I've seen fire and I've seen rain... 8/20/05

vftt.org

Help Support vftt.org:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Double Bow

New member
Joined
Apr 29, 2005
Messages
1,172
Reaction score
219
Location
Ashuelot, NH (anyone know where that is?) Avatar:
After a 45min nap at Lincoln Woods and 2.5hrs in bed at home after Friday's 18mi hike, I met up with Eric Savage and jmegillon149 to carpool up for a hike that would entail bushwhacking The Fool Killer and Scaur Peak and also visiting the summits of Middle and North Tripyramid. We knew this was going to be an exciting day but we had no idea how exciting.

The drive up 93 was routine and I was feeling oddly sharp considering my lack of sleep over the two privious nights and not having any caffeine. We arrived in Lincoln a little behind schedule to meet the rest of our group and our need to stop for gas didn't help that much. However, even after that quick stop, we felt that we might still meet the rest of our group on time.

Back on the Kanc, we were noting the various trailheads as we were progressing toward Sabbaday, where our meeting spot was. Then, while passing over an unusually flat and straight section, Eric spotted a car on the side of the road. It was on its roof at an angle.

We quickly turned around and came back, parking a safe distance from the vechicle, and ran toward it as the four college age passengers were scrambling out of the SUV. We had first seen a little bit of smoke and just as we jumped out of the car, I spotted the first flames. Soon, the vehicle was fully blazing. We got the passengers safely down the road despite protests from one girl about needing to get her phone out of the car. The driver appeared uninjured while the other male had some small cuts and bruises on his head. Of the two girls, one was bleeding from her elbow and the other from her side.

Help soon came in many forms. A pickup truck stopped to offer assistance and we sent them down the road to Lincoln Woods to alert the ranger who called the sheriff's department and quickly came to the scene. The passengers friends were also soon there. They had been caravaning and the SUV that flipped was been the last of the three cars. Their friends realized they were no longer behind them and turned around. Other folks also stopped to offer assistance but, the situation was well in hand. Once the girls wounds were cleaned, they were found, thankfully, to be quite minor. The fire raged on and the nearby trees caught fire as it began misting. With everyone safe and away from danger, the ranger assured us that the emergency vehicles would be there soon and that it was OK for us to go. There was nothing else for us to do.

Just after we arrived at Sabbaday, we saw response vehicles racing by. Needless to say, when we explained what had happened, the rest of our group wasn't upset that we were late. After spotting cars, we started up and so did the rain. When we got to the point where we had to decide whether or not to whack up The Fool Killer, the rain intensified further so, we opted to save that for another day. The three of us that had been at the accident chose to climb Middle Tri but, the rest of the group had no interest.

The climb up Middle Tri was wet and cold with no views. After a quick bite in a sheltered area, we headed over to North Tri where we got word that the other part of our group had left 10min before. We headed over to where we had been told a herd path to Scaur Peak was and found David's poles. Taking that path, we soon met up with the rest of our group at the cannister. Not many entries there but, a few familiar names (Spongebob). The trip down Pine Bend was uneventful though it seemed a little long to me. It could have been the lack of sleep.

Once we were back at the cars, the three of us that had come up together stopped back at the accident site. The SUV was gone but we saw where the sign they hit when they went off the road landed, metal and glass that had melted to a completely liquid state and pooled and reformed, and trees burned completely. It gave us a real sense of the destructive power that had been at work! Those people were very very lucky the car didn't explode and that they were noy more seriously injured.

After stopping into The Mountain Wanderer, we had dinner and headed home and I was very glad that, with the exception of the destruction that was done, everything wound up alright in the end and that I was finally going to get some sleep!
 
Top