June 1 - 10, 2001

Friday, June 1, 2001                                                                        Ryebrook, NY

We had an easy time covering today’s distance.  We stopped halfway in Paramus, NJ to visit the only retail store of a popular mail-order camping company, Camp-Mor.  We stocked up on a couple essentials necessary for our upcoming hike through the White Mountains in New Hampshire.

We arrived at Josh’s house in upscale Westchester County as scheduled around 1:00.  Josh is one of Christine’s old friends dating back to her days of bartending while working her way through school in Madison, Wisconsin.  Josh is very laid back and I was looking forward to getting to know him better.

After some time kicking back in his house, we all hopped into his car for the short drive to the train station in Rye.  We took the train on the 35-minute trip to Grand Central Station in mid-town Manhattan.  The weather was very overcast with rain in the forecast, but we didn’t let that slow us down.  Our first stop was a visit to the observation deck atop the Empire State Building.  Then we went to dinner at the Stage Deli for some great pastrami and corned beef.  We all shared a monster slice of New York cheesecake to complete the New York dining experience.

Josh had made arrangements for us to attend a performance at a comedy club in Greenwich Village, and we had some time to kill before the show.  We walked over to Times Square to watch the activity.  We even killed some time sampling the beer at the Times Square Brewery.  We then continued our adventure as we hopped into a cab and tried to find the small comedy club that none of us had been to.  It took a second cab ride (English speaking driver this time) to find the club.  We were early and passed the time at an Irish pub, the Baggot Inn, sampling more fine beer.

The comedy show was surprisingly thinly attended, but we still laughed.  One of the better acts was the bartender from “Sopranos.”  He’s a big Italian guy, and we agreed that he portrayed a great drunk.  We finally got back to Grand Central Station and returned to Ryebrook in time to crawl in bed around 1:30 AM.

By Christine:  Today was my first day in New York City.  I really enjoyed everything from my first New York Cab rides to dinner at the deli, comedy show and catching a cab in the rain after the show.  I can definitely see the attraction in visiting New York City but not living in it.

  Christine and Josh atop the Empire State Building.

Saturday, June 2, 2001                                                               Ryebrook, NY

Any plans to get an early start this morning were dismissed as we slowly greeted the day.  We finally got our collective act together and Josh joined us again as we went into the city on the train.  From Grand Central Station we first satisfied our appetites with some New York pizza before catching a cab up to the Guggenheim Museum.

The Guggenheim in uptown Manhattan is famously known for its spiraling Frank Lloyd Wright architecture.  The primary exhibit today was the architecture of Frank Gehry.  This architect is well known for many existing buildings, most notably the Guggenheim Museum in Bilboa, Spain.  Of recent importance is that Gehry’s design has been chosen for a new Guggenheim Museum to be built on piers in the East River at the end of Wall Street.  Gehry’s work is very exciting and challenges the staid practice of constructing with right angles.

Also on display at the museum was a great collection of impressionist works by Manet, Monet, Gauguin, Seraut, Cezanne, Degas, and even Van Gogh.  There was also a large exhibit of Picasso pieces covering his entire life.  I was so pleased with the assortment of works we saw.

After the museum visit we took a walk through Central Park and caught the subway back to midtown.  We stood in the Broadway ticket line at Times Square and bought half price tickets to the musical, “Chicago.”  We enjoyed a steak dinner before the show and then settled in for some of Fosse’s choreography.  We caught an earlier train after the show and were in bed tonight by 1:00 AM.

By Christine:  Today was interesting.  We decided after the third scary cab ride that it was time to try the subway.  I actually thought the subway was easier and safer!  I loved seeing Chicago.  It has been very convenient taking the train into the city.  It is so much easier and more relaxing than driving into a large city and parking.

  The Guggenheim Museum

Sunday, June 3, 2001                                                                        Monterey, MA

Josh drove us over to North Vale, New Jersey to give us a “behind the scenes” tour of the “Ed” sets.  Most of the taping is done in the large building that houses Stuckey Bowl.    Christine and I both enjoy the program, “Ed,” so it was a treat for us to get this tour.

We finally said goodbye to Josh and continued further north into western Massachusetts to visit a friend of ours, coincidentally named Ed.  We arrived in late afternoon and enjoyed some appetizers and story telling before going out for a late dinner of Indian food.  We spent the night in the RV parked near Ed. 

By Christine:  It was great to see Josh again and meet his sister and nieces.  His home and company are very relaxing and we have truly enjoyed being here.  It was a perfect couple of days, as they all are when one is not stressed about going back to work on Monday.

Monday, June 4, 2001                                                                        Quechee, VT

Ed took us out for a breakfast of tasty buckwheat pancakes at the Roadside Café operated by the people of Gould’s Farm.  After breakfast we said goodbye to Ed and continued north toward Vermont.

Along the highway this afternoon Christine spotted a sign beckoning us to visit the Yankee Candle Company in South Deerfield, MA.  We finally reached a campground centrally located for exploring Vermont and New Hampshire over the next couple days.

Tuesday, June 5, 2001                                                               Quechee, VT

I spent part of this morning removing the cargo box on top of the RV to reseal the holes that I drilled for mounting the box.  A small leak had developed in one of the holes.  After that I got the motorcycles off for a long ride today.  The day started cool and cloudy, but warmed and cleared as the day went on.

Christine and I drove up to Vermont’s capital, Montpelier, and walked around the cute little capital city.  It reminded me of the quaintness of Dover, DE.  We then drove south along scenic Vermont route 100 stopping for lunch in one of the many small clean towns representative of Vermont’s public image.  We stopped briefly at Sherbourne Pass near Killington where the Appalachian Trail separates from the Long Trail and turns east toward Hanover, NH.  After that we continued on down toward to Ludlow to stop at the country’s oldest continuously operated cheese factory.  Crowley’s is a very small operation, still creating handcrafted cheeses.  We sampled their wares and made a small, for us, purchase of a couple bricks.  By the time we turned back to Quechee, we were both pretty tired.  We had ridden nearly two hundred miles today, which was quite an achievement for Christine.

Back in the campground I was busied with the re-attachment of the cargo box and then the provisioning of our upcoming backpacking trip through the White Mountains.

By Christine:  Joe is kind.  I was very tired today.  The first few hours of motorcycling were exciting for me as I became more comfortable with speed.  But, as I grew tired, my wrist started hurting (it will probably hurt for some time under that kind of stress), and it became even harder for me to suppress the fear which I feel when I can't see everything in front of me.  This is a problem in these twisty roads which I used to love.  It causes me to move slowly which is both frustrating for me and the cars behind me.  I am glad we motorcycled today and I will keep working to improve my confidence, but something needs to snap soon.

1) The capital building in Montpelier; 2) A roadside waterfall.

Wednesday, June 6, 2001                                                   White Mountains, NH

We were out of the campground by 8:30 this morning, but the drive over to Pinkham Notch took longer than I had hoped.  We stopped briefly in Gorham for some burgers and then parked the RV at the Pinkham Notch Visitor Center and trailhead.  It was my plan for us to hike through the Presidential Range of the White Mountains along the Appalachian Trail from north to south.  This is the same route that I took four years ago on my thru-hike of the AT, but in the opposite direction.  At that time I covered the distance in two days, now I was allowing us four days. 

There is a network of eight full-service huts throughout the White Mountains that are operated by the AMC (Appalachian Mountain Club).  The huts are staffed mostly by energetic college-aged kids that spend their summers in this inspiring mountain area.  The huts can accommodate 50-90 overnight guests that get dinner and breakfast with their reservation.  Everything about the huts is very primitive, respecting the remote locations and their potential environmental impact.  There is no heat source in the huts, and until this year there was no electricity.  New solar panels and wind generators provide for some electric lighting in the main room now.  There is no hot water.  Cooking is done with propane that is airlifted in large cylinders by helicopters at the beginning of the season.  Many of the huts have composting toilets.  One sleeps in coed bunkrooms with 10-30 other guests.  The bunks have a pillow and three wool blankets.

I had made reservations at three different huts to break up our hike.  We were able to pack very lightly since we didn’t have to carry a tent, sleeping bags, food, or cooking equipment.  We mostly ensured that we had ample layers of clothing to prepare us for the ever-present possibility of lousy weather.

My biggest mistake today was not getting an earlier start.  It was an expensive mistake, costing me my wife’s love on this day.  We did not get started on our hike until almost noon.  With eight miles separating us from Madison Springs Hut, I knew we had a long afternoon ahead of us.  The first five miles out of Pinkham Notch were lovely.  We moved at a reasonable pace that ate up three hours of time for that distance.  But we hadn’t gained much elevation.  We had three more miles ahead of us and nearly three thousand vertical feet to gain.  Our map made this fact clear to us, but I had thoroughly underestimated the challenge ahead of us.  Christine refers to this as my selective memory.

We began a hot, steep and steady climb through thick pine into boreal forest.  The trail had turned to roots, rocks, and loose loam.  It was pretty steady going, but there were no milestones by which to measure our progress.  Christine began complaining of annoying bugs flying into her eyes, ears and nose.  I suffered none of this insect torment, but that is not unusual.  Christine is one of those people with especially sweet blood that inspires the pursuit of pesty insects.   Somehow word has traveled throughout the insect world communicating the appealing qualities of my wife’s blood.  Insects everywhere must be on the lookout for my tall leggy wife with the telltale laugh and the nectar-like blood.  I empathize with her, but secretly relish being passed over by the insect kingdom.

I kept promising Christine that she would find relief as soon as we climbed above tree line and were exposed to a more constant movement of air.  The promise fell on deaf ears as my predictions of when we would reach tree line kept passing by on the clock.  By the time we did finally break out of the woods and into open views, my wife was beginning to express concern that this was no longer a hike, but a climb.

Fatigue was beginning to turn the day sour, and my deliberately positive comments were having a negative effect.  We both turned within to our individual efforts at reaching today’s destination.  The gorgeous views and cooling breeze provided merely a mild tonic to our edgy moods.  The trail had disappeared, replaced simply by rock cairns stacked precariously atop the boulders over which we scrambled.  These markers led us onward and upward in a slow cooling progress.  The temperature had dropped and the winds were steadily increasing.  We quietly added warming layers of fleece and continued our labor into the evening.  Any concerns about arriving at the hut too late for dinner were now replaced with a focus on just arriving.

While the elevations in the White Mountains are not extreme, there is a noticeable reduction in oxygen level at 5000 feet if one is not properly acclimated.  This contributed to our fatigue and restlessness, but we continued on into the blowing fog and finally reached the Madison Springs Hut at 7:00.  It took us four hours to go those final three miles.  In my wife’s mind she had either already divorced me or personally witness my execution.  Simply said, she was not happy.

To our surprise, we were the only two guests in this hut tonight.  There was a hut crew of about five, and three or four others visiting from another hut, but we were the only guests.  The crew was just finishing dinner, but they re-heated all the food for us and treated us with excellent service.  Christine and I took a few minutes to unwind from our hike/climb and change into some warmer clothes before sitting down to a feast.  We were served cream of spinach soup, fresh baked bread, salad, mashed potatoes and a pork roast.  We finished it off with hot cocoa and rice krispy squares.  This lifted both of our spirits considerably and I was even successful cornering Christine into giving me a reconciling hug.  After dinner there was but one thing on our mind, sleep.  Being the only guests, we were invited to choose when to have breakfast.  We agreed on 8:30 and then retired to our lone bunkroom for what would be a long stretch of rest for the weary.

By Christine:  Joe doesn't exaggerate.  I was very unhappy with him by the end of today.  It is my feeling that he has hiked on these trails in the past, he should know how difficult they are.  I felt like he was selective about remembering how fit he was last time he had hiked them.  By this point he had already hiked through 1,800 miles of the Appalachian Trail and was hard.  We are nowhere near hard.  The last two hours of the hike today were too difficult.  If I could have I would have stopped, but we were above tree line with no water or food.  Joe likes to push me feeling that I am ready for whatever he is pushing me to do.  He needs to realize that there is a limit.  He insists we needed more time.  I insist this would have been too much in one day at the fitness level we are at no matter what.  Lucky for him food improves my attitude fast!

It was very cold at the Madison hut tonight.  I slept with 5 wool blankets wrapped around me, but slept soundly.

1) A pretty bridge on the trail.  2) This was the river under the bridge.  

Thursday, June 7, 2001                                                   White Mountains, NH

The sun rose around 4:30 this morning … yes, 4:30.  We managed to stay in bed until about 7:30, giving us eleven hours of bed rest.  As promised, our breakfast was ready for us at 8:30.  We ate cream of wheat with brown sugar and dried apricots, french toast and eggs.  We were completely stuffed after all of that.  I preyed upon the service of the hut crew and asked them to make us a couple pork sandwiches from last night’s leftovers.  It would make a great trail lunch for us today. While preparing to set out for nearly eight more miles of hiking today, people began arriving at the hut.  One guy that does maintenance for the huts had walked up this morning in about two hours on the same trail we took yesterday.  This achievement truly belittled our abundant effort of yesterday.

We were underway this morning at 9:30 proceeding to the next hut at Lakes of the Clouds.  I figured a conservative pace of 1 mph should make it a comfortable day.  Leaving Madison Springs Hut, we got a great view of Mount Madison, our final summit from last night before reaching the hut.  We spent the day above tree line in the Alpine Zone appreciating some of the spring blossoms as we rock-hopped by Mounts Adams, Jefferson and Clay on our way to the summit of Mount Washington (6288’), the tallest in the northeast.  The weather today was outstanding, providing us with nearly a hundred miles of visibility from the summits.

Mount Washington is a busy summit.  With an auto road and cog railway providing tourist transit, the traffic sustains a museum, gift shop and cafeteria.   Mount Washington claims to be home to some of “The World’s Worst Weather.”  A weather station at the summit is occupied year around.  We were blessed today with some of the world’s best weather as we visited the summit.  After a brief respite there, we continued on further south to the Lakes of the Clouds hut, arriving around 5:00.  We were sore and tired after a long steady day of hiking, but our spirits were much higher.

This hut is the largest in the network, accommodating 90 guests, but we were two of only twelve guests staying there tonight.  We had plenty of time to settle in and get comfortable before dinner this evening.  We even squeezed in a couple games of cribbage where Christine soundly beat me … ongoing penance on my part.  Dinner tonight had a Thanksgiving theme with turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy, cranberry sauce, and salad.

At dinner tonight, Christine and I sat across from two sisters-in-law, Paula and Sally that were on a yearly outing together.  Christine really enjoyed the female companionship.  We began to get to know them quite well as we learned that their itinerary matched ours over the next two days.  We survived until ‘lights-out’ at 9:30 tonight before retiring to our bunks for another good night of sleep.  We were not special any more, and thus had to plan to arise with everyone else at 6:30 for breakfast at 7:00.

By Christine:  Today started out with a lot of pain, but the views were so beautiful and after yesterday the hiking was almost easy, the pain loosened after awhile.  It's easy to relax and concentrate on the beauty.  Tonight was also a cold night in the hut but once again, we had plenty of wool blankets.  I am really appreciating the down jacket Joe bought for me (so I wouldn't use his).

1) The mountain behind Joe is Mt. Madison, that climb down was the last .3 miles of yesterdays hike.  At the bottom you can see the Madison hut.  2) This was a early view of Mt. Washington and the ridgeline we had yet to hike to get there.  3) Again, this is Mt. Madison.  You can see from this angle the long climb up Mt. Madison from yesterday.

1) This is a great picture of from the right, Mt. Jefferson, Mt. Adams, and Mt. Madison.  We've already hiked the whole ridgeline you see.  2) The summit of Mt. Washington.  3) The sunset from the Lakes of the Clouds hut.

Friday, June 8, 2001                                                            White Mountains, NH

We were awoken this morning at 6:30 to the wonderfully soothing sounds of the crew serenading us with guitar accompaniment, singing a tropical song about Maui.  Breakfast was again very filling as we prepared for another day of blessed weather.  Our effort for today would be much reduced as we only covered about five miles walking by Mount Monroe and then up and over Mounts Eisenhower and Pierce.  The path even began to resemble a trail again as we left the large rocks and boulders behind us.

We caught up with Paula and Sally and spent much of the day hiking with them.  I finally walked ahead to let the ladies chat away.  I’m certain that Christine spent little time today bemoaning her aches and pains as she eagerly got to know our new friends.  Today’s hike was mild enough that we all arrived at the Mizpah Hut early in the afternoon.

We were now back below tree line and would have a much warmer evening than the past two nights.  The hut was scheduled to be over half full with thirty something guests as the weekend began.  An AMC naturalist was amongst us tonight and took the ladies down to a nearby bog before dinner to learn how to identify some of the mountain flowers.  Dinner tonight was a satisfying lasagna.  Christine and I both got into the books that we had brought along as we quietly contemplated the warm showers awaiting us tomorrow.

By Christine:  I have to admit what a wonderfully pleasant day it was.  I wanted to take pictures of the wildflowers flowering in the Alpine Tundra but I kept waiting for the perfect bunch and then before I knew it we were below the tree line.  You will just have to trust me when I tell you that the tundra in between the rocks was covered with white (Diapensia),  pink (Alpine Azalea), and purple (Lapland Roseba) flowers.  We commented on how nice it has been to follow spring all the way from Tucson in April to New Hampshire in June.

I thoroughly enjoyed chatting with Paula and Sally as we hiked down to Mizpah hut.  I felt blessed to find such warm, kind women to chat with on the hike.  One of the things I miss the most is one on one time with friends.  Chatting with friends like Luma in Charlotte, on a regular basis is something that kept me on an even keel.  Nothing against Joe's company.  We are good together, but sometimes too good.  We can go for long periods without a lot of verbal communication. 

1) Before we left the hut this morning, we were lucky enough to see the hut fox, this fox comes often looking for scraps.  2) Resting, once again, Mt. Washington is the middle mountain behind us.

Saturday, June 9, 2001                                                   Twin Mountain, NH

We awoke warm this morning and made plans to descend back into the valley.  My original plans included a seven mile hike out that involved a very steep section at the end.  We adjusted those plans to take a shorter and more gradual trail that would leave us right at a pick-up spot for the AMC Hiker Shuttle.

We walked on down with Paula and Sally and road the shuttle with them back to our vehicles at the Pinkham Notch parking area.  Once there, we gave them a tour of the RV and shared a few beers with them as we said our goodbyes.  They were a very special added gift to our wonderful mountain hike.

Christine and I grabbed some sandwiches from the Pinkham Deli and got underway in the RV looking for a good nearby campground.  We stopped briefly in Gorham for some groceries before settling in here at a quiet campground in the shadow of the White Mountains.  We had plenty of time to get some laundry done and rest our tired bodies.  Oh yes, the showers were awesome.

By Christine: Us girls spent the hike down noting all the flowers we learned about last night from the naturalist.  We saw white flowers called golden thread (?) and many painted and purple Trilliums, which I recognize easily from WI.  There was also a bush with pretty white flowers which we think was the hobble bush, but we could be remembering wrong.

One more note on our new friends.  At one point we were describing trail magic to them and when we parted they made a wonderful statement that we had been their trail magic.  I have to say it was mutual.  I am sure it would have been an enjoyable hiking trip (after day one) no matter what, but the chance to hike and talk with these two really neat women added a whole new dimension to the hike.    

  Our new friends Paula and Sally.

Sunday, June 10, 2001                                                                      Salem, MA

We took our time getting started this morning and finally got under way by noon.  We had a very pretty drive south into Massachusetts.  We ended up finding a different kind of campsite tonight at the Winter Island City Park in Salem.  It is part marina, part campground and part city park.  We are camped on part of the parking area overlooking Salem Harbor congested by all the sailboats and motorboats on this warm June Day.  There is a six piece jazz band giving a concert in the park less than a hundred feet away from us.  We really lucked into this little spot.

Continue onto June 11, 2001.