| Summary | None |
| Owner | Nadine Mueller-Dittmann |
| Creation Date | 2012-09-11 23:15:10 UTC-0400 |
| Description | Matthew Gilbertson, Carla Ubbink, Veronica Hanus, Noah Silverman, Will Boyd, Andrew Wimmer, Robert Sloan, Alexandra Thomson, Nadine Mueller-Dittmann
“Hiking Bondcliff is even more fun than going for Franconia!” – was Micheles pretty motivating statement before we left Camelot Saturday at 7AM. No wonder, there was lots of joyful anticipation in the cars on our way to Lincoln Woods Trailhead. The forecast announced 70% chance of rain and thunder in the afternoon, so we decided getting started early for the 20 miles of hiking. During the last 6 months I was so lucky to go hiking in NH and found it really nice to see changes in the nature and landscape over the summer (ok, except for bug highseason– this experience I could have left out!). Now, we could actually feel the fall is arriving. This weekend it seemed the perfect weather for all sort of mushrooms. We saw so many different types – we probably could write a field guide about all mushrooms in NH from just that hike. In the meanwhile Matthew silently calculated whether the calorie content of a mushroom makes it worth searching for it at all – the answer was probably: “negative calories”. Besides mushrooms there were some fun mountaineering toats we saw on our ascent. On the way to the cliff Veronica told about the exciting life of a geologist, Mars missions and even categorized some stones for us. I imagine it must be so cool for a geologist going hiking, seeing all those rocks and almost knowing about their history! Will shared his exciting AT experiences and told us the secret about how he managed finishing earlier than expected: “I didn’t have time, I had to go to Gradschool! So I just hiked faster!” After his stories I was pretty impressed how hardcore long-distance hikers get, when it comes to sicknesses. All we petted people run for the doctor when we hear the word “flu” and he went on hiking although he was sick! Matthew totally gets the award for the most creative hiking entertainment I’ve ever seen with his birch-barke crown that he created in ambitous detail work. With all this fun hiking entertainment, we almost got surprised when we “already” arrived at Bondcliff at noon. Luckily the weather was in a good mood and the sun showed up on the top for us, so we could enjoy our food + fotosessions. As predicted the rain came on the way down. Since there was already rain from the sky, we decided to go for swimming on Franconia Falls. Hey, Franconia Falls is just such a cool place! It’s all smooth rocks with natural pools, slides, waterfalls and crystal clear water! With bad weather there is even the advantage of being the only persons on that spot. You just have to be careful with the fast currents and when the rock gets slippery. We hiked back to the cars and it was pouring all the way. There was a point when I thought: we probably could have brought pack-rafts for that trip - not for rafting on the Pemi, but on the trail! When we almost made it back, Carla still kept smilingly telling: “I can never in my life hike 20 miles at once!” Looks like our south-african powerlady could surprise herself that day ;). Maybe because Veronica cheered everyone up with a session of what-is-your-worst-being-soaked-experience ;). We made it back to the car and to Camelot where Micheles healthy food was already waiting for us. Hey people, it was amazing hiking with you, even after all the distance and rain, you still smiled and gave thumbs up! -Nadine |