sli74
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I know my title says Mount Adams but this trip report actually begins back in August of 2004 in Vermont so just humor me a bit. 
Back in 2004, I was on my post graduate school hiatus and as part of that “time off” I thru-hiked the Long Trail. As most of you know the Long Trail and the AT run together for about 100 miles in Southern Vermont. On a hurricane level rainy day in August ’04, myself and my dear friends, Bathing Beauty and Toe Cozy, were continuing our journey north to Canada. We stopped into the new Bromley shelter to check it out and to take shelter from the driving rain for a few minutes. This is where we met an AT thru-hiker who went by the name Regular Brian. He had the biggest backpack we’d ever seen and voluntarily shared his chocolate chip cookies with us. I was immediately suspicious because we all know that 1) thruhikers have TINY backpacks and 2) they never GIVE away food, particularly cookies.
We chatted with him for a while and then continued on our hike north as he was spending the rainy morning reading. Over the course of the next few days, we saw him off and on and I chatted with him during those brief bits of times. Finally, on the summit of Killington, we wished each other luck and exchanged contact information. I invited him to come hike with me over the 4000-footers in Maine in October, if he felt like hiking any more after the AT. I have been promising myself and many of you that I will write a trip report about my Long Trail thru-hike but we all know that isn’t gonna ever happen, who was I kidding ??? Since I am unlikely to ever write that trip report, you can see all my long overdue Long Trail pictures here . . .
community.webshots.com/user/sli74
Brian finished his thru-hike on October 4 and on October 6 met me at Crocker Cirque Campsite in Maine. We have been hiking together ever since . . .
Fast forward to April 21, 2007 . . .
Sunny, warm and calm, this Saturday started as most other Saturdays do for Brian and I. We woke up while it was still dark outside, loaded the car with our backpacks and took turns driving from Boston to NH. Along the way we picked up our friend Meri and car pooled up to the trailhead at Appalachia. I wasn’t feeling very well and spent the latter part of the car ride taking a nap. Once at the trailhead we finished our last minute preparations and scaled the mountain of plowed snow to access the trails. We started with snowshoes on and kept them on for the entire trip up to Crag Camp. The ground had an impressive snow cover for a late April hike. There was plenty of evidence of the tremendous storm of the week before, lots of downed trees and closed in bent trees making the trail hiking seem more like bushwhacking. On this warm day, the snow was soft and still relatively unbroken from the storm. Most hikers before us had apparently gone without snowshoes as was evident by the thousands of postholes the whole way up. Some of those postholes were so deep; we had to believe they were painful to the posthole creator, ouch!
After an unusually slow hike up to Crag Camp, exhaustion and lack of sleep caught up with me and I took a nap while Meri and Brian went off to explore the views at Knights Castle. We spent the evening watching the beautiful sunset and taking in the views from the windows at Crag Camp. Morning brought a breathtaking sunrise and a leisurely start to another sunny and warm and gorgeous day. Soon, we were making our way up the steep ascent up Spur Trail towards treeline and Adams summit. We couldn’t have asked for a better day, with its gorgeous views and perfect hiking conditions on mostly consolidated snow. Brian and I were talking and enjoying our hike and occasionally we’d catch a glimpse of Meri up ahead, we called her the "backpack with legs" because of how huge her pack was.
As we got closer to the summit, Brian took a break at Thunderstorm Junction and then fell back a bit once again as we neared the summit. The winds picked up as we continued our climb and eventually I put on a windbreaker and pushed on to the summit. Meri had been at the summit for a while and when we got up there we discussed her plans to push onto Madison summit before catching up with us on Valley Way. Brian and I planned on going back to Thunderstorm Junction and heading to Valley Way via the AT and Madison Hut. After taking a bunch of pictures, Meri took of for her Madison summit and I also was ready to get out of the wind.
However, Brian insisted I come over and look at something and when I made my way up to the spot where he was standing, he began saying all kinds of mushy sentimental stuff I won’t post here and asked me to marry him as I laughed and cried and freaked out. It was a beautiful sunny day, with stunning views and this gorgeous man who I am lucky enough to have met back on that rainy August day in 2004 in Vermont made me the happiest woman. I don’t know many people as lucky as me for I have truly found my partner in life, one with whom I know I will share a lifetime of laughter and happiness and hikes . . . with and without views, all which makes me giddy with joy.
I am so very excited and happy and words cannot express how lucky I feel to be continuing this trip of a lifetime with the love of my life. Thanks for ready this convoluted and sentimental trip report.
Brian, I love you . . .
sli74
P.S. I will add pictures to my webshots page soon, once things calm down a bit and I have time to download them.
Back in 2004, I was on my post graduate school hiatus and as part of that “time off” I thru-hiked the Long Trail. As most of you know the Long Trail and the AT run together for about 100 miles in Southern Vermont. On a hurricane level rainy day in August ’04, myself and my dear friends, Bathing Beauty and Toe Cozy, were continuing our journey north to Canada. We stopped into the new Bromley shelter to check it out and to take shelter from the driving rain for a few minutes. This is where we met an AT thru-hiker who went by the name Regular Brian. He had the biggest backpack we’d ever seen and voluntarily shared his chocolate chip cookies with us. I was immediately suspicious because we all know that 1) thruhikers have TINY backpacks and 2) they never GIVE away food, particularly cookies.
We chatted with him for a while and then continued on our hike north as he was spending the rainy morning reading. Over the course of the next few days, we saw him off and on and I chatted with him during those brief bits of times. Finally, on the summit of Killington, we wished each other luck and exchanged contact information. I invited him to come hike with me over the 4000-footers in Maine in October, if he felt like hiking any more after the AT. I have been promising myself and many of you that I will write a trip report about my Long Trail thru-hike but we all know that isn’t gonna ever happen, who was I kidding ??? Since I am unlikely to ever write that trip report, you can see all my long overdue Long Trail pictures here . . .
community.webshots.com/user/sli74
Brian finished his thru-hike on October 4 and on October 6 met me at Crocker Cirque Campsite in Maine. We have been hiking together ever since . . .
Fast forward to April 21, 2007 . . .
Sunny, warm and calm, this Saturday started as most other Saturdays do for Brian and I. We woke up while it was still dark outside, loaded the car with our backpacks and took turns driving from Boston to NH. Along the way we picked up our friend Meri and car pooled up to the trailhead at Appalachia. I wasn’t feeling very well and spent the latter part of the car ride taking a nap. Once at the trailhead we finished our last minute preparations and scaled the mountain of plowed snow to access the trails. We started with snowshoes on and kept them on for the entire trip up to Crag Camp. The ground had an impressive snow cover for a late April hike. There was plenty of evidence of the tremendous storm of the week before, lots of downed trees and closed in bent trees making the trail hiking seem more like bushwhacking. On this warm day, the snow was soft and still relatively unbroken from the storm. Most hikers before us had apparently gone without snowshoes as was evident by the thousands of postholes the whole way up. Some of those postholes were so deep; we had to believe they were painful to the posthole creator, ouch!
After an unusually slow hike up to Crag Camp, exhaustion and lack of sleep caught up with me and I took a nap while Meri and Brian went off to explore the views at Knights Castle. We spent the evening watching the beautiful sunset and taking in the views from the windows at Crag Camp. Morning brought a breathtaking sunrise and a leisurely start to another sunny and warm and gorgeous day. Soon, we were making our way up the steep ascent up Spur Trail towards treeline and Adams summit. We couldn’t have asked for a better day, with its gorgeous views and perfect hiking conditions on mostly consolidated snow. Brian and I were talking and enjoying our hike and occasionally we’d catch a glimpse of Meri up ahead, we called her the "backpack with legs" because of how huge her pack was.
As we got closer to the summit, Brian took a break at Thunderstorm Junction and then fell back a bit once again as we neared the summit. The winds picked up as we continued our climb and eventually I put on a windbreaker and pushed on to the summit. Meri had been at the summit for a while and when we got up there we discussed her plans to push onto Madison summit before catching up with us on Valley Way. Brian and I planned on going back to Thunderstorm Junction and heading to Valley Way via the AT and Madison Hut. After taking a bunch of pictures, Meri took of for her Madison summit and I also was ready to get out of the wind.
However, Brian insisted I come over and look at something and when I made my way up to the spot where he was standing, he began saying all kinds of mushy sentimental stuff I won’t post here
and asked me to marry him as I laughed and cried and freaked out. It was a beautiful sunny day, with stunning views and this gorgeous man who I am lucky enough to have met back on that rainy August day in 2004 in Vermont made me the happiest woman. I don’t know many people as lucky as me for I have truly found my partner in life, one with whom I know I will share a lifetime of laughter and happiness and hikes . . . with and without views, all which makes me giddy with joy. I am so very excited and happy and words cannot express how lucky I feel to be continuing this trip of a lifetime with the love of my life. Thanks for ready this convoluted and sentimental trip report.
Brian, I love you . . .
sli74
P.S. I will add pictures to my webshots page soon, once things calm down a bit and I have time to download them.
