It was truly a wonderful day on Saturday when I completed my NEHH. Thanks to those who were able to join me – your presence made for a very special day. For those who couldn’t make it – thanks for the well-wishes and congratulations.
It’s been quite a journey.
It all started more than 11 years ago when my daughter gave me the gift of hiking for Mother’s Day. At the time, both she and I didn’t realize that her gift would bring me here to the top of Baldpate. She was just home from college and getting ready to go to off to white water guide training. I had just become involved in a bicycling fund raiser (180 miles over 3 days) and was looking for some cross training opportunities. I had found a group through the AMC website that was hiking Mt. Willard on the Saturday before Mother’s Day and thought I would join them. When Steph lamented that she didn’t have any extra money to buy me a gift, I asked her to hike with me as my gift.
What a gift it turned out to be! We had a wonderful day on that Saturday. The weather wasn’t great – in fact, it rained on and off as we drove up into the mountains. As we drove up through Crawford Notch, the rain turned to snow. Steph was so excited when we got to the parking lot. The trail was bare for about ½ mile, and then we encountered a snow-packed path. The snow continued to fall – big, soft flakes that transformed the woods into a scene from a Christmas card. It clung to tree branches and our eyelashes and muffled the sound of our voices. We spoke softly, respecting the quiet of the mountains. When we reached the lookout over Crawford Notch there was….. nothing…no views…just white. It was beautiful!
It was this hike – and Steph’s enthusiasm over the snow and the white and the lack of views – that got me hooked! As I continued to hike that summer, I discovered not only the various lists, but a love for the mountains. When I hike, the stresses of my life vanish. I find peacefulness in the woods and the mountains that I don’t experience anywhere else. There is a great sense of satisfaction in completing a hike; in backpacking when you carry only the essentials on your back; in pushing the limits of your comfort zone; in finding an inner peace when the rest of your world is in chaos.
So, instead of a trip report about my hike up Baldpate, I thought I would share some highlights/thoughts/special moments I have had along this journey:
Meeting Frodo through Views when he posted a very poignant account of a hiker’s death on Mt. Madison.
Joining the “I Love Owl’s Head” club when I first met and hiked with Audrey so many years ago. I have since hiked up Owl’s Head three times.
I’ve hiked Cupsuptic Snow twice! (Don’t ask!)
Seeing a bear cub less than ¼ mile from the trailhead for Mt. Carigain and thinking (at first) that it was a black lab. HA!
My first winter hike: the goal was North and Middle Tripyramid via Pine Bend Brook trail from the Kanc. It was right after Christmas (read – really dark by 5 pm), and it took me 6.5 hours to go the 4 miles to the summit of North Tri. I was exhausted! It was 2:30 pm and all I could do at the summit was place my hands on my knees and cry. I had no idea how I was going to get back down that mountain. Amazingly enough, we made it back in 2.5 hours and never needed our headlamps. Conventional wisdom should have kept me from ever doing another winter hike. Wrong! I was back two weeks later to get Middle Tri from Waterville Valley. And while I am not actively working on the winter 4K’s in NH, I have climbed 25 of them, so you just never know.
Turning around on PaTN, less than ½ mile from the summit. I had just been diagnosed with Lyme disease and my energy levels were very low. Coupled with a late start and a date to meet friends for dinner, we abandoned the hike after encountering a pretty thick (understatement) area of fir. I felt totally defeated and cried as feelings of failure washed over me. Later on, I was able to find the positives in this hike – honing my map and compass skills and trusting my compass and the whole bushwacking process.
Audrey and I crawling on our bellies to negotiate through a thick area of fir on Mendum! Happily, we came out right on the herd path!
Discovering that if I’m hiking with Audrey, I don’t mind bushwacks. But if I’m on my own – not so much!
Sitting on top of Liberty and looking over at Bond Cliff and deciding that I really wanted to be over there.
All the support that Frodo and Audrey have given me as I completed my NH4K's and then as I continued on to the NE4K's and NEHH!
Hiking up Monroe in the rain and the clouds on an August day in 2000 right after my mom died. I sat at the top and cried quietly while Frodo built a cairn in my mom’s honor.
Placing a bottle of white wine in the water to chill at Thirteen Falls. When I went to retrieve it I went to the wrong spot – it was GONE! I searched all over the place for that bottle - finally giving up when I figured it had been swept away downstream never to be seen again. Imagine my surprise when I returned to where everyone else was having cheese and crackers to find that the bottle had been retrieved by Audrey and was sitting very pretty on the rocks.
Hiking this summer to finish my NEHH and only having two days of good weather and very few Views From The Top!
Reaching the summit of Mt. Abraham in Vermont in the middle of a thunderstorm!! (That was fun!)
Meeting Brian and Seema on the summit of Stratton as they were on their own journey called the AT.
The way the sky looks so blue on a winter’s hike!
How cold 35 degrees below zero really is!!! (And that’s without the windchill!)
Taking my jacket off at the end of a winter hike only to find that my sweat had produced rime ice on the inside that stuck like Velcro to my fleece!
Cooling my feet in a mountain stream at the end of a hike.
Hiking solo and discovering an inner strength I didn’t know I had.
Having to hike up Waumbek twice after discovering that the first time I hadn't quite made it to the summit!
Almost throwing in the towel and abandoning the hike over to Fort when Craig and I spent almost an hour debating over which trail was the “right” one. Craig was insistent on completing this since he had no desire to drive back to Baxter and hike up North Brother again. I was afraid of getting mired down in some awful blowdown on the way to Fort that would keep us from getting back to our car. We finished this hike, but didn’t get back to our car until nearly 9 pm! (It got dark around 7-ish.)
The thrill of the view. No matter how many times I hike, the views always take my breath away. I never, ever get tired of the views.
And yet, I always enjoy the journey, too. One of my most memorable hikes was in a light mist that focused my attention to the trail as I hiked. I discovered wonderful mushrooms, orchids, tiny lichen, moss that was so green it looked unreal, and a soft focus that the mist brings to a trail.
Finding out that Craig really doesn’t mind it if you put rocks in his pack (they just have to be the right kind).
The support that Craig has given me while I have completed the NEHH. He didn’t start out a hiker, but I think I may have turned him into one. Thanks, honey, for being such a good sport – especially this summer as we hiked under less than ideal conditions!
Discovering how much I love being above treeline!!!
Doing the 3 Bonds in one day and having my feet decide that they were done hiking while I was still 5 miles from the parking lot!
Lounging at the top, soaking in the accomplishment as well as the views.
And, of course, the wonderful people I have met along the way – especially Frodo, Audrey, Pat, and the wonderdog Genie, Marge, Max, Sablatt, Rols, Larry D, Bunchberry, Donna, Big Moose, Dave Metsky, Sherpa Kroto, Harry K, Marty, Bobby, Tuco, TeeJay, Michael J, Bubba, Prino, and many, many, many, many more….. Folks who all share one thing – the love of the mountains. Folks who will give you the shirt off their back if necessary, and will support and encourage you when you are filled with self-doubt. You all are the ones who made this journey such an incredible one! (Forgive me if you aren’t specifically mentioned here – my list exceeds 100 people!!!)
Now that I am done with the NEHH, I’m certainly not done with hiking. Although Craig says that he is going into semi-retirement until next spring, I’m looking forward to more hikes with great friends! See you on the trails!
