Monday, August 3, 2015

Passaconaway: Just what I needed.

I needed a good hike.  As in I was wondering if I had it anymore.  There was a failed Osceola hike.  Ok, I was sick.  Then the really bad words on Whiteface.  I so wanted to love that mountain.  And of course, Owls head.  I don’t know if I wanted to die or was afraid to.  Don’t get me wrong, it is an awesome hike, well except those 2 miles going up and down the slidey, scree-laden slide complete with a zillion blowdowns.  On Owls and Whiteface, I dropped my pack praying it would make the trip easier.  NO, and it is not good to go without water and emergency signalling.  I counted.  From mid-August to mid-October I did 16 new peaks not including 2 that are not counted.  From Feb to now, 6 and 1 took 3 tries in 2 seasons.  That 16 was after I sprained my ankle.  See why I am concerned?  With all that is going on in my life, I needed a real victory.  I wanted to love the mountains again.  

Passaconaway blessed me with what I needed.  There are some who diss woods summits as if they are not as worthy as other summits.  Ok, some as boring as Hell, or make you work ridiculously hard for nothing.  But really, they all not bad.  Sometimes wooded walks allow you to focus on what is important.   It’s not all about the view.  It is about pushing limits and discovering who you are.  We all need time to reflect.  That’s what I got.  I took the lovely Dicey’s Mill Trail.  Wooded, great footing, not too steep, but pretty consistent ups.  Even the water crossing was a rock hop.  Meaning that I would not have to channel the gymnast me.  

I got a late start, but as you will see, it was perfectly timed.  I saw all the happy young people (and a few more mature folks) finishing up and here I am huffing, puffing, sweaty.  Plus the trail runner.  Did I really want to do this?  But I kept walking and walking and walking.  I thought about how hard it was and how it had been so much easier last year, etc.  So I sat down and thought.  Sun coming through the forest, the sound of a brook somewhere, it was perfect.  While I wanted to be mindful of all that was around me, I took some breaks to think about life.  I switched back to hiking on inclines, than back to life.  I came to some catharsis about things past, even halfheartedly did some forgiving.  You have to do what you have to do.  
It says it for a reason
I pushed on with no real idea of where I was or how much more I had to hike when I heard voices.  I had this passing thought about whether it was the nice women I met when doing Owls Head.  And guess what, it was them.  How crazy is that?  We caught up a bit, discussed the hiking forums, and gave each other trail reports.  They did the Whiteface/Passaconaway loop.  You know I might hike faster if I didn’t have so many conversations.  OK, but I would miss so much if I didn’t.  Yeah, I might not make book time, but who cares?  Why would I miss out on making new trail friends?  And if I am lucky, we might help each other, and maybe that friendship will extend beyond that hike.  The hiking community has some good people in it.  You should get to know some of them.

As it happened, I was at a junction.  No pic because I though I took on on the way up.  Oops.  They said the trails get confusing and they took another trail up.  It sounded like the trail I wanted to avoid.  I payed close attention to the signs and pushed on.  I passed a nice campsite and got a bit confused by some herdpaths, but went on instinct and pressed on.  Lots of switchbacks on this trail.  For 750ft in .7, it seemed easy.  I thanked Passaconaway, but asked what he was hiding.  Well I found the rocky, bouldery section.  I had to do some thinking.  It hurt.  It wasn’t too hard, but you have to be creative to get over some sections, again, my inner gymnast made an appearance.  I got the ledge with the AWESOME view and saw a sign that showed the way to that other trail.  i didn’t see a cairn, so I took another path and there it was.  The little piddly, obnoxious fire with the crappy ring built right next to a tree.  Read this post by Section Hiker to see why this is such a bad thing, but I think you already know why: http://sectionhiker.com/root-fires-and-leave-no-trace/ .  

These lovely Indian Pipes were spared.
After I spent some time fixing up and attempting to cover it up, I got to enjoy it.  It is a nice, peaceful wooded peak.  Kinda like Galehead.  I took a few silly selfies with the cute little cairn and then hit the ledge.  I had a snack, posted about the fire, and just took it all in.  I honestly did not want to leave.  I knew I had only about 90 minutes of daylight left, so off I went.  I made it down pretty quickly, but the darkness did hinder me.  Don’t be hardheaded like me, put the lamp on so you don’t faceplant.  But then I got slower because I could see all the faceplantable rocks just waiting to trip me.  When I got out of the woods, I turned off my lamp.  Now that was pretty cool.  The moon was not up yet, but the light colored rock made a nice path and going through that little wooded section it the dark, just pure awesome.  As I got closer to my car, I saw some flickering lights.  Lightning bugs!!!!!  It had been so long since I saw any.  There were not many, but still amazing.  I danced back to my car.
I love you cairn.



Again, don't know how this happens, but I like it.

Yummy fuel

The trip home was great too.  Found a better way there that does not involve roads with grass growing on them, but no epic frost heaves.  No interesting signage on the way, even at the gun shop.  Then I got to Meredith.  There are some strange pieces by the lake, but the moon reflecting on the lake was priceless.  It may not have been full, but it still looked awesome.  Yeah, this was what I needed. And I want to get back out there.  I just need to wait for a time when the storms will not get in my way.  Hail hurts.
No clue
Pretty