Mount Liberty and Mount Flume January 10, 2021

 I only waited a few days to get back up to the beautiful Franconia Ridge.  This time Torre and Dan accompanied me up and down the Liberty Springs Trail.  I must admit I accidentally 😉 underestimated the distance when I advertised the hike to them.  It was a steep and rocky hike up to Liberty and I had to fight hard to get them to do Flume as well.  But the best sledding was between the two peaks, especially coming down off of Flume.  There was some sledding down from the ridge but unfortunately, there were too many rocks showing to make it really spectacular. I would imagine sledding down when it is fully snow-covered but be unreal!  Dan came without a pack but at least he remembered his spikes!  We had to feed and water him.  As usual, I brought my bacon and cheesy eggs and water and hot herbal tea.  I rarely finish it all until I am on the ride home but Dan helped me.  

The views made it all worthwhile.  Incredible views. It was a clear day and we could see forever. I am curious about the Flume Slide trail but so many warnings against it and we have no crampons so I will have to remain curious.

Torre ran ahead of us to start the cars as we were about a mile from the end.  This ended well but was a bad idea.  There was no service and Doggo ran between us.  Torre had all the keys, what if he had gotten lost?  Lesson learned, safely.  I would have liked to run with Torre but Dan did not want to run so again, I was a nice hiking partner.  Is this just a female trait of mine, learned after years of subservience?  I will have to think about this. It is never wrong to be kind however, and no one should be alone on a trail unless they choose to be.

Lafayette, Truman, Lincoln, Little Haystack January 7, 2021

 This day was cold and windy at the base!  Not many people but it was a Thursday.  I went with Larry and would not have climbed at all considering the base weather and forecast but he was game and I assumed he knew better than I.  This climb on Franconia Ridge takes as many lives as the Presidential Traverse, if not more.  It is a narrow trail along the top, wide open to winds, but so incredibly beautiful. Views to die for, seriously, many have. There were a few others that day and we kept passing each other and got to know each other's faces, enough to gang together and exchange ideas when the going got tough.  It was all fine and great along the Old Bridal Path Trail but then after we got to Greenleaf hut (closed)  the wind really was whipping!  We could not even hear each other speak and I needed my poles to keep me upright.  Above treeline, we could barely walk at times, and Larry and I both thought about turning back.  We put the dogs on leashes so they would not blow away but honestly, I think we would all have been better off without the leashes. Doggo did not seem freaked out until we got him on a leash at just about the peak of Lafayette.  We saw some people coming down who assured us it was much better after the peak of Lafayette and that was the only reason we kept going.  When we go to the top, there were people huddled down into the old foundation on the top. Who would build a house on the peak of Lafayette?!  It blew away.  No surprise there.  We told them it would get better when Lafayette was in a position to block the northerly winds and so we all went on.  Sure enough, it was not bad except maybe at the very peaks of the other mountains, but truly, never as bad as right before the summit of Lafayette.

The hike along the ridge itself was not tough and very beautiful.  Amazing views in either direction.  It was clear and sunny and luckily, not very cold, although we were well dressed.  We had car spotted my truck at the Liberty Springs trail but Larry did not want to go on to Liberty and Flume as I did, so I caved and joined him in going down.  I was angry with myself for going down the Falling Waters Trail with Larry, but otherwise, I would have left him hiking alone and that seemed mean.   The beauty of the Falling Waters trail soon soothed me and I enjoyed the hike down.   We even took the little detour to Shining Rock, which was really shining in the sun.  Larry is a lovely tour guide and always entertains me with hiking stories and even some gossip even though he is not into sledding.

Jefferson, Clay and Washington, January 31, 2021 #33 and #34

 I got up at 4:30 in the morning!! to do this hike and as I drove up to the Cog Railway parking lot, the temperature kept dropping!  It was -12 degrees when I arrived.  Larry had called me right before I left the house to tell me everyone was leaving their dogs at home as it was too cold for them but how could I leave Chuck behind.  And anyway, if it was too cold for him, then I would leave with him too.  The whole way in the truck I wondered why I had even gotten up, it was certainly too cold to hike.  I started the hike thinking I would turn around soon!  It was too cold to fill out the paperwork and the pen was frozen.  The parking lot was a long salted walk to the trail for Chuckles and he was lifting up a paw funny already before the trail!  We started up the Jewel connector to Jewel and by the time we got to Jewel, it was fine. No wind in the woods, and a beautiful hike with 8 people!  Most I had never met but were incredible hikers:  Barb, Bruce, Darcy, Dave, Susan with Marlene, Larry and I.  Chuckles was the only dog.  I was the only one in spikes but I needed to change to snowshoes once we got above treeline.  In the sun above treeline, it was glorious, windless, and in the 40s!!!  Sometimes it was tough and snowy but others it was windswept and easier.  The sights were amazing!  We went almost to Clay before turning north to Jefferson as there was no trail broken out to get to Jefferson more directly. 

 I wanted to do Washington but no one else wanted to but I finally decided I would do it alone.  It was only 1.4 miles away and we were at the junction after Clay at only 1:45.  As it turned out, Darcy, who I had just met, but who is a very experienced hiker decided to join me.  I do not think I have ever hiked so slowly!  She was so far ahead of me!  I hate dragging behind!  Was I tired?  My hip flexors certainly were!  Maybe it was the elevation? I do not know but this was the first I had worn snowshoes also.  I could barely lift my legs and I was having some type of asthmatic feelings. Up at the top of Mount Washington (when I finally go there),  was a festival attitude.  Skiers skiing down the cog railway (who knew?  Not me!)  The sun was beautiful, the sky was so blue, the weather was amazing. I felt fine on the way down but did not want to race and have it be over sooner than it had to be. We went to the lake of the Clouds hut, snow right over the roof!  and then down the Amonoosuc trail.  We were able to sled 1-2 miles of it and it was so much fun!  The rest of the hike seemed short and we were back at the car before dark, at 4:45.  Again, we had to go through the salted parking lot to the truck.  I found out Darcy was also a spinner/knitter!  She even had a shop in Berwick Maine that I had heard of.  Doggo limped around at home from the salt but Torre and Dan were there when we got there, woodstove burning so he got lots of sympathy, snacks, and pets.  They thought I pushed him too hard. That was not the case, but the salt did bother him.

Owl's Head Saturday February 6, 2021 #35

We left Lincoln Woods by 8 am.  Heated flushing bathrooms in the parking lot!!!  A windy day but that really did not affect us until we were hiking along the top of the mountain.  This is a long hike.  It ended up being about 18 miles.  2 bushwacks.  Relatively flat and easy until the last 1-2 miles.  Bushwacks were also easy to follow because that was the only route people were going.  Then it was very steep even o the bushwack up.  Skiing along the Lincoln Woods railroad bed would have made this much quicker and easier (using different muscles for 6-7 miles of the 18 but I was the only one who would have liked to ski the beginning and end evidently.  This was with Hiking with Dogs:  Larry, Marlene, Rebekah and I with our doggos.  There was a lot of waiting on this, for some to catch up, peaked twice so some overlap to get up to the 18.  Great butt sledding down the first mile or so.  No one wanted me to bring the sleds but maybe too steep for anything but butt sledding?  I kept having to declump my snowshoes which I wore the whole way.  With about 1 mile left I removed them completely to walk barebooted which felt much better, my feet had been rolling around on big snowballs and the last flat part seemed like forever!  Got back to the parking lot around 7.  So it was an 11 hour day.  The next day I realized I dropped my fave Patagonia neck gater.  I am so sad. It snowed shortly afterward so it is probably under some snow.  I need a quick place to store stuff other than my tiny pockets.  Taking the backpack on and off to stow is annoying and impractical in groups but the walk back was warming.  This was my longest hike yet.  And it felt like it.  The dumb tracker I got my dog only showed us getting to Lincoln Woods, then it just went offline, for days!  The FI tracker has failed on every single hike.  If there is no GPS it does not work at all and even if there is, it is spotty.  I should return it.  I really wanted to know how many steps he does average for one of mine but usually, I do more steps than you see for him because my Fitbit works much better!

Mount Isolation February 13, 2021 #36

 On Saturday, February 13th I hiked Mount Isolation with the Hikes with Dogs group including Larry, Marlene and Bruce, Chuckles, Piper, Cooper and myself. We started at Rocky Branch, which Google maps had in the middle of the highway, north a few miles (ask me how I know).  This was a windy day so Isolation seemed protected from the NW winds, which it turned out it was. This was not my finest hike.  We were able to do the bushwack, making this just over 12 miles, but uphill both ways, seriously.  The bushwack goes through a marsh so it is not an option in the summer.  The regular trail was not broken out at all.  We ran into DEL on the way up who told us he had been the one to break out the bushwack but he got offtrack so that was why it was so tough.  But thank you DEL, I do not know how you do it.  The trail on the bushwack was not very well packed down and I wore snowshoes the whole way.  I felt very slow on the way up, thinking maybe I need to take some time off from all of this hiking but on the uphills when were coming back from the peak, I could barely lift my legs.  My hip flexors felt dead and painful.  On the downhills they were ok, not great but after the hike, they felt fine.  This issue started going up Mount Washington, which was also when I started wearing snowshoes for hiking.  The views were spectacular but I could not wait to find my truck and sit down.  I collected some small pinecones to make earrings with.