Date - 7/7/07
Mountain - Carrigain
Reason - Doug's 48th
Robyn asked if I was free for a hike on Saturday, her friend Doug was finishing his 48 and it looked like a good day. Left from Boston at 6:15, stopped at Foster's Crossroads for a WMNF parking sticker and some beer for the cooler, and hit the trailhead at 9:15, right on time. Saw two deer on the drive north, one by Manchester and one by Concord, but they were the only wildlife spottings of the day. The group was Robyn and her husband Bill, Mona, Doug, and Joe, a small but fast group of runners, plus me, who is most assuredly not a runner. We started up at 9:30 with fairly light packs and a good pace on the flat lower sections. My stomach was bothering me all day, which slowed me down a bit.
It was warm but not oppressive, some bugs that seemed to only attack Robyn and Mona, and a threat of rain. About 2/3 of the way up I ran into Michelle who I hadn't seen on the trail since a chance encounter on Saddleback several years ago. From her and others coming down we learned that there was a wedding going on at the summit. Exciting! Near the top I let the speed demons go ahead and caught up to them on Signal Ridge, where I scouted some potential skiing lines down towards Carrigain Notch.
We encountered the wedding party between there and the summit. The JP recognized me from the web site and we chatted a bit. The happy couple looked very cute with their bumper stickers. We got to the top and Doug barely made those last few feet to the general amusement of those around. We celebrated with Cracker Jacks, single malt scotch, and a frisbee that doubles as a flashlight. No gas station champagne for us.
Lunch up top with some fellow Dartmouth folks and we enjoyed copious quantities of dark chocolate.
Robyn and Bill had to race off to make it to Maine for a concert that night so they flew. The rest of us took a more leisurely pace, but not that leisurely. Did I mention that these folks are runners? And that Mona was using this hike as a warmup for the 10K running race UP Loon the next day?! Oh well. I tweeked my ankle a bit on the way down and we had a little rain show up around 2/3 the way down but we got to the cars around 4:10, a quick hike all things considered. I had cold beer waiting for us which we shared with a few other hikers.
Mona went to camp before her race the next day, Doug and Joe went to shower at their hotel, I stopped at Mountain Wanderer to say "Hi" to Steve and then hit the road.
Pictures are here: http://www.hikethewhites.com/gallery/v/carrigain/
-dave-
Mountain - Carrigain
Reason - Doug's 48th
Robyn asked if I was free for a hike on Saturday, her friend Doug was finishing his 48 and it looked like a good day. Left from Boston at 6:15, stopped at Foster's Crossroads for a WMNF parking sticker and some beer for the cooler, and hit the trailhead at 9:15, right on time. Saw two deer on the drive north, one by Manchester and one by Concord, but they were the only wildlife spottings of the day. The group was Robyn and her husband Bill, Mona, Doug, and Joe, a small but fast group of runners, plus me, who is most assuredly not a runner. We started up at 9:30 with fairly light packs and a good pace on the flat lower sections. My stomach was bothering me all day, which slowed me down a bit.
It was warm but not oppressive, some bugs that seemed to only attack Robyn and Mona, and a threat of rain. About 2/3 of the way up I ran into Michelle who I hadn't seen on the trail since a chance encounter on Saddleback several years ago. From her and others coming down we learned that there was a wedding going on at the summit. Exciting! Near the top I let the speed demons go ahead and caught up to them on Signal Ridge, where I scouted some potential skiing lines down towards Carrigain Notch.
We encountered the wedding party between there and the summit. The JP recognized me from the web site and we chatted a bit. The happy couple looked very cute with their bumper stickers. We got to the top and Doug barely made those last few feet to the general amusement of those around. We celebrated with Cracker Jacks, single malt scotch, and a frisbee that doubles as a flashlight. No gas station champagne for us.
Lunch up top with some fellow Dartmouth folks and we enjoyed copious quantities of dark chocolate.Robyn and Bill had to race off to make it to Maine for a concert that night so they flew. The rest of us took a more leisurely pace, but not that leisurely. Did I mention that these folks are runners? And that Mona was using this hike as a warmup for the 10K running race UP Loon the next day?! Oh well. I tweeked my ankle a bit on the way down and we had a little rain show up around 2/3 the way down but we got to the cars around 4:10, a quick hike all things considered. I had cold beer waiting for us which we shared with a few other hikers.
Mona went to camp before her race the next day, Doug and Joe went to shower at their hotel, I stopped at Mountain Wanderer to say "Hi" to Steve and then hit the road.
Pictures are here: http://www.hikethewhites.com/gallery/v/carrigain/
-dave-
