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| Owner | MITOC Gallery Administrator |
| Creation Date | 2004-09-16 09:24:28 UTC-0400 |
| Description |
Techniques on well-rested light-weight winter hiking Date: 1/18-20, 2002 Participants: Yoko Miyata (repeat from previous weekend), Dave Comi (repeat from previous weekend), Sayan Mitra, Amy Fair, Hector Briceno Author: Hector Briceno Now the leader's boring details of what happened, although I think Amy's tripreport sums it up pretty well. We departed Boston at 3:30pm on Friday. The unknown or the forgotten detail was that it was a long weekend. I have left Boston before on regular weekends by 3:30pm to beat traffic, but did not count on this detail which voids the warranty on my idea. Ok after spending hours on traffic we finally reach our first stop: BJs at Tilton (out of the traffic range of the BJs at exit 36) There we buy enough food to last a couple of days in the wilderness, never mind that we are only going to spend less than 48 hours. One of my ideas for this trip was to try new "technologies" and go for a really comfortable outing (although we did not carry a tent?, can you explain that?). Anyways we bought 3lbs of animal crackers, 5 lbs of pancake mix, 6 lbs of syrup, 5+ lbs of meat, and red wine for the meat. We proceeded to eat dinner at KFCs which worked out well. The plan was to go ice climbing from 7pm to 11pm or midnight. Well we get started climbing until 11:30pm. Needless to say, we were already behind schedule. The ice climbing was fun, we setup two ropes. It was Sayan's and Amy's first time ice climbing. They had a good time. Amy showed her skills by first dropping an ice axe on the open part of the stream (1 foot underwater). But if that was not enough, she decided to toss her mittens since they were an ice block. Guess where they landed? Sure this time she did not aim for the wide open spot of the stream below her, but instead to the side; well the mitten landed on a 1 foot wide hole in the snow that lead to the stream!!!. Fortunately for her, in 30 seconds in went under the snow and appeared next to the ice axe. As always people headlamps ran out juice (but we had plenty of spares). Everybody got to experience the joy of ice climbing, and around 3 or so, we proceeded to the next objectives... We drove out and stopped by the Irving Gas Station in Lincoln (NOTE: this is one of the only open 24hr places around, they have decent munchies and good bakery). We got the to Lincoln Woods trailhead at sometime after 4. We proceeded to the packing. I did mention that this was an experimental trip right? My plan was to have trip participants go light only carrying clothes, sleeping bag and trail mix. I would try out my new expedition sled by carrying stoves, food, and most of the group gear. I also wanted to try out the laptop in the wilderness idea. I wanted to carry a 80-100lbs of gear to check out how it felt. Ok so I starting stuffing the duffle bag: big tarp, coleman double burner stove, 2 propane cartridges, Primus Gas Lantern, 2 isobutane canisters, 1 dragon fly expedition stove, 2 32oz bottles of white gas, 2 pots, 2 frying pans (for the meat), different cooking utensils like spatula, whisker, spoon, 3 lbs of animal cracks, pretzels, very important doritos, 5 lbs of pancake mix, 6 lbs of syrup, cheese, pepperoni, 5lbs of steak, 2 lbs of pasta and other food. Then my personal gear, sleeping bag, snow shoes, bivy sack, 2 pants, 1 fleece, 1 synthetic jacket. And lastly the electronics: laptop, set of speakers, car inverter, 30lb car battery, extra cables, 1 motorola talk about, cell phone, charger. I of course being careful about details, brought my home weight scale. I tried to lift the duffle bag to no avail. So I had Amy and Dave lift the duffle, I would quickly walk onto the scale, they would give it to me and I would support it on my knees. The total weight for the sled was 140lbs and then there is the 20lbs light day pack. Oh well so much for just wanting to carry 80-100lbs. Things add up. But no problem (that is what my friend Goran would say). In one minute after everyone is ready to go, I quickly gloss over the cross country skiing technique. "You guys went to Stan talk on xc skiing, now do what he said." Ok I actually told them a bit more (30 seconds more) than that "Kick, glide, Kick and glide that is all there is too it." I reved my engine and we were on our way. The original plan called for skiing to the bondcliff trail junction on the wilderness trail, about 5 miles of xc skiing. So we started. Skiing in the dark is always pretty nice, even though the moon was not full, it provided light, and even shadows. Everyone was having a good time. I was working as sweeper, since my speed was not great. The concept of pulling a sled does not mean there is no friction to overcome. It strikes now (after the fact) that I could have waxed the bottom of the sled. Anyways after about 1:40 we reached the franconia fall bridge, not too bad for people's first time xc skiing at night and with packs. This is where I camped 2 years ago in the Katahdin prep trip. I crossed the bridge and started up the little steep inclined that is right after it; others were adjusting their skiis and waiting while I went ahead. Well after I crossed the bridge, that short little incline proved to be very difficult for me. I could get no traction, and being a true skier, I refused to take off my skies and pull the sled up. After about 19 minutes of fighting I managed, really. I went 50 yds and then realized that the real wilderness trail starts here. You see up to this point the trail is a super highway, now it becomes like a rural state road. I said to myself, hmm it is 7am, there is no point in carrying on, plus this puppy ain't gonna make it. I tell them about the new plan to camp around here, they are pleased with the idea. We setup camp at the same place I did 2 years ago. Take the huge tarp out, and setup the bags. To make things exciting we were not bringing a tent, it takes time to setup, it weights 8 lbs, and that is the new Robert/Hector trend anyways to go tentless. We are tired and get to bed at 7:30am. The "next day's plan" (ie in few hours) is to xc ski to bondcliff trail, hike up to west bond and come back. I being super generous tell them that we will sleep 2.5 hours and get up at 10am. I can see that the feel my generosity (NOT). The "night" is pretty uneventful for me. For Amy is a different story, she learned the meaning of cold. not that bad, but since it was her first time winter camping, she thinks that is feeling cold. We end up getting out of bed by 10:47am, it takes a while to get out of bed when you are not in a tent. Oh did I mention that we only made 3 luke-warm water bottles. One always gets lazy when one is tired. Oh well no major, it only means people sleep a little colder. We get out of bed, have a cold breakfast, ie bars, and snacks and doritos. They doritos were very good, I should get paid as an endorser, anyways...I offer my generous snowmobiling services and take the sled with snowshoes. Big difference carrying 20 lbs vs 140 lbs. We must have reached the bondcliff trailhead around 12:45. We cached the skis, the sled and the 3 lbs of animal crackers under the snow, it looked like we buried someone; put on the snow shoes and off we go. I tell them that we are screwed since the trail is unbroken, I think very few of them realized what this meant in terms of speed. This was also the first time or second time snow shoeing for some people. I like doing multiple skill beginner trips!!! After 1 hours of hiking we are starting to feel the effects of sleep deprivation and lack of food, but I kept comforting them by the steak that will await us when we get back. Every once in a while snow shoes would come off, but this always happens. It happens to me too. The funniest thing I found was when Yoko realized that she had lost a snowshoe. I mean like how do you not tell that you are missing a snowshoe? how in the hell do you lose a snowshoe? to make it more interesting this happen on a 45 degree slope that we are traversing, not a nice place to be walking around. We proceed to look around for it, probing with our poles. After 4 minutes of searching Yoko finds it below 1 foot of snow. Odd. We continue hiking. After 30 minutes Amy, gives me the latest Amynews, "Hector, just to let you know, in 45 minutes my body will shut down." I am like "Ah? what do you mean by shutdown." I can't remember her answer. After more hiking, I was expecting to reach Bondcliff but nothing. Cell reception nothing either. It is now 3:30, we been hiking for some time. We continue, but I internally set the turn around time to 4:00pm; it is not looking good. Dave is breaking the trail pretty well, but I still do not understand why we are not getting there. On Topo USA the bondcliff trail takes 3.8 miles to get to Bondcliff; the White Mountain Guide Book says 4.4 miles!!, and to make this funnier, I thought it was more like 2.5-3 miles to get to the top. At around 4:10 I start getting some cell reception, so I make few calls, my sister is not home. I look at the altimeter we are at 400 feet, still 265 feet to the top if my last calibration (weeks ago) is not too far off (unlikely). At 4:30, I tell Dave that if we don't see anything in the next minute we are turning back, and so we did. I wanted to teach them that it is ok to turn back. We must have been less than 0.5 miles from the top, but since this was the first winter experience for many of them, I want them to be around for more trips :). We snowshoe ski down, and get down pretty quick. The xc is mostly uneventful except for the weird explosive sounds. I think to myself, it would suck to bump into vandals or people with guns. In a minute the clouds light from behind; it was fireworks. Why, I have no clue. We get to camp and that is when the comfort begins. I take out the Coleman Dual Burner Stove, hookup a propane cartridge and get a small flame. You see people say that propane does not work in the winter. And they are almost right. That is, it does not work if it is cold, but once you put in a pan with water, and pour warm water over it every once in a while it works. That is why I also took out the dragonfly stove to get some boiling water for the propane (it is a bootstrapping process). NOTE: (LESSON #1) dont take a propane stove in the wildnerness without a way to warm up the propane. Oh another cool thing (LESSON #2) I learned is the stove starter. I have one of those that it is a stick with a child-proof trigger (it took me a while to figure it out). I was able to light the dragonfly stove with it. The big advantage is that you can use it with gloves!!. We start the dinner appetizers with some steak tips sauteed with red wine. These work very well because the cook fast. With some free time in my hands I can start the electronics component of the trip. I take out the car battery from the duffle bag, and duct tape some wires to it and to the DC/AC inverter. Voila, the laptop and speakers are powered. I start the timer to keep track how long it lasts. It lasted more than 4 hours, and still had plenty of juice to start my awesome-powered SUV Ford Escort wagon. LESSON#3 Lead acid car batteries work in the winter (15 degF). We then proceed to the main dish which is composed of Broncosaurus-size steaks and pasta. Food came in pretty well considering how little we had eaten in the past n hours. After the participants quickly dispatched the food, they did not linger around, in few shorts minutes, I found myself being the only person not in their sleeping bag, perhaps Dave was still up. Sleep came in quickly. Day 2 (or is it 3) would a mellower day considering the previous day's effort. We would take full advantage of the supplies brought and feast ourselves to a good hearty pancake breakfast. The syrup proved how liquids become very viscous at low temperatures, it had the viscosity of heavy grade petroleum. After such endevour we proceeded for the touristic activities of the day. The day's activities called for a sojourn to Franconia Falls, and then another foray into Black Pond. We quickly took camp down and left our gear ready to go while we left for some window shopping. The Franconia Falls trail is a nice little short trail that takes you to a section of the Franconia Falls that have a lot of little falls (suprisingly). When we got there Dave exploration skills itched in and he decided to explore the stream. Normally you would expect me to say something like he fell in or something, but nothing happened except that I was probably worried for him for about 1.57 seconds. I reminded him that the waiver he signed did not covered him :). We returned to the main trail and continued to the Black Pond trail. We bumped into a couple coming from this trail, telling us that is a bit more back country than the other trails but that it should be fine. This trail runs for 1 mile into the Black Pond. The cool thing is that it is a bit more back country than the other trails; it has steeper ups and downs (nothing major), cooler and sharper turns. We all fell at least once coming in. At one point Dave and I went a steep downhill followed by and uphill barely unscathed. We started wagering how many people would fall and who would not. The running bet was that the probability of falling was 0.5. Although the person who said this was really meaning that the probability of ONE person to fall was 0.5 (all other would fall for sure). He was proven wrong by the fact that only one person fell. Anyways it was fun going up and down, taking sharp turns, doing more real back country skiing than skiing on old logging roads. At Black Pond we encountered the smell of a campfire (completely illegal). Some Russians were cooking sausages (the smell was good). The pond unfortunately was not skiable (at least under our waiver), it was very slushy so we just had to sit there and enjoy the views which where very nice. The return trip and return to the cars was very uneventful except for those times when I was dragging the huge sled behind me with the music from Rocky playing out of the duffle bag from the sled. I mean this is as close to the movie as it gets, dragging at 160lb sled through the snow, on skis, with such high adrenalin music. The last funny thing, which I overlooked, was hooking the battery back to the car. I was not really sure which end was positive and which end was negative. I will admit I connected them wrong for short seconds, but nothing happened. Then the moment of truth came, would the battery have enough juice left to start the car after playing 4 hours of music on the laptop and speakers. Like my friend Goran would say: No problem, dude. |