a trail to self discovery...

A friend and I jumped in the car at about 6:00am and headed across the Kanc. All packed up and ready to hit the trail around 7:30am. We were meeting Trish, Alex, and Sage. On the way we stopped for some breakfast at Dunkin Donuts. I sure do love my bagel and cream cheese before hitting the trail. The sky was mostly cloudy when we had arrived at the Livermore Trail head. I quickly sprayed myself with bug spray and handed it off to my friend Nate. Trish and the girls pulled up next to us as we were getting out of the car. We through our packs over our shoulders and hit the trail by 7:45am. With this being my second time hiking the Tripyramids up the North Slide and down the South Slide, I knew what I was getting myself into. However, Nate had to knock these peaks off still for his 4k list. He had never hiked up the slides. The hike in and out consist of a long walk on flat ground. You hike in about 2.6 miles until you come to the first junction where you end up when you hike out. Sho...

It's my life's goal to someday summit Mount McKinley. Someday. For now the Whites are the closest thing I have to training and conditioning for that day. One year ago, on June 20 I completed my first traverse across the Presidential Range. It was a Thursday, the day after getting off a work shift of working more than 80 hours in the week. The summits were supposed to be trending towards clearing that afternoon and decently high winds around 45mph. It was an intern, co-worker, and I. We packed up the night before and set our alarms for 3:00am. Hoping to hit the trail for 3:30am. We hit the trail roughly around 4:00am that morning. Taking Hawker Ridge Trail up Mount Madison. With the research we all had done, going North to South was the easier way to do it. Get the hard stuff done and out of the way. We reached the summit of Madison where the winds were blowing pretty good. Good enough to almost take me down, and in the distance there was no other summit to be seen. The fog ...

By the looks of our calendars it is almost the official start to summer. I am more than ready to get back into my hiking without having to postpone or having to keep making rain dates! Yesterday was suppose to be the day where almost 30 people from mutual Facebook 4k footer groups would meet on the summit of Moosilauke. Many of us already having climbed this mountain and some who have never. With my unfortunate luck lately, my off weeks have consisted of rain, and lots of it. The best idea was to just reschedule for the better of the days. It was looking as if Sunday June 9th was it.  FIRST BRIDGE CROSSING I invited 2 of my friends to tag along on this hike with me. One who had never done it before and he needed to knock it off his list and another friend who just moved north who I haven't seen in a few months!  GREATEST TRAIL SIGN We hit the Beaver Brook Trail a little after 8:00am. I had only done Glencliff this past winter. When I looked at this trail o...