ken zirkel

Mt. Washington hike with college friends MN, JL, JB: June 16, 17, 18 2001

Living in central Maine has its plusses and minuses. I love my baby Daughter and wife, and my job as a Web guy at a small, exclusive college is fantastic. But it’s lonely up here, so far from my friends and everybody I ever knew. So I called up three of my closest friends from my college days and invited them to take a challenging hiking trip in the White Mountain National Forest in New Hampshire. The trip would provide an excellent excuse to get into shape. I would need to get into shape, because I was proposing to tackle the highest peak in the northeast: Mount Washington.

My friends carpooled together from New York. JB was feeling ill, but surprised me by deciding to join the group at the last minute. JL, a professional photographer, drove them all in his sporty VW Passat. And MN rounded out the crew.

Day One: Mt. Webster to Mizpah Hut

We began Day 1 by taking the shuttle bus from the Pinkham Notch Visitor Center to Stop #10 on the map above. This killed more of our day than we anticipated, and left us to start our hike in the heat of the late morning, already getting low on water (no place to fill up at Stop #10? Are you kidding?). Still, we were in good spirits and ready for anything.

JB climbs Mt. Webster while dodging black flies. June 16, 2001.

Well, maybe we were not quite ready for the intense heat and biting black flies of this June day. By the time we got to the exposed area in the photo, on the way up Mt. Webster, the black flies were starting to bite. Before long, we all ran out of water, and by the second half of the hike we desperately turned to the canned fruit cup which I had saved as a late-hike treat. When we arrived at Mizpah Hut, our destination for the day, JL revealed that he was carrying a bottle full of bourbon! If he had only carried water in the bottle instead, we would have been much happier.

Day Two: Mizpah to the Lakes of the Clouds Hut

We endured varying amounts of rain most of the day, but it was warm not overly uncomfortable. I had been foresightful in recommending that the group pack all their clothes in plastic bags; this turned out to be a major bit of luck, as most of our clothing didn’t get more than slightly damp. However, hours of hiking in a steady drizzle did turn us into a bunch of wet puppies.

Wet puppies. June 17, 2001.

Crawford Path: Mt. Monroe bypass. June 17, 2001.

Later in the hike we got lucky and enjoy some clear breezy weather along the ridge at Mount Eisenhower. The overhanging clouds obscured the view of the world below, but it was quite eerie watching the clouds blow over the mountain right around us. Despite the end of the rains, the poor visibility and general wetness of the group caused us to cancel plans for the Mount Washington summit that afternoon. We crashed at Lakes of the Clouds, ate our lunch, and enjoyed some great conversation.

That evening we were treated to one of the most magnificent sunsets we had ever witnessed.

Sunset at Lakes of the Clouds. June 17, 2001.

Sunset: View from the hut. June 17, 2001. Widelux.

Day Three: Home

That night, the wind howled. The hut creaked. The hut was dark, the setting primal and mysterious. It was quite a memorable experience.

The following morning, we weren’t quite sure how difficult it would be to get to the summit. I bought a knit cap and a souvenir tee-shirt at the hut (!) and put on maximum gear.

Below: Lakes of the Clouds hut in the morning. Stitched panorama from film. Click to see larger version.

I was of course overprepared. The hike to the summit is quite exposed and takes you over endless sharp, enormous boulders, but it is nothing that a young preteen girl cannot accomplish. How do I know this? Because we passed her on the way up.

Below: JL takes a look at the view … of my tongue! Photo by JB.

We decided to end the hike conservatively by taking the shuttle bus down to our cars. I wasn’t sure it was what I wanted to do, but then again I wasn’t sure I could handle the trip down AND the drive back home on the same day. Still, despite making to to the summit, it was kind of a disappointing end to the hike.

Oh, well, better than the hike itself was getting old friends together. Despite impending fatherhood for 2 of my friends, we all vowed to do another such trip next year (we’ll see!).