Weekend getaway - Mt. Washington

Mt. Washington - much respect

Woke up with a body ache. My legs, calfs, back, shoulders, arms, and side muscles. The lower body pains are from the arduous Mount Washington climb on Saturday - a 10-hour hike that nearly cost our lives, and the lower body pains are from whitewater kayaking day trip on Sunday. It was a fulfilling weekend that matches the 10-day multi-sport Southwest Adventure trip. We left Montreal on St. Jean Baptist, leaving behind all the revelry and inebriation that had been occurring a day in advance. The drive was not long, but after retrieving forgotten items, waiting tediously at the border as everyone else in Quebec seemed to bear the same idea in mind, and gorging down a delicious warm turkey sandwich at a deli gas station in Newport, VT, we finally arrived at the Dolly Copp campground just 5 minutes away from Pinkham Notch trailhead for the climb.

The campground was extremely nice, peaceful, and quiet. All the amenities were clean and well-maintained, none of that gross nasty dead bug crap smeared everyone in the bathrooms. The camp site itself was comfortable as well, definitely one of the better camping experiences I've ever had. The site was large, we placed our tent on a soft patch of grass, set up a tarp for rain protection over the fire, and began cooking at the fire. We were anticipating bad weather regardless of what we did that weekend. Weather forecast predicted thunderstorms and intermittent showers. The rain came suddenly around 10PM as we sat cozily by the fire. It was a downpour, and we rushed to the tent, sleeping well through the night amid the sound of raindrops on the plastic tent roof.

The early wake-up call had us pumped for the climb. We scoped out the trail length and expected time of hike, and began the ascend promptly at 8:30AM. Few miles north of the trailhead is the auto road that many cars take to reach the summit, which is highest at 6288 ft in New England. I've seen many "This car climbed Mt. Washington!" bumper stickers, and have always wanted one myself. The state park also offers train rides for those less capable. We were determined to get a "I climbed Mt. Washington!" sticker rather than gloating about our vehicle.

Because of the weather condition, parts of the Tuckerman Ravine trail, the main path many take to reach the top, are closed. Instead, after some treacherous jumping over rocks and boulders, we veered off onto the Lion's head trail that offers a less challenging path that connects back to the Tuckerman's Ravine and brings us to the summit. The hike is only 4 miles long, but has a vertical ascent of over 4000 ft. The steep is truly steep. The fog near the top had us guessing where the peak is. Since we could not see it, all we can do is blindly keep going. There were many hiking companions - many Québecois, with whom we took turns resting and passing one another.

For some reason, Z and I both thought we can beat the 4 hour average time by 30 minutes since we are "so in shape and fast hikers". But the time is as accurate as it gets. By 12:30, we finally reached the observation deck, which you cannot observe anything because the fog was so thick. While the hiking trail was not busy at all, the summit was packed with tourists, often large families with the old and the very young. Everyone was fighting for a photo-op at the summit sign that signifies that they were there. What an eyesore! Everyone was cutting in front of everyone else, with no respect for order and extremely rude. We f'd that and would NEVER recommend anyone to fight for such a cheesy photo shot.

Never take the same path twice, that's the motto we go back. So after a hearty lunch, we took another trail, the Huntington Ravine, on our descend. Huntington is on the other side of the mountain and is less known than Tuckerman. Many aim for the Tuckerman in the wintertime because of the bowl-shape of the ravine makes for an ideal backcountry ski location. Z's been wanting to ski Tuckerman for a long time. After the hike today, I told him, I'm happy to hike, but I would not hike with my skis and ski down - it is far too wild and scary for me! Huntington on the other hand is known for its ice picking/climbing notoriety. The mountain is sleek and steep, making it ideal for ice pickers to swing their picker into the ice and holding onto with their dear life. We experienced much of gripping on mountain climb on our descend. The trail was extremely hard, definitely the hardest and most dangerous we've ever done! Even more so than Angel's Landing in Zion National Park. Because it rained and the snow is melting, there were many slippery and wet spots. Coming down the slant with nothing to holding on to and looking over the shoulder and all you see is boulders and cliffs, did make for a pretty descend. I nearly collapsed and wanted to head back and take a safer route back, but we were so far already that it would be too time-wasting to turn around. The difficulty of the trail was compounded by the fact that the markers were not easy to see, when you are coming down the mountain. We ran into a few French Canadians who started off at the same time as us, but only reached the top an hour later. We found out later why. They warned us about the descend, the waterfalls, and the slippery rocks. We stubbornly went forward anyways. Another set of climbers thought we were crazy for taking the way down. Definitely recommended they told us. We were even more surprised that there was little warning at the trail head - "Descend at your own risk!" Nope, none of that.

The trail was definitely a 5-12 or however you call it in mountain climbing, where you must hold onto to grip while dangling off of a cliff until you finally found a foothold. The trail also does not get easier. After one treacherous part comes another, then another set of waterfalls with slippery rocks. Finally, I tripped on a rocks, and took a deep and hard fall. I sat in the mud and wanted to give up. Z pep talked me into continuing and after another 3 hours of difficult walking and hiking, along with wobbly legs and sore knees, we finally returned back to Tuckerman's Ravine with other hikers. The entire 4 hours, we hiked a little more than 2 miles and encountered no more than 7 people while back on the Tuckerman's, the trail was busy with tired and exhausted hikers, which gave us a sense of security and hope that we are almost at our destination. Despite our tired bodies, we flew to the trailhead, jumping over rocks and nearly running.

We returned to the gift shop and bought the infamous sticker at 6:30PM. Just enough time to set up the fire and cook dinner. Despite the exhaustion, we went to sleep at 11PM, falling into a dream almost instantly.

Whitewater Kayaking

The following morning we woke even earlier at 6AM to get everything ready - breakfast, packing up of the tent and the car, and clean up. We met our kayak guide, Liz, at the Great Glen Outdoor Center, across the street from the Mt. Washington Derby race that occurred bright and early at 6:30. We took our hats off to the national anthems (even a French Canadian version!), and took off to the Androscoggin River for whitewater kayaking, an hour away. The morning was mainly skill-building. How to sit snug in the kayak, how to put the skirt over the opening, how to flip over and get quickly and safely out of the kayak - tuck, pluck, and roll out underwater. Liz showed us the Eskimo roll at the end of the day, but by then, I was so exhausted that I had no more hip energy to roll over, presumably how an Eskimo would roll over, which is to a 180 or 360 turn underwater while staying in tact in the kayak. We also learned how to S curve it or ferry across one rapid into an eddy, jumping from eddy to eddy. Z capsized once, and we practiced several turns, and were finally ready to flow down the real thing. We went further upriver, and put our kayak in the water. There were much recreation going on, fly fishing, tubing, other kayakers, and canoers.

I fell into the water twice, on the second fall, I could not get out of the water and only flow down while trying to stay straight and keeping my feet up. The fishermen pointed and laughed, and I lost most of my confidence on that run. Somehow after lunch, with a more subdued attitude, I handled the water way better. We took runs over and over again, bringing the kayaks on our shoulder became not a thing. Z finally called tired, and here I wanted to go again. No more capsizing, and the challenge became truly fun and adventurous. Funny thing is, at lunch, Z asked if this is something I can see myself getting into, and I said no. But at the end of the day, I was inquiring Liz for how much end of the season kayaks sold for.

I'd like to get into a tough sport like this, and always thought being a guide is such an amazing work because you are just teaching people the sport that you love the most, sharing your enthusiasm everyday. Nevertheless, I'm not that wild and adventurous and was never that intensely passionate about a sport. Ski is as far as I'm concerned. What I was most impressed about Liz is that she's only been doing this highly under-publicized sport for 3 years. During the first year, she had no experience and learned everything on her own with few tips from friends here and there. Now she's a pro and can go up to Class 4 rivers, that's amazing progress! What we kayaked was class 2, with steady rapids and flows, nothing too major. Class 6 would be like Niagara fall.

It was such an exhilarating experience, definitely learned something new! $110 per person for a full day. At Rivère Rouge in Québec, there are probably better packages, but we truly enjoyed our day and made significant progress in a short 6 hour period. The sport is as well advertised as some of the others, such as whitewater rafting, which is by far less interesting than kayaking (from photos).

We drove back to Montreal, with a surprisingly short wait at the border, and arrived home at a reasonable hour. We were both exhausted to our bones and could not wake up this morning because every muscle in our body ached and screamed whenever we poked it or moved. Regardless of the consequence, it was such a worthwhile weekend! More adventures to come!