
dogs, before we reached the parking lot at around 16:20.

2007-06-29--2007-07-01: Sam's Cabin

Sherry and I, and Jon and Clint headed north to the Grant (in two
separate cars), arriving at Sam's Cabin around midday.  The weather was
beautiful, and the drive was easy.  We had lunch in the cabin, then
Sherry and I went for a bike ride.  We did a loop up Dead Diamond Road,
west across the river (past Monahan's Bathtub, where we stopped
briefly), then back down Loomis Road and east along Swift Diamond Road
back to the cabin.  We saw lots of grouse along the way, and other
interesting things.  We saw five other cyclists (two parties of 2 and 3)
along the way.  It was an enjoyable ride.  Got back and Jim and Suzie
hadn't arrived yet, to our surprise, so Sherry and I decided to cook
dinner.  Originally, they were supposed to cook Friday night, and we
Saturday.  We grilled skewered chicken and veggies, and Jim and Suzie
arrived soon after we started.  Jim put on some fish for himself.  It
took a while, and we had a little trouble (burning some of the veggies),
but eventually ate (at maybe 20:30?), and it was quite good.  Then we
cleaned up from dinner and all played some charades, which was fun.  At
23:00, Sherry and I drove out to the gate just to see if Sunshine was
there (she wasn't), and we got a good look at the bright full moon.  We
got back and continued playing charades, and soon Sunshine arrived,
around midnight, along with her dog Meg.  We played some more charades
and Sunshine ate.  We all eventually headed to bed around 01:30.

Slept well, up at 08:00, though most others were up earlier.  Had a good
breakfast cooked by Jim and Jon, then we all hiked up to Diamond Peak,
the trail being right next to our cabin.  We enjoyed the view and had
snacks up there and relaxed a while.  On the way back a few of us
bushwhacked on the overgrown trail up to Alice's Ledge, which afforded
only limited views.  We all then had some lunch at the cabin, and after
a little break, Sherry, Jim, Suzie, and myself went on a long bike ride
up to Hellgate Gorge and back, stopping at several places along the way.
The others went for a walk/hike to Rand's Rock Round-About Trail, which
turned out to be quite muddy (it's mostly a cross-country ski trail, I
think).  They got back a little after we did.  Suzie and Jim made yummy
tacos for dinner, and a bunch of us played some Boggle while they
cooked.  After eating and cleaning up, several of us played Texas Hold
'Em for a while, which Sherry finally won in the end.  Other than me,
Sherry, and Suzie, everyone went to bed fairly early, being very tired
after little sleep last night.

Clint and Sunshine made tasty breakfast burritos, we all cleaned up the
place and Jon and Sunshine headed out, since they both had long drives.
The rest of us drove north up Dead Diamond Road and to Halfmoon Beach,
where we'd stopped briefly yesterday.  It was chilly, but we swam a bit,
skipped stones, saw a huge spider and a leech, and played some sand (and
water) bocce.  We all headed home at that point, Sherry and I driving
together with Clint.  On our way down Route 16, we stopped and watched a
moose grazing along the side of the road for a while, which was really
cool.  We arrived back at home around 19:00.

2007-08-11--2007-08-12: Old Speck and Mahoosuc Notch

Sherry and I got to Berlin around noon, and drove up Success Pond Road,
dropping my bike in the woods at the Notch Trail parking area, then
continuing to the trailhead for the Speck Pond Trail.  We started hiking
at 13:00, and made steady progress on the uphill climb up Mahoosuc Arm,
passing a handful of hikers along the way.  Apparently most people hike
this loop in the opposite direction.  As we made our way, we crossed
several vertical swaths of cleared land (as we were doing a traverse),
apparently from logging operations, though I wasn't sure.  I'd never
seen anything quite like it.

After hitting the high point of Mahoosuc Arm, we descended down to the
Speck Pond Campsite, arriving at 16:00.  We found a tent platform, set
up camp, then spent a while debating whether to hike up to Old Speck.
It was foggy, so we knew there wouldn't be very good views, we were
tired, and part of the trail was quite steep.  On the other hand, I'd
really hoped to be able to hike it on this trip, having wanted to hike
it for quite a long time.  After hemming and hawing, we decided to go,
and started hiking at 17:10.  All things considered, the excursion went
very well.  The steep climb was pretty quick and went smoothly, not
being as difficult as it looked.  And though the top was engulfed in
fog, we did get some nice views on the way up.  At the summit we chatted
with some hikers who were tenting up there, and wandered around briefly
before heading back down.

We got back to camp at 19:00 and had burritos for dinner, then some
chicken noodle soup.  The campsite was pretty busy, with a group of
teenagers near us, and a couple of families with little kids.  My pump
broke, but another guy with a pump and some iodine tablets was kind
enough to pump some water for me and give me some tablets.  We hung out
a bit, then slept around maybe 21:30.

I slept fairly well, though I woke up a bunch.  Sherry slept so-so.  We
got up around 08:00, had oatmeal for breakfast, and took our time
getting going.  Most everyone else was already gone.  We wandered down
to the pond and took some pictures--it was beautiful weather.  We
started hiking, passed one family with kids who were fishing, and then
climbed to Mahoosuc Arm.  Along the way we were continually looking back
at Old Speck, whose summit was in the clear today.  From the Arm we
began a long, steep descent to the end of Mahoosuc Notch, which we could
partially see from above.  Our legs were shaking by the end, and we
realized why everyone hikes this loop in the opposite direction.
We stopped for lunch before entering the renowned notch to rest up.

Going through the notch was very difficult for Sherry, and challenging
but more fun for me.  She didn't like it, though probably would've
enjoyed it somewhat without the full pack.  I had to take my pack off a
few times to squeeze through certain spots.  We saw a bunch of hikers
(going the other direction of course) in the notch.  As we got toward
the end of it, we began to get a little jittery about an expected
encounter with a rotting moose carcass, which we'd heard about from
nearly every hiker we'd passed since yesterday.  Apparently, a hiker was
videotaping the moose on the trail, and it wandered into the notch,
possibly trying to distance itself from the hiker.  It then stepped into
one of the many deep gaps between the boulders in the notch, breaking
its leg and becoming incapacitated.  Apparently it lay there for a week,
slowly starving to death, the poor thing.  The caretaker at the
campground had told us that the Fish and Game department was notified
but that they opted not to put it out of its misery (or maybe it wasn't
within their policies to do that sort of thing).  The caretaker himself
was unable to bring himself to do it, but eventually someone did slit
its throat, apparently.  Everyone had told us that we'd practially have
to step right over it, and though I was morbidly curious to see it, as
we drew ever nearer I started getting quite creeped out about it,
fearing that I'd not see it until it was practically underfoot.

As it turned out (and as I had suspected), we were made well aware of
the carcass before we actually got to it, due to the potent stench it
was emitting.  We eased up to it, and were glad to find that there was,
in fact, a way around it on a little rocky shelf to one side.  Sherry
made her way up and around, while I braved to squeeze by it on the main
path, though I did actually have to step directly over it.

Once past the moose, and then out of the notch a moment later, the final
couple of miles back to the trailhead was an easy cruise, and we stopped
to dunk our hats in the cool stream along the way.  At the trailhead, I
left my pack, grabbed my bike, and rode about 2.5 miles back to the car,
then drove back and picked up Sherry.

2007-09-16: Mt. Kearsarge

Shortly after getting up, I looked at maps and picked a nearby place to
hike--Mt. Kearsarge.  It's a small, popular mountain that I've never
hiked for exactly those reasons.  Sherry and I got packed up and headed
out around maybe 10:00 or so.  Shortly before arriving at Winslow State
Park, we realized we had hardly any cash to get in.  Luckily, the
friendly old lady at the entry booth let us in for $3, instead of the $6
it should've been.  We parked, saw people watching hawks up in the sky
as we were getting ready, then soon hit the trail.  We took the 1.1 mile
Winslow Trail up, passing a few touristy people on the way.  It wasn't a
hard climb, but certainly required some effort.  I enjoyed the wide open
bedrock as we neared the summit.  The top was totally exposed, and there
were a number of people up there.  There was also a large, garish
communications tower, and a smaller fire tower.  We went up the tower
and found that it was manned by a park ranger.  He was somewhat
friendly, but also somewhat gruff, and pointed out a number of points of
interest that could be seen from that vantage point.  The weather was
gorgeous, though a bit cool, and visibility was fantastic.  A partial
ceiling of fluffy cumulus clouds floated above us.  Among the places the
ranger pointed out to us were the Prudential Building is Boston--75
miles away but just barely visible--and the approximate location of the
supposedly famous Bow Mobil station, where he said you could get gas,
drink, and hot dog all for $3.00, or something like that.  He pointed
out a few mountain, we shot the bull a bit, and then headed down once
other people started coming up.  We found a spot with views east, but
sheltered from the breeze, and ate our PB&Js for lunch.  A nearby solo
hiker came by and asked us if we knew where a particular trail was.  We
got to talking about, and it turns out he regularly hikes down in the
Hudson Valley, on Breakneck Ridge, where I hiked with John once.  After
a friendly chat, he headed off.  Not long after, we made the decision to
hike the trails on the south side of the mountain, since overall the
hike would be pretty short anyway.  We found the Rollins Trail, and
hiked down, passing people here and there.  In seemingly no time we
reached a picnic area just above a parking lot.  We took a short break,
and I noticed a bunch of people in the parking lot with little
communications dishes set up--very curious.  We continued hiking,
finding the intersection with the Lincoln Trail, which headed back up to
the summit.  It contained a steep section right at the beginning, which
was fun but pretty brief and not very hard, as I'd thought it might be.
We didn't pass a single person on this trail, which was fine with us--we
enjoyed the solitude (though we could still hear lots of kids up at the
top as we approached).  We got back up to the top, then continued back
over to the north side, this time taking the longer (1.8 miles) Barlow
Trail back down.  We saw no one on our trail for quite a while (though
we could hear, and even sometimes see, people on the other trail through
the woods a couple of times), but eventually we started passing a bunch
of people, in both directions.  It was a very pretty hike through the
woods.  At the very end I got chatting with a guy who was from New York,
and who used to visit Cranberry Lake frequently.  We talked a bit, then
arrived back at the parking lot by perhaps 14:30.  It was an enjoyable
hike, and we were glad to still have plenty of hours in the day left for
other things.

2007-10-13: Little Big Econlockhatchee State Park

Travis, Sherry and I went off to go for a hike in the Little Big
Econlockhatchee State Park in Orlando.  We started from the road by a
bridge over the river (where Trav and I had biked back in 2004), and
tried to hike along the far side of the river, but soon ran into an
uncrossable (without getting pretty wet) swampy "tributary" of the main
river.  So, we turned back, crossed the bridge, and hiked in on the
other side, where there was a very well-used trail.  We hiked in a ways,
seeing lots of banana spiders (some huge), then found a nice spot to sit
down and eat our sandwiches.  A number of kayakers passed by while we
ate.  Then we continued hiking, going all the way to where are old train
trestle used to cross the water, though now they had built a nice new
pedestrian bridge over it.  Along the way we saw lots more big spiders,
a bunch of mountain bikers, kayakers and other boaters, some guys
camping and swimming from a rope swing, a turtle munching on grass
across the river, and finally, a large group of young boys camping near
the train trestle, much like we'd seen on one other visit here in the
past.  We hiked back out the way we'd came, moving pretty quickly, and
got out around 15:30 or so, feeling pretty tired.  Trav figured we'd
hiked about 5 miles, according to his GPS.

2007-12-17--2007-12-21: kayaking in the Everglades

Trav picked me up from the airport, then we went and got dinner at a
nearby Chipotle's while we waited for Kevin, who was pretty delayed.  He
finally got in at maybe 22:00 or so, and we went to Trav's, packed a few
things up (like coolers), then hit the road for Everglades City.  Trav
drove the whole way, and the trip went fairly quickly.  We stopped in a
couple of places along the way to get gas and to get a snack.  We were
just reaching Everglades City around 04:00 when Trav got pulled over by
a cop for speeding, but he was fairly friendly and let us off, and
another cop that showed up gave us a tip on where to camp for free
nearby.  So we drove east a bit to the Burns Lake Campground, found a
spot, set up our tent, and went to bed around perhaps 05:00.