Labor Day weekend I stopped laboring and went to the White Mountains with my good friend Megan. It was a three day, all-inclusive back country hike and mountain climb three months in the planning accomplished with, it turned out, essentially no planning. We didn't know who exactly was going till the night before, didn't know when or where we were meeting till the day of, had a map that was useless after the first day, planned to hike to a wrong pick up point to ride the wrong shuttle to the wrong parking lot, didn't have enough rain gear, didn't have any sun block, and didn't even bring batteries for some of our flash lights. It was, arguably, the least planned for anything I've ever done in my life. That said, it was a pretty good time. The Presidential Peaks are beautiful, and, her complete inability to plan aside, Megan's a pretty good time to hang out with. I did miss out on coffee cake the last day because of our early morning departure before breakfast, but who needs hot food and extra sleep when there's room temperature granola bars and a rainy hike to the bottom of a mountain at sunrise? I do. I need coffee cake and extra sleep before breakfast. And a back rub. And a piggyback ride to the bottom of the mountain.
The trip itself consisted of hiking to 2 different huts (Lakes of the Clouds and Madison Spring) each well provisioned with itchy wool blankets and a bountiful supply of warm food (molasses bread I learned is the tastiest of breads). We hiked from hut to hut with a brief detour to Mount Washington and spent most of the transit time in varying levels of fog or bright, sunburning sunshine. There were numerous slips and falls on the wet, rocky rocks (some bloodier than others), and regular visits from a mysterious ghost train which would periodically slowly shuffle from out of the fog carrying the departed souls of those it had just run over (or just senior citizens from atop Mount Washington). There were extended conversations with Canadians and extended conversations with New Yorkers, and multiple unsuccessful games of Nertz (Megan would not believe me that 2 man Nertz is not feasible) followed by one forfeited game of checkers. We saw a moose, a lot of fog, and an uncountable number of wet, rocky rocks. And to remember it all I took a lot of pictures. Chiefly of Megan's backside. Enjoy.
