Last Fall I blogged about my new hiking partner. This Fall we decided to hit the trails again, upping the ante on some challenging trails in the White Mountain National Forest.
On 9/7/2009, Michael and I hiked up Speckled Mountain, in the Maine portion of Evans Notch. It was a beautiful sunny day with no wind. In fact, on the summit it was eerily quiet and still. The hike was 8 miles long, to 2900', and we did it in 6 hours. Michael impressed me with his stamina and interest in the outdoors. Here is a photo album.
On 10/11/2009, we hiked up South and North Baldface Mountains, in the same area as Speckled Mountain. Although the hike was longer (10 miles, 8 hours) and higher (3900'), the views and foliage were so spectacular that we didn't want to come back down. It was cold at the top and all along the exposed ridge. It even snowed on us while we were eating lunch! We saw our first snowbow! It was the kind of scenery that made us stop our conversation every time we came to a clearing (which were many) to gawk in awe at the surroundings, only to forget what we were talking about. Hiking above treeline in October is very rewarding, but you must be prepared! If we hadn't had the right layers we would have been miserable and unsafe on the exposed ridge. Here's a photo album.
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