Doggy Drama the night before equals Short and Sweet Hike the next day

Welcome to another episode in the goal to reach 100,000k. This week there was new excitement in the weekly drama... SNOW!!!!! But before we get to the hiking drama, let me tell you about the doggy drama! I took the day off on Friday and did a whole lotta shopping. My last trip was to Kittery Trading Post and because I was spending so much money, I decided to buy Nate and I a piece of fudge. I finished shopping, drove home and left the fudge in the car. Then I packed, Nate got home, and we took off to go see the new Warren Miller movie at the Attitash resort. We decided to leave the dogs in the car (because we are fabulous dog parents) because they don't sleep when they are alone in the car and they are so much easier to deal with when they don't sleep... especially when we go up north! They don't sleep well when we go up north and they typically pace all night and keep us up. Thus, tired dogs = good dogs!! We see the movie and we come back out to the car. Oakley is sitting in the front seat of my car... no big deal... I push her to the back and go to sit in my car when I look down at the floor. There was torn up pieces of paper all over the floor. I turn on the lights and see that the torn up pieces of paper are shreds of fudge box!! OH NO!!! Oakley ate all the fudge. Most of me was so mad at her because she ate my fudge, and a little part of me was worried because one of those pieces of fudge was chocolate. So, we drive home. I took the dogs for a little walk so that they would tire out a little more and then when we got back I fed them. So far, so good. Oakley wasn't being her crazy super silly self, but she wasn't acting all that bad. Then we go to get ready for bed, and Oakley started pacing. She laid down next to me and started whining. Nate was still up so I asked him to let her out. She went out, did her thing, and then came back in. Again, no big deal. She lays down next to me again, whines a little, stands up and projectile vomits all over the rug!!!!! No heaving! No little motions like something bad is about to happen, just stands up and vomits! Awesome!!! So another night of excitement at the house!! So, needless to say, we didn't get to bed until late and it was one of those weeks where we got to bed late and we don't sleep in much so... we didn't get out of the house until after 10am. Hike requirement, short and sweet! 

I was studying the maps and one of the hikes that looked short and sweet was a hike up to the top of Mount Willey. It's 1.6 on the Ethan Pond Trail to the Willey Range Trail and then 1.1 miles to the top of Mount Willey. From the looks of the map, we didn't quite hit the summit, but the trail started going down hill and I'm guessing the summit was in trees because that's what the top looked like. It was the boringest summit yet... but here's a little description of the hike via pictures... 

We drove up 302 and came upon... that's right... SNOW!!!!! And it was coming down good!! Thankfully, we had our gaiters and all of our snow gear (which we didn't use) so we were all set. 

We got through the first 1.6 miles and met up to the Willey Range trail without a problem. It was somewhat easy. We climbed a little less than 1300ft in that 1.6 miles. We then had to go 1.1 miles to reach the summit and it was going to be 1600ft. I have complained in the past about how the stairs are so freaking hard... Yeah, this hike, actually did have stairs!! 

and ladders!!! 

and more ladders!!! 

and more places that I had to grab onto a tree, put a hand down and pull myself over a rock!! It was a nice scramble!! :) 

As we were approaching the top, I looked around and saw that we were sorta socked in by the cloud/fog/snow... 

and we got to the top and we were completely socked in by the cloud/fog/snow! 

Nater and I at the top of the mountain. I got a new coat earlier this month and it was super handy!! It was really frigid at the top!! and in our self portrait, it covers my squinty eyes!!! 

And as we went down the mountain, the cloud/fog/snow started lifting and we were able to catch some views!! It was really awesome with all the snow all around!!  

Nate was giving me grief about going down the ladders. Something about how I wasn't leaning back as I was walking down. Thus, he got a picture of me sitting on my bum coming down the ladders!! 

Oh, look at that, JP can walk down a ladder... Just fine!!! :)

All in all, it was a very uneventful short quick hike!! Our elevation gain was 2,976ft. We were at 85,096. Thus we have 82,120 feet to go!! Almost under 80k... The top of Mount Washington, Adams and Monroe appear to be completely snow covered so it's almost time to start playing in the fun stuff instead of the lame walking down stuff... :)  Oh, and I forgot to mention, another 4000 footer bagged...

Announcing the Winter Goal

Nate and I rented a "winter chateau" with a couple friends again this winter. It's a really nice place: 3 bedroom pad with views of cathedral ledge from the monster front window and some lovely shag-like carpeting to complete the package. This weekend is the first weekend for the rental and we are heading up! I'm so excited to start our winter.

So to start our winter off right, I would like to announce our winter goal. We would like to climb 100,000 feet in elevation gain over the course of the winter. If we go from Pinkham Notch Appalachian Mountain Club to the tippy top of Mount Washington, we will have to do that about 24 times to track 100,000 feet in gain. However, Mount Washington is highly avalanche prone in the middle of the winter so we will have to do different spots and most likely do lots of laps! But again, I think it's doable and it'll be an awesome thing to knock off the to-do list! (I say "we" but I think Nate's just going along with me on this one. I don't remember if he ever said, 'yup, I'm in'. -- Just got confirmation from Nate via text message that he is officially in!)

This weekend, I hope that we can climb to the tippity top of Mt. Wash. I've actually never been up there and the forecast is calling for sunny skies and positive temps at the summit! Happy Friday everyone and let the snowflakes begin to fly!

Major fun today... get it... Major... Ha... :)

This weekend was a bit of a chill out and relax kind of weekend. I had to coach on Saturday so we couldn't go up north on Friday. Then after the meet on Saturday, we decided to just get some take out and hang out at the house. We got up late on Sunday morning and then Nate got a text from one of our buddies, Bryan, asking if we wanted to hike Mount Major today. We wrestled over it because we wanted to get some feet in, but didn't necessarily want to hike Mount Major... but it's an easy hike, it's about an hour away and it would be nice to hang with some friends. So we said, yes. We met up at Mount Major with the four dogs and hit the trails. It took about an hour to reach the top. Here are the pics from the top: 

Bryan & Nate checking out the surroundings. 

Nater Potater in his new free glasses smiling!! It's nice to capture smiling moments from the Nater. 

Lucy getting some lovin' from Mr. Nevins. 

Nate and I got our Avalanche Beacons on Friday so when we got the text, we told Brian and Bryan to bring their beacons too. On the way down, we played beacon hide and seek. At first it was a real person hide and seek but it was pretty hard because all of our gear is pretty obnoxious colored. It then became a hide the beacon and seek it out kind of game. Most of the way down, two people would hide two beacons and two others would go and find them. It was pretty fun and good practice on how to use the beacons.

Here are Brian and Bryan searching for beacons! 

I forgot my watch today, so I used RunKeeper on my phone. (who knows why it started us at Wolfeborro and zoomed us across the lake). Last weekend, we reached 86,422 feet. Today, we climbed 1,326 feet. 85,096 feet to go!!

"Why are stairs so freaking hard?" And other groans from our Mount Adams climb

Nate and I bagged another 4,000 footer and climbed the second highest mountain in New Hampshire. It was again not an easy climb and I was really, really sore afterward. I still don't understand why climbing stairs is so hard, but it is really hard! Plus on the way down, the trail we took was really icy so it was a long, slow climb down too. 

Here are some pictures of our adventure: 

This is something that I learned when I moved to New Hampshire. When the ground freezes, the ice starts to protrude from the ground. I have no idea how this happens or what it's called, but it's super cool looking.

This is one of the few times Nate let me take a break on the way up! ;) 

 I believe this is looking up towards Mount Adams but it could be Mount Quincy Adams because we summited that on too. I was just excited because we had reached the "alpine zone" so I knew that we were getting close. 

Mount Washington from Mount Adams. Last week, the mountains had over a foot of snow... this week... just a fine dusting... STUPID WEATHER!!! 

Nate and I at the top of the mountain. Definitely not pretty at all.. It was sooo bright up there!! 

A better picture of Mount Washington from Mount Adams. 

A very cute Nater from the top of Mount Adams. 

The dogs waiting for their hand outs at the top of the mountain. They get goodies at the top too. 

Mount Madison from the top of Mount Adams. 

I wish I had a lot to say about the hike, but I really don't. It was hard, long 6 hours of hiking. We summited the Mount John Quincy Adams and looked over and realized that we hadn't reached our goal. We decided to see if we could quickly scramble to reach the top. I was super happy we did because it was really cool up there and I felt really proud of ourselves for doing it. The whole walking down thing is getting super lame, but we wouldn't have hiked Mount Adams with our ski/ride stuff so I guess it's a good experience. The trails were all ice with a dusting over the top. I fell on my bum 3 or 4 times... I guess it's a good time to get the first fall on ice over for the season. My legs were spaghetti-like on the way down. I definitely didn't eat or drink enough. Plus, we just finished as it started to get a little dark. We weren't the smartest on this one, but we got it done and we were safe!

I have smartened up and started wearing my Garmin watch for our hikes. Last week, we were at 90,961. Garmin says we had 4,519 (I'm accepting the elevation loss because I forgot to turn on my watch right away). That means we have 86,442 to go. We are under 90k!! Hip Hip HOORAY!!!!