I decided it was time to spend some time in Evans Notch, a small part
of the White Mountain National Forest that spills over the New
Hamp****re border into Maine. The fact that I'm working on climbing the
50 most prominent peaks in New England also drove my decision to hike
there; not to mention that I was planning to hike with a rec.
backcountry Lurker (Lurk) and this particular hike was about the
halfway meeting point for both of us.
Now you may ask "what is a prominent peak"? A prominent peak is one
that has high topographic prominence, a peaks height above the lowest
contour which encloses that peak, and no higher peak. This tends to up
the ante a bit, requiring more elevation gain to tag the summit.
It's done nothing but rain here the last 6 weeks, so any day that it's
not raining is a good. Today was one of those days. Lurk and I met in
the parking lot at 9am. We booted up and fine tuned our packs. I was
field testing my new lightweight Merrill hiking boots that I bought
last week. I normally hike in a pair of Limmers, but they're a bit
heavy and I'm not as young as I used to be ;-) I was also testing out
a new GoLite day pack--1.6 pounds.
Lurk, who could also be called Gimpy Lurk :-) was recouping from a bad
telemark ski accident which left him with a broken hip, 2 femur
fractures (both on the left leg) and a fractured wrist. He's had
multiple orthopedic surgeries, the most recent one being a screw
extraction in June.
We set off on our 7 mile hike. The elevation gain was slow and steady.
A gradual uphill, no bouldering involved, this is rare for these
parts. We knew this when we picked the hike. Gimpy Lurk is still
trying to ease himself back into the hiking scene. After about a solid
hour of hiking we cam to the first waterfall. It was a beauty.
Probably a 25-30 foot drop with a nice deep pool at the bottom. We
decided to climb down to the bottom of the stream and try to get the
perfect photo. Lurk went first. I followed. I decided to descend half
way at first and go for a close up side view. I edged my way out onto
a large boulder then stopped to get my rather new Canon SD 850 IS
camera out of my pack pocket when the unthinkable happened. My camera
fell, bounced down the boulder, and finally plunged into the deep pool
at the mouth of the waterfall. I scrambled down the rest of the
boulder to the stream bed and decided I'd try and make a dive for the
camera. So I removed boots sock and shorts --all modesty aside-- and
entered the chilly water. Lurk tossed me a branch and I prodded the
bottom looking for the camera. However, the camera fell into a deep
dark hole where there was no chance of getting a glance of it. The
hydraulics of the water fall were a bit forceful, and not being a real
strong swimmer I gave up on the idea of a drive. I was chest deep in
water standing on a rock ledge, no telling how deep the hole was. Lurk
offered to help. He removed his boots socks and shorts and waded
across the stream to see if he could see anything. No luck. So here we
were, both of us, who hardly knew each other, standing around in our
undies, staring at the pool of water contemplating my camera.
Goodness, I want you to know, I don't normally take off my shorts on
the first hike ;-) I decided risking drowning was not worth a camera
at any price, and so we suited back up and continued our summit quest.
The trail ascended at a nice pace and after many more water crossings
we finally arrived at the summit. What a pleasant surprise, 360*
views! No sign of civilization, just peak after peak, for miles on
end. The sun was ****ning, no bugs. We shared the summit with 8
others. Very nice. I had trail mix and almonds. Lurk had fig newtons
and a sandwich. Lots of little brown birds hopping around trying to
scavenge a free lunch. A band of clouds socked in the Presidential
Range of the Whites.
The descent involved a nice ridge walk with beautiful vistas down a
different trail. Finally we found ourselves back in the trees. We
hiked the 3.6 miles back to the car with no other mishaps :-)
Overall a great hike, worth repeating.
Number 33/50 on my list of prominent peaks.
lobster grrrl
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