Sometimes things do not turn out like you plan. In life, in backpacking, and especially weather in the White Mountains. But as always you have to make the best out of every situation in life.
On Saturday we had a few errands in town to take care of before hitting the trail. One of them brought us to Rite Aid where we had to get batteries for Joy's headlamp. As I was sitting in my car an old man asked me: "is this your car?" I was sitting in the driver seat so of course I replied in the affirmative. He said he wanted to show me something so I got out of the car wondering if he was going to scold me on how my tires are balding. He proceeded to say something about safety and getting somebody killed and then showed me the front passenger tire. A tire which is falling apart. A tire that has started opening up around the edge. I am not sure how else to describe it so take a look at the picture. The man said that there was a tire barn down in Lincoln and they were open on Saturday. I thanked him but of course did not take care of it then, we got hiking to do!
So we drove off on the Kancamangus, parked one car where we would end up the next day, drove to the next trailhead, and started up the Oliverian Brook Trail at ten to ten. My tire didn't explode and will have to wait for when we get back. It was very flat at first but soon we learned about another potential issue: my friend's knee. It was hurting him pretty bad and the whole trip might be over pretty quickly. But after a quick rest he steeled his resolve and we continued on. The trail, which turned into a bunch of other trail names and cutoffs that I don't remember without a map, soon became very steep. There also was a lot of parts where you had to use your hands to climb up. It reaffirmed what I knew to be true about the North: the trails up here are much tougher. There was one switchback. One.
We made it no problem though and had a late lunch near the summit of Mt Passconaway, which had some good views. The true summit was a few minutes away, no views though. On our 4000 list it was only 5 or 6 but for our friends it was number 37 out of 48. From there we hiked down and had an easy flat hike before going up Mt. Whiteface, another 4000er. No views here either. Before I forget, the weather was overcast all day and in the seventies. Not too hot but enough to get you sweating pretty good.
After Whiteface our goal was to find a campsite somewhere between here and the Downey Brook. There supposedly was a former campsite right by the summit, which we never found, and learned later that it was removed. So we hiked down to the Downey Brook trail, found no sites, and figured we should keep going down the brook trail until we found a campsite. This was the only spot for water, and if we didn't find a campsite it was only (ha) 5 miles to the road, but it was 6pm. Memories of our AT hike floated back to me. Except this is the whites, and 5 miles will take us a lot longer than it did on the trail.
The trail was steep, the brook was to our left, and finding a campsite was not looking promising. The light was fading fast and we started dreaming about pizza and cold soda. But out of the corner of my eye I saw a great campsite and said "whoa, Whoa, WHOA!" It had room enough for our two tents and was right by the brook and a beautiful waterfall. It was nearing seven and we were very thankful to be able to call it quits for the night, after 11 to 12 miles of hiking. After dinner and hanging the bear bag we were in bed by 8:30, just like the trail again!
It rained during the night and we woke up to the pitter patter of rain drops falling on our tent. It sounded it like it was raining but we knew better. It was very misty though and everything was wet. We decided to continue another 4 miles (or so) back to the highway and not attempt the Tripyramids, which are treacherous in wet conditions. Speaking of wet conditions, we had ten river (ok brook) crossings to complete before making it back to the road! Ten is a lot, especially when all the rocks were super slippery. They were all rock hopping but my feet and Joyfuls went in the water on several occasions. It took us 2.25 hours of wet hiking before we made it to the parking lot. But we were not done yet! The ladies elected to walk to one car while us men guarded the bags and got attacked by mosquitoes. We put a serious dent in their population before the ladies got back. The reason they had to hike a mile and a half to the car was because we took a different path down then intended, which put us in between our staged cars.
Thoughts of a warm shower and hot food made us happy to be done after 15 or 16 miles but only 2 out of 4 planned peaks. We had pizza for lunch and got a hotel room for the night. Just like the trail! Once Joyful hears about a possible shower its all over...
On Saturday we had a few errands in town to take care of before hitting the trail. One of them brought us to Rite Aid where we had to get batteries for Joy's headlamp. As I was sitting in my car an old man asked me: "is this your car?" I was sitting in the driver seat so of course I replied in the affirmative. He said he wanted to show me something so I got out of the car wondering if he was going to scold me on how my tires are balding. He proceeded to say something about safety and getting somebody killed and then showed me the front passenger tire. A tire which is falling apart. A tire that has started opening up around the edge. I am not sure how else to describe it so take a look at the picture. The man said that there was a tire barn down in Lincoln and they were open on Saturday. I thanked him but of course did not take care of it then, we got hiking to do!
So we drove off on the Kancamangus, parked one car where we would end up the next day, drove to the next trailhead, and started up the Oliverian Brook Trail at ten to ten. My tire didn't explode and will have to wait for when we get back. It was very flat at first but soon we learned about another potential issue: my friend's knee. It was hurting him pretty bad and the whole trip might be over pretty quickly. But after a quick rest he steeled his resolve and we continued on. The trail, which turned into a bunch of other trail names and cutoffs that I don't remember without a map, soon became very steep. There also was a lot of parts where you had to use your hands to climb up. It reaffirmed what I knew to be true about the North: the trails up here are much tougher. There was one switchback. One.
We made it no problem though and had a late lunch near the summit of Mt Passconaway, which had some good views. The true summit was a few minutes away, no views though. On our 4000 list it was only 5 or 6 but for our friends it was number 37 out of 48. From there we hiked down and had an easy flat hike before going up Mt. Whiteface, another 4000er. No views here either. Before I forget, the weather was overcast all day and in the seventies. Not too hot but enough to get you sweating pretty good.
After Whiteface our goal was to find a campsite somewhere between here and the Downey Brook. There supposedly was a former campsite right by the summit, which we never found, and learned later that it was removed. So we hiked down to the Downey Brook trail, found no sites, and figured we should keep going down the brook trail until we found a campsite. This was the only spot for water, and if we didn't find a campsite it was only (ha) 5 miles to the road, but it was 6pm. Memories of our AT hike floated back to me. Except this is the whites, and 5 miles will take us a lot longer than it did on the trail.
The trail was steep, the brook was to our left, and finding a campsite was not looking promising. The light was fading fast and we started dreaming about pizza and cold soda. But out of the corner of my eye I saw a great campsite and said "whoa, Whoa, WHOA!" It had room enough for our two tents and was right by the brook and a beautiful waterfall. It was nearing seven and we were very thankful to be able to call it quits for the night, after 11 to 12 miles of hiking. After dinner and hanging the bear bag we were in bed by 8:30, just like the trail again!
It rained during the night and we woke up to the pitter patter of rain drops falling on our tent. It sounded it like it was raining but we knew better. It was very misty though and everything was wet. We decided to continue another 4 miles (or so) back to the highway and not attempt the Tripyramids, which are treacherous in wet conditions. Speaking of wet conditions, we had ten river (ok brook) crossings to complete before making it back to the road! Ten is a lot, especially when all the rocks were super slippery. They were all rock hopping but my feet and Joyfuls went in the water on several occasions. It took us 2.25 hours of wet hiking before we made it to the parking lot. But we were not done yet! The ladies elected to walk to one car while us men guarded the bags and got attacked by mosquitoes. We put a serious dent in their population before the ladies got back. The reason they had to hike a mile and a half to the car was because we took a different path down then intended, which put us in between our staged cars.
Thoughts of a warm shower and hot food made us happy to be done after 15 or 16 miles but only 2 out of 4 planned peaks. We had pizza for lunch and got a hotel room for the night. Just like the trail! Once Joyful hears about a possible shower its all over...
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| My Destroyed Tire |
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| Waterfall at our campsite, only reached via backpacking |
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