TMax
New member
- Joined
- Feb 12, 2005
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Saturday July 26th was "Seek the Peak" up Mt. Washington (my favorite mountain) and Topofgothics graciously agreed to accompany me on this yearly tradition. Given the last minute weather change (to only a slight chance of thunderstorms) we decided to head up Huntington's Ravine in the hopes the trail would be less populated on this busy mountain-climbing day. (Besides, TOG hadn't been exposed to this amazing hike yet and I knew he would love it!) Our thinking was right on, as we only saw about 10 people on this trail. The Tucks fire-road was its usual slog but as soon as we stepped onto the Huntington trail, things got much more interesting. The first stream crossing was a little challenging with the high water level but I barely got wet! The section below the fan was wet and muddy in places as well but nothing too bad. TOG was impressed with the incredibly cool air that leaks up through the huge boulders. We stopped about half-way up the fan for a long snack and foot drying break while we marveled at the views. The waterfall through the chimney to the left of the ravine was bigger than I’ve ever seen it! Once we started back up, we arrived at the slab climb pretty quickly. It was wet which added to the adventure. TOG (with his Billy-goat genes) flew right up it, while I more or less crawled! The difficult climbing from there up went incredibly well but I couldn’t help but think back to my first Huntington climb when I was quite anxious and had a fairly difficult time. It’s nice to know that skills do improve
. Just below the summit we stopped for lunch with a view over the Northern Pressies. We spied the new cog train that has an even more obnoxious whistle! From there we went to the top for the obligatory summit photos where the crowds were large, but less than I anticipated. Then into the summit building where we were treated (as Seek the Peak participants) to a tour of the museum and the observatory. They even let us climb to the top of the tower, so for a few moments we truly were the tallest things in the northeast! After an observatory staffer told us that she had seen the snow arch the week before, we decided to head down Tuckerman Ravine just in case it was still standing. We passed LOADS of people, also headed down, but even more surprisingly, 63 headed up (as late as 4:00 pm). Shortly after heading down the headwall, I heard a whoop from TOG, I came around the bend, and there was the arch! Or rather, what remained of it. It had collapsed at some point within the past few days, but there was still a heck of a lot of hard compacted snow where it all landed. (Less than 5 months to winter!!) A short break at Ho-Jo’s where we met a group of high school kids on an outing and who had just climbed Washington. Not a one of them EVER wanted to hike again. From there out we made excellent time (even without a Billy-goat gene, I have developed a rhythm for getting down that fire road!) in order to attend the STP awards dinner.
TOG and I decided that since Washington was my favorite mountain, we’d make the second mountain we climbed Gothics, his favorite. Now, getting from the Whites to the Dacks is not an easy straight-forward drive, so we planned on getting to the summit of Gothics a little later in the day… We opted to watch the sunrise from this amazing mountain. TOG and I are both pretty strong and experienced hikers and are comfortable with night hiking. We started out on the Southside trail (from the Garden) but turned back at the river crossing as the water was much higher than I was comfortable attempting. So with a small loss in time, we went back up the standard route and crossed the new bridge at the outpost (nice work, beautiful bridge!) and then headed up the Ore-bed trail. Now, even in the best of conditions, I’m not a fan of the Ore-bed (outside of winter) and this day, with all the water and slipperiness and my less than satisfactory new hiking boots, I was even less of a fan. TOG tolerated my little outbursts (thank-you David) and eventually even accepted my new rule ("Terri will never take the Ore-bed trail again, either up or down, outside of winter"---a rule which I later null and voided). Considering everything, we made good time. The cable section was challenging, and in my mind I started to develop new hiking boots that had lifts on them like the ascent snowshoes! Eventually we arrived on the summit ridge and played at avoiding the mud. I say played because if we took it too seriously, we might have been annoyed! The summit was windy but stars were beautifully visible. We watched a wonderful sunrise, dulled slightly by the low-lying clouds, but still an incredible experience. We watched the sunrise until 6:30 and then started over for Armstrong. In the col, we gathered most of what remained of the mess previously left there, TOG doing the lion’s share by carrying out the sleeping bag. The only item still there is a supersized blue plastic bag. Hopefully someone reading this report will hike in prepared to cut that up and carry it out? A brief stop on the summit of Armstrong and then shortly after we started the descent, TOG realized his hiking buddy (Topo the frog) had jumped ship. TOG dropped his pack and decided to backtrack to find Topo while I decided to continue on towards Upper Wolf Jaw. The hike down all that steep stuff was fun but I had to be cautious with my footing as most everything was pretty wet. I arrived on UWJ with simply beautiful weather and spread out to wait for TOG. A group of young folks came up on the summit from the other direction and I asked them to tell TOG to hurry up or else I was coming back to look for him. Then I started to worry. A much longer period of time passed than I thought should and I had just cleaned out my pack of everything but anticipated emergency needs so I could head back to find him, when I heard a very distant “don’t turn around.” TOG had gotten my message. So I repacked my pack and waited another 20 minutes for him arrive. Turns out, Topo had jumped off the pack a mere 40 feet from where TOG dropped his pack, but he had retreated all the way to the Armstrong/Gothics col and returned before he realized this. I came close to drop-kicking that frog off the mountain!! By this time, we needed to get back to the Garden as we had a long drive to meet friends. We headed out via the Southside trail (with a bunch more hours without rain, we figured the water level would have dropped) which was a first for me. What a beautiful trail. We talked about someday when we could plan a mellow hiking day where we would just meander along the shores, enjoying the terrain. But today we were on a mission! The river had dropped a couple of inches which made all the difference and we crossed with only moderately wet feet.
What an amazing couple of days in two of the greatest of our northeast playgrounds! We laughed that we were probably the first to hike Mt. Washington via Huntington’s one day, then Gothics via the cable route the next day to watch sunrise… could this be the beginning of a new list?
Where else would you rather be???
. Just below the summit we stopped for lunch with a view over the Northern Pressies. We spied the new cog train that has an even more obnoxious whistle! From there we went to the top for the obligatory summit photos where the crowds were large, but less than I anticipated. Then into the summit building where we were treated (as Seek the Peak participants) to a tour of the museum and the observatory. They even let us climb to the top of the tower, so for a few moments we truly were the tallest things in the northeast! After an observatory staffer told us that she had seen the snow arch the week before, we decided to head down Tuckerman Ravine just in case it was still standing. We passed LOADS of people, also headed down, but even more surprisingly, 63 headed up (as late as 4:00 pm). Shortly after heading down the headwall, I heard a whoop from TOG, I came around the bend, and there was the arch! Or rather, what remained of it. It had collapsed at some point within the past few days, but there was still a heck of a lot of hard compacted snow where it all landed. (Less than 5 months to winter!!) A short break at Ho-Jo’s where we met a group of high school kids on an outing and who had just climbed Washington. Not a one of them EVER wanted to hike again. From there out we made excellent time (even without a Billy-goat gene, I have developed a rhythm for getting down that fire road!) in order to attend the STP awards dinner. TOG and I decided that since Washington was my favorite mountain, we’d make the second mountain we climbed Gothics, his favorite. Now, getting from the Whites to the Dacks is not an easy straight-forward drive, so we planned on getting to the summit of Gothics a little later in the day… We opted to watch the sunrise from this amazing mountain. TOG and I are both pretty strong and experienced hikers and are comfortable with night hiking. We started out on the Southside trail (from the Garden) but turned back at the river crossing as the water was much higher than I was comfortable attempting. So with a small loss in time, we went back up the standard route and crossed the new bridge at the outpost (nice work, beautiful bridge!) and then headed up the Ore-bed trail. Now, even in the best of conditions, I’m not a fan of the Ore-bed (outside of winter) and this day, with all the water and slipperiness and my less than satisfactory new hiking boots, I was even less of a fan. TOG tolerated my little outbursts (thank-you David) and eventually even accepted my new rule ("Terri will never take the Ore-bed trail again, either up or down, outside of winter"---a rule which I later null and voided
). Considering everything, we made good time. The cable section was challenging, and in my mind I started to develop new hiking boots that had lifts on them like the ascent snowshoes! Eventually we arrived on the summit ridge and played at avoiding the mud. I say played because if we took it too seriously, we might have been annoyed! The summit was windy but stars were beautifully visible. We watched a wonderful sunrise, dulled slightly by the low-lying clouds, but still an incredible experience. We watched the sunrise until 6:30 and then started over for Armstrong. In the col, we gathered most of what remained of the mess previously left there, TOG doing the lion’s share by carrying out the sleeping bag. The only item still there is a supersized blue plastic bag. Hopefully someone reading this report will hike in prepared to cut that up and carry it out? A brief stop on the summit of Armstrong and then shortly after we started the descent, TOG realized his hiking buddy (Topo the frog) had jumped ship. TOG dropped his pack and decided to backtrack to find Topo while I decided to continue on towards Upper Wolf Jaw. The hike down all that steep stuff was fun but I had to be cautious with my footing as most everything was pretty wet. I arrived on UWJ with simply beautiful weather and spread out to wait for TOG. A group of young folks came up on the summit from the other direction and I asked them to tell TOG to hurry up or else I was coming back to look for him. Then I started to worry. A much longer period of time passed than I thought should and I had just cleaned out my pack of everything but anticipated emergency needs so I could head back to find him, when I heard a very distant “don’t turn around.” TOG had gotten my message. So I repacked my pack and waited another 20 minutes for him arrive. Turns out, Topo had jumped off the pack a mere 40 feet from where TOG dropped his pack, but he had retreated all the way to the Armstrong/Gothics col and returned before he realized this. I came close to drop-kicking that frog off the mountain!! By this time, we needed to get back to the Garden as we had a long drive to meet friends. We headed out via the Southside trail (with a bunch more hours without rain, we figured the water level would have dropped) which was a first for me. What a beautiful trail. We talked about someday when we could plan a mellow hiking day where we would just meander along the shores, enjoying the terrain. But today we were on a mission! The river had dropped a couple of inches which made all the difference and we crossed with only moderately wet feet. What an amazing couple of days in two of the greatest of our northeast playgrounds! We laughed that we were probably the first to hike Mt. Washington via Huntington’s one day, then Gothics via the cable route the next day to watch sunrise… could this be the beginning of a new list?
Where else would you rather be???
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