Hancock's/Osceola's/Moosilauke: 1-3-04

[Frodo]

6:32am
We are joined by the one and only Cruddy Toes and Thom today as we head up the Hancock Notch Trail. Ten minutes into the hike, it starts to snow.

8:43am
We are on the summit of N. Hancock. It's snowing harder. Stinkyfeet gets out her umbrella (which she uses from here through the Osceolas).

9:23am
We are on the summit of S. Hancock. Soon after we begin the descent, we are surprised to see Andrew, who has come to hike with us. It's raining now.

10:56am
We make it back to the car, take a small break, then drive over to the Greeley Ponds Trailhead. Thom heads into Lincoln to dry his gear, and Cruddy Toes heads home. The rain continues.

11:10am
Andrew continues on with us up the Greeley Ponds Trail. It rains harder.

12:44pm
We summit E. Osceola. The wind is whipping the wet snow off the trees and onto us. Stinkyfeet starts singing "Just a Spoonful of Sugar..." a la Mary Poppins.

1:22pm
We are on the summit of Osceola, and we are sopping wet.

1:55pm
We make it back to E. Osceola. We meet Thom near the slide on his way up.

3:02pm
We are back at the truck changing out of our wet clothing.

3:40pm
We stop at the laundromat in Lincoln to dry our gear.

4:20pm
Dunkin Donuts (Stinkyfeet)

4:25pm
McDonald's drive through (Frodo)

4:55pm
The 2 of us turn on our headlamps and head up the Beaver Brook Trail on Mt. Moosilauke.

7:26pm
We summit Moosilauke. Above treeline is foggy and looks quite eerie. We can barely see from cairn to cairn. Water, snow and ice are seeping around the mostly rocky summit.

9:08pm.
We make it back to the truck. We did not see another soul on this one. Why are we not surprised???? This is our longest day in terms of mileage and elevation gain, but is not our toughest.

41 down, 7 to go.

Thom is 26 down, 22 to go.

[Mohamed Ellozy]

41 down, 7 to go.

By my arithmetic they have been at it for nine days so far, about 4.5 peaks/day average. I believe the seven to go are:

• Owlshead
• Carrigain
• Waumbek
• Whiteface
• Passaconnaway
• Tripyramids (2)

I wonder how long it will take them. I heard that they were aiming at two weeks, looks like they should be able to do a bit better

As Alpine said, keep it up!

Q. Are we almost there yet?
A. YES!

[carole]

Stinkyfeet gets out her umbrella (which she uses from here through the Osceolas).

Glad to see someone else finds this useful. I've been known to pull out one on a few rainy day trips. You get some funny looks. Now I know I am in good company!

[Jasonst]

Awesome job. I can't imagine tackling the Beaver Brook trail after conquering the Osceolas AND Hancocks. You guys must have knees of steel.

[bruno]

ya'll are my heroes!! i love this stuff. . .i'll be back soon!

[Papa Bear]

Originally posted by Jasonst
Awesome job. I can't imagine tackling the Beaver Brook trail after conquering the Osceolas AND Hancocks. You guys must have knees of steel.

Never mind knees of steel. Imagine tackling Beaver Brook 1) in the rain, 2) in the dark !!! It's tough enough dry and in the daylight.

[Jasonst]

Yeah, I hiked it on New Years Day. Those cascades must be erie and ominous at night... Would definitely use crampons on the descent!

[Mr. X]

Mr. Frodo,

Do me a favor and make sure you think of the song "come sail away" by the Stix during your trip.

-Mista X