Maple Weekend in Vermont

This past weekend we went up to Vermont to visit with Chris and his family. My parents also went so we all got to spend the weekend together. The weather was very nice on Saturday, sunny and in the 60's, so we spent the afternoon playing with the kids in their backyard. Then we had a great steak tip dinner and birthday party for my Mom. Sunday the weather took a turn for the worse and some rain shortened up our visit to Shelburne Farms but it was a neat place. It had animals running around that Brooke had only seen in books, breakfast for us, sugar shacks and the historical buildings. I'm sure we'll be back exploring it more on a nicer day. After that we had lunch from the much talked about Martone's and then headed home, with a stop at Cold Hollow of course. We had a great weekend up there and there's lots of pictures from the weekend here so click away and enjoy if you're interested in more from the trip.

Well it's been a few more days than I expected but here's the latest family update. Brooke is getting bigger (19 pounds now) and getting a few more teeth which makes her a bit fussier than usual if she gets bored and realizes they hurt and also when she lies down to sleep at night. They wake her up every once in a while but now she can chew up wheat toast. I tricked her into drinking chocolate soy milk too by putting it in a soda can and letting her drink it from a straw. As long as she thought she was drinking out drink she didn't seem to mind it.

We also got her a nice Kelty kid carrying backpack so we can start hiking as soon as my blisters heal. We've taken her out for walks around town and over to Jen's parent's house a few times and she seems to enjoy it. As for hiking I'm thinking we'll probably do a combination of Pawtuckaway, Mt Major, Welch & Dickey, the Moats and Mt. Chocorua as warm up hikes, gradually getting bigger as the snow melts and we get into hiking shape. If anyone wants to go let me know and I'll tell you when we're going or check here and I'll put up an invite if I know when it'll be in advance.

Grammy Patty just had a birthday yesterday and she got to play over there with some new toys, a farm and a house. We're going up to Vermont this weekend to visit Chris & Co. and for Maple Weekend so she might get to see a real farm with real animals. She should love that and I'm sure there will be pictures so check back soon. Oh, I almost forgot, for pictures of the rest of this stuff click here and there's a video below of her chicken dancing with a giant duck, she loves to dance. Definitely got that from her Mom. Okay, Bye for now.

Mount Monroe

If you're looking for pictures of Brooke there will be a bunch up soon, maybe tomorrow. My external hard drive crapped out and the internal one is full, all 145 GB, of videos and pictures. I'm hoping to save the old one but I picked up a new 1TB hard drive (that should last a while) tonight and just have to get it set up so I can put up some pictures of Brooke from the last few days so check back soon for those.

On Saturday however Greg and I set out to bag another of the 4000 footers left on his list. We were considering a few different mountains but since the weather forecast was so good we decided to give one of the bigger ones a go. Mount Monroe is the 4th highest peak in New Hampshire and is the first one south of Washington in the Presidential Range. We thought we had all the gear we would need so off we went early Saturday morning. I have all the winter climbing stuff you could ever need for myself and he borrowed some of my instep crampons and also had mountaineering snowshoes he got from his work. With all that we set out for what was to be a nice quick day hike in the white mountains so we could get back in time for Uncle Jeff's 50th birthday party. It ended up being like the nice three hour tour they were taking on Gilligan's Island.

When the trail got steep and slippery he tried out the snowshoes but they weren't digging in very well so he bare booted it to the Lake Of the Clouds hut. Then he put on some 4 point instep crampons for the summit push but they turned out to be inadequate and once we got up he couldn't safely get back down the same way. Since he'd already slipped and slid about 100 feet earlier (see video below) we took a detour down the other way and tried to follow another trail back which turned out to not be any safer. We looped back to the other side and picked our way down a rock strewn snowfield and finally back to the hut along the western side of the mountain. It was a lesson learned I guess, don't go up certain trails unless you're sure you have everyhting you might possibly need. I was all set but he'll be getting a few more pieces of winter gear I'm guessing (crampons and an ice axe Anne if you're reading this). Some teamwork got us down safely which was good because the emergency exit route would have left us 6 miles from the car. Fortunately we didn't have to use that trail.

Once we were back on the trail we headed down a few hundred feet and ran into a father and his kid who had just broken or severely sprained his ankle. They had already splinted it so after they got some climbing rope from another group of passing hikers and called 911 for help we slowly lowered him down the steep icy parts and then near the bottom had to pull him like a sled dogs to the bottom where the search and rescue team met us a few hundred feet from the car, three hours after they had called 911. They put him on the sled for the last few feet and took him down to the parking area where the EMT's could check him out. It turned out to be quite a day.

There's also a short blurb here about the rescue from Boston.com and here from the Union Leader if that doesn't work. I thought it was kind of neat to know the "other hikers" were Greg and I.

Anyhow, if you want to see pictures from the otherwise perfect day for hiking there's a lot of pictures here. There's none of the rescue (I didn't think they'd like that very much).

Enjoy!



Looking up at and standing on the summit of Mt. MonroeThis is where the kid fell and the route we had to take him down.

The video of Greg's slide. I'd bet he doesn't try this again without crampons and an ice axe. If it doesn't work or you'd like to see a slightly larger version it's on youtube here also.

Mount Abraham and A quick Visit

Well we were running out of time to get in a winter hike this year but with a week or so to go in the official winter season we finally managed it. Ryan and I went up into Vermont, home to 5 of the New England 4000 footers, and hiked up Mt. Abraham. It's not the toughest mountain on the list but with a 45 pound pack on an overnight trip it gets a bit harder. We started at night (surprise surprise) and spent the night at a shelter on the Long Trail. It goes the entire length of Vermont, we however only did enough of it to get another 4000 footer in. After a relatively warm (23 degrees) crystal clear, silent night with millions of stars and the mountain to ourselves we awoke at 7:30 and headed for the top about another mile away. We got there around 9 and the weather was so perfect we spent the better part of an hour soaking in the views and sunny weather. There's a bunch of pictures from the hike here. After that we headed down and since we were done early in the afternoon went north 15 miles or so to visit Chris, Katie and the kids for a few hours. It was in the 50's up there and they have no snow left, well except where I built the ski ramp at Christmas (oops) so we had lunch and hung out in the yard for a while. Anyhow we had a quick but nice visit before heading home. There's a bunch of pictures from that here. That's all for now but as soon as I get some more pictures or videos I'll put them up. Bye for now.

Learning To Crawl (sort of)

Just a few pictures and videos today of her learning to crawl. She's started to take to it all of a sudden and while she doesn't quite get the crawling part exactly she's on her way. If we lure her like a fish with some shiny objects she goes after them. It won't be long now and we'll be chasing her all over. Anyhow here's a few pictures and video's from this weekend, they don't go to any galleries they're just here. Enjoy!

This is pretty much what she can do for now...

Of course once she gets there she has to say "Haaaaa"

A few pictures in black and white from a nice mid March day. One from outside the house and one from in watching cars go by

A video of her attempt at crawling

Playing with Mom and her kitty Bryce

Here she is just being silly with Mum

10 Months Old

That's right. Brooke will be 10 months old on the 8th. It's amazing how quick the time goes by and how much she learns and does every day. She now rolls over all the time and can walk along if you hold her hands. She is very curious and nosy and tries to get into everything but can't really because she doesn't crawl of walk yet. She can get onto all fours but doesn't go anywhere once she's there and she is just starting to inch her way along couches and tables if we stand her up first. She also has two teeth and is pretty vocal now. She knows what a kitty says ("Mow") if you ask her or she sees one and we think she says Mum too. There's a few pictures here from the last week or so since the last post.

Today with the nice weather, 50 degrees or so, we took her out for a walk (pictures here) in a backpack and she loved it. It was easy to use and great for walks around town although I don't think it would be so good for hiking so I'm going to order one specifically for that so when the good weather arrives we're ready for it and can hit the trails. It's going to be so much fun and we can't wait for it.

There's a few videos below also, one of her watching cars go by and one of her playing with her Grammy and a few seconds of our dinner when I forgot to turn off the camera and it's easier to post the whole thing than to edit it. That's what's new for now but check back soon, once the weather is nice she'll be having lots of new adventures.