Mount Osceola

Beautiful fall day. Started out chilly and drizzling - although sunny driving up. Took rain jacket off in about 1/2 mile. Still passing clouds but lots of frequent sun. Was 50 degrees at base and proceeded to get colder on the way up. People coming down said it had snowed (when it was raining at base). Saw evidence of little hail balls. At top it was 20 degrees and very windy - stayed only long enough to take pictures and put North Face Windstopper jacket on (which is a great jacket!).

Took me 1:50 on the way up and 2:10 on the way down. Was walking a bit slower coming down as well as eating and drinking the remainder of my stuff, and futzing with the tightness of my boot laces...

From Mount Osceola

Hut-to-hut gear reviews: pack

I took an Osprey Stratos 24 (24 liters) which has a 1800 cubic inch capacity. I tried to keep the weight at 15 lbs max but did not succeed. With 70 ounces of fluid, snacks for 3 days, and 3 ounces of GU, it was closer to 18+ lbs. But my pack was far lighter than everyone else's that was doing a multi-day hut-to-hut hike. The other packs ranged from 30 - 50 lbs.

1800 cubic inches is supposed to be a day hiking size. 2500 - 3500 was recommended. If I had more room I would have packed more so this size was perfect for me. Also, the Stratos is just about a perfect pack for 20 lbs and under. The mesh suspension back and soft hip belt is comfortable and cool. I was able to load my water bladder on the outside zip compartment (under the mesh back). This saved all the internal space for other stuff.

Although not a woman's specific pack it fits me well. I am 5'3". I almost had the waist cinched as tight as it would go, but had an inch to spare.

What I packed:
70 ounce insulated Camelbak bladder in outer sleeve
Rain gear (jacket, pants and pack cover) in the outside shovel pocket
Sleeping bag liner for in the hut bunks
Emergency shelter (closed reflective blanket type)
2 changes of underwear and socks
2 short-sleeved shirts
1 long-sleeved shirt
1 light-weight Primaloft jacket
1 pair of long-john top and bottoms
1 one pair of heavy socks
Travel slipper shoes
all clothes were stuffed in 1 quart zip-lock storage bags
Toiletries and bug and sun stuff
Notebook and pen
Small first aid kit (pain-killers, ointments, moleskin)
Emergency gear (matches, candle, headlamp, knife, extra batteries for headlamp and Blackberry, compass, maps, duct tape, bug head net)
20 ounces of electrolyte water (on side bottle carrier)
5 ounces of GU (on other side bottle carrier)
GPS (attached to shoulder strap)
Camera (attached to other shoulder strap)
Blackberry (attached to hip using extra pouch)
SPOT (attached to the top of my pack with cord)
Home-made GORP, energy bars, and electrolyte packets (on hip pockets and in pack double-bagged)

In retrospect I would exchange the slipper shoes (which only weighed a couple of ounces) with Crocs, Tevas, or even Keen sandals. The weight savings wasn't worth it and it would be nice to have had a little heavier duty shoes to put on after hiking all day in boots. At the last minute I left my book which was a mistake and would only have added another 4 ounces or so. The Blackberry was useless from Mt Guyot to almost all the way back to Crawford Notch (a day and a half of no reception). But it was nice when I had reception because I could send pictures and text to my blog or people. A few ounces of wine or whiskey would have been nice too - although Benedryl works pretty well for helping to fall asleep. I little more GORP and an extra bar would have been good too - I ate all I had but didn't have any left for emergencies. Also, my ankle support sock would have come in handy. I left it out at the last minute as well and it literally weighs maybe an ounce.

8/15-17/09 pictures with real camera

Total mileage for trip was 23.6 miles and 6600 feet of elevation gain.

On top of Mt Pierce

From Hut to Hut 8/15 - 8/17/09

Eisenhower (with Washington in far right) from Pierce.

After about a 1/2 mile on the A-Z trail, I ditched that idea and ran down the Zealand Trail (2.8 flat miles) to get a ride back to Crawford Notch. From there I climbed up and back Mt Pierce in about 4 hours (6.4 miles and 2400 feet of elevation).

Total mileage for the day was about 9 miles and 2500 feet of elevation.

Zealand Notch from Zealand Falls hut

Beautiful Zealand Notch at sunrise...

Total mileage for yesterday was about 9.0, 1900 feet of elevation gain, 1200 feet of loss.

Looking south from Zeacliff

View from Zeacliff of Mts Carrigain and Hancock.

After about 6 miles from Galehead hut and only 600 feet of elevation gain.

The view from the overlook is breath-taking. The hike was pretty much all downhill from the Bondcliff Trail but very hard because I was being especially careful of my ankle. Once I met John and Julia just over Zealand Pond, I started feeling more confident on my ankle again and started going a bit faster. The trail became a little less rough from Zealand Mtn.

Bondcliff trail past Mt Guyot

Went about a half mile into the Bondcliff Trail when I tweaked my ankle and decided to not hike up West Bond since I had 6.5 miles to Zealand Hut from that point.

On top of South Twin Mtn

From Hut to Hut 8/15 - 8/17/09

Hikers on the top of S Twin Mnt looking West toward Lafayette (with UFO in distance :-)

0.8 miles from Galehead Hut and 1150 feet of elevation gain... This was a lot of climbing in a short time. There were some amazing scenes of sun through the mist on the trail.

From Galehead Mountain

From Hut to Hut 8/15 - 8/17/09

The view of Galehead Hut from the overlook near the top of Galehead Mountain.

Two different groups of women hiked up to the hut together today as well. One was a group of six and one was a group of eight. They do this every year together. That is certainly a cool way to do something special with friends or family.

Up and back to the top of Galehead Mountain was another 1.0 mile round-trip and 250 of elevation gain, making the total mileage for the day 5.6 miles and 2600 feet of elevation.

From Galehead Hut

We got to Galehead hut in just over 3 hours (which is about book time) via the Gale River Trail (4.6 miles and 2,200 feet of elevation gain - mostly at end).

The Gale River Trail is a nice hike. The first two-thirds or so are along the river with some neat crossings. The elevation gain is pretty slow at first too. The last third is consistently steep once past the overlook.

What a perfect day - beautiful trails and mountains. The hut is cool - heading up to Galehead Mtn now.

Leaving in 5

Very warm and hazy today.

Going on the shuttle is a father and daughter doing a hut-to-hut from Franconia Notch (Greenleaf hut first back to Highland center). I thought the girl was 14 or 15 - it turns out she is starting her 2nd year of college...way off. They have been doing this every year for a while. I wish my father had done even one thing alone with me in all the years I was growing up.

No one is going up Garfield, so I am going up the Gale River Trail with Keith and Charles, who are eventually going up past Mt Washington.

Charles and Keith are two friends who met at a dot-com many years ago. Since then Keith lives in the south and Charles near Boston. They get together every year to hike some of the Appalachian trail. One year they did a marathon together. They have a neat friendship that has lasted over these years with bonding by these yearly adventures.

The view out my window at Highland Lodge

I have a nice room and it is beautiful here.  Would love to just spend a few days with Highland as base-camp.

At the Highland Center in Crawford Notch

The drive through Franconia was perfect - to bad I'm not hiking up Lafayette and Lincoln today. Great views of Mt Washington coming over 302 east to Crawford. It is quite warm here - has to be 90 at 5 pm - was expecting it to be 10 degrees cooler.

I'm staying in room 314 "The Mt Eisenhower" - a two-bunk room with just me. The food at dinner was really good. It was interesting to talk with these different people.

The two groups at my table were a father and a son starting their backpacking trip going East and another father and his two sons ending their backpacking trip. I saw a lot of other groups like that - what a wonderful way to spend time with your kids and show them how much they mean to you.

...until tomorrow....

On my way

At rest stop in NH. Was mucho traffic and stop n go - but hopefully clear sailing to Crawford Notch now.

Driving up tomorrow

I have a lot of updating to do, but it will have to wait until I get back. Tomorrow I'm driving up to Crawford Notch to sleep over and then get shuttled the next morning to the trail head.

I've tried to cut out and eliminate a lot of stuff but my completely loaded pack is 18 lbs. Sigh...

Just the granola and two energy bars (3 days worth of snacks) weight 1.25 lbs alone. I'm used to carrying 8-10 lbs on day hikes, so this will be a stretch. Will have to just remember the slow and steady rule.

Not the boots

I was going hike without the boots today, but put them on to see how they felt. The end of the boot only reaches the very beginning of the swollen red area on my ankle, but right over the bite mark.
So I hiked in them for an hour and everything seems fine. Waste of a visit to the ER...and $$$. My theory still stands as the most logical.

2nd Obstacle

Yesterday was a big test day. In particular, going outside on a real hike with the new boots. I was also testing a new device called "SPOT" - which is sort of in-between a cell phone and a personal emergency signally device. More on that later...

The boots are really amazing. I was surprised at how sticky the rubber is. They were much like my 4-year old approach shoes - actually better I think. It goes to show you what you miss when you don't buy new for years.

The only problem is that no matter how tightly they are laced (even to the point of being uncomfortable), there is some slippage of my foot forward on descents. This may be because I am wearing liner socks in addition to hiking socks to reduce friction. Surprisingly this is mostly on my bigger foot. But after about 2 hours, there were no hot-spots.

On to the big problem...About a week and a half ago I was mowing the grass and got stung on the inside of my right ankle with what I think was a bee. It hurt for about a day and was swollen but quickly resolved. This past Wednesday morning (6 days after the sting), the area where I was bitten was itchy. I thought I must have been bitten by a mosquito in the same place as the bee sting. Yesterday, when I got back from the hike, the area was not only really itchy again, but about a 1 inch square area of skin was raised and red. I thought it far too late to be an infection from the original sting but was convinced to have it checked out.

My theory (which sounds perfectly logical to me) is that the stinger was still under my skin. On Tuesday night, when I wore the new boots on the treadmill for over a 1/2 hour, the pressure of lacing them tightly pushed the stinger around and irritated the area (thus making it itch). Then yesterday, after hiking for a long time with the boots tightly laced, the stinger exploded and released all the poison and bacteria - which is what caused this reaction.

Well, the doctor didn't favor that idea and thinks it's simply irritated skin from the boots. I didn't point out that usually irritated skin from boots results in blisters or raw skin, not skin that looks like cellulitis (this is a skin infection). Needless to say, this is going to make breaking in these boots difficult this week. Today I'll have to practice hike without them.

Lupe's 3rd practice hike in the Blue Hills

Practice hike w/ Lupe

update

Woke up this morning without hip pain! The incline hike on the treadmill "fixed" it - I barely notice it's there. After my normal daily 3 mile walk every thing is fine.

The real test will be this weekend with the new boots and a training hike in the Blue Hills.

New boots and 1st worry

Since I needed heavier duty and narrower boots, I did a bunch of research and then ordered them online (since neither EMS nor REI carried them).

My new Kayland boots arrived yesterday and I immediately walked around the house with them. They felt pretty comfortable right away. Next I did 30 minutes on the treadmill with maximum elevation and the pack I'll be bringing on the big weekend. Everything felt good.

This morning I woke up thinking I had slept on my left hip. I didn't, it was from the hike on the treadmill. Needless to say I was worried. I don't get hip pain unless I've increased my running on hard surfaces signifigantly. I spend the day avoiding most walking - I usually walk around 3 miles commuting to and from work. I reduced that to about 1.5 for the day today. The hip still ached.

This evening I decided to hike with the boots on the treadmill for 1.5 miles at maximum elevation, but without the weight of the loaded pack. Although my hip still hurt I really needed to make sure the boots would work and be broken-in. So we'll see what tomorrow will bring...

1st obstacle

The heal on one of my 14 year old Raichle boots ripped out during a training hike. Now you'd think that 14 years is too old for boots - but that really isn't so. I took great care of them, particularly because I vowed to never buy another pair of leather anything, and the uppers only have a few deep scratches. Well, glue or rubber does eventually come apart. They can be resoled - but I don't have enough time before the big weekend.

I bought a pair of Garmont Kiowa that were blowout at EMS. These are really nice, quite comfortable, and light-weight as well - unfortunately I have a very odd foot: between a 7 and 7.5 and narrow but shaped like a mini-ski (same width from toe to heel). These are good for short hikes for me - up to 3 hours, but I need less toe-box room. When I buy "narrow" sizing, the arch is much too tight - so on to my next boot to test and brake-in before the big weekend!

Intro

Last year I wanted to do a hut hike in the White Mountains on my 45th birthday as a protest against aging, but wasn't able to. This year I decided to actually plan and book it (in reverse really - which is the only way it will work with me).

During all this planning I realized that sometime long ago I wanted to climb the New Hampshire 48s (mountains over 4000 feet high). Thus far, I've only done 4 of them. So, the hut-to-hut hike has evolved into the new goal that will be quite a challenge - climb all the 48 NH 4000 footers by the time I turn 48...

On my 46th birthday weekend, I hope to hike up another five of them during a 3-day hut-to-hut hiking adventure. That still leaves quite a few for only a two-year period.

Over the years I've increasingly felt more disconnected. Accomplishing (or trying to) the goal of climbing the 48 is my attempt to rejuvenate my life.

If you'd like to join my "48x48" club please let me know, or if you just want to read about my struggle and success, follow along. I'll be updating this site regularly with more info, comments and pictures of the prep, gear, and doing!

Lupe's 2nd practice hike in the Blue Hills

Lupe's 1st hike up The Great Blue Hill

This hike with "The Lu" confirmed my decision to do the hut-to-hut hike for my birthday.

From The 48 by 48 Blackberry Pictures