At Four Thousand Feet

Distance: 19.4 miles
Elevation Gain: (Need to quit slacking and start calculating)
Trails Used: Boott Spur, Davis Path, Crawford Path, Monroe Loop, Camel, Glen Boulder

Simply put, a magical day to be above treeline in the company of good friends.

…full album here.

Last Thursday I ran my fastest 5k to date – 22:33, 1 minute and 23 seconds faster than my previous time at the Bill Kelley Memorial Race. Perhaps more exciting for me was that I placed 15th out of the 198 runners in my age group. Needless to say, I’m quite pleased with the result. Perhaps I should start to incorporate more speed work into my training. It’d be nice to break 22 minutes the next time around!

Distance: 27.8 miles
Elevation Gain: 7,550 feet
Trails Used: Wilderness, Black Pond, Lincoln Brook, Owl’s Head Path, Twin Brook, Twinway, and Zealand

Owl’s Head is one of my favorite peaks. Yes, the approach is long, the water crossings (often) difficult, and the summit slightly uninspiring – but nevertheless, the mountain evokes a sense of remoteness that cannot be felt on some of the more heavily-travelled ridges in the White Mountains.

The Lincoln Brook trail, on the other hand… Let’s just say I’ve now discovered my least favorite trail in all of New Hampshire. Ah well, suffering though 3 or so miles of swampiness made reaching the Twin Range all the more pleasant.

Considering that this past weekend was perhaps the best we’ve experienced so far this summer, my pictures from the day are a little underwhelming. Ah well.

…full album here.

Date: August 9th, 2009
Distance: 10 miles
Elevation Gain: 3,300 feet
Trails Used: Signal Ridge

Given…

1. My recent proclivity for late start times, and
2. The fact that I was running on a little over 2 hours of sleep

I was surprised to find myself alert, energetic, and northbound at around 6:00am this morning. Arriving at the Signal Ridge trailhead, I was absolutely rearing to go. Okay, I suppose that the 3 sugarfree Red Bulls I downed on the drive up certainly contributed to my excessive amounts of energy. Whatever the cause, I raced up and down Carrigain, finishing the hike in precisely 3:01… and at the same time wrapping up my third consecutive round of single season NH 4ks. Although It took me 51 days to climb all 48 peaks – my fastest seasonal list to date:

6/21/2009
South Carter, Middle Carter, and Carter Dome
Distance: 14.4 miles
Elevation Gain: 4,750 feet

6/27/2009
Isolation
Distance: 14.6 miles
Elevation Gain: 3,400 feet

6/28/2009
Osceola, East Osceola, and Tecumseh
Distance: 14.6 miles
Elevation Gain: 5,500

7/1/2009
North Tripyramid, Middle Tripyramid, Whiteface, and Passaconaway
Distance: 16.7 miles
Elevation Gain: (Need to calculate)

7/3/2009
Waumbek and Cabot
Distance: ~25 miles
Elevation Gain: (Need to calculate)

7/5/2009
Madison, Adams, Jefferson, Washington, Monroe, Eisenhower, Pierce, and Jackson
Distance: 21.7 miles
Elevation Gain: ~8,800 feet

7/12/2009
Wildcats (Carters) and Moriah
Distance: ~23 miles
Elevation Gain: (Need to calculate)

7/19/2009
Moosilauke
Distance: 7.4 miles
Elevation Gain: 2,400 feet

7/25/2009
Flume, Liberty, Lincoln, Lafayette, Garfield, Galehead, South Twin, West Bond, Bond, and Bondcliff
Distance: 33.5 miles
Elevation Gain: 9,750 feet

7/26/2009
Field, Willey, Tom, South Hancock, and North Hancock
Distance: 19.8 miles
Elevation Gain: 6,050 feet

8/1/2009
(Moosilauke) South Kinsman, North Kinsman, and Cannon
Distance: 24.4 miles
Elevation Gain: 8,350 feet

8/2/2009
Hale
Distance: 4.4 miles
Elevation Gain: 2,300 feet

8/8/2009
Owl’s Head, North Twin, and Zealand
Distance: 27.8 miles
Elevation Gain: 7,550 feet

8/9/2009
Carrigain
Distance: 10 miles
Elevation Gain: 3,300 feet

Carrigain is always a wonderful peak to finish on, and the views today were particularly striking.

Date: August 1st, 2009
Distance: 24.4 miles
Elevation Gain: 8,350 feet
Trails Used: Gorge Brook, Beaver Brook, Kinsman Ridge

One word: MUD. The Kinsman Ridge trail is currently sporting some snazzy new water bars, which (as I was soon to find out) are devilishly slick when wet. Attempting to navigate the little demons led to a couple of – shall I say “graceful” – falls right into the mud pits. Of course, being the champ that I am, I took everything right in stride…

Nevertheless, a wonderful day to be out. Challenging conditions build character.

This hike also happened to serve as a (small) milestone for me. Earlier this year I set a minor goal of traversing all of the major ridges in the Whites. As it turns out, I was able to accomplish the feat in just over 4 months:

• Franconia Ridge Traverse (3/21/2009)
• Hale/Zealand/Bonds Traverse (4/25/2009)
• Kilkenny Ridge Traverse (7/3/2009)
• Presidential Traverse (7/5/2009)
• Wildcats/Carter-Moriah Range Traverse (7/12/2009)
• Moosilauke/Kinsman Ridge Traverse (8/1/2009)

Keeping my cool on the Kinsman Ridge trail…

…and a few more pictures here.