One down, 47 to go
Posted on September 2, 2007 in the Hiking category
I have to say that I am a bit more than surprised . . . we actually made it. Yesterday my friend Dave, his brother Brian, and I hiked up the first of 48 mountains in the White Mountain National Forest that are over 4000 feet at the summit.
We started at 12:05pm from parking lot 1 at the Waterville Valley ski area. It was such a nice day yesterday and it being a holiday weekend, I was not surprised to see about a dozen cars there. The trail head is quite difficult to see - just as you are looking out of the parking lot towards the road you may see the small sign peeking through the trees. It is 2.2 miles from start to summit and we wanted to be back down by 5pm so we got going.
The trail start benignly enough - its a rocky path without much of a grade at first. When you come to the second mountain stream crossing the grade picks up a bit. At about a mile into the hike there is a place you can get a great view from the ski slope. So we stopped, took some pictures, had a snack, and made a couple of phone calls to our significant others just to let them know we haven’t fallen off the mountain yet.
Getting back onto the trail at this point you notice that the grade has changed. Its now looking like the staircase from hell - from here to the top (with a few exceptions) it’s quite the climb for inexperienced hikers such as ourselves. Soon I started getting charlie horses in my quads which would continue for the rest of the day. Perhaps the fact that I sweat like 400 lb man at IHOP and had a bit too much to drink the night before didn’t help at all.
We summited at 3:16pm and took the opportunity to grab some food, drink, and more pictures (I will post them as soon as Dave sends them to me). After sweating profusely for most of the day, it was quite chilly up on top because of the wind, so I put on my fleece. Funny thing is that there tons of trees up top and only one good spot to get a view - I couldn’t imagine how windy it would have been without the trees.
The trip back down was basically uneventful - we reached the car at 5:27, a bit behind schedule. We were all very tired and quite happy to be down. After some dinner at the Mad River Tavern (good cheeseburgers) we headed home.
Dave just called a bit ago - we are already planning the next hike, Mt Isolation. Its only one foot higher at the summit but the trail is a 13+ mile round trip. It will still be a day trip - we will just have to start earlier. I absolutely must get a pair of hiking boots - 3 year old sneakers just wont cut it. I will let you know how it goes, we should be doing it by the end of this month.
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