marty
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Many of the readers here are aware that Ray Loring passed away on September 6, 2008, on Peak Above the Nubble (PAtN) in NH, while hiking with Jason Berard and me. Ray died of a sudden heart attack. He was working on his 84th of the New England 100 highest summits.
Shortly after Ray's death, I was approached by Bob and Geri about possibly doing a memorial hike for Ray. Jason, Ridgewalker (Ray's closest friend on VFTT) and I discussed this and decided it was a great idea.
We picked Saturday, November 22 as the date and sent out invitations to a select few who either knew Ray or expressed an interest in advance.
The forecast for Saturday seemed to get a bit worse each time it was updated. We knew the conditions might be hostile, but decided that Saturday would remain the date.
Our group of 14 hikers and 1 dog arrived Saturday morning at the Beaver Brook rest stop. Those hikers were:
• VFTTers: Audrey, Bob and Geri, Bobby, Don K., Jason Berard, LarryD, Ridgewalker, Rols, Tuco, me
• Others: Genie (Pat and Audrey’s beautiful dog), Greg, Jason W (aka Jason II), Pat (as in Pat and Audrey)
VFTTers WSC and MtnPa also stopped by to extend their best wishes and send their regrets that they would not be able to join us on the hike.
We then carpooled up Haystack Road to the trailhead, stopping to push out a car that went off the side of the road and sustained minor front end damage.
We geared up and started the hike at 8:30 am in cloudy, windy and snowy conditions, with temps in the teens, with Bob Hayes leading the way.
After hiking some log/tote roads, we headed into a clearcut and then headed into the woods to ascend to the summit ridge. Shortly after getting into the woods, Pat and Audrey realized that their dog Genie was gone for an unusual amount of time. She did not respond to our repeated calls. Audrey and Pat decided to head down to search for her, while the rest continued on with an eye for her tracks in the snow and an ear for any unusual sounds. We occasionally ran across her tracks, but she would not respond to our calls.
The snow depths increased with elevation, but surprisingly the ground beneath it was not too frozen. Our trekking poles kept picking up dirt that froze on contact. This looked quite gross, as if we had stuck our trekking poles into dog poo. I have never seen the turd stick effect before.
We reached the ridge and outlook around 10:30-11 and saw none of the amazing views that Ray, Jason and I saw there back in September. We then pushed through some somewhat thick stuff, came to the false summit and shortly after reached the open area just below the ridgeline where Ray died. We then conducted summit memorial services, which took about 30 minutes. During these ceremonies, many of the group got very cold as the wind was relentless and the temps dropped down to single digits. Bob Hayes got it just right when he said it felt colder than Mt. Washington in January. BRRRRRR!
Shortly after that, a few of the hikers decided to head down, while seven of us continued on to the summit. There, we ran into increasingly deeper snow and colder temps. We stumbled through the snow covered blowdown jungle just below the summit and quickly found the canister still hanging on a blown down tree (nice job, Geri!). We then had some snacks and headed down. We got down a short ways and ran into my dear friend Timmus, who was doing the hike solo. After some introductions, we continued on, following our footsteps.
We then ran into some moose or deer tracks just below the summit ridge, along with Genie’s tracks and ventured off a bit to the west of our now well worn route. We just continued down, but did not find Genie. We eventually realized we were about 1/3 of a mile too far to the west. We then had to bop our way eastward through a tangled mess and eventually hit the clearcut as well as Bobby, Tuco and Timmus (who was smart not to follow our route), who were searching for Genie. We got back to the cars a bit before 4, running into VFTTer Motabobo, who was waiting for Timmus.
Bobby, Greg, Jason, Jason, Larry D, Ridgewalker, Tuco and I then headed off to Woodstock Station for a total pigout and some brews (except for me: I had hot tea and withstood several assaults on my masculinity). Ridgewalker, who was the smallest of the group, got the award for eating a full meat lover’s deep dish pizza. I tried to match him without success, leaving a full slice on the table. This was an awesome dinner with laughs galore.
Bob and Geri reported on a separate VFTT thread later that evening that they found that Genie returned to the trailhead and was eventually reunited with Pat and Audrey! What a huge relief!
My sincere thanks to each and every person who made this hike such a wonderful tribute to such an incredible man, Charles Ray Loring II. You will all have a special place in my heart, for sure.
Ray was a composer, a mentor, a hiker and above all, a dear friend. For more information on this great man, you can refer to this thread back in September: http://www.vftt.org/forums/showthread.php?t=25024&highlight=loring
Here are just a few photos of our hike. I hope the others post their photos and comments as well: http://share.shutterfly.com/share/received/welcome.sfly?fid=07fe119dbe06eb5d&sid=0YYtW7Vo1YsKc
Best regards,
Marty
Shortly after Ray's death, I was approached by Bob and Geri about possibly doing a memorial hike for Ray. Jason, Ridgewalker (Ray's closest friend on VFTT) and I discussed this and decided it was a great idea.
We picked Saturday, November 22 as the date and sent out invitations to a select few who either knew Ray or expressed an interest in advance.
The forecast for Saturday seemed to get a bit worse each time it was updated. We knew the conditions might be hostile, but decided that Saturday would remain the date.
Our group of 14 hikers and 1 dog arrived Saturday morning at the Beaver Brook rest stop. Those hikers were:
• VFTTers: Audrey, Bob and Geri, Bobby, Don K., Jason Berard, LarryD, Ridgewalker, Rols, Tuco, me
• Others: Genie (Pat and Audrey’s beautiful dog), Greg, Jason W (aka Jason II), Pat (as in Pat and Audrey)
VFTTers WSC and MtnPa also stopped by to extend their best wishes and send their regrets that they would not be able to join us on the hike.
We then carpooled up Haystack Road to the trailhead, stopping to push out a car that went off the side of the road and sustained minor front end damage.
We geared up and started the hike at 8:30 am in cloudy, windy and snowy conditions, with temps in the teens, with Bob Hayes leading the way.
After hiking some log/tote roads, we headed into a clearcut and then headed into the woods to ascend to the summit ridge. Shortly after getting into the woods, Pat and Audrey realized that their dog Genie was gone for an unusual amount of time. She did not respond to our repeated calls. Audrey and Pat decided to head down to search for her, while the rest continued on with an eye for her tracks in the snow and an ear for any unusual sounds. We occasionally ran across her tracks, but she would not respond to our calls.
The snow depths increased with elevation, but surprisingly the ground beneath it was not too frozen. Our trekking poles kept picking up dirt that froze on contact. This looked quite gross, as if we had stuck our trekking poles into dog poo. I have never seen the turd stick effect before.
We reached the ridge and outlook around 10:30-11 and saw none of the amazing views that Ray, Jason and I saw there back in September. We then pushed through some somewhat thick stuff, came to the false summit and shortly after reached the open area just below the ridgeline where Ray died. We then conducted summit memorial services, which took about 30 minutes. During these ceremonies, many of the group got very cold as the wind was relentless and the temps dropped down to single digits. Bob Hayes got it just right when he said it felt colder than Mt. Washington in January. BRRRRRR!
Shortly after that, a few of the hikers decided to head down, while seven of us continued on to the summit. There, we ran into increasingly deeper snow and colder temps. We stumbled through the snow covered blowdown jungle just below the summit and quickly found the canister still hanging on a blown down tree (nice job, Geri!). We then had some snacks and headed down. We got down a short ways and ran into my dear friend Timmus, who was doing the hike solo. After some introductions, we continued on, following our footsteps.
We then ran into some moose or deer tracks just below the summit ridge, along with Genie’s tracks and ventured off a bit to the west of our now well worn route. We just continued down, but did not find Genie. We eventually realized we were about 1/3 of a mile too far to the west. We then had to bop our way eastward through a tangled mess and eventually hit the clearcut as well as Bobby, Tuco and Timmus (who was smart not to follow our route), who were searching for Genie. We got back to the cars a bit before 4, running into VFTTer Motabobo, who was waiting for Timmus.
Bobby, Greg, Jason, Jason, Larry D, Ridgewalker, Tuco and I then headed off to Woodstock Station for a total pigout and some brews (except for me: I had hot tea and withstood several assaults on my masculinity). Ridgewalker, who was the smallest of the group, got the award for eating a full meat lover’s deep dish pizza. I tried to match him without success, leaving a full slice on the table. This was an awesome dinner with laughs galore.
Bob and Geri reported on a separate VFTT thread later that evening that they found that Genie returned to the trailhead and was eventually reunited with Pat and Audrey! What a huge relief!
My sincere thanks to each and every person who made this hike such a wonderful tribute to such an incredible man, Charles Ray Loring II. You will all have a special place in my heart, for sure.
Ray was a composer, a mentor, a hiker and above all, a dear friend. For more information on this great man, you can refer to this thread back in September: http://www.vftt.org/forums/showthread.php?t=25024&highlight=loring
Here are just a few photos of our hike. I hope the others post their photos and comments as well: http://share.shutterfly.com/share/received/welcome.sfly?fid=07fe119dbe06eb5d&sid=0YYtW7Vo1YsKc
Best regards,
Marty
