Does 2 years make it “Annual”?

Not sure if the title applies but I’m willing to say – Yes, it does. Time for our second crack at an overnighter in Gatineau Park at one of the interior huts. Last year we skied in to Lusk Lake hut which was a pretty sweet setup but this year we decided to try one of the yurts. I opted to book the Taylor Lake yurt sitting right on the shores of the lake which sounded nice. Of course it was (almost) the shortest day of the year so the scenic vistas would be limited but even still. So with money down we laid our plans for good trip. We weren’t able to convince anyone else that a little overnighter before the chaos of Christmas was an ideal plan but no worries, just the three of us again this year.
the waxing conditions were pretty tough...

Sadly the snow gods didn’t cooperate and the “ski” part of the trip didn’t work out but a bracing walk on a cold afternoon wasn’t too bad either. I'm sure Dave was secretly pleased as the lack of a ski component meant his camp guitar wouldn't take any hits as his ski skills are still in the "rookie" class. The walk gave us a chance to see the progress on the campground washout near the main gate of the Lac Phillipe campground. Clearly those crews have been making good progress thanks to the lack of snow and the work seems to be close to completion (ahead of schedule?).
Work progresses at the new culvert

After the walk in we arrived at the yurt to find the lake frosted over like a sheet of glass. Chopping a hole to collect some water, I found the ice to be a good 2 inches thick so skating would have been a nice option if we’d have brought them along… but alas this hadn’t factored into my plan so we opted to stay on the shore.
Taylor lake as the storm clouds grew
The hut awaits us(photo courtesy of Bryan)

The yurt itself is pretty nice and – with a good fire in the wood stove – warmed up pretty nicely. A good evening spent making too much food, listening to Dave on the camp guitar and being entertained by various electronic devices(more music, a podcast or two and a few videos). We even had some nice howls bellowing from the woods as the local populace (coyotes?) provided some light entertainment. A good evening spent and even a few stars popped out which surprised me as the heavy clouds rolled over upon our arrival so I thought a star show would be out of the question.
The group settles in for the night ahead

As we hit the sack a pretty big storm crashed about outside dropping a little fresh snow (not enough to ski) but we were safe and sound in our bunks in the yurt. After last years experience of stiffling heat in Lusk cabin (that wood stove cranks some serious BTU’s!) Dave had opted to bring only a light sheet for sleeping. This worked extremely well for Bryan and me. As long as we stayed tucked in our sleeping bags, we could outwait Dave as the fire died down and the winter chill filled the yurt. Dave would inevitably be the first to feel the cold and he’d be forced to get up to stoke/rebuild the fire – a task he did efficiently 2x’s through the night (Thanks Dave!).
Checking out the ice wall on the hike out

Morning and a fresh blanket of snow on the ground as we hiked out. The snow was pretty effective at hiding layers of ice on the trail and Bryan and I took the hits with a couple of nice wipe outs as we hiked/shuffled/slid our way along. This allowed Dave to shrewdly skirt any slippery spots and protect his guitar which would have taken the brunt of any fall. I guess our “spotting” the ice patches for him was fair payback for his hard work stoking the fire overnight. A nice hike out and soon we were rolling back to town and watching the snow melt :( Looking forward to next year already when hopefully the snow will fall, the coyotes will be bolder still and indeed “annual” will seem like the appropriate term.
The motley crew (photo courtesy Dave)

First tracks

Fresh snow on the parkways!!

Ahh, always nice to finally strap on the boards and get the first ski of the season in. Last nights snowfall wasn’t a lot but it was enough to get me out early for a little ski. In all, about 5cm fell and to my surprise there was probably more snow in town then up in the park. By the time I’d learned this I was already at P10 so I skied up the parkway to the old Western cutoff before turning around and zipping back. While one skater (!) had skied a few hundred meters up the parkway I was breaking trail myself… and while there was barely enough snow to cover the grass..., and I probably went too warm with the wax..., and the snow might not last to day’s end (much less weeks end)… It was still great to be back on the boards. At least a little reminder that indeed winter may actually arrive (at some point) after this long warm fall we’ve had. Met the ski team “working in my trail” as I skied back to the car. While there was no grooming to be had ( and I wouldn’t have expected it!) they make up for it in sheer numbers so the last little descent was on a nicely compacted trail. Now, do I pack away my bike or keep it out for the +12C weather predicted for Saturday?

Calm and quiet at Fortune Lake - still some open water, so no crossing the ponds just yet


Hmmm, someone, with a draggy tail, used my broken trail to ease their way down the hill.

Trail update

A little detour for this winter should make a nice change from the routine.

On an side note, I went back up and rode at the Lac Phillippe end of the park on Monday. It was a cold day indeed that felt like winter (-4C) even if it looked like fall. As I rode around I discovered some new signs (above) that suggest my original assumption about the Pine road trail (50) were in fact correct. Looks like the ski trail will detour around the washed out road for this winter much like the campground traffic did this summer. Probably a good idea when doing earthworks this late in the season. Let things settle over the winter and then “top them up” after the spring thaw. It will add a few hundred meters to the old route and a nice little hill down to (and back up from) the beach area so should work out nicely. While there was activity at the washout the last time I rode through here all was quiet today. There were still a lot of trucks (loaded with fill) driving out to trail 56 so repairs there seem to be continuing.

A cold day at Lusk cabin.... gotta get me some shoe covers as I froze my feet!

I also took the ride up to Lusk lake. As I anticipated the steep chute partway up is badly washed out. Gonna be tricky to ski that this winter but there was some signs of work so perhaps they have a plan to patch it up before the serious snow falls. No work going on on this day so they better get at it... real snow can't be far behind!

Trailwork underway at Lac Phillippe

Been up riding in the Lac Phillippe (and beyond) end of the park quite a bit this fall. It makes for some nice riding when the more southerly trails are overrun with leaf peepers. Further north the parking lots are fewer and farther between and fall hikers usually only make it one or two km's. Beyond that it feels a little more like I have the park to myself. I hadn’t ridden up there much this summer so it was nice to get in and explore a bit. Lots of trail erosion on the main trails after the spring melt and heavy rains of early summer. Certainly the Lac Phillippe campground road got some press after it dramatically washed out in the summer storm but riding the back woods I found all kinds of erosion trenches and damaged trail bridges. These were no problems to ride around/over etc. but with the coming ski season they'd be a bigger problem.

Pretty big Bike Eater along trail 56!

On my ride through the park on Monday it was nice to see crews out working to fix some of these problem areas. I didn’t ride out into the affected areas too much as there were heavy trucks and vehicles rolling along the trails so I didn’t want to get in the way. Still, there was lots of activity in the campground which is “closed for the season” so there was clearly some haste to get work done before the snow flies.

Road washout - the water moved some pretty big trees!

The first big repair is the campground road bridge which washed out in the early summer. It sat all summer looking pretty ugly with the culvert pitched in the air and big trees wrenched aside by the strong forces of rushing water. The heavy rains actually washed out the side of the dam upstream which must have sent a tremendous wave downhill. Back in June a temporary bridge was placed in another location closer to the lake so the campground could function through the summer season. I was beginning to wonder if that would be a "permanent-temporary" fix for the ski trail as well. On Monday however it was good to see some heavy equipment in there removing the debris and preparing for new culverts to go into place. I guess, after a design phase they waited to close up the campground before the heavy equipment got to work.

High hoe clearing the debris to prepare for a new culvert

Of the most concern to me was the bridge at the base of the hill up to Lusk lake. This is a favourite trail and seeing one of the bridge piers collapsing had me worried that the trail would be closed for the season. The bridge itself looked passable for a skier but the heavy snowcats wouldn’t be able to cross and groom the trail up the hill.

Lusk Lake bridge pier looking shaky

Since my first visit in October, it’s nice to see that crews have shored up the bridge. I must say its a pretty ugly "bandaid" approach they’ve applied to the bridge… but I hope it will work. I guess the bandaid approach was employed here because of high costs in other areas. Perhaps next season they will patch up the bridge properly as I think there are a few key flaws to their repair which won’t last in the long term.

How many structural weaknesses can you count - as an engineer, I can see 3 that leave me wondering...

Also at work were repairs to trail 56 which heads off into the woods and up to the Pontiac lookout and Lac Richard beyond. Having ridden through there a couple of weeks ago I had found some pretty big “bike eating” ruts from water rushing down the trails(pictured at the top). It was all well and good to ride around these in the summer but with a blanket of snow these would become a invisible and pretty hazardous crevasses, surely catch skiers out and causing some serious injuries. These washouts of course only occurred in steep parts of the trails so skiers would be going pretty fast when they fell into these unseen trenches. Kind of like an elephant trap! Being in lonely parts of the park would only compound the problem of getting help and extraction of the injured parties. Glad to see those repairs underway.

Trail 56 closed for repair work

Truckloads of fill heading along trail 56 to the washouts

So lots of work going on in the north end of the park. That coupled with big repairs of the culvert on the “Doldrums” – further south - has surely meant a big bill for the NCC this year. Could this in part be responsible for the ski pass price increase? Ah well, glad to see some action which will mean good skiing once the snow flies… which I’m getting really antsy for. My ride on Monday was under sunny skies and +18C!! That’s definitely not mid-November weather and not conducive to snow production.

Lots of work underway to get ready for ski season and beyond

Loon Mountain Treat

I haven’t had much luck with my “Monday’s off” this fall. A colleague of mine takes Fridays off and he has lucked out with warm sunny days on the golf links (his pastime of choice). I on the other hand have gotten cold grey days with an icy rain falling. Perfect weather to get hypothermia – bleah! It was with great pleasure, however that I woke up yesterday to sunny skies and a good forecast so I decided to take full advantage of the weather. Had to run a few errands in the morning but then chucked some gear in the truck and raced off to the Adirondacks. Beautiful sunny drive down and I arrived at the trailhead with a nice “alpine start” of 1:30pm. No worries though, late day sun often makes for better picture taking so I loaded up all the gear and headed up the trail.
Bright colours still to be had - just not primary colours
Today I had picked Loon Mountain as my destination. It’s actually considerably closer to town than the high peaks so it made for a short drive. The hike itself is not too long either at about 3 miles to the summit. With a firetower on the summit to visit I had often wondered why it was not on the official “Firetower challenge” list. I learned this summer that, until recently, the forests around the base of the mountain had been owned by a lumber company and public access was forbidden. Now – after changes in ownership and new agreements with the state… and all the insueing paperwork and legal hurdles - public access had once again been restored (in 2009). The forest rangers have made a pass at remarking the old fire wardens trail and have plans (one day) to restore the tower but for now the trail is somewhat rough with an additional 1 mile or so walking along the old forest roads before getting to the trail itself. Once it becomes “trail”, it starts uphill in a hurry with some pretty steep scrambly bits climbing close to 1000ft in the last mile. Forest rangers clearly had never heard of switchbacks when they built their approach trails. On this day I even got a bit of a taste for winter as the trail got higher. Never enough for the need of traction devices but just a nice dusting of snow as if to say “we are coming!”
Early signs of the snows ahead
Finally on the summit I added a layer and then took time to enjoy the view. Sadly – while sunny when I started, the grey clouds rolled over as I climbed. And not even very interesting clouds either – just a steel grey November cloud deck(a day early). From the look of the high peaks to the south I would guess the clouds were about 5000ft as the summits of Marcy and Algonquin disappeared in the grey. Undeterred though I shot quite a few frames. While the leaves are mostly gone there is still some beautiful colour to be had. Mostly rusts and bronze with interesting red berries on the Sumacs. The mountains take on an interesting skeletal form after the leaves are gone (appropriate on this hallows eve). Searching around the summit, I couldn't find many remnants of the fire wardens here. Not clear (to me) where the warden’s cabin might have been (up high? down low?) but there was a steady line of telephone poles up the trail indicating his (her?) communication system.
Fall colour - blaze orange - as it's that time of year
The tower itself looks to be in rough shape. The first riser of stairs has been taken down and chained to the base. While it would be an easy scramble on the steel frame up to the first deck, I opted against as the stairs above didn’t look to be in much better shape. The steel frame – while rusty – looks to be fine so I expect a repair job wouldn’t be too onerous. But who has the money these days. Not the DEC that’s for sure. They will be cash strapped for some time repairing bridges ripped out by Irene. The views are fine without the tower so no big loss that I stayed on the ground for this peak. Got back to the car around 5pm and then made the drive home. While only about 2 hours from home my return trip was slowed by lots of goblins roaming the streets of the small towns I passed through. Best to give them a wide berth lest you be “recruited” to their undead army.
Winter looming not too far in the distance

Thankful for some fall hiking

Fall colours in the High peaks
This past weekend I was thankful for a chance to get back to some hiking and take in the falling leaves. I haven’t done enough “big” mountain hiking this summer to plan an arduous hike but with warm temperatures forecast there was no need to cover big distance. Rather some shorter walks in the colour rich morning light would be ideal. As luck would have it there is a long list of smaller peaks I would like to explore so I headed down to the Adirondacks pretty early on Saturday morning. Parked in the Keene Valley at the Roostercomb trailhead with this option looking the most appealing on a warm sunny morning. Roostercomb is a little peak that reportedly offers some nice views so it sounded like a start to the day. Pulled into the parking lot as only the 5th car and got booted up for the walk. Beautiful trail work up this peak made for a pleasant walk. Clearly the trail gets a lot of use from the locals as it extends almost right into town. Lots of leaves down but still more on the trees which seemed to range from (pale) greens to (OMG)reds. I never really get the “peak foliage” debate when it comes to leaf peepers but seems like a discussion where everyone wins regardless of the ruling. Either way the relatively short 2.5 miles to the little summit passed quickly as my head swam in the bright colours. Soon enough I stood on an open rocky block staring up the length of the Great Range with views back to Giant and Vermont to the east. It was interesting to note that above 3000ft the leaves were all pretty much gone. After that, the south facing slopes looked most colourful while the north facing slopes looked a little thin. Some spots looked to be hardly started to turn colours while others were already done… so peak? Near peak? Past peak? Who knows… there was lots to look at regardless.

Looking up the Great Range
With the first summit covered I decided to carry on up the range trail to nearby Hedgehog mtn. before looping around to Snow mtn. This was mostly new trail to me so it’s always nice to stumble upon some little gem of a lookout that peers across a valley or up to the high mountains at some unusual angle. It was also my first time since “Irene” to walk the hardest hit trails through here. Lots of signs of fresh chainsaw work thanks to the hard working trail crews. Quite a few of the steeper pitches had a lot of soil washed away in spots and it was clear a lot of water had rushed down the trails. This left some significant stretches with deep ditches where the trail was and a lot of loose boulders which makes for tricky footing… but I guess with time they will get locked in again. As I crossed Deer brook, the “after” picture was quite startling. The brook itself had been swept clean and no earth or moss of any kind was left behind. All that remained was a wider stream bed (what was 3 or 4 feet is now 10ft) and polished, white rock faces and boulders. Again, clear that a lot of water had pounded down this brook during the storm.

Busy spot - Lots more cars out on the road
Back at the car I discovered (not a surprise really) that I wasn’t alone enjoying the fall foliage. While I was 4th or 5th car in the lot in the morning, there were now close to 50 cars jammed in the little lot making it a chore to get out. Once on the road there was more (and more and more) cars parked everywhere! Every major trailhead had 1 or 2 kms of road approaching it with cars parked on either side of the highway People were not willing to let a 2km walk - to the trail head mind - deter them from getting to those fall colours!

Fall colours in the Keene Valley this year (hopefully this year only)

Got back to the car with plenty of time so I toured around the valley to see some of the repair work that has gone on post Irene. Indeed lots of signs of people hard at work. The highways were repaired in record time so driving around was easy but the side roads still have a long way to go before the locals can move about freely. I wonder if a lot of current enviro-policy in road construction was … umm, ignored, for the sake of speedy economic recovery to the area. I would wager it was as there were lots of “poor construction practice” here and there. Still, the economy in this area is so razor thin that it was clear getting things moving was paramount in the governors mind. Act first, respond to criticism later. Lots of demo work on houses is obvious as well with flooded basements and damaged homes being ripped out and rebuilt. Only a few signs of folks abandoning there destroyed property. Otherwise the locals are rebuilding with fervor. High water marks everywhere are always a little surprising. At one point a sign indicated the Ausable had topped out at ~25 feet above its current level… and taken quite a few homes with it. Impressive stuff to see.

The Ausable river is behind me... some 15 feet below where I'm standing


Early morning in Lake Placid... I wonder if they'd mind if I borrowed the canoe?
Having not made any plans I decided to head to South Meadow to camp… which proved an experience for sure. Again, cars were parked on either side of the Loj road some 3km from the Loj itself. The South Meadow road was pretty busy as well but I did find one spot that could support 1 or 2 cars so I quickly pulled in and set up camp. As dusk fell, others drove by and first 1 car and then a couple of more groups jammed their cars into my little spot to camp in any few, free square inches they could set up. Busy spot to be sure but most everyone was pretty quiet and soon off to sleep with plans of a full hiking day dancing in their dreams.

Looking south to the high Peaks
Sunday dawned early for me and I snuck out of camp and headed through Lake Placid to check out another trail I have been meaning to explore. This one would likely be quiet as it gets little use compared to the more popular spots nearby. The hike up Scar mountain was another treat. Flat for a mile or so before turning up the fall line and ending with a few nice scrambles. Just before the summit ridgeline a nice view to the south opened up but I continued on to the summit which turned out to be fully treed. No matter, a quick jaunt back to the lower balcony and then lunch in the warm sunshine. Over lunch I chatted with a couple from New Zealand who were spending a month exploring America. They had opted for this little trail hoping it would be somewhat less busy than their hike up Cascade the previous day – and apart from myself they had it mostly to themselves. Interesting folk to talk to. Most everything was new to them in this environment (no snakes, or mammals, or deciduous trees of this size back home!) so they were quite happy with their choice of hikes and forever swinging their heads around with a “hey, look at that!”.

This little guy should be looking for somewhere to spend winter - but a warm sunny weekend had him thankful to get out and explore
Quick change at the carpark and then I closed out the day with an amazing lunch at a (new to me) secret campspot where I broke out my chair, and had a good afternoon relaxing in the sun, reading a good book and enjoying the fall weather. As dusk settled in I packed up and headed for home. Another great weekend in the peaks. Weather outside my window (as I type) suggests that regularly scheduled fall weather is on tap for a while. Cold and wet will be the norm as we head towards November.

Fall! And a post

Well summer has turned to fall and I’ve decided I'm well behind in writing a blog post. Been a busy summer but sadly not enough trips to the woods it seems. Never enough I suppose. From mid July into August it got plenty hot and humid and I’m never motivated to go climbing in that weather. Have to carry too much water and fight off the deerflies and it all just seems like a chore. Instead it was easier to get out the road bike (and sometimes the mtnbike) and ride close to home. A lot of trips away but more often than not they involved sitting in stands and watching others exert themselves. Always fun but starting to pay for it now as dryland work starts in preparation for the ski season ahead.
A day at the races in Watkins GlenA little cardio to climb the grandstands… and I was weighted down with a beer or two so maybe I can put this in my training log? A set of photos here from race weekend

Good to get out to the Ball yardHmmm, field boxes and they bring the beers to you…. Cardio today = 0

The pro peleton on the Camelien HoudeFollowing the pro peleton at the Montreal GP counts as a workout. They wait for no one and a 12km walk around the circuit was a beautiful fall day out. Waaaay too many pictures here.

Trail crews debating which trees to clearI did get out over Labour day weekend to do … well some labour. After Irene swept through, the Adirondack park suffered some significant damage. More of a rain event than a wind storm (like Floyd in ‘99) the high peaks got over a foot of rainfall in a 10 hour span! The result was new landslides (great for the skiers this winter) and overflowing brooks. John’s Brook rose 10 feet during the storm and washed out bridges , roads and flooded homes in the the Keene Valley. Quite a storm indeed! Labour Day had been a scheduled work day on the Mt Adams firetower but our crewleader offered us up to the DEC for trailwork. In the end they put us to work on… the Mt Adams trail clearing blowdown and inspecting for damage. Turns out with our “Adopt a natural resource” paperwork already in place they felt it best to stick to our area rather than head into some of the hardest affected areas. Not that the Adams/Allen trail was unaffected as we cleared a fair amount of debris. A pretty big crew was raised and it was a treat to be allowed into the high peaks as the rangers had closed all the trailheads for the long weekend except for trail crews.
High Peaks closed - on a long weekend. You won't see that very often

It was a good example of many hands make light work as we swept up the trail in pretty short order and the firetower showed no signs of distress after the storm. Sadly the bridge across the Hudson, which had washed out this spring -and just been replaced a week before - washed out again!! Not sure when that will be fixed as there are many (many) bridges in the peaks that washed out so the rangers will be busy replacing/repairing a lot of trail infrastructure.
The bridge is down again!
Today - with the start of fall - I headed off to ride the Wakefield triangle out of P17. Not an overly long route but it has a wide variety of trail including some pavement through the campground, wide woods roads and then some steep grinders and fast single track on trail 52. A bit of everything to satisfy.
Fall Mtnbiking - no bugs, no heat....perfect!
I noted the NCC trail crews have been working out here… and as always I have a bit of a love/hate relationship with them. From the looks of it several big storms brought down a lot of lumber in the forests along my route today – and the crews have done a good job clearing them up (love it!) Alas they are also doing some “trail improvement” – particularly along trail 52. Sadly their idea of a good mtnbike track is piling a lot of loose sand and gravel over an otherwise excellent base (HATE IT!!). The loose material acts as a sand trap and the tires auger in and fishtale around trying to launch me off my bike. Booo! Ah well, if other parts of the park are any example the loose stuff washes away with the spring runoff (making one question why they do it) so next spring should be back to good trail beds. Onwards into fall now with more riding, trail running and rollerskiing and hopefully a little hiking in the mountains. First snow is still a ways off but I want to be ready when it gets here.
Rolling along Lac Phillippe

Mount Adams firetower

An old archive photo of the Mount Adams firetower. The trees have grown back (in force) since this photo was taken
Back to the tower for last weekend for work trip. This time there were only 2 of us which was a shame as the weather was just about perfect. That said one of the tower roofing guys had been up a week before and put the last touches on anchouring the roof… so some work had been done since my last visit. To be fair the new roof had withstood some pretty serious winds over the months of May and June and had come out unscathed so the “extra” anchours might not be necessary but better safe than sorry. Saturday, Jack and I headed up to the tower at about 8am and made short work of the climb. We are both getting pretty familiar with the twists and turns of the steep trail and know well when to expend energy and when to relax and grind out the steep chutes. On top we set about our tasks after a short break. I was back on stair tread duty and have become somewhat of a professional at it. Jack on the other hand took to painting the existing window frames with both a primer and (after the primer quickly dried) a final coat of paint. The day started out somewhat cloudy with a good breeze. As I changed stairs high up in the tower the wind picked up significantly. So much so that after about an hour I was quite cold (and a little unnerved) and decided to work a little lower down where the wind didn’t blow so strong.
Fresh paint on the window frames and a new roof above
Mid-morning we took the 2x8x10 foot scaffold planks down from the cab. These planks had been used by the roofing team to stand on while assembling the roof. This proved an exciting challenge a) to negotiate down the narrow spiral staircase with these long boards and b) because they acted a lot like a sail in strong wind gusts. On more than one occasion Jack and I hung on for dear life to the planks(and the tower) as the wind buffeted us around. Fortunately at this point the wind came in fits and starts and we got short breaks to hustle down the steps when the wind stopped. As the day wore on the wind eased off and I was once again able to work on the upper levels. At this point we started to get some of our first "guests" of the day. I didn’t think a lot of people would bother to “ford” the Hudson now that the bridge was out but the water level is pretty low in midsummer so it didn’t stop some folks. Nice to chat with people about the tower while we worked. Most were tourists but one guy had lived in nearby Newcomb all his life and only now made the hike to see the tower. They were all enthusiastic about seeing it rehabilitated. One couple arrived with their Jack Russell terrier and tied him up to a tree while they went up high to see the view. He was not about to be left on the ground though and skillfully broke loose from his tether. As I worked on level 3, I had a small wet nose poke me in the thigh to get past as he wanted to climb the tower to be with his “pack”. Without safety fencing on the staircase (yet) I thought it best if he stay low so I grabbed him in his tracks and soon enough his “Dad” came scurrying down to babysit him on terra firma.
Day dreaming comes a little too easily from this jobsite
By the end of day I had finished replacement of all the stair treads but for a couple that were a little too long and needed to be trimmed to fit (next time perhaps). The existing windows were all painted, a few blown down trees were cleared off the tower and a few measurements were taken for some of the next projects on the list. A good day and the hike down was a cake walk (on dry rock) compared to the flowing stream that I had to deal with back in June. At the cars, Jack made the (excellent) suggestion we grab a burger in Newcomb. So after cleaning up a bit we made the short drive back to the (one and only) bar in town and had a decent burger to close out the day. Far better than the bowl of pasta I had planned for the evening. Got myself a campsite at the state campground at Lake Eton for the night. On signing in I was given a form with “Rules” to keep bears out of my campsite. Interestly the “rules” started at rule #6. What were rules 1 to 5?!? Surely rules 1 to 5 would be important and worth sharing. What if rule #1 was “DON'T CAMP HERE! You WILL be eaten by bears”! Bad for business I suppose and I could understand why they might not like to share that bit of advise. Went to sleep confident I would be eaten by bears… but survived the night. Close call…
Maybe bears don't like fires? Maybe they do(rule#3)! Who know's?!

The view across Raquette lake from West mountain
Sunday I decided to visit a fire tower peak where the tower had been removed some years ago. West Peak sits On Raquette lake on the…. (are you ready?) west shore. It has a 4 mile approach hike that is relatively flat and then 1000 foot climb in the last mile to get to the summit. The day was gorgeous with a warm sun shining. The deer flies were a little annoying but I chose to trail run the flat stretch so I covered the ground pretty quickly. Again, the climb was quick as the rocks were dry and the view from the top was pretty good. Interesting to visit the summit and see some of the remains of the tower still intact more than 30 years after the structure was removed. Nice meadow for the care takers cabin just below the summit and a good view even without a tower. A little hot and hazy but it's summertime so you can’t have everything. Stopped by the shores of Raquette lake on the way back. Looked quite inviting for a quick swim but with 2 more miles to go back to the car I opted against and made the short run before cooling off. Another nice couple of days in the peaks.
Raquette Lake on a warm day

New Hampshire sampler

Sunlight beaming down the trail
Managed to get off to New Hampshire last week. I like to get down there at least once a year to do some hiking. Was meaning to try to get down during the winter and try out a few areas for some skiing but that trip never came together. At any rate it’s nice to get into a slightly different area to do some hiking in terrain that is new so I looked forward to it. The past couple of years the trips to NH have had little success. Low cloud decks and heavy rains greeted me in the granite state. I did climb a few trails (so there must be some mountains in there somewhere!) but it was mostly a wet, miserable affair with little or no views to enjoy at the summit. This time the weather looked promising. While it was going to rain heavily on the drive down it was supposed to clear out overnight and give blue skies the next day. Indeed as I negotiated my way through and around Montreal’s construction headaches I was indeed pelted with heavy rains but they mostly subsided by the time I got to the US border. Made camp at a little spot outside of Twin Mountain and – with long summer days - I had time to scurry up and down a nearby high peak before darkness fell. Only some slight vistas at the top but the clouds were starting to break up which was encouraging.

Summit views from Mount Tom
Sound sleep and the next morning I awoke to…. A very low cloud deck with limited views :( Maybe it would clear through the day so I headed out for a long hike over the Willey range in hopes that, up top at least, the clouds would break. They did not completely… but I did get some limited views so not a total loss. New Hampshire’s mountains are a little different than the Adirondacks I’m more used to. They don’t muck about with long, gradual approach hikes to the bottom of where you start to go up to the top. Rather they get down to the real work of gaining elevation almost right from the get go. There is also a lot better trail construction, as a result I suspect, to much higher volumes of hikers. As my first “big mountain” hikes of the season I was far from prepared for this and the steep climbs took their toll. Slow and steady progress though and once on the ridges the walking was quite pleasant. Sadly, summit time was somewhat limited as the black fly hatch had made its way up in elevation and the demons were waiting for me. Black flies have long since come and gone in the valleys but I guess the climate changes as you climb and they had found a happy existence above 3500ft. So summit visits consisted of a few pictures, a few mouthfuls of food and a swig or two of water before the clouds of black flies started to take their toll and it was time to pack up and get moving again. Still it didn’t rain until I got back to camp and then only sporadically so what was there to complain about.

The Tripyramids from Mt. Tecumseh
After the long hike – and a wet night – the next day was to be somewhat slack. Sadly it proved the nicest day of the my trip with clear sunny skies. After touring around through midday I found myself in Waterville valley and loaded up the pack for a short trip up Tecumseh peak to take advantage of the nice day. Not a favourite with peakbaggers I quite enjoyed it with a steady climb for a couple of miles to the summit ridge and an overlook to the nearby mountains. Again the black flies found me so a short stop but even still it was a nice hike.

Lots of cold mountain streams to soak away the lactic acid after a hard hike
Final day I got low clouds and some scattered showers again but picked a nice hike in Waumbeck mountain. Again, peakbaggers tend to bemoan this peak with limited views but after three days of hiking I enjoyed the steady grade, good trail. Add to that the nonexistent views proved to be somewhat misleading with a nice lookout over to the northern presidential range. The quality of the trail also made for easy/fast descending which was an enjoyable end to the day before the long drive home. So a good few days in the Whites with some limited views (but vastly improving over previous years visits). It proved good “training miles” for climbing high peaks and will stand me good stead as the hiking season marches on.

The cloudy Northern Presidentials from the lookout on Waumbeck