The clouds completely covered the sky yesterday morning, occasionally overflowing down in to the notches. A woman at the WMNF visitor center in Lincoln recited to me the very descriptive high-summit forcast for the day, complete with jargon in the entire range of pressure possibilities here and there- "So, you're saying it's not going to be sunny" i joked, really only being concerned if there was lightning to lookout for, which seemed a possibility in the look of the day. It had been a last minute decision the night before to drive up to New Hampshire to stay with a friend before doing this hike, and a rainy drive at that. Really, my only objective was to go on a lengthy walk in the woods. Keepin' it simple, right?
The lower forest was towering, old, and saturated. Birch trees shed bark like litter on the grounds while trail crew worked to clear channels so the trail wouldn't be washed out. I past 5 workers on the way up the Skookumchuck trail that morning, and made pretty decent time for what was described as a 5 mile/4 hour hike each way. Still had some snow to contend with in a few areas, and a lot of slippery rocks.
I had flashbacks of high school, hiking though the cloud forest in Costa Rica at times on this trip. The higher I got into these mountains the more the trees started to shorten, and look as if they were the only things holding the clouds away from the ground.
At 4.2 miles the Skookumchuck Trail summits onto Garfield Ridge, a section of the Appalachian Trail. From here I walked the ridge until hitting the top of Mt Lafayette, only 0.8 miles away. Looking at what the trail generally appears to be, from others photos online, gave yesterday's experience more appreciation from the ghostliness of it all. Visibility was short, understandbly, but it really made the ghostly bluffs more exciting. I guess imagination has something to do with that though....
Once there was an old building up atop Lafayette that's long since burned down. The old foundation was where I ate my lunch. Occasionally on the way down there would be breaks in the clouds, well enough to give small areas some definition in the distance, and by the bottom of the trail it was full-blown partly cloudy conditions, and with that warm enough to wake a few pesky bugs up. Really simple, fun and easy hike. Next time up there I'm taking a pack and going for a few days though, but i guess it's never 'long enough', for me at least. Started at 10:15, ate lunch up top at 12:45, went down from 1:45 to 3:15...10 miles, elevation gain of 3300 ft is what the gps told me...
Oh- and I saw a porcupine. But he kept moving, so the pictures were of a fuzzy porcupine, so no luck there....
No comments:
Post a Comment