FINISHED THE NEW HAMPSHIRE 4000 FOOTERS!!!!!

A little washed out because of the sun but
this is the view looking up at Adams from
the Gulfside Trail. It is about 700 feet of
vertical hopping up boulders.

It's not everyday that you complete a goal that you have been working on for 17 years, three months and nine days. That is what I did on Thursday. There are 48 mountains in New Hampshire that qualify as 4000 footers. Thursday I did my final two.

Before I go one with my description of the hike, I want to write down some stats. I kept fairly decent logs of my hikes and since I need this info to apply for the 4000 foot club (yes, there is an actual club with an application process) I went through it today.

First 4000 footer hiked June 18, 2001- Franconia Ridge (Lafayette and Lincoln)
Last- September 27, 2018 Adams and Madison

Number of hikes to do all 48 mountains- 30 (some mountains are close enough to do 2 in a day. There were two hikes where we did 3 mountains in a day)
Number of years in the seventeen that I hiked at least one 4000 footer- 12

Least Favorite- Owl's Head
Many favorites- In the 17 years, I've done some mountains more than once. If I hadn't, it obviously would have taken me less time. Mountains I've done more than once- Jackson, Pierce, Garfield,  Osceola, Lincoln, Lafayette, Liberty

Longest one day hike- Owl's Head 18 miles
Shortest hike to a 4000 footer-  Hale  4.4 miles round trip. We did it in 3 hours


Of the 30 hikes, the number I did with DJ- 20, 10 alone.

Okay, I'm pretty excited, so you will have to excuse the stats.  It took seventeen years to finish those thirty hikes. There are a lot of reasons for this. Some years we just never made it to New Hampshire. DJ played three seasons of baseball, little league, all stars, and fallball. In those years it was tough to hike. One year I went to NH many times, but was trout fishing mountain lakes every weekend. One other year, I was so sick of "the pressure" to hike 4000 footers, I hiked trails that I really wanted to see, the list be damned!

Finally after a few years of not finishing over my head, I got serious again in 2016. That year I hiked seven new 4000 footers (and Garfield for  3rd time with Laurie). This put me in position to finish in 2017 with only four hikes left.  (Wildcats, Carrigan, Cabot, and Adams/Madison.

 In 2017, I was in great shape running up to four miles a day. Then I got plantar fascitis in my left foot. I couldn't really walk for a month. By the fall, the pain hurt the same whether I used it or not, so I got a couple hikes in. I knocked off Wildcats ans Carrigan in October. Not finishing the four hikes was the biggest letdown in 2017 for me.

So last week I did Cabot, which I wrote about two posts back. That left me with two big presidents Adams and Madison. Adams is 5774 and the second tallest mountain in NH. But because the trail starts at a lower elevation it has more of a vertical climb than Washington! Madison, its next door neighbor, is no slouch. It weighs in at 5367 and is the fifth tallest mountain in NH. Both have giant rock boulders that need to climbed to reach the summit cone. Worse, is coming down those rock boulders.

From Madison Hut it is .5 miles of climbing
boulders to the summit

Because I am so slow right now and this would be one of the most difficult hikes I've ever done, I got a very early start. In fact, I arrived at the trailhead while it was still dark. I packed my bag and left at 6:15 am as it was just light enough to see in the woods. I took the Valley Way up to Madison Hut. The hut is 3.8 miles and 3500 feet from the trailhead. Madison Hut sits at 4800 feet and during the summer you can sleep there (for $90 a night). However it is closed this time of year. I sat on a bench and ate a snack.

Madison's Summit

From Madison Hut it is only .5 miles to the summit of Madison. It is 500 feet above the hut. The entire hike is rock hopping and scrambling up and over boulders. It is quite tedious. However, the view was magnificent.  I made it to the top in about 45 minutes. I only stayed there for ten minutes or so. I knew it would take me a while to negotiate the boulders on my way down. I got back to Madison Hut at noon and ate my lunch (turkey pepperoni and fruit snacks. the pepperoni for the salt I sweated out and the fruit snacks because they are light and delicious.)

A look down at Star Lake

After my lunch I tackled Adams. Adams is almost a thousand feet above Madison Hut. From the hut, I had to climb the Gulfside Trail to the Airline Trail. The Gulfside Trail was steep but it was an actual trail. Once I got to Airline, it was another 700 feet or so of boulder hopping.  At first the boulders were easier than Madison because they were smaller, but the closer I got to the summit the bigger and the more difficult the scrambling. I made it to the top about 2 pm. Three other guys made it to the top at the same time. We took pictures for each other. All three had finished the 4000 footers so they very kindly congratulated me. I had no plans to celebrate until I was at least off the summit cone.

While climbing Adams I took this photo. Madison Hut with
Mount Madison in the background

I got back to Madison Hut at 3:40. From there it was 3.8 miles and the same 3500 feet down. My knees were aching. It took me until dark to get out of the woods. How did I celebrate? The same as I always do after a big hike. With a delicious chocolate milk!

On the summit of Adams

Total mileage  10.4
Elevation gain- 5050 feet.

Weather- I can't say how lucky I was with the weather. It was absolutely gorgeous for late September. It was about 60 degree on the summits! There wasn't any wind whatsoever. On Wednesday the wind was howling over the summits at over 60 miles per hour!!! While I was above treeline (roughly 5 hours) I never needed a jacket. There were big white puffy clouds in the sky. Overall, it was a red letter day!!!

A look into King Ravine. You can't see it, but just over that ledge
is a 1600 foot straight up headwall.

More pictures below.
 Adams was the mountain I was most looking forward to. That is why I did Madison first, so Adams could be my last. There are more pictures with Madison because it had better light.

Star Lake from Adams. The same zoom as
from Madison. 

I ran into two girls taking pictures and
drinking hard cider on the
Gulfside Trail. I asked them if they could take a photo
Madison in the background

This should give you an idea of the size of the
summit cone of Madison. The hut is is the foreground

One last picture above treeline before the knee
jarring hike down. If your gonna be a mountain
man you may as well look the part, right?

Lost in Yonkers @ The Arctic Playhouse

   Thursday night Laurie and I went to The Arctic Playhouse in West Warwick, RI
http://www.thearcticplayhouse.com/ to see "Lost in Yonkers. I have to tell you, the show was awesome.

   The play is about a father and two sons that lost their mother to cancer. The father has to leave his kids with his mother (their grandmother) so he can work to pay off a loan shark. He borrowed the money to help pay medical bills from his wife's hospital stay. The play takes place during World War II. The father got a job buying scrap metal to make boats for the Navy.

    The boys are left with their very grumpy grandmother and their Aunt Bella. Bella a mental handicap and is very forgetful. As you can imagine, the boys are uncomfortable around their grandmother who really doesn't want them there. There are other characters also. They have an Uncle Louie who may have been involved in the mob. A small role also goes to their Aunt Gert, who is there for comic relief.

   The cast was awesome. There wasn't a weak link in the bunch. Lost in Yonkers has funny and very intense moments. I found myself really rooting for everyone (well, except maybe the grandmother). The woman that played her was on point! She was very unlikable.

   If you buy your tickets online they are $13. They are $18 at the door. The play runs one more weekend Thursday thru Sunday. I can not recommend it enough. There is a cash bar. Soda is a dollar. I don't know how much beer and wine is. They have free cookies and popcorn. The popcorn is delicious.

September rolled up into one weekend

I have very specific things I'd like to do during September. Specifically, I chase false albacore during the second week and look at hawks the third week if the weather is right. I couldn't exactly go albie fishing last week because of a little breeze named  Florence roughing up the ocean, so I went hiking instead. Truthfully, I had serious doubts the albies would show up after the hurricane. Even if they did, would I have a chance to fish for them or would I have other plans?

My second goal is also weather dependent. Going to Wachusett to hang out with the Eastern Mass Hawk Watch is a waste of time if it is raining or the wind is from the south. The birds won't migrate if they have to fly into the wind. They also ride thermals, so they need the sun out to warm the ground. 

On Thursday there were multiple reports that albies had arrived in fishable numbers. I worked Thursday but had Friday off. I was quite happy to know I might have a chance to fight one. I got up well before first light and made my way down to South County. I really wanted to be there for the morning bite. I had a few spots in mind. I was willing to give them each a half hour. If I didn't get any in the first two spots I was willing to stay at the last spot for a while. Long story short, I saw a few albies caught throughout the day. Fishing was far from lights out. Most everyone I talked to had either hook one and lost it, or caught one. Only one guy had multiple fish. I ended up with one myself. I caught it around 11:30 am. My friend Dave had arrived about 30 minutes before and took multiple pictures for me. That fish was the last albie I saw caught on Friday. I saw one other hook up but it was lost. I did pick up four stripers also. Fishing wasn't great, but I was happy with my albie and the weather was so nice.

All of the specks are Broadwing Hawks circling
in the warm air rising

Saturday- I slept late on Saturday. Because of that I got a late start going to Wachusett. I barely got there for what would be the peak time of day to see hawks (11-2). The weather was absolutely perfect for hawk migration. I knew before I left my house it would be a huge day in terms of numbers.

I got to the top of the mountain just before 11 am. Within five minutes someone called out"Kettle". A kettle is a flock of hawks. They ride the thermals high into the sky and then they glide for a long way (south). For the next hour hundreds of Broadwing Hawks flew by. I am quite sure the official count for the hour from 11-12 pm will be over 500. I also saw four bald eagles. Two of them were close enough to get a photo. There were also multiple sharp shinned hawks, merlins, and kestrels. It was great.

Mature Bald Eagle

After I left the hawk watch I planned on going home. However, there reports of two species of bird I had yet to see this year at Trustom. So I took the very long drive from North Central Mass to southern Rhode Island. However it was worth it. Within fifteen minutes I saw Common Gallinule (looks kind of like a chicken that swims) and American Bittern. There was also a Philadelphia Vireo there, but myself and the other birders I saw missed it. While I was birding with a guy named Richard Tucker, we walked to Osprey Point. He had his scope and found Pied Billed Grebe and Bonaparte Gull, both new birds for Rhode Island for me this year. Birding was so good, I stayed until dark. I had planned on leaving at 5 pm to introduce myself to some stripers, but I couldn't pull myself away. During my time at Trustom I saw a dozen deer including two fawns and a buck. It was almost dark when I saw the buck. I took some pictures, but they didn't come out well. There is one at the bottom of the post that I lightened up. Not a great picture but you can get an idea of the beauty of the buck

Immature Eagle

Author's note- My two days off were actually better than the above post because both Thursday and Friday night I went to plays. However, they deserve a review in their own post.

Photos of the Day- Solitary Sandpiper

The last three Sunday's while I have been at work there have been reports of fairly rare birds. So after work (and last week after the Pats game) I have been dragging Laurie to chase birds.

 Two weeks ago there were reports of Buff Breasted Sandpiper in turf fields in Richmond, RI. It wasn't where it was reported. Luckily, another birder was on the bird and he showed it to me. Last week, I got to pay it forward. When I arrived at another turf field in South Kingston there wasn't anyone there. Pretty quickly I found my target, American Golden Plover. Another car pulled up and I got to show a birder the plovers in my scope. Five minutes later a Coopers Hawk scared the plovers to the other side of the field. I was pumped to get both of those species. They were too far away even for proof pictures. I got good views in the scope of both, especially the Golden Plovers. 

This week lightning struck a third time. A report came in on Facebook about 12:30 that a Solitary Sandpiper was at Walker Farm in Barrington. I had to work until 3 pm but since Barrington is only 20 minutes away I knew I could see it without missing much of the 4:25 pm Pats game.

We found it pretty quickly and took a ton of pictures. I sat down with another lady on some grass. It was feeding in mud puddles near compost heaps. While we were sitting, it kept getting closer while it fed. It probably got to withing 20 feet. We watched it and photographed it for 30 minutes. If I knew the Patriots would get beat so badly, I'd have stayed and photographed it another hour!

Mt. Cabot, The Horn, Unknown Pond, Little East Pond, East Pond

 

Unknown Pond
The Horn in the background

This is the week of the year that I look forward to the most. During the week that has Sept 15 I get really excited for the prospect of spending my two off days fishing for false albacore. I've had some great memories during that week fishing for albies. However, the big waves produced by the hurricane have made fishing for albies impossible right now. I could have stayed home and fished for schoolie stripers somewhere. Instead, I went up to New Hampshire and FINALLY did some hiking.

I left straight from work on Wednesday afternoon. I arrived in the mountains just before dark. I got myself a campsite and went to bed under clouds. I woke up around midnight to a light rain. Thursday was supposed to be beautiful so I was not worried about the passing shower. It was still raining at first light. It wasn't a big deal but it delay my plans since I rolled over and went back to sleep for an hour. When I finally got up I had a 75 minute drive to the trailhead.

My goal for the day was the 4170 foot Mt. Cabot. Cabot is the northernmost four thousand footer. It is one of the two last hikes for me join the 4000 footers club. I took one of the longer trails on the mountain to see some other interesting sights. I took the Unknown Pond Trail to the Kilkenny  Ridge Trail. This gave me a view of Unknown Pond and also The Horn. Sadly, the summit of  Mt. Cabot is completely wooded without any views (there is a clearing .3 miles from the summit if I came from the other direction). The Horn, however, has a three hundred and sixty degree gorgeous view. My plan was to get to Cabot as fast as I could, turn around visit The Horn for an hour, rush back to Unknown Pond and stay there until it was time to get out of the woods.

The view on top of Cabot, a pile of rocks
marking the summit

This plan is very good in theory. I stuck to my plan and stayed on top of Cabot long enough to get a drink and take pictures. The problem was, I am not in shape enough to make ten mile, 3300 foot climb up a 4100 foot mountain as a first hike of the year. I would have liked to do a warm up hike weekend but since it is already mid-September, I went big.So I struggled to keep up with any kind of timetable. I ended up spending 20 minutes on the Horn and less at Unknown Pond. Also slowing me down were the birds. They seemed to be everywhere migrating through the woods. I probably spent an hour looking at them, trying to get a new year bird at multiple places.

A view from The Horn
Presidentials in the background, Cabot in the right
foreground. 

I won't bore you with the details. The sky turned bright blue by 9 am. Unknown Pond was beautiful as was the view from The Horn. It took me 9 hours and 15 minutes to hike 10 miles, enjoy the view, and look at birds.

I did see three year birds. I saw a Ruffed Grouse, Spruce Grouse, and a Black Backed Woodpecker. I am sure my Rhode Island birding buddies would love to add the latter two to their list. There were also dozens of Red Breasted Nuthatches, Juncos, and multiple warbler species.

Black Backed Woodpecker in the
middle of the picture. I'd wish I had my
big lens but I took this pic 20 minutes
after a nasty fall on wet rock.

I got out of the woods at exactly 6 pm. I made it back to my campsite just before dark. I stopped and got myself a chocolate milk to enjoy along the way. That night while lying in my tent looking at the stars, I paid the price for my newly conquered mountain. I had Charlie Horses in both legs multiple times.

Friday-

Knowing that there was no way I am in shape enough to hike up my last 4000 foot mountain,  Mt Adams (probably the hardest 4000 footer, it is right there with Washington), I decided to do a decent yetndoable hike. I was also under the time constraint of having to be home at 4 pm because Laurie and I were going to Boston Friday night. I studied my map and chose to hike to East Pond on Tripoli Road. I've been to East Pond multiple times, but I had never been to Little East Pond. One can do a loop trail to both ponds at the cost of 5 miles and a thousand vertical feet.. This was perfect. I got to see another mountain lake I'd never been to and I'd be 30 miles closer to home.

Little East Pond

When I woke I packed my tent and headed off. The weather was perfect. Although I was pretty sore from Thursday, I enjoyed my trek through the woods. The hike was plenty hard enough to make me sweat, but mellow enough to have fun. I made it to Little East Pond in no time. It is pretty, probably prettier than its big brother a mile and a half away. away. I stayed for a few minutes but there wasn't any really good sitting stones.

East Pond

I made it to East Pond at 11:15. This gave me 45 minutes to sit and enjoy the view. I wanted to be out of the woods at 12:30 so I could get home and shower before meeting Laurie. The sky was perfect and it was just a nice day to sit at a mountain lake. On my hike down I came across many Black Throated- Blue Warblers but none cooperated enough for a picture. I also found a Swainson's Thrush which was very much in the mood to sit for a photo.

Thirsty butterfly

Things I learned-

Every trip to New Hampshire I try to learn something that will be useful in the future. This trip I used a bandanna as a headband. I wrapped it tight and tied it around my head. It kept the sweat out of  my eyes. It was wet enough where I could (and did) ring it out. A butterfly seemed to enjoy drinking my sweat also.

Swainson's Thrush
My favorite photo of the trip

I also realized, I can hike most of the big mountains right now. With an early start and setting a comfortable pace, I hiked 10 miles on a pretty big mountain. That said, The really big mountains like Adams are not doable right now. Maybe with another weekend or two of solid hiking Adams would be possible, but I think there is a good chance, it will have to wait until 2019

Yellow Rumped Warbler

Female Common Yellowthroat

Acadia Part Deux

   We did so many fun things in Acadia National Park in four days I had to split the blog post into two. The point is, if you are looking for an inexpensive outdoor family vacation, there is something in Acadia for everyone

Day 3- Thursday-

We had to get up early for the third straight day. We had to be at Ship Harbor trailhead for 7 am. We went on a ranger guided bird walk. We had signed up for it on Wednesday at the Visitor Center. It is free to go on the walk but you do need reservations because they limit the program to 20 participants.  Anyone that goes on the bird walk this time of year is a pretty experienced birder. All the families are back at home because of school. I'd say, of the 18 people (two no-shows) fifteen of us were experienced.

The small gull dead center with the smudge on its head
 is a Bonaparte Gull

There weren't a lot of birds in the woods. We saw an Osprey on a snag near the water. I've seen tons of Osprey this year, but people vacationing from far away may not. We saw Common Eider ducks and a Kingfisher. By far the best bird was a Wilson's Storm Petrel over the ocean. We also had a juvenile Black Guillemot near shore. I got two new year birds Northern Gannet and Bonaparte Gull.

After we left the bird walk we hiked up Flying Mountain. This is a short hike with 270 feet of elevation gain. However, it overlooks the mouth of the only fjord on the east coast. It is pretty, but the sun came out and it got hot really quickly. We were happy to come down and turn the A/C on. 

The opening of Somes Sound from
Flying Mountain

There are two beaches in Acadia. One is on the ocean called Sand Beach. The water is freezing. The other is a pond called Echo Lake. After coming down from Flying Mountain, Laurie and I jumped in the lake. The water was brisk, but it felt good to get the sweat off. The beach is nice white sand. There are changing rooms and a place to wash sand off of your feet. 

After our swim, we ate lunch at the Bear Brook picnic area. This is one of two picnic areas we utilized in the park, the other Fabbri near Thunder Hole. As we were finishing lunch the sky got dark and it started to rain, we went back to our tent for a couple of hours. 

When we emerged from out hiatus we went off to Jordan Pond House again. This time for "supper". Jordan Pond House is world famous for "popovers". They are bread dough shaped like a muffin. They are very airy with very little inside. They are served warm with butter and jam. Not exactly a traditional supper but getting them was on the "to do"list and we were running out of time.

Popover

After our snack we walked to another bridge, my favorite, Cobblestone Bridge. We hung out there a while taking in some Gatorade

After our walk to Cobblestone Bridge we had 90 minutes to kill before dark. We went to Bar Harbor to get our obligatory ice cream cone. I got White Macadamia Nut Coconut. At best, it was average. 

Lastly, we drove to Sand Beach for a "Stars Over Sand Beach" ranger program. There were a  lot people because of the Night Sky Festival. The sky cleared enough to see some of the constellations. After it was over we went back to camp.

Friday-

If you read all of that and thought we did a lot on Thursday, then you are going to love Friday. 

We got up early on Friday so I could go hiking. There are a couple of scary trails in the park that go straight up cliff faces.  One of them is The Beehive. It is a 500 foot mountain with a sheer cliff facing east. A trail builder drilled iron rungs into the rock for use as ladders and hand holds. Because he did this, adventurers can hike up a cliff instead of rock climb.  It is not recommended for those with a fear of heights because you will be hiking up the side of a cliff.

This is the cliff on Beehive

Laurie couldn't hike The Beehive because she had massive blisters between her toes. I planned on getting up, hiking, and driving back to her. Instead she got up with me. She dropped me off at the trailhead near Sand Beach and hung out by Thunder Hole a mile down the road. This added the same mile to my hike, but I got to walk along the beautiful Ocean Path.

Iron rungs to be used as a ladder

A shelf to walk along the cliff

A ladder above me

I'm not one for selfies, but I liked the sign

Like I said the path goes up a cliff. It starts out as a rough trail until you reach the cliff face in about five minutes. Then you climb up and over rock slabs. In precarious places the iron hand holds and ladders are the only way up.

 Once on top, I made it over the summit to an overlook of The Bowl. This is a very pretty mountain lake completely surrounded by rounded peaks. It was very pretty. I looked at the lake and came down the backside of the mountain. Going down the Beehive Trail IS NOT an option. From the bottom I walked to Thunder Hole via Ocean Path.

The Bowl, just past Beehive summit

After my hike, Laurie and I drove back up Cadillac Mountain. There is a Hawk Watch there from 9-1 everyday in the fall. This is just like the Hawk Watch I go to at Wachusett every year. The only difference is the main species. At Wachusett, you are mostly going to see Broad Winged Hawks. On Cadillac the main species are Kestrels and Sharp Shinned. We sat with all the birders for a couple of hours. We had the perfect weather for hawk migration (north wind to push them south and sunny weather so they can ride thermals)

Birding was terrific. We saw many species including five bald eagles. We had a couple of hawks buzz us. I only got one good picture, it is the Northern Harrier below.

We left around 12:30 and drove to the Wild Gardens of Acadia. This is a little walk around gardens of wild native plants. It is at Sier de Mont Spring at the intersection of Rt 3 & Park Loop Road. It is pleasant and nice to learn about some native plants. 

In early afternoon we went to Bar Harbor. We walked out to Bar Island looking for starfish and Sea Urchins at low tide. Unfortunately, any star fish in shallow enough water to see had already been picked up by seagulls before we got there. 

The trees in the back are Bar Island.
This sandbar is completely submerged at all but the two
hours on each side of low tide

We had reservations for the 3:45 Lobster/ Seal Cruise on the Miss Samantha. After pulling out of port the captain picks up 4-5 lobster pots. They all had lobsters in them. Then the naturalist gives us a life history of lobsters. She explained how to sex them and measure them. I learned a lot. 

You can win tickets for an upcoming boat ride if you
take a picture of yourself kissing a lobster
and put it on Instagram. Not really a big deal, right?
You wouldn't believe how many adults wouldn't
even touch it. 

The second half of the trip goes along Egg Island. We could see Harbor Seals swimming in the water.  The trip was definitely "touristy" but it was a lot of fun. 

Black Gillemot

Harbor Seal

Lighthouse on Egg Rock 

After the boat ride, I gave Bar Harbor ice cream another chance. I got Blueberry ice cream. Again, it was just okay. 

From Bar Harbor we had a 45 minute drive to Ship Harbor Picnic Area. As part of the Acadia Night Sky Festival, there was a Star Party. A Star Party is exactly what it sounds like. A bunch of people with telescopes and astronomy nerds (count me as one) get together and look at the stars. Very generously, the public is welcome. The people with scopes happily let laymen view the stars and planets through them.

The path to the telescopes was illuminated in red lights. Red lights
will not ruin your night vision like white lights will.

That little dot left of center is Mars. Sure it is not really worthy
of being shown off. Still it was such a fun night, I wanted to
remember it. 

We got there before dark. The sky was crystal clear. It was cool, cloudless, and low humidity. We could see four planets along the Elliptical (in order from l to r they were Mars,Saturn, Jupiter, and near the horizon, Venus). All of the guys with scopes had the planets locked in. We saw Saturn's rings and Jupiter with five of its moons multiple times. 

After dark, the kind people put the scopes on other sky objects. We saw a couple star clusters with half a million stars each. We saw the Andromeda Galaxy, M22, and the double star in the Big Dipper. The Milky Way was out in full force. It was spectacular. As you can imagine, this was a very crowded event. We spent about 90 minutes there then headed back to our campsite for our last night under the stars.

Below are a few more random photos from the trip. 

If you have any questions about a trip to Acadia/Bar Harbor feel free to ask in the comments. If I know the answer to your question(s) I'll gladly help you out.

If you want to enhance the scenery, try to get a boat in the photo

Unless it is an obnoxiously large cruise ship

A hint of color in the leaves

A dock in Bar Harbor

Jordan Pond House

Carriage Road at Cliffside Bridge