Blue
New member
No Seema, I'm not talking about crossing rivers after dark or inching down the Slide after sipping champagne.. .I mean the whole 48!
It started for me in 1999. I started hiking with an ex boyfriend and we quickly jumped into the 48 list. We hiked a lot at first. I loved planning each trip, picking each trail, opening up Dave Metsky's site each week, along with the WMNF guide. I'd find trails that were "not so steep", because my ex had difficulty on steep decents. After a while, I became intimately familiar with the whole list - every trail, every summit, every section of the whites. It became a language, one that you could share with other hikers. "Oh, so have you done the Tripyramids from the Kanc side? Ever do the whole Carrigain loop?"
I have good memories from the early days - great views, quiet trails... but scary ones too. Getting caught in the dark between the Passaconaway summit and camp (near Camp Rich), being alone with my ex on Wildcat C while he was choking on a sandwich roll, being wet, cold and super muddy after Tom, Field and Willey.
After a while, I realized that I could share my enthusiasm for the 48 with others. I started leading small groups of women (through a charity event) and started 5 years of hiking very similar mountains - Cannon, Madison, Franconia Ridge, Washington over and over again. This did not get me far into the list, but allowed me to "share the joy".
On Sunday, Oct 2, I finished the 48 on Owl's Head with Charlie, Seema and Brian. I told them that for me, it wasn't really about hiking 48 mountains. I started with the intention of completing a list, but I got the opportunity to hike these mountains from various trails, at different times of the year, with different people. It's a collection of stories, a book of memories, but it's not just hiking up 48.
On Saturday, Charlie and I started up the Franconia Brook Trail from Lincoln Woods. I've only seen this trail in the winter (usually on skis). The grade was easy and we were making good time, until Charlie realized that the river was on the wrong side. We realized that we missed the turnoff and were continuing along the Wilderness Trail! We backtracked and rejoined the Franconia Brook trail and made our way to 13 Falls. The only tough part of this trail is a beaver pond that floods the trail to such an extent that you have to find the trail. We met up with Seema and Brian about 1/4 mile from 13 Falls.
I really liked 13 Falls. We got there at around 2:30, had lunch on rocks near the river and relaxed. We had heard from the rangers at Lincoln Woods that they had left the bear boxes out, but when we got to camp, they were hidden and there was no caretaker. Charlie had been to 13 Falls twice before, and had "bear experiences" twice before, so we were cautious and prepared our meals in the cooking area. Brian hung our food so far away from our tents that he needed a GPS to find it again (ha ha not really). Brian, I should mention, took a nice swim in one of the larger pools.
I could go on and on about Seema's Chicken Tikka Masala, but we all have lives to lead, so I'll just say it was fabulous.
On Sunday, we had a leisurely breakfast and headed up to Owl's Head. A gentleman at camp mentioned that Lincoln Brook was rough and hard to follow, but Charlie navigated us along without any problem. We got to the Owl's Head cutoff (path) and noticed that someone had spelled OWL in small rocks (nice job, really). We stashed our packs and headed up the slide. The views were gorgeous and we scanned Franconia Ridge for MEB and friends.
We say a couple of people making their way down the slide, the only folks we would see all day.
At the summit, we had celebratory champagne and twizzlers, and made our way carefully back down the slide.
I don't have a lot of experience night hiking, and I started to get a little worried about sunset at 6:30PM. I was mostly nervous about crossing rivers in the dark. Seema and Brian, however, had very bright headlamps and Charlie kept my nerves at bay. We did one big river crossing in the dark, but overall, it was ok. We met up with the Franconia Brook trail and picked up our speed for the last 3 miles. We were all hungry and tired, looking forward to some warm food. We made it to the parking lot at 9:36 PM and I found a nice note from John S (thanks). We then raced to a pizza place in Lincoln and ate lots of good food!
Thank you Charlie, Brian and Seema. I couldn't have had a better 48th!
-Blue
pictures soon
It started for me in 1999. I started hiking with an ex boyfriend and we quickly jumped into the 48 list. We hiked a lot at first. I loved planning each trip, picking each trail, opening up Dave Metsky's site each week, along with the WMNF guide. I'd find trails that were "not so steep", because my ex had difficulty on steep decents. After a while, I became intimately familiar with the whole list - every trail, every summit, every section of the whites. It became a language, one that you could share with other hikers. "Oh, so have you done the Tripyramids from the Kanc side? Ever do the whole Carrigain loop?"
I have good memories from the early days - great views, quiet trails... but scary ones too. Getting caught in the dark between the Passaconaway summit and camp (near Camp Rich), being alone with my ex on Wildcat C while he was choking on a sandwich roll, being wet, cold and super muddy after Tom, Field and Willey.
After a while, I realized that I could share my enthusiasm for the 48 with others. I started leading small groups of women (through a charity event) and started 5 years of hiking very similar mountains - Cannon, Madison, Franconia Ridge, Washington over and over again. This did not get me far into the list, but allowed me to "share the joy".
On Sunday, Oct 2, I finished the 48 on Owl's Head with Charlie, Seema and Brian. I told them that for me, it wasn't really about hiking 48 mountains. I started with the intention of completing a list, but I got the opportunity to hike these mountains from various trails, at different times of the year, with different people. It's a collection of stories, a book of memories, but it's not just hiking up 48.
On Saturday, Charlie and I started up the Franconia Brook Trail from Lincoln Woods. I've only seen this trail in the winter (usually on skis). The grade was easy and we were making good time, until Charlie realized that the river was on the wrong side. We realized that we missed the turnoff and were continuing along the Wilderness Trail! We backtracked and rejoined the Franconia Brook trail and made our way to 13 Falls. The only tough part of this trail is a beaver pond that floods the trail to such an extent that you have to find the trail. We met up with Seema and Brian about 1/4 mile from 13 Falls.
I really liked 13 Falls. We got there at around 2:30, had lunch on rocks near the river and relaxed. We had heard from the rangers at Lincoln Woods that they had left the bear boxes out, but when we got to camp, they were hidden and there was no caretaker. Charlie had been to 13 Falls twice before, and had "bear experiences" twice before, so we were cautious and prepared our meals in the cooking area. Brian hung our food so far away from our tents that he needed a GPS to find it again (ha ha not really). Brian, I should mention, took a nice swim in one of the larger pools.
I could go on and on about Seema's Chicken Tikka Masala, but we all have lives to lead, so I'll just say it was fabulous.
On Sunday, we had a leisurely breakfast and headed up to Owl's Head. A gentleman at camp mentioned that Lincoln Brook was rough and hard to follow, but Charlie navigated us along without any problem. We got to the Owl's Head cutoff (path) and noticed that someone had spelled OWL in small rocks (nice job, really). We stashed our packs and headed up the slide. The views were gorgeous and we scanned Franconia Ridge for MEB and friends.
We say a couple of people making their way down the slide, the only folks we would see all day.
At the summit, we had celebratory champagne and twizzlers, and made our way carefully back down the slide.
I don't have a lot of experience night hiking, and I started to get a little worried about sunset at 6:30PM. I was mostly nervous about crossing rivers in the dark. Seema and Brian, however, had very bright headlamps and Charlie kept my nerves at bay. We did one big river crossing in the dark, but overall, it was ok. We met up with the Franconia Brook trail and picked up our speed for the last 3 miles. We were all hungry and tired, looking forward to some warm food. We made it to the parking lot at 9:36 PM and I found a nice note from John S (thanks). We then raced to a pizza place in Lincoln and ate lots of good food!
Thank you Charlie, Brian and Seema. I couldn't have had a better 48th!
-Blue
pictures soon
