20070610 - Spring In the Air

What, spring in the air? And fall in the lake? Hellfire and damnation! What with our funky schedules, rain and crazed lunatics running through the streets it's been hard to get back into the hills. But the hills beckon and we hear their siren call. I could use a good refresher on how to hike. For a route, I'm still thinking of the route posted on last week's post (see below).

Because Saturday is looking pretty showery, I'm shooting for a Sunday launch, if indeed anything gets off the ground this weekend at all. (The MWO is reporting a forecast for Saturday of showery/thunderstormy conditions so I'm cool w/ avoiding the high spots or indeed being stuck outdoors all day in the rain.)

Update 6/10, 2pm:
The skies were grey but it was almost 65°F when I left Danville this morning. As soon as I got into NH, the dogs and cats started falling and driving on 93 was a mess. I almost stopped and bought a used canoe. I wasn't thrilled with the idea of hiking in a complete downpour so made the decision to bag the Mt. Hale/Zeacliff hike, shaving 4 miles or so by just doing the old standard of Falling Water/Bridal Path.

But there's a punchline coming, so first the setup:

I had my mini-backpack w/ me (a little Black Diamond thing w/ space for a bladder and a little cargo). I had a windbreaker and windpants and a cap in the pack, but was wearing running shorts & tank top because it as pretty warm when I left home, and some light trail runners (MPM, they were my blue Solomons like you had at the relay). I sat in my car at the trailhead parking area (the usual spot, across from the Lafayette Campground) for almost 40 minutes waiting for the rain to let up. It was miserable - but at least I was in the car. After about 30 minutes is seemed like it was tapering off, so I went and took a piss in the woods, got soaked from rain, and sat in the car w/ the heat blasting for another 5 or 10 minutes. Other cars were pulling in and hikers were setting off w/ full rain-gear. Eventually I headed out too. Fucking rain. I figured I'd be generating a lot of heat so I'd take my chances. Good bet. That EMS TechWick rocks. But wait, there's more...

Okay, so you know how I like to complain, right? Well, the trail was soaked, the rain was falling (but tapering off) and the trees were dripping. Stream crossings were challenging (although not that bad), but I didn't have poles. The whole way up Falling Water I kept thinking "crap, I want to push it but don't seem to be making much headway. this sucks." I felt like I just didn't have fully charged batteries and I kept thinking about g-$$$'s email about his "triathalon". Plus, I was hiking in running water, squishy mud and slippery rocks. Oddly, the fact that I was blowing by other hikers seemed to escape me - probably because my left knee was acting up and my shoulders were aching (I spent 7 hours saturday weed-whacking the fence-line, picking rocks for some landscaping and digging a 120sq ft garden)... waaaaaahhhhhh!

Well, the ridge was socked in with dense fog - no wind and only faint drizzle (if any). It was really damp. On the way down, the sun actually came out (or rather, I descended out of the cloud-enshrouded summits) and it was warm, muggy, buggy, wet, slippery and muddy.

Did you get all the whining? Does it sound like a bad day? After all the complaining, it turns out I broke 3 personal records:

Car door to Ridge via Falling Water: 1:15 (beat previous record by 7 minutes)
Franconia Ridge to Lafayette: 0:36 (don't have a prior PR)
Lafayette Summit to Car: 2:20 (no prior PR)
Total Trip Time: 3:11 (beat previous fastest time by 54 minutes)
Avg speed: 2.8mph, 21.7min pace

Of course it helped that I didn't stop for lunch and only snacked twice - although I did chat w/ Marvin Schwartz on Lafayette for 5 minutes. He's an AMC/USFS caretaker, maybe 60 yrs old, and I came upon him suddenly at the summit. Visibility was down to about 20 feet, so I had popped up over the rocks and had jumped down into that little 'bowl' where the signpost is and then noticed him sitting on a rock eating a sandwich. I guess I surprised him too because he didn't see me until he heard my feet smack the rock and he looked up suddenly. It was actually his head motion that startled me, because I was looking right at him thinking it was a new cairn as I was looking for the signpost.

I'd like to see if I can beat 3:00. It'd have to be in DRY conditions.

Gear of the day:
light smartwool socks and poly liners. Feet felt warm and dry all day.

Heard it on the mountain:
Hiker (in a group of 4, standing at a rushing stream crossing on Falling Water): "Excuse me, is this the right way?"
MuthaZ: "Uh, that depends on where you're going."