RollingRock
Active member
I'd thought you'd enjoy my friend RockDancer latest blog posting of his trail magic at Crawford Notch. He's been there since July 1. It provides great insight into the AT community:
(Report for period Aug. 15 to 19)
I was at the trailhead from Wed evening to Sunday morning. 59 hikers came by, most are NoBo with only 3 or 4 SoBo hikers. These are possibly the last of this year's SoBo's; a record year. One hiker is on the Flip.
The only bad weather was a sudden T-storm on Thursday night. Otherwise the high pressure over the Whites just made the weather nicer & nicer for the hikers. Each night was progressively colder, and on Sunday morning my sense of temperature put us at about 45 F. The low at the summit of Washington was 41 F. The high will move off today and the weather should be more humid with brief showers for a few days. Mt. Washington was clear a a bell on Sunday morning without a speck of clouds until mid-day. I wanted to be on the ridge. In my 14 + trips to Mt. Washington I still haven't had a clear day on the summit! Jealousy rears its ugly head...
So far this season at least 3 SoBo hikers have fallen while descending Mt. Webster towards Rt. 302, each with some minor injuries but all decidedly frightened at what happened. On Friday morning Dirty came in, still shaken, with 2 broken poles and an injured knee. He hiked on after a few of us quizzed him & he promised to just give it a try and move on up to Ethan Pond, making it a short day. He wrote in my trail register "Hurt the knee and broke the poles in the middle of the lightning & thunder last night. What may have been the worst day on the trail was followed by one of the best things that happened yet. It may have saved my thru-hike. Thank you, rockdancer, you are no trail angel, you are a trail god. --Dirty"
(Now, I know this is a bit of puffery for me to send this out but it's been evident to me every year that the SoBo's deserve credit for doing so much hard hiking in their first 350 miles on the trail.)
Rockfish is out on the trail, doing a piece from Gorham to Glencliff. Since his first hike in '99 I believe he's approaching (or has accomplished) the double Triple Crown. We had a great time hanging out on Friday night with additional grilled bratwurst & brews from Hobo Joe from 2010 (sorry if I've screwed up the name.). Other highlights was a Quad-Trail Magic event on Saturday when the stars lined up & other trail alumni showed up, one-by-one, handing out magic for the day. About 14 hikers participated in this jumbo event. Ladypants from 2011 brought delightful home cooking and civilized us boys a bit by bringing a 5-month old along. Two non-hikers brought a dozen pre-packaged trail magic in memory of a hiker who died in 2011. "John Wayne", sometime "John Fucking Wayne" died in an hiking accident after finishing his AT hike last year. He was a Boston-area hiker and his sister & brother-in-law wanted to make a toast to his memory trailside with a bunch of this year's hikers. Touching ceremony near the RR tracks.
Many other nice hiker things happening: A German trail enthusiast explained some of the RR track features at the Willey House Station site; 2 Swiss hikers sang me a German-Swiss lullaby; Wiffle Chicken just cracked me up a lot; international hikers from Denmark, Netherlands (the boy with "trenchfoot"); Road Warrior's birthday; 2 different mother-son teams (one SoBo, one NoBo my first ever); and one hiker still wants to see a moose for the comic effect engendered in Bryson's quote: "A cow drawn by a three-year old."
(Report for period Aug. 15 to 19)
I was at the trailhead from Wed evening to Sunday morning. 59 hikers came by, most are NoBo with only 3 or 4 SoBo hikers. These are possibly the last of this year's SoBo's; a record year. One hiker is on the Flip.
The only bad weather was a sudden T-storm on Thursday night. Otherwise the high pressure over the Whites just made the weather nicer & nicer for the hikers. Each night was progressively colder, and on Sunday morning my sense of temperature put us at about 45 F. The low at the summit of Washington was 41 F. The high will move off today and the weather should be more humid with brief showers for a few days. Mt. Washington was clear a a bell on Sunday morning without a speck of clouds until mid-day. I wanted to be on the ridge. In my 14 + trips to Mt. Washington I still haven't had a clear day on the summit! Jealousy rears its ugly head...
So far this season at least 3 SoBo hikers have fallen while descending Mt. Webster towards Rt. 302, each with some minor injuries but all decidedly frightened at what happened. On Friday morning Dirty came in, still shaken, with 2 broken poles and an injured knee. He hiked on after a few of us quizzed him & he promised to just give it a try and move on up to Ethan Pond, making it a short day. He wrote in my trail register "Hurt the knee and broke the poles in the middle of the lightning & thunder last night. What may have been the worst day on the trail was followed by one of the best things that happened yet. It may have saved my thru-hike. Thank you, rockdancer, you are no trail angel, you are a trail god. --Dirty"
(Now, I know this is a bit of puffery for me to send this out but it's been evident to me every year that the SoBo's deserve credit for doing so much hard hiking in their first 350 miles on the trail.)
Rockfish is out on the trail, doing a piece from Gorham to Glencliff. Since his first hike in '99 I believe he's approaching (or has accomplished) the double Triple Crown. We had a great time hanging out on Friday night with additional grilled bratwurst & brews from Hobo Joe from 2010 (sorry if I've screwed up the name.). Other highlights was a Quad-Trail Magic event on Saturday when the stars lined up & other trail alumni showed up, one-by-one, handing out magic for the day. About 14 hikers participated in this jumbo event. Ladypants from 2011 brought delightful home cooking and civilized us boys a bit by bringing a 5-month old along. Two non-hikers brought a dozen pre-packaged trail magic in memory of a hiker who died in 2011. "John Wayne", sometime "John Fucking Wayne" died in an hiking accident after finishing his AT hike last year. He was a Boston-area hiker and his sister & brother-in-law wanted to make a toast to his memory trailside with a bunch of this year's hikers. Touching ceremony near the RR tracks.
Many other nice hiker things happening: A German trail enthusiast explained some of the RR track features at the Willey House Station site; 2 Swiss hikers sang me a German-Swiss lullaby; Wiffle Chicken just cracked me up a lot; international hikers from Denmark, Netherlands (the boy with "trenchfoot"); Road Warrior's birthday; 2 different mother-son teams (one SoBo, one NoBo my first ever); and one hiker still wants to see a moose for the comic effect engendered in Bryson's quote: "A cow drawn by a three-year old."
