burg
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OK, we didn't stay for the sunset on Mount Washington, but it was a better title than "Hey, we're stoopid!" We did consider the sunset thing initially, though, and eventually decided against it.
So, about three weeks ago, I got an email from Dave whom I attended MLS with a couple years ago. He had an idea to organize a trip to do Washington and Katahdin in the same day. He had reservations for a lean-to at Roaring Brook so was looking for three others. He already had found one guy to go and for some reason it sounded like a great idea to me so I agreed to go as well.
I started off for Baxter State Park Saturday morning and arrived through very heavy rain at Roaring Brook at about 3 PM. After putting my stuff in the lean-to, visiting the ranger and doing some reading (one bit of reading was the notice at the ranger's cabin about a possibly injured deer who has already attacked several parties of hikers between the Helon Taylor trail jct. and the first bog bridges on the Chimney Pond trail), Dave arrived. Everyone he invited to come had had "other plans" (translation: "Uh, no way, dude") and the third person had canceled so it was just the two of us. It was still raining but not too hard. He got situated and we went into Millinocket to eat. We decided on the Appalachian Trail Café (where the potato salad is served "in season" only). After inquiring as to whether or not it was currently potato season in Maine (it was!), we placed our order. While eating Dave came across an interesting article in the local paper about a man and his daughter who had just started out on an attempt of the AT southbound. Unfortunately, they never even reached the summit of Katahdin when the father fell and dislocated his shoulder. Make that shoulders, both of them.
You, the reader, may be asking yourself, "Do they see any bad omens accumulating here? The rain, the attacking deer, the lack of partners, the guy dislocating his shoulders?" Well, no we didn't (remember we thought this was a great idea in the first place so, clearly, our judgment is questionable at best).
It had stopped raining and was clearing nicely so, back in the park, we took the little jaunt to Sandy Stream Pond and back without incident. Things were looking up! We were in bed by 9. Dave snores.
We awoke at midnight and were signed out at the ranger's cabin by 12:15 AM. As we walked the trail, I said, "Dave, turn off your headlamp and look up.". The sky was crystal clear and full of stars. The temps were surprisingly warm. Absolutely gorgeous. We passed through the deer attack zone with no sign of the wily offender and considered ourselves lucky. We arrived at Chimney Pond to wind and cold at about 2 AM. We paused for some pictures and continued on our way. We had chosen the Cathedral trail for our ascent (again, remember, we have no critical thinking skills).
Luckily for us the Cathedral trail was extremely well blazed (both freshly painted for easy viewing and spaced close enough together). We were very careful to make sure we saw the next blaze before we moved ahead. The winds became increasingly strong and gusty (I was guessing 30-40 mph with gusts in the 50's). At times we had to hunker down and wait for the wind to quiet a little before we could move. As the reader may know, this trail require extensive scrambling with the use of hands and feet. I was "uncomfortable" in a couple different spots, but we made it through without our nerves being frayed too much. As we climbed the sky began to slowly lighten. It was awesome to see the features of Katahdin slowly emerge as the dawn broke. The knife edge in silhouette...really cool. I wanted to get more pictures at this point but the combo of low light and high winds made getting a focused picture almost impossible. We reached the upper Cathedral around 4 and the summit of Baxter Peak at about 4:30, just in time for sunrise. It was quite cold and very windy (now steady at 40-50, with higher gusts). After getting knocked over by the wind and dropping my camera, I ducked behind the giant cairn and waited for the sun to rise. We got some pictures and headed down the Saddle trail (no thought of the Knife edge in that wind - hey maybe we do have some ability to make some good decisions).
We were back at Chimney Pond by about 6:15. It was still windy and cold, the pond was an awesome Caribbean blue/green color with lots of whitecaps. After spotting a moose in the woods, we were back to Roaring Brook at about 7:30. As we signed out, Mr. Ranger was lecturing some day hikers on the porch regarding proper gear and precautions. We mentioned that, "yeah, it was pretty darn windy at the summit." He said, "yesterday?" We said, "no, this morning at 4:30". He said, "well, we disapprove of that sort of thing, you know." Thank you Mr. Ranger (He had also declared the knife edge closed for the day).
We were out of the park by 8:15 and on our way to Pinkham Notch. Stopped for gas/food and got in about 1:45 PM. Ms Information Volunteer was skeptical when I asked if TRT was open yet, she reminded me it was like winter on top and late in the day to be starting. Thank you Ms Information Volunteer. We were headed up Tuckerman Ravine Trail by 2. It was much warmer now, but very little humidity, a really great day. I felt pretty good, but could not get much power from my quads. We got to Ho Jo's at about 3:10, though. I felt like I was really slowing down on the section above Ho Jo's but below the headwall, but then it seemed like we did the headwall pretty fast.
It was better (believe it or not) on the summit cone and we reached the summit, surprisingly to me, at just after 5. It was cold and pretty windy with these big rime chunks blowing everywhere. I'm not sure where they were coming from (it seemed they were too big to be from the atmosphere, I thought something may have been dripping water and the low temps and high winds were forming them into these chunks), but they hurt when they hit you.
We lounged inside the Obs for about an hour eating and talking with the people. Here's a hint: When you buy a hot chocolate and a Reese's cup at the summit cafeteria, put one of the Reese's into the hot chocolate and let it melt in there. Yum!
Anyway, back to the story...We rejected riding down the cog and riding or walking the auto road and decided to be men about it; we started down the TRT at about 6. My knees were quite unhappy about this turn of events, but everything else was working pretty good. We got back to Pinkham at about 8:20 (after cursing the whole lower end of the TRT - why don' they just pave it and get it over with).
19 miles, 8000 feet of elevation gain, and a five hour car ride in 20 hours on 3 hours of sleep.. Surprisingly I felt fine to drive home and so I did getting in at about 11PM.
This turned out to be an incredible day, awesome views, a wonderful adventure. The weather, even with the cold and wind, really could not have been better. The Cathedral trail at night in heavy winds was priceless. Pictures are at the link below.
BTW for those interested: My puppy Nelson Crag (named after one of my favorite spots/trails) got his first two 4 k's (Ike and Pierce) a week ago. He's four and a half months old and a beautiful boy, even if I do say so myself. Picture of him and that trip also at the link below.
http://community.webshots.com/user/hiker65
So, about three weeks ago, I got an email from Dave whom I attended MLS with a couple years ago. He had an idea to organize a trip to do Washington and Katahdin in the same day. He had reservations for a lean-to at Roaring Brook so was looking for three others. He already had found one guy to go and for some reason it sounded like a great idea to me so I agreed to go as well.
I started off for Baxter State Park Saturday morning and arrived through very heavy rain at Roaring Brook at about 3 PM. After putting my stuff in the lean-to, visiting the ranger and doing some reading (one bit of reading was the notice at the ranger's cabin about a possibly injured deer who has already attacked several parties of hikers between the Helon Taylor trail jct. and the first bog bridges on the Chimney Pond trail), Dave arrived. Everyone he invited to come had had "other plans" (translation: "Uh, no way, dude") and the third person had canceled so it was just the two of us. It was still raining but not too hard. He got situated and we went into Millinocket to eat. We decided on the Appalachian Trail Café (where the potato salad is served "in season" only). After inquiring as to whether or not it was currently potato season in Maine (it was!), we placed our order. While eating Dave came across an interesting article in the local paper about a man and his daughter who had just started out on an attempt of the AT southbound. Unfortunately, they never even reached the summit of Katahdin when the father fell and dislocated his shoulder. Make that shoulders, both of them.
You, the reader, may be asking yourself, "Do they see any bad omens accumulating here? The rain, the attacking deer, the lack of partners, the guy dislocating his shoulders?" Well, no we didn't (remember we thought this was a great idea in the first place so, clearly, our judgment is questionable at best).
It had stopped raining and was clearing nicely so, back in the park, we took the little jaunt to Sandy Stream Pond and back without incident. Things were looking up! We were in bed by 9. Dave snores.
We awoke at midnight and were signed out at the ranger's cabin by 12:15 AM. As we walked the trail, I said, "Dave, turn off your headlamp and look up.". The sky was crystal clear and full of stars. The temps were surprisingly warm. Absolutely gorgeous. We passed through the deer attack zone with no sign of the wily offender and considered ourselves lucky. We arrived at Chimney Pond to wind and cold at about 2 AM. We paused for some pictures and continued on our way. We had chosen the Cathedral trail for our ascent (again, remember, we have no critical thinking skills).
Luckily for us the Cathedral trail was extremely well blazed (both freshly painted for easy viewing and spaced close enough together). We were very careful to make sure we saw the next blaze before we moved ahead. The winds became increasingly strong and gusty (I was guessing 30-40 mph with gusts in the 50's). At times we had to hunker down and wait for the wind to quiet a little before we could move. As the reader may know, this trail require extensive scrambling with the use of hands and feet. I was "uncomfortable" in a couple different spots, but we made it through without our nerves being frayed too much. As we climbed the sky began to slowly lighten. It was awesome to see the features of Katahdin slowly emerge as the dawn broke. The knife edge in silhouette...really cool. I wanted to get more pictures at this point but the combo of low light and high winds made getting a focused picture almost impossible. We reached the upper Cathedral around 4 and the summit of Baxter Peak at about 4:30, just in time for sunrise. It was quite cold and very windy (now steady at 40-50, with higher gusts). After getting knocked over by the wind and dropping my camera, I ducked behind the giant cairn and waited for the sun to rise. We got some pictures and headed down the Saddle trail (no thought of the Knife edge in that wind - hey maybe we do have some ability to make some good decisions).
We were back at Chimney Pond by about 6:15. It was still windy and cold, the pond was an awesome Caribbean blue/green color with lots of whitecaps. After spotting a moose in the woods, we were back to Roaring Brook at about 7:30. As we signed out, Mr. Ranger was lecturing some day hikers on the porch regarding proper gear and precautions. We mentioned that, "yeah, it was pretty darn windy at the summit." He said, "yesterday?" We said, "no, this morning at 4:30". He said, "well, we disapprove of that sort of thing, you know." Thank you Mr. Ranger (He had also declared the knife edge closed for the day).
We were out of the park by 8:15 and on our way to Pinkham Notch. Stopped for gas/food and got in about 1:45 PM. Ms Information Volunteer was skeptical when I asked if TRT was open yet, she reminded me it was like winter on top and late in the day to be starting. Thank you Ms Information Volunteer. We were headed up Tuckerman Ravine Trail by 2. It was much warmer now, but very little humidity, a really great day. I felt pretty good, but could not get much power from my quads. We got to Ho Jo's at about 3:10, though. I felt like I was really slowing down on the section above Ho Jo's but below the headwall, but then it seemed like we did the headwall pretty fast.
It was better (believe it or not) on the summit cone and we reached the summit, surprisingly to me, at just after 5. It was cold and pretty windy with these big rime chunks blowing everywhere. I'm not sure where they were coming from (it seemed they were too big to be from the atmosphere, I thought something may have been dripping water and the low temps and high winds were forming them into these chunks), but they hurt when they hit you.
We lounged inside the Obs for about an hour eating and talking with the people. Here's a hint: When you buy a hot chocolate and a Reese's cup at the summit cafeteria, put one of the Reese's into the hot chocolate and let it melt in there. Yum!
Anyway, back to the story...We rejected riding down the cog and riding or walking the auto road and decided to be men about it; we started down the TRT at about 6. My knees were quite unhappy about this turn of events, but everything else was working pretty good. We got back to Pinkham at about 8:20 (after cursing the whole lower end of the TRT - why don' they just pave it and get it over with).
19 miles, 8000 feet of elevation gain, and a five hour car ride in 20 hours on 3 hours of sleep.. Surprisingly I felt fine to drive home and so I did getting in at about 11PM.
This turned out to be an incredible day, awesome views, a wonderful adventure. The weather, even with the cold and wind, really could not have been better. The Cathedral trail at night in heavy winds was priceless. Pictures are at the link below.
BTW for those interested: My puppy Nelson Crag (named after one of my favorite spots/trails) got his first two 4 k's (Ike and Pierce) a week ago. He's four and a half months old and a beautiful boy, even if I do say so myself. Picture of him and that trip also at the link below.
http://community.webshots.com/user/hiker65
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