December 28, 2013: The Ledges Trail

The final hike is complete! Dad, Tripper, Zoe, and I set out to complete my New Year’s resolution on a mild, overcast day with several inches of ice and snow on the ground. Last week, we received quite a bit of ice, but we’ve gotten a couple inches of snow since then, covering everything nicely. The trail was well packed, and the traveling was easy with a pair of microspikes, which are great winter grippers on almost any surface. Our hike took about the average amount of time– an hour each direction.

This year was my first time hiking Pleasant in snowy weather. Tramping a new path in snowhoes can be absolutely exhausting, but I was pleased to find the trail such easy going. I don’t plan to continue my monthly pilgrimage, but I am hoping for some more adventuring and back-country skiing this winter; they say it’s going to be a good one, and the snow is coming down as I write this! It’s nice to know I won’t be the only one out there.

It’s been a great year hiking Pleasant Mountain every month. Zoe and I have enjoyed the challenges, the milestones, the companions,and the classic familiarity of a good trail. The only trail we didn’t hit was Bald Peak, so we’ll have to head up that way next year for blueberries! Until then, happy trails!

Hiking the 4000 footers: A decade long adventure with my Dad

12 years. 29 hikes and 32 days. 48 peaks. 280 miles, and 94,650 feet of elevation gained.

I was only 18 when my father and I did my first 4000 footer (Washington, in the winter), but I think of hiking the 4000 footers as neatly summing up the decade of my 20’s. First I tried Washington, and then my Dad took me on a few other classic hikes in the Whites, and then…a tradition was born. By 2004, we had consciously begun “peak-bagging”. Slowly, a few hikes a summer (or fall, or winter), we began to check 4000 footers off the list. Mostly, we began with popular hikes: hard, but a good bang for the buck with views. My father had already hiked many or most of these early peaks, but they were all new to me. Once or twice, we stayed in an AMC hut, and once we backpacked, but most of the time we were just out a day at a time. Often, our golden retriever Lizzy also came on these early hikes.

Later on, the hikes became more routine and completion-oriented. Though most of our hikes were beautiful, a few were just plain boring: long drives and wooded summits.  Because we did so many of the big, stunning hikes early on– and because I improved massively as a hiker over 12 years– the hikes also got progressively easier. Still, as my Dad always says, “There’s no such thing as an easy 4000 footer.” We hiked through heat, cold, snow, mud, pouring rain, bugs, frozen rivers, and everything in between. Some days were routine, but other were adventures of epic proportions.

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In our house, it is not the Bible but the AMC’s White Mountain Guide that is referred to as THE Book. It is the ultimate resource for trail information. My Dad and I have always kept a record of our hikes in the margins of each of our copies of The Book, and we have a (mostly) accurate history of our hikes. From this, I calculated that our average hike was 9.33 miles long, with an average elevation gain of 3,121 feet. The only months we didn’t hike a 4000 footer were January, February, March, and December.

Overall, hiking these 48 mountains has been one of the biggest accomplishments of my 20s, perhaps eclipsing two college degrees and countless other important milestones this decade. And who knows what my 30s will bring. When we summited Isolation this August, my father looked at me and said: “What’s next?” What is next, indeed??

 

November 30, 2013: Southwest Ridge Trail

It was the 11th hour for my November hike. As usual, I kept putting it off for the “perfect day”. As November is apt to do though, it has gotten colder and less inviting outside by the day. It was a cold and frosty morning for this trip– only 8 degrees when we started!

Zoe and I, joined by my Dad and my parents’ dog Tripper, set out early, hitting the trail at about 7:20. We hit the teepee about 8:15 and were off the mountain already by just after 9. Along the trail, many of the larger rocks and ledges had sheets of ice forming, and the ground as well as the lake below were becoming frozen. The dogs were surprised to find themselves skating around a few times!

Originally, I’d hoped to time this hike for Thanksgiving Day, but I did get it in during the long weekend. It’s been such a great year, and I have so much to be thankful for! Not least of the many things I’m thankful for is how close beautiful Pleasant Mountain is!