Made it up Mount Willey today via the Kedron Flume trail then Ethan Pond trail and finally the Willey Range trail. 27/48

Quick run up to NH to climb Mount Hale and check it off the list.

Mount Whiteface NH

Mount Tripyramid (North & Middle)

Jackson to Pierce to Eisenhower

Birthday hike up Mount Tecumseh with the entire family.

I took a solo trip up north today and climbed East Osceola. I was at the lot by 7:30 and back at the car by 11. It was steep with boulders for the last third but I made it. The rain started just as I got back to the car.

One more from the Mt Moosilaukee hike

First new 4000 footer in a dozen years #mountfield

Quick run up to Crawford Notch for Mount Tom and Mount Field.

Original Post

Nice hike up Oh-skee-oh-LAH #whitemountains #4000footers

It was a perfect day when Kaleb and I climbed Mount Osceola

My hiking partner finished his 2nd and 3rd 4000 footer today. #mtflume #mtliberty

We made it to the top of Cannon Mountain this time.

Mark, Kate and I climbed Mount Adams back in 2004

Let me start by saying it was a lovely vacation. I won’t go into full details because it would be rather boring to everbody but here is a list of all of the places we went.
Day One: I-93 and Franconia Notch
Bought the new Mraz live CD.
Played a round of miniature golf. I came back from being down three strokes to win by one. Woohoo!!!
Clark’s Trading Post to see the bears.
Snuck into the Flume Gorge from the real hiking trails.
Bought sandwiches at some random sandwich shop, where the lady at the counter proceeded to give Jen a hard time about wheat bread and just how bad it was for you.
Ate lunch at the Basin while watching tourists from all over the globe.
Hiked up the Falling Brook trail to check out the cool waterfalls and warm up for the big hike on Day Two.
Ice cream at Dairy Queen.
Went to the house in Newry and tried to use my Somerville key on the door.
Ate dinner at Suds. As good as ever.
Day One Photos
Day Two: Mount Jefferson
Drove to the base of Mount Jefferson.
Hiked four hours up to Edwards col. A col is a low point between two ridges.
Made a push for the summit of the third highest peak in the Northeast. Elevation 5,716 feet.
Beautiful views from the top, with the exception being a few random clouds passing below us.
Long and somewhat tricky hike back down via the Castle trail.
Shopping at Shaw’s.
Pat’s Pizza for dinner.
Laundry.
Day Two Photos
Day Three: Camden
Woke up in Newry and drove two and a half hours East to the coast.
Saw the cleanest gas station bathroom ever.
Walked around Camden and had some lunch.
Checked in at the bed and breakfast.
Rested a bit before driving up to a mild hike.
Hiked up Mount Megunticook and enjoyed the views from the top. It was lovely.
Joyously hiked back down the mountain.
Cleaned up before a fantastic flatbread dinner at the Frogwater Cafe.
Spoke with a couple from Pennsylvania at the bed and breakfast before bed.
Woke up the next morning and had breakfast with an amazing array of people. Old married couples, newlyweds, a German guy, a couple from Malta, an expecting couple of from Boston and other people I didn’t get to meet.
Explored the shops of downtown Camden.
Drove around a looking for the Children’s Chapel. Finally found it to see the garden was beautiful, but the chapel was eh.
Southbound for Freeport.
Stood in line to get a piece of my backpack replaced for an hour or so.
Ate lunch and had Pesto for the first time. I think it would have been good if there wasn’t so much cilantro.
Took a drive up Mt. Agamenticus.
Couldn’t let go of the vacation and drove 1A along the coast.
Went to 39R so Jen could meet the family.
Of course mom wasn’t there so we waited and had dinner before going to Hodgies.
Finally got back to Somerville completely exhausted.
Day Three Photos

Day Five: Plymouth
Drove to Plymouth in the morning and hung out with Mark and Kate.
Talking and swimming at the Lafavers.
Ate lunch and fixed some computer problems.
Watched the race from the boat with Kate.
Mark finished fifth in a tough field of sailors.
I played guitar on the dock while Kate and Mark went to a meeting.
Ate dinner at BBC.
Drove back to Somerville, took the wrong exit and was slightly lost.
Went home unpacked and passed out, until my coughing woke me up twenty minutes later.
Sailboat Race on Long Pond Photos

Yep I did some more hiking this weekend and spent most of Saturday in the ‘Bury.

Britt and I On 1A We went to Salisbury to listen to get some beach pizza and listen to the new Beastie Boys CD. Aftwerwards we took some pictures up in North Hampton.

Moosilaukee Hike Kate and I went up to hike this great mountain. It was such an easy hike, we were at the top within a couple hours and a couple hours later we were back in the car. Nice peaceful hike. Tried to eat at Peg’s restaurant, but it was closed. I made the terrible mistake of trying to go across the Kancamagnus and then down towards MA. The traffic was gross and I was amazed at my choice of route.

Finally we made it back and I went to the baseball game with Scottie, John and Appleyard. It was so much fun. When you get the three of us back together its always a crazy and hilarious time. Okay thats it for now.

I leave for St. Louis on Wednesday. Can’t wait to see Dave.

It was another busy weekend and it is beginning to take its toll on me. I had such a hard time waking up this morning. However I am here now and updating this old LJ once again.

Let’s start with Friday, because I prefer chronological order to any other order when documenting the past. After work I went over to Amy’s for dinner with the fishing crew from Thursday. Since I didn’t catch any cod I wasn’t allowed to have any, no really I just don’t like fish. The dinner was great and afterwards we appropriately watched the movie “Big Fish”. I had seen it before, but you can never see a good movie too many times.

Moving on…. Saturday, I did some laundry in preparation for hiking and then drove to Quincy to pick Mark up for an afternoon of fishing in Plymouth. After chatting with Sarah for a while, we went out on the pond and attempted to catch some fish. However, after three hours my fish-less streak continues. We went all over the pond, back and forth, stopped for a while, basically tried everything, but still not a bite. To top of it all off, the fish were jumping all around us. I was able to improve my casting and before long was shooting the red and white lure up to thirty feet away from the boat. Upon returning from our trip, we drowned our sorrows in food at the BBC. It was there that we learned of the death of Ronald Reagan. Very sad, although it may mean a shortened work day on Friday.

Finally, the story you all have been waiting for, Sunday. We originally planned to hike up Wildcat Mountain, but in an effort to avoid driving through North Conway we went to climb Kinsman Mountain instead. I met Kate, Mark, Clemence and Andy at the park and ride in Andover. We piled into the car and drove North up 93 towards Franconia Notch, my new weekend home. It was a packed car, but fortunately I drove so I was fairly comfortable. We mad it to the Basin parking lot in about one and a half hours. The hike was great, of course I had all my gear and had worked out a nice big loop so we didn’t have to track back over the same terrain. Our first major stop was at Lonesome Lake the same place we had stopped a couple of weeks ago. The rest of the hike to the top of North Kinsman was nice, very gradual at first with a few short steep stretches. The view from the top of North Kinsman was amazing. There was a steep overlook where you could view the entire Franconia Notch area. We finally stopped for lunch on the top of South Kinsman. We were all pretty tired at this point especially the old man of the group, he fell asleep in the fetal position in the underbrush. We started back down towards Kinsman Pond after about a half an hour. The trail we took was basically just a river bed and was rather tricky to negotiate and navigate. It took a bit longer than I thought, but we finally made it back to the car at 5:30. The stats on the hike were 9.85 miles hiked in around seven hours. I couldn’t believe how far we had hiked, based on the guide book I thought it would be a few miles shorter. We high tailed it out of there and went South to the Macaroni Grille in Methuen. It is the new post hiking restaurant, replacing the Olive Garden. I think I like it much better, because the food seems less manufactured. I finally dropped everybody off at around 9:15. It was a long and exhausting day, but I wouldn’t change a thing.

It was a lovely holiday weekend and once again I kept very busy. On Friday night I saw the Day After Tomorrow. It was okay for an action/natural disaster movie, of course there were some logic defying scenes, but the special effects made up for the weak plot. I came home from the movies and began planning for a hiking expedition up to Mt. Lafayette.

I woke up on Saturday morning hopped in the car and drove up to the trail head for the Lafayette hike. It was right across the street from the start of last week’s hike. I opened the door to the car and realized it was going to be a cold one. The wind was blowing about 25 MPH at the base and I could only imagine what it was going to be like on the summit. I packed as much as I could into my bag and began up the trail at around 9:00. The trail I went up had went back and forth over a stream and passed a series of waterfalls. Of course I took a bunch of waterfall pictures, thanks for getting me hooked on those LAG. The trail was sheltered from the wind and it wasn’t long before I was taking off layers. About a mile and a half in the trail leaves the river behind and starts up towards the timber line. The higher I climbed the windier and colder it became. I came to a final trail junction which was a short distance from the openness of the top and put on a couple of extra layers because I could tell the wind was gusting to at least 45 MPH at the summit. The trail made a turn and the trees went from a nice green color to an icy white. The mountain must have been in a cloud and everything above a certain elevation was covered in ice. I looked down at my bare legs and wished I hadn’t worn shorts. A few minutes later and I was at the top trying to take cover from the wind behind a giant rock.


I glanced to the North and saw the ridge I was going to have to walk across. It was treeless and looked more like the tundra of Siberia than the top of a mountain in NH on the last week of May. A couple who had spent the night on top of Mt. Liberty started out ahead of me, so I figured I would stick with them in case I accidentally blew off the mountain or my legs became frostbitten. It turns out they were from Amesbury, which I thought was an odd coincidence. We stayed together for most of the ridge, but after we made alternating stops I ended up way ahead of them. My pace quickened and before I knew it I was on top of Mt. Lincoln. I went to take a sip from my camelback, but the tube had frozen and I had to go old school and drink straight from my Nalgene bottle. It had been two and a half hours since I left base camp and I needed to get some sugar into my system, so I took a little break. The cold was starting to get to me so I continued on towards Mt. Lafayette. After about fifteen minutes of really chugging along I made it to the top and took a couple pictures. It was too cold to stop and eat lunch so I found the trail down towards the Greenleaf Hut and covered the descent from the summit to the hut in about fifteen minutes. The hut was great, I took off a couple layers and let them dry while I enjoyed my peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

Clouds began to roll in and I once I finished eating I quickly packed up my gear and was back on the trail in no time. The Old Bridle Trail was very gradual and provided many great views of the peaks and ridges I had just hiked across. I passed a bunch of people and they all seemed under dressed for the peak, but I kept that little detail to myself and just said hi and told them it wasn’t far to the hut. At one point on the way down I saw flurries and tried to get a picture of them, but of course they didn’t show up in the picture. The weather was nothing like I had anticipated and felt more like a late October hike. The rest of the descent went by quickly and I didn’t see many people once I was within a mile of the car. At around 1:45 I made it back to the car and changed into some warm dry clothes. It only took me four hours and forty four minutes to complete the loop of 7.5 miles. I took a couple more pictures and started down I-93. About a mile south of the base a truck was pulled over on the side of the road which at first seemed odd until I saw a moose standing there. I pulled over and snapped a few pictures before it ran off into the woods.

After hiking I went to Amesbury and we celebrated my Mom’s Birthday. Here are a couple of pics from Mom’s Birthday Party

Yesterday I made the fun trip down to Plymouth for Sarah’s graduation party. The weather was great and there was a ton of food, which always means a good time. After the party I went out in the boat with Rich and Mark for some fishing. I hadn’t been fishing since I was a wee lad so it was interesting. Thankfully Rich refreshed my memory on the whole casting thing. I only almost hooked myself once. We were out there for about a half hour and caught one fish, oh well I guess its more about drinking beer on a boat than the actual reward of catching a fish. After fishing we hung out at the boat house drinking and chatting with Ian, James, Bradley, Kate, Sarah and Josh. Good times, although it did get a bit chilly and if you are ever cold and outside don’t count on a Citronella candle providing you with much heat. Here are some pics from the Long Pond Graduation Party

<img src=“http://www.onebrightidea.net/keeg/pictures/lj_pics/DSC06801.JPG"
My weekend was pretty good, Friday night started with me going out after work. It was nice to get out in the city for a change. Saturday involved not much of anything except laundry and the PBS reality series.

The excitement began on Sunday when I drove down to Somerville to pick up Kate, Andy and Clemence. We went hiking up at Cannon Mountain up near Franconia Notch. The weather was cloudy all of the way up until we were within ten minutes of the trailhead and then it started raining. We had driven two hours and figured it might clear up. The hike started off fine, a little wet, but not too bad. We made it to the top in about two hours. At this point the visibility was about ten feet, but it didn’t deter us from climbing up the observation tower. The view up there was worse. It was windy and cold up there and we looked for shelter, but everything was locked up. Finally Andy found a generator room. It was warm, dry and out of the wind, there was a strong smell of fuel, but the pros certainly outweighed the cons. The rain stopped at some point during our lunch stop and the sky began to clear. Was it really going to clear up? Sure enough it did, as soon as we were off the summit and about halfway down the sun came through. At one point we stopped and climbed up on a rock and just rested for a while. It was actually a dangerous rock, first Andy slipped down a hole after attempting to scale it and then I almost fell off the top and was only holding on by my fingertips. The next stop was at Lonesome Lake. At this point the sun was out in full force and we were able to enjoy the brief stint of nice weather. Within minutes the clouds glided down from above and overcame us once again. We began the final one and a half miles towards the car, on the way Andy made an attempt at knocking over a fifty foot tall rotten tree. He was able to break off a large chunk, but the main trunk remained, which was probably all for the better since it would probably have fallen on his head. The rest of th etrip was less eventful and it was nice to get back to the car and rest. Overall it was a successful hike and I am looking forward to climbing some more four thousand footers in the near future.

Keeg

My first time staying overnight on the way up a 4000 footer with Mark and Kate.