Ferrisjrf and I were planning finish our NH48 this weekend on the Tripyramids, so we decided to throw out an invitation for a few folks to join us. We figured between the two of us we’d get a handful of takers – but I guess Jason’s really popular, because we got more than a few! Home base was a group site at Osceola Vista campground, which seemed to work out very well.
As folks trickled in from all directions, the weekend got kicked off Friday night with a campfire gathering complete with Swedish Bitters followed by a dance party under and around the discoball – I think we managed to kill every iPod battery around!
Darlene even offered some ballroom dancing lessons on the side (perhaps our fox friend was intrigued by your foxtrot?). This hardy group called it quits sometime near 4am, I think .
Saturday there were various plans to hike or climb. Darlene made blueberry pancakes to start the day off right. I joined Team Discoball (Mats, Darlene, Jeff Stone, Nif, Leaf, Hui Yeng and Gillian) and we planned to do some multi-pitch climbing over at Lost in the Sun at Mt. Webster. Mats had agreed to do some trailwork for the RMC, so he took off early in the morning and planned to meet us over at the trailhead for the climb. We got a rather slow start, and gradually made our way over to Crawford Notch. Along the way we got text messages from Mats about the bad weather in the northern Presis. Ever confident that this weekend was going to be THE WEEKEND WITHOUT RAIN we stuck with our plan. Mats showed up and we headed off into the woods for the 30 minute hike in. About 10 minutes later we were donning rain gear and five minutes after that we were heading back out to the cars. Plans spoiled, we turned to Plan B…we headed to the Woodstock Inn for beers and food. If you can’t have multi-pitches, you might as well have multi-pitchers! I think we ate one of every item on the appetizer menu and then headed out into the sunny afternoon. Not wanting to give up on the day, we headed over to Lincoln Crag and got in some climbing after all.
Arriving back at the campsite that evening we found a few new additions to the group, and some awesome – and personalized, thank you! – homemade lasagna from Kevin & Judy. As the full moon rose and it looked like we were in for a clear evening, various moonlight hiking plans were discussed. A group of eight of us decided on Welch-Dickey and off we went around 9:30. Given the arduous nature of the hike, we knew we were going to have to take a break every 20 minutes or so once we reached the ledges. While we were enjoying our first break, Mountaingirl and Nartreb showed up! We took our time and enjoyed the views – I expect there to be some great pictures. When the yawns started coming with greater frequency, we decided to head down. We kept ourselves awake with an awesome singalong and before we knew it we were back at the cars. Once back at camp we found more new arrivals and Dave Bear in his usual position preparing food over the fire.
Sunday was the actual hiking day and we awoke to beautiful sunny skies. A group headed off early to get a head start while some folks headed home and the rest of us packed up and hit the trail sometime before 10am. The North Slide was a lot of fun and I think we all avoided serious injury (which is not the same as avoiding all injury!). We lost Doublebow. Then later we found him. We lost Nif, but we eventually found her too. Other than that, the hike was pretty uneventful . Just two very distinct groups of hikers from VFTT out for a nice walk in the woods on a pleasant day. Oh yeah, Jason and I finally finished our NH48! There were gifts galore! And cake! And special Dave Bear drinks! Thank you all!
After we all made it back to the trailhead, we headed off to the Mad River Tavern for – what else – more food and beers. We took over an entire side room with our (now-combined ) group of about 20. And then Arm, Giggy, Donna and Annalisa showed up and made it even more cozy.
I think most of us got way too little sleep and consumed several times as many calories as we burned off this weekend, but we sure had a good time! I don’t have my pictures up yet, but hopefully some others will have some to post.
As folks trickled in from all directions, the weekend got kicked off Friday night with a campfire gathering complete with Swedish Bitters followed by a dance party under and around the discoball – I think we managed to kill every iPod battery around!
Darlene even offered some ballroom dancing lessons on the side (perhaps our fox friend was intrigued by your foxtrot?). This hardy group called it quits sometime near 4am, I think . Saturday there were various plans to hike or climb. Darlene made blueberry pancakes to start the day off right. I joined Team Discoball (Mats, Darlene, Jeff Stone, Nif, Leaf, Hui Yeng and Gillian) and we planned to do some multi-pitch climbing over at Lost in the Sun at Mt. Webster. Mats had agreed to do some trailwork for the RMC, so he took off early in the morning and planned to meet us over at the trailhead for the climb. We got a rather slow start, and gradually made our way over to Crawford Notch. Along the way we got text messages from Mats about the bad weather in the northern Presis. Ever confident that this weekend was going to be THE WEEKEND WITHOUT RAIN we stuck with our plan. Mats showed up and we headed off into the woods for the 30 minute hike in. About 10 minutes later we were donning rain gear and five minutes after that we were heading back out to the cars.
Plans spoiled, we turned to Plan B…we headed to the Woodstock Inn for beers and food. If you can’t have multi-pitches, you might as well have multi-pitchers! I think we ate one of every item on the appetizer menu and then headed out into the sunny afternoon. Not wanting to give up on the day, we headed over to Lincoln Crag and got in some climbing after all. Arriving back at the campsite that evening we found a few new additions to the group, and some awesome – and personalized, thank you! – homemade lasagna from Kevin & Judy. As the full moon rose and it looked like we were in for a clear evening, various moonlight hiking plans were discussed. A group of eight of us decided on Welch-Dickey and off we went around 9:30. Given the arduous nature of the hike, we knew we were going to have to take a break every 20 minutes or so once we reached the ledges.
While we were enjoying our first break, Mountaingirl and Nartreb showed up! We took our time and enjoyed the views – I expect there to be some great pictures. When the yawns started coming with greater frequency, we decided to head down. We kept ourselves awake with an awesome singalong and before we knew it we were back at the cars. Once back at camp we found more new arrivals and Dave Bear in his usual position preparing food over the fire. Sunday was the actual hiking day and we awoke to beautiful sunny skies. A group headed off early to get a head start while some folks headed home and the rest of us packed up and hit the trail sometime before 10am. The North Slide was a lot of fun and I think we all avoided serious injury (which is not the same as avoiding all injury!). We lost Doublebow. Then later we found him. We lost Nif, but we eventually found her too. Other than that, the hike was pretty uneventful
. Just two very distinct groups of hikers from VFTT out for a nice walk in the woods on a pleasant day. Oh yeah, Jason and I finally finished our NH48! There were gifts galore! And cake! And special Dave Bear drinks! Thank you all! After we all made it back to the trailhead, we headed off to the Mad River Tavern for – what else – more food and beers. We took over an entire side room with our (now-combined
) group of about 20. And then Arm, Giggy, Donna and Annalisa showed up and made it even more cozy. I think most of us got way too little sleep and consumed several times as many calories as we burned off this weekend, but we sure had a good time! I don’t have my pictures up yet, but hopefully some others will have some to post.
