spent a little time on the mountain...

spent a little time on the hill.

should be apparent from the preceding photos that we were a party of 5. myself, eddie, mikey, and two of mikey's buds: dustin and chris. ages ranging from 21 to 50. which made for an interesting and entertaining mix.

drove out w/ eddie and mikey to north conway for arrival around 7'ish. ditka. hooked up w/ dustin, hooked up with chris. introductions and 8 oz. burgers.

DAY 1: should have been a piece of cake. some 4.5 miles up boot spur to lake of the clouds. turned into, without question the fiercest 4.5 i've done. while down at pinkham someone noticed that the lion's share of hikers were all carrying day packs. hmmmmmm. i musta had 30-35 lbs. on my back and mikey had 3 lbs. a cheeze alone. negotiating through some steep terrain, coping with an increasingly wet day, we finally made the hut, some 5 hours later. navigating our first boulder garden in wet/nasty conditions.

outta the box the initial plan was to bag monroe/franklin/ike on day 1 (what's 10 or so miles???!!!???) head back to lake of the clouds, to then find a spot to camp. given whether conditions and fatigue, not a bloody chance.

a decision had to be made.

choice arrived at was to bag madison from lake of the clouds while leaving packs behind, instead of finding a site below tree line, establishing camp, and running back up. ike and franklin were necessarily out of the question.
helga/sven/morrocan bisque/troop 9/a respite from the rain at the hut. mikey/dustin/chris: necessarily safe.
hike up monroe, liberated from weight, was quick. a spooky, aquariuym type feel. visability was limited to , what, 40 yards or so. and down.

faced with finding a suitable place to establish camp, we hustled down the ammonoosuc trail. Dustin scores ABC1. could we have slept in a more beautiful spot than anyone on the east coast that night? inspite of intermitant rain? i'd say so. magical.
shocker!
too funny.

by the way:

when chuck norris jumps in water, chuck norris doesn't get wet, the water gets chuck norris.

The Devil went down to Georgia not because he was looking for a soul to steal.. Chuck Norris took over hell for two weeks and told the Devil to get the fuck out.

(pause: but a photo of ABC1. chris and mikey on the morning of day2. details on an epic 4 peak sunday ta follow)




"one way or another, this darkness got to give!"