Six Husbands, Jefferson, Washington and Boott Spur

This past Sunday Greg and I drove up to meet Ryan and his friend Fuji for a hike. They had camped out and we met them up there, which involved leaving around 5:30 in the morning in order to start at a decent hour. After dropping one car off in Pinkham Notch we drove up the road a bit to the Great Gulf Trail. That was our gateway into the wilderness where we would spend the next 12 hours hiking 15 miles of steep rough trails with ladders, ledges and stunning scenery to the top of New England. The weather was perfect for it but strangely we only passed thirty or so other hikers, which wasn't a bad thing, just strange, considering how nice the weather was.

Greg and Fuji had never hiked Mount Washington before and got a great day for their first climb up the Rockpile. For Ryan it was his 4th trip I believe and for me the 6th time I've done it. The great weather and lack of crowds made it one of the more enjoyable trips too and it was certainly a memorable one. After that we headed down via Boott Spur which was new territory for all of us. On the way there just before Tuckerman Junction I quietly passed my 1000th mile of hiking in the White Mountains, which was a neat little milestone for me. After one last rest on the summit of Boott Spur as the sun sank low we headed back below treeline where Fuji and Greg spotted a moose just off the trail. It was the first one Fuji had ever seen anywhere and just the third I remember seeing on hiking trails. After watching him for a bit we headed down to the car and drove back to the other one for a little cookout before heading home.

It was a long tough day, 15.2 miles with 6150 feet of elevation gain, which makes it our longest one day hike mileage-wise and the second most elevation gain we've ever done in a day, but I didn't even lose any more toenails! Only our winter Presidential traverse had more, with 7000 feet over 10.3 miles on day one, but it was all worth the effort. It was just an awesome hike, there's just no other way to put it. Combine that with great friends and other than spending time with my family there aren't many other ways I'd rather spend a day. If you'd like to see some or even a lot of pictures from the hike you can click right here for a slide show.

Other than that my camera has been strangely quiet for a few weeks. We're headed off on a summer vacation/camping trip the week after next so there should be another big update when we get back but for now that's all.