Saturday 7/25

The Pemi has been postponed for drier days (August 22nd) but the Wind Wild River Basin called and MadDog picked up the phone. The route hasn't been planned, but MD is bringing his knee brace and stump (sounds like MD's an amputee) and according to MD, we'll do something behind the Carters.

Bike? Hike? Run? MadDog, it's your call.

[Update 7/25, 6:30pm] Hillman's Highway. You got that right. A bushwack up that bad boy, even though it was though nearly impossible. It took 2.5 hours from Hermit Lake to the ridge. Trip report coming soon.

Finally: The Trip Reports (pics are here):

MadDog's Report:

A couple of observations:

• Mark this date, and don't go near Pinkham Notch! I have never seen so many people at the facility, parked up and down 16, and on the mountain.
• The bushwhack was a total scramble, and was awesome. Travel was wet, slow and full of uncertainty.
• The payback for #2 was the views - just great.
• I enjoyed being perched up on the Dodge's lunch rock, and hear Mutha with the play-by-play. Amazing just how close the guys were from a great hike, vs a helluva ride.
• Mutha's a mountain rock star...on the way across Boott Spur we bumped into a guy who knew the story of the avi.
• I need some practice still on setting the knee bra. It will come.

Mutha's Trip Report:

• The demons were exorcised. We retrieved the axes (one of mine, one of tMail's) from Anthony - one of the caretakers - and I climbed July ice.
  
• Following MadDog fresh off the Death Race is impossible. I carefully worked my way up boulders as slippery as greased glass. MadDog ate them, shit them out, and climbed the gravel pile.
• For anyone heading up that way: navigating is more about, say, following the brooks. You can't see out of the brush. We had to make a few important route decisions - be prepared for that. Also, don't do this if you are claustrophobic or uncomfortable with steep, rugged terrain. MadDog, you're not claustrophobic, are you?
• Our decision to do Hillman's instead of Dodge's was more about a concern about the 'cliffs' and unstable rock at the top. Still a concern, although I'm still tempted to try it having now succeeded on Hillman's.
• Discussed the "Pinkham Decision". We considered the scenario where we get pounded by lightening and one of us dies or one or both are injured. Which was the bad decision and had that decision already been made? It had. It was made at Pinkham Notch. (Translation: if you don't go up, you can't get hurt up there.). A more proper translation is: there's no single bad decision, only a chain of them leading to an accident.