Franconia Ridge: The Reckoning

MadDog called yesterday at 8am. "Mutha! I'm on Rte 93 in Concord heading north. Let's go for a hike!". It took me a few minutes to get my crap together and boom! We were headed up Falling Waters - which was heavily swollen with rain/runoff. We hit the ridge at a sprint with thunder rolling from Lafayette and the rain starting to fall heavily. The winds of Thor tried to blow us off the mountain, adding fast-flying hail to scrape our skin raw. We huddled in the storm to pull layers out of our packs and get some protection from the Mountain Spirits who were partying a little too hard.

Mutha's Trip Report:

• Kids dressed in too little. (Why do girls think hiking up Falling Waters dressed like they're cruising bars is a good idea?)
• A huge crowd on Little Haystack, huddled in rain gear behind the rocks, cheering as MadDog and I came out of treeline sprinting as the storm hit. We were in light wicking t-shirts, shorts and trail runners and didn't know at that point that the Mountain Spirits were planning on throwing us over the edge.
• Temperatures plummeted. Our hands went numb, tendons stiffened, fingers became useless. Even by the time we got to Greenleaf Hut and were warmed up we couldn't open a ziplock bag. We had to use our teeth.
• Between Lincoln and Lafayette we ran into a guy in cotton pants and t-shirt who was soaked and chilled. We checked him for hypothermia. He was okay, but extremely cold and miserable. The conversation was incredibly awesomely hysterical:
  GUY: Is this the way to Lafayette?
  MD: Which way are you heading?
  GUY: Down, the fastest way.
  MD: We're going this way [points]
  MUTHA: The trail drops down here and the next ascent is Lafayette.
  GUY: There's snow up here!
  [the next two lines spoken at the same time]
  MUTHA: ...and...?
  MADDOG: ... right...
  MUTHA [over his shoulder as they take off, leaving Mr. Cold and Suffering]: Yeah, cotton isn't a great idea.
  
  The guy eventually made it down. We saw him at Greenleaf.
  
• The Most Unbelievable Coincidence: On the way down to the hut, hikers were coming up through the mist. They had waiting for the storm to pass at the hut. We hear "MADDOG, MUTHA!". It was Roland and his son Ryan up for some camping and hiking. Awesome. Best of luck today to Ray, JohnnyB, Spungie, etc. on the Wildman.

MadDog's Trip Report:
Greetings boys, from the Canadian maritime provinces. Hope you all have having fun - doing whatever!.

Folks here are quite nice, the terrain is rolling but overall seemingly flat. Not a mountain to be had. I will be back mid-week and looking for my White Mtn time if anyone is around.

Mutha - thanks for indulging me with some Franconia frolic. It was a nice walk, I got the heart rate amped up on the ascent (sorry we fell short of your PB) and chilled our asses off when we were kicked by the mountain gods when they unleashed their version of buckshot. And it really was funny to hear the roar of the hunkered down teenagers as Mutha dashed out from treeline and passed them at the top Haystack. The guy in cotton was unbelievable - and he was preceded on the rigde by a guy in no shirt - WTF! Roland and Ryan, a pleasant and real nice surprise. Makes me yearn for the end of January, now.

Tmail, I tried the ascent without the bra, it was ok - but with the buckshot hitting us at the ridge, it meant I had to pick my way to the hut before I could get to it. And by that point, I really needed it. Fortunately at that point, I was able to counter it with an ample ingestion of NSAIDs coupled with Mutha's banter of south and north Twin. What medicine. The hike closing ended at the parking lot with Mutha, me and a chipmunk - who made out like a bandit with half a pound of my fav dry roasted and salted almonds. There's a warrant out for that varmint!

Can't wait for the Pemi. I'll be ready with a full pack of pain relievers.

-MD