| Summary | |
| Owner | MITOC Gallery Administrator |
| Creation Date | 2004-11-28 21:31:24 UTC-0500 |
| Description |
Northern Pemigewassett Winter Overnight November 26-28, 2004 People: Mike Whitson, Justin Fitzpatrick, Chris Glazner, Ben Jackson, Poli Anikeeva After a wonderful Thanksgiving meal and sauna at Camelot, the five of us decideded do an overnight in the northern Pemigewasset Wilderness. We got up early on Friday and met Martin Zalesak and Greg Bokinsky at the cabin. After a little discussion, we decided to part ways, as they didn't have overnight gear. They decided to tackle Moosilauke instead. We loaded up with food (ie, large Beef Sticks) at Hannaford's, then drove up I-93, exiting at 3 and then 302. We dropped Ben's car off at the Gale River trailhead, and then all piled into my CRV and continued to drive down the road to get to the Hale Brook trailhead. I think we were on the trail a little after 11:30. I blame the previous day's turkey! We were a bit apprehensive about the trail condiditons, as it had been raining on and off the past few days, followed by a hard freeze, and then about 3 inches of snow. Suprisingly, we didn't have to break out the crampons at all the first day--the icy sections were fairly negotiable, and were easily skirted. We soon made our way up Hale Brook Trail to Mt. Hale, which all and all is a disappointing summit--just a clearing where a fire tower used to be, and a pile of rocks. If you climbed the pile, you could just make out other peaks. We had to look at crazy ice formations to entertain ourselves! After Mt. Hale, it was fresh tracks for the next day. From there, we turned our attention to making it up to somewhere near Zeacliff. The early goal was to make it out to Guyot, but at our slow pace and with our late start, that was right out of the question. We continued down close to the Zealand Hut, and then split off on the Twinway up towards Zeacliff. We were loosing daylight quickly when we came to the crossing at the Zealand Falls, which, given the slab of ice on the sloped stone on both sides of the crossing, was impossible. We scouted out the Falls for another potential crossing, and found one about 50 yards further up. It was still extremely sketchy. Very fast moving water, ice on all rocks, and a very unforgiving rocky river waiting for anyone who fell. Mike, with the aid of carefully placed hiking poles, was able to make it across. Standing in an eddy, he then proceeded to yank each of us with a little running start over the sketchy sections to a landing out of harms way. By the time we had this figured out, it was dark, and a big, orange full moon was rising. We pushed up the Twinway in the dark. A little over halfway up, Justin spotted a primo campsite, so we decided to go ahead and stop and setup camp. We popped out the stove and gathered water (it turns out there was a brook not 50 feet from us, but Ben and Justin hiked a ways back down the trail to our last stream crossing!). We feasted on Annie's Mac and Cheese, meat stick, Hot Chocolate made from the drain water, and then Mike's special: Brownie goop. He took a complete brownie mix, added a cup of water, and then cooked it over the stove until it began to congeal. Then, Ben sqeezed in the frosting and whatever other vile substances that were in the box. The "brudge," despite being horrible to look at, was quite tasty! Poli enjoyed it from the comfort of her sleeping bag/coccon. We boiled water, set up the tent, and hit the sack with a chocolate bar each to keep us warm. Justin and Mike slept under the stars. The next morning, we got up, made oatmeal, and drug ass packing up camp. Ben had some serious issues getting his boots back on--he ended up having to pour hot water over the laces to loosen them up enough to get his foot in! For the rest of the day, his boot was encased in ice. His laces would not last the day.... After a few lessons in how to shit in the woods, we made it to Zeacliff in no time. It was a goregous day, and we had an awesome view of the Presidentials. After taking in the view for a while, we pressed on, deciding to put on crampons for the boggy section ahead. Much of the Twinway over to to Guyot was boggy--rotten ice over mud and assorted crap. Along the way, we discovered that the peak of Zealand is the most disappointing ever. Hands down. Just afte we broke above treeline at Guyot, Ben slipped hit his knee on a rock pretty bad. We got his pack off him and helped him back below treeline to take a look at it and evaluate our options. Fortunately, it was just a really bad bruise, maybe a pulled something-or-rather. After a little time and Vitamin I, Ben was ready to press on, albeit at a slower and more steady pace. We skipped over the summit of Guyot, and headed straight for South Twin. South Twin ended up being the highlight of the trip. On the last push up to it, we turned around and saw an amazing sky, filled full of pink and purple hues. At the summit, we had awesome views in all directions--of the Presidentials, of Franconia, Garfield, everything. We stayed up there for quite a while, taking in the near-dusk colors. It was getting cold, so we pressed on, down the Gale River Trail back to Ben's waiting car. On the way back, after dark, we encountered a few more sketchy night icy river crossings. I think we've definitely earned our merit badges on this one. After that, it was just an intermidably long slog through flat terrain back to the spotted car around 8 or so. We were absolutely amazed how long it took us! We grabbed my car, then headed into Lincoln for dinner at the Common Man. Why I like the Common Man: Lamb Shank and waitreses that ask "Do you need crampons yet up there?" Afterwards, we headed back to Camelot to find everyone sleeping, so we turned in as well. |