Trips to do something come first- almost always out of a certain necessity, and then the secondary step (generally the evening before) i decide to finally check out the weather. I've found that everywhere I've been in this country, I've always heard someone chime in the old saying "if you don't like the weather in _______, wait a minute." This, more often than not, always rings true- especially when you get stuck in some really lousy weather. New England in general seems to have had this phrase coined about the area, and I tend to agree, especially when you're standing on top of a mountain...
"40% Chance of Thunderstorms" sounds pretty damn ominous to be honest. What do you make of that the day before hand trying to do a hike? I guess most people would go to a mall instead. Well I still crossed more than a couple peoples paths yesterday, hiking up the beaver brook trail up Mt Moosilaukee. One could definitely make an argument than i'm much more partial to hikes with cool native american names, and I for one probably would not disagree with them.
...but what's better than this, really? Sure it required some effort (that's the trail, to the right of the waterfall) and it just kept going and going up the thing, but there's nothing like a tough hike that follows cool features the whole way- i mean taking breaks, at any point, always point out different details missed at first glance.
I was drenched in sweat climbing up this thing, but keeping a solid pace. I had read that this was a pretty challenging hike from the 2006 AMC WMNF book, and it was for the most part, but lots of maintenance and steps built into the slippery rock made it more challenging from an endurance perspective and less from a mountaineering/climbing one. I didn't care- I went up the mountain with a head thick of thoughts, walked right into the clouds, and cleared my head.
These photos do no justice to the constantly shifting weather that went on during the hike up- constantly becoming hot and sunny, to clouds whipping through the woods and turning everything much, much darker. I made good pace because I knew that the later in the day the more chance for severe weather to move in, and when the trees gave way to the last .4 miles of the summit, i knew that things could get interesting at a moments notice.
The head-high cairns stood like sleeping giants in these clouds that sprayed like a cold mist when it came by in large, sometimes dark patches. I made my way though and caught glimpses of an untold full view, which made what i did see all the more interesting. When I reached the summit there was a party of 4 celebrating...something, i didn't want to venture up that close to join- and certainly didn't want to take their photos (sorry!) There is a lot of rock piles up there indicating a foundation to a few different structures that once stood up there, and out of no where, someone said whats up to me from a Yoda-like position in the cover of one of these rock piles. "Where you coming from?" startled me, and i answered before i grasped the question (being most likely which trail i took up) "oh! uhm, er...montana" and that was the extent of that meeting. We exchanged something about the weather also, and he told me that this was the best the view was gonna get, and that the rain was coming. So I didn't even sit down when i got to the top, just said thanks, and kept going- making no eye contact with the ecstatic people taking photos of themselves next to the trailhead.
The grumbles from above began literally as I walked away from the summit. To my right something thunderous was happening, something i wanted no part of being up on that ridge. I began to think about similar circumstances and kept waiting for some imminent downfall to occur, expecting that as a prelude to the thunder and lightning. I got a little below treeline, but only felt totally confident when i was off the ridge that was flirting with the clouds the whole time. It did rain, but grumbles were the worst of the potential danger i was looking out for. Descending that trail in the rain, with wet rocks, is something i really don't recommend though, and had i not had on some climbing sneakers (which i use for biking and hiking) i would've certainly slipped a lot, and maybe even taken a ride down that waterfall....
The NH trip concluded with some pbr and some pool, laxodasical as ever. Now it's back to mass, shooting hoops at night and studying for the GRE test....
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