a trail to self discovery...

So as  you know from my last post, things did not exactly go as planned for Seek the Peak. Josh was quite bummed about not getting to hike Huntington Ravine. So we made plans for him to take a Wednesday off and we could start early and end early in time to pick up Harper. Weather was looking somewhat decent and we lucked out that Harper wanted to stay with her mom one more night while they were camping. This meant we had the entire day and no need to rush back down. We decided no matter what we would start early. We wanted to be on trail by 6:00am. I continuously watched the weather over and over again. We packed up our bags and packed as light as possible. This was not only the first time Josh had been hiking Huntington Ravine Trail, but Mount Washington in the Summer too. Josh had only previously hiked Mount Washington in the winter via Lion Head Winter Route. I was quite excited to spend the day hiking all around Mount Washington with him, showing him all of the different t

The topic had been discussed and brought up a few times. Harper wanted to complete her first 4 thousand footer. Me being the hiker that I am I was pretty excited to take her. Harper is 8 and has never really climbed a lot of vertical gain in a day. The first spring I had been dating Josh, we talked about bringing Harper up to Hermit Lake on Mount Washington. This was her first real big climb. There was still a trail packed with snow and traction was a requirement. She agreed to do it with us, not realizing what we were getting her into. We had given her a new pair of hiking boots, and she broke them in the entire way up. For anyone who hikes knows how much pain this can cause to your feet. She did amazing. She made it to just a few tenths shy of Hermit Lake before we took the boots off and put some mole skin on her poor blistered feet. She sucked it up for a little while longer before Josh picked her up and tossed her on his shoulders until we got there. She did amazing.

"And forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair."   I have finally hiked the one trail on Mount Washington I have been avoiding for a long time. Huntington Ravine. This trail, according to the AMC White Mountain Guide is the "Hardest trail in the White Mountains." Many, claim it to be incredibly difficult, dangerous, and essentially rock climbing without the ropes. The Mount Washington Observatory hosts their largest fundraiser in July every year for the last 15 years. This even is a hike-a-thon to raise money for the nonprofit, member supported MWOBS. I have participated in this event my first year working for them and now I am participating again this year. On July 18th, Trish, myself, Alex, Sage, Hugh, Josh, John, and Jeremy decided as a team we wanted to ascend Huntington Ravine for Seek the Peak. Most of us had yet to hike this trail and were all ready to see what the big talk was all about.