| Summary | |
| Owner | MITOC Gallery Administrator |
| Creation Date | 2007-01-28 09:07:22 UTC-0500 |
| Description |
Hedgehog Saturday 01.27.07 Arthur Berger, Minyoung Jang, Konrad Kulikowski, Peter Wong, Martin Jaspan, Mike Kokko Martin and I left Intervale around 8:00 in the brisk -10F morning air to make our way to Dunkin' Donuts and then meet the rest of the gang at the UNH trailhead. We started hiking at about 10am and decided to begin by ascending the eastern side of the loop despite criticism from an older gentleman at the trailhead. Roughly half way up the trail we encountered some icy patches so we took the opportunity to strap on crampons and get a little bit of practice. At around 12:15 we hit the ledges and ate lunch with the silhouettes of Chocorua and Passaconaway as a backdrop. Lunch somehow morphed into obnoxious sing-a-long time and we decided to continue towards the summit before we annoyed the other hikers too badly... Between the ledges and the summit I spotted a house-sized glacial erratic: Mike: Now there's a big rock. Arthur: Yeah. That's leaverite. Mike: Huh? Leaverite? Is that volcanic? Arthur:Yup. That's a leave-'er-right-there rock. Ha. Moving on, we made a successful summit attempt (without bottled oxygen, thank you very much) and learned how to use known features to locate ourselves on a map. The group was so good with our compasses that we decided to ditch the trail shortly after the next viewpoint and we bushwhacked our way over to Downes Brook. The brook was icy and not quite as treacherous as last year (see this trip), but we chose not to cross and instead bushwhacked up a steep ridge. Following moose tracks we came upon a well-gnawed animal bone before descending the ridge and reconnecting with the Downes Brook trail. From there it was a straight-shot back to the cars and we parted ways to head home. - Mike |