Thursday, July 18, 2013

Discovering the Cohos Trail

A Section Hiking Adventure 
Section #1, June 2013
View from the Cohos
A few years ago, a friend told me about a new long distance trailrunning 162 miles through New Hampshire's northern-most county, Coos, from Crawford Notch State Park in the south to Pittsburg, NH at the border w/Quebec, Canada. It's called the Cohos Trail and prides itself on its remote, wilderness experience, without the easy comfort of shelters and trail towns (there are only 2 leans-tos and one self-service cabin on the trail) so camping is the accommodation of choice. The trail is made up of a smattering of old hiking trails, newly cut trail, old railroad beds, snowmobile trails, forest roads, and a bit of paved road. While a few days of hiking resides within the more popular White Mountain National Forest (WMNF), the rest of the CT runs through the mountain ranges to the less-visited north country, making the Cohos a perfect place to travel into some real wilderness and away from the crowds.

Enticed by this new experience and the logistics it would involve, I teamed up with two other like-minded hikers, Mike & Joyce, to complete the Cohos (pronounced coe-ahss) in sections. Since we're all Volunteer Trip Leaders for the Boston Chapter of the Appalachian Mountain Club (AMC), we agreed to run the Cohos trips as a series of AMC backpacks and long day-hike weekends. Series-hiking isn't new to either Mike and Joyce, as they have both sectioned hiked the Appalachian Trail among other long- distance trails. But was all new to me, so I jumped into action, planning four weekend trips for this summer with my new Cohos maps and guidebook by my side. We decided to travel south to north and hope to complete the trail in 8-9 weekends over the next 2 years.

Our first weekend trip was mid-June, beginning at the Cohos southern terminus on the Davis Path in Crawford Notch, NH. Our intrepid group consisted of 7 Boston area hikers, 3 women and 4 men, all eager to begin our 2-day backpack. While 1/3 of the Cohos follows already established trail networks, about 100 miles is formally known as the CT and is marked with little yellow “CT” signs. The trail also travels through some Nationally Designated Wilderness areas in the Whites, which are kept to a different, more "wild" standard than your average hiking trail: the width for the trail is cleared to be narrower, there are no blazes on trees or cairns above treeline (only signs at junctions), and the camping areas are simple, dirt clearings marked with a small, wooden signs. There are no shelters, no privys,  no roads... just you and the woods.

The first day consisted of 10 mi and 4500ft+ of elevation gain, plus some additional milage on each spur path to the summit. We traveled through the Dry River Wilderness, tracing the undulating Montalban Ridge to five peaks, finishing at a height of 4004 ft on Mt Isolation. While many choose to take the more popular Rocky Branch Trail, following this long shoulder of Mt Washingtonfor more peaks, more views and more solace.

View from Isolation into Oakes Gulf & Mt. Washington

We had a minor moment of confusion along the trail as it wandered into a brushy, swampy dell, but overall this section is easy to follow despite it’s wilderness designation. Meandering along the ridge throughout the day, we stopped to rest, snack and enjoy the views from each of the day's five summits: Mt Crawford, a lovely, mostly bald summit with views of the hike ahead, Mt. Resolution, named for the trailblazer, Mr.Davis, and his stern resolution to complete the path, Mt Stairs & Giant Stairs Cliffs, with its nap-able ledge and excellent breeze, Mt. Davis with its 360 views, and Mt.Isolation, which often has the largest ( if only) crowd atop due to its NH 4000-footer status.

The Fry-Bake in action, with cover
When we reached the wilderness campsites just north of Mt. Isolation, we set up camp and were pleasantly surprised by the newly-acquired backcountry baking skills of our fellow hiker Chris. Normally a lightweight hiker, he had rushed ahead of the group carrying a heavier pack than usual, laden with fresh vegetables and a new Fry-Bake pan to experiment with making group appetizers: homemade guacamole and fresh-baked focaccia made on the spot! We were more that delighted to be his guinea pigs and snacked away at the guac and tasty bread topped with fresh tomatoes, basil and cheese. I'd say he's learned a lot already! The Fry-Bake Pan is a luxury item for sure. It works with a any outdoor stove in which the flame can be adjusted (we used a white gas MSR Whisperlite) and you can buy a kit that comes with a cover, thermometer, etc that puts the "bake" function to good use. We somehow ate our own dinners after all the fresh-made apps and shared a little chocolate brought by another. Well fed and dog tired, the group was soon snoring away in our respective tents and hammocks.

Fresh cinnamon rolls!
The next morning Chris became a true (and much appreciated) over-achiever by his final act of baking cinnamon rolls. Everyone gobbled one down, ate their own prepared breakfasts, and set off on the second half of our two-day journey. (As I write this, the section of the CT from the Isolation Tr East crossing over the Dry River is closed due to a trail washout during Tropical Storm Irene in 2011.) Due to the trail closures, we planned a 10 mile re-route for our Day 2, traversing some of the finest above-treeline hiking there is in the WMNF and rejoin the CT on the other side of the closure.


Hiking along Boott Spur
The new route took us north on the Davis Path over North Isolation, Boott Spur (a viewful, open shoulder of Mt. Washington), past the gaping cirque of Tuckerman's Ravine, and turned south to the AMC Lake of the Clouds Hut, where we gorged on the morning's lefover pancakes offered by the Hut Croo. After a brief stop, we continued south on Crawford Path, another historic and famous route to and from Mt Washington, up and over Mt Monroe, showing off its alpine flowers including Mt Avens, Diapensia, Alpine Azalea and Lapland Rosebay; to Mt Franklin, one of my favorite peaks, and finally to Mt. Eisenhower, where rejoined the CTl at the Edmunds Path. After enjoying the views from the rounded dome of Mt. Eisenhower, also the highest point of the CT, we made our way down to the parking lot where we had spotted some cars. Our group reconvened about an hour later for a post-hike meal in the town of North Woodstock, where we gorged on good eats and discussed where our upcoming Cohos section adventures would take us (and how we had a little unfinished CT business to hike someday).
From Monroe to Mt. Franklin
Alpine Azalea
 
I highly recommend giving the Cohos Trail a try, whether you want to thru hike it, section hike or day hike it. It's best stretches I am told are farther north of the White Mountain National Forest, where it is more remote, passing through less traveled country and few resupply points. The Cohos officially opened for business in 2011 and hikers have been making the thru-hike of the Cohos for several years now. To help navigate the way, the Kim Nilsen, the founder of the Cohos has published an excellent guidebook, maps, facebook page, web site, established a trail association and more. For further reading about the Cohos Trail and trail updates/openings/closures, check out the website at: http://www.cohostrail.org. There's also a possibility of an upcoming addition to the trail by Canadian trail groups to link CT hikers with Canadian trails to go as far as the summit of Mt. Megantic in Quebec.

If you are in the area and interested in joining our group for any of our section hikes this July- September, you can find them listed on the AMC website at http://www.outdoors.org (search for Cohos).

Friday, July 12, 2013

Pemi Adventure Weekend: Backpacking & Rafting

The Pemi Loop hike is a true New England hiker challenge, and Backpacker Magazine calls it one of America's hardest dayhikes. With 32 miles and 18,000 feet of elevation change, it's a very demanding day and has been on my bucket list for a year or two. The loop starts and ends at Lincoln Woods just off the Kancamagus Highway, traversing some of finest ridge lines in NH, summitting eleven 4000ft+ peaks. This loop was also the culmination of Chris's NH 48 finish!

Glider plane flying over Franconia Notch
We had planned to do the loop one day on July 4th weekend, but after tweaking my ankle on a hike 2 weeks prior, I thought maybe we should do it as a 2 day backpack instead. It would be a bit easier this way, allowing for more time to enjoy the views, more time for sleeping, and for other fun things that weekend, like rafting!

Catching a breeze on Flume
Our adventure began on July 4th, staying with friends on Loon Lake in Plymouth, NH, enjoying a BBQ and the lake's fireworks from their kayaks. We were up and out early the next morning, grabbing a bagel sandwich and hitting the trail at 8:30am, a far cry from the usual Pemi Loop start time of 3:30am. It was a hot and humid morning and the breeze atop Flume couldn't come soon enough. Liberty had equally lovely views and upon summiting Little Haystack, we ran into 2 fellow hikers & friends, Emily and Ashley, what a pleasant surprise! We caught up on each others lives, hiked together to Lincoln and Lafayette and enjoying lunch before going our separate ways.

Running into friends on Little Haystack
Chris and I continued down the rugged ridgeline to Garfield, but not before thunder and a rainshower would cool us down. We were alone on the Garfield summit as the clouds drifted by and thunder was no longer a threat, some of the best views of the Pemigewasset Wilderness can be seen from this perch. We could have stayed at the Garfield tentsite & shelter, but decided to walk a few more miles down to Thirteen Falls campsite in the Pemi Wilderness, as neither of us had ever stayed there. The trail to 13 Falls was wet as we followed a brook most of the way. To our surprise, we got the last tentsite at 13 Falls, I guess for a holiday weekend we shouldn't have been. They had set up a large tarp over the kitchen area and had a bear box, so rarely used in the NH Whites. We happily washed off in the wide, shallow falls after dinner and curled up at the quiet tentsite for a well-deserved night's sleep.
Hiking along the Franconia Ridge to Lincoln & Lafayette

The next morning we ate our breakfast and hiked  up and out a few miles to Galehead Hut, where we enjoyed breakfast # 2 of free leftover pancakes from the hut. Surprisingly, hardly anyone was there, just a few others and a croo member or two. We chatted up a few friendly folks before heading into the mist on South Twin. I was told about the steepness of this trail, but found to be more enjoyable than most steep hikes, as it's well taken care of and has some excellently-spaced stepping stones for short legs like mine. We passed a few others going in the opposite direction including a ranger, some day "loopers", and a few hikers making their way from Guyout Tentsite.
Eating leftovers at Galehead Hut

The summit of South Twin was socked in with clouds but the breeze was refreshing on yet another warm day. We travelled along the ridge, a new section of trail for me, and how lovely it was! Covered in moss and flowers and generally flat, I could have hiked that section all day long. Eventually we came to Mt. Guyout, passed the Guyout Tentsite and reached the spur trail to the summit of West Bond.

Bondcliff
West Bond has one of the most spectacular views in the Whites, as it looks over fondly to Bond and Bondcliff, it's arching spine bowing dramatically between the two peaks. The light cast on the cliff seems to show every rock and crevasse, you feel like you could almost touch it from there. We were itching to hike it, so without much rest we marched up to Bond, barely stopping as we continued to Bondcliff. This was Chris's final NH 48 summit, so I took a few obligatory cliff shots, was ate some summit chocolate and Chris indulged in a 10 min nap as I wandered in bare feet and took photos. We must have stayed there at least an hour, the sky was full of puffy clouds and blue patches and the breeze felt glorious. We finally made a move to go, as it was all downhill from here.
Hiking to Bondcliff


On Bondcliff
We eventually reached the Wilderness Trail with its railroad ties still embedded in the wide path. We stopped at the Pemi River crossing to wash up and cool down. I changed into Crocs and we blasted our way to the packing lot, eagerly putting the long, flat trail portion behind us. Dinner was had at the Gypsy Café in Lincoln, and Chris booked us a motel room at the Rodeway Inn off RT 3 as a luxurious end to our Pemi backpack. And by luxury I mean a clean bed, hot shower and pool, dang!

Naptime
The next morning we ate at the curious breakfast place across from our motel. It has a frontier-style theme that was popular in the 60s and doesn't look like it's changed much since. The staff was friendly and the food was fine. We swam in the motel pool, played a little shuffleboard and were soon standing on the banks of the Pemi with an inflatable raft preparing for our next adventure.

About to go rafting!
We drove down RT 117 along the Pemi and scouted out our route, as well as our start and endpoints. We decided to leave our bikes at the en, drive back up north, and raft a few miles from N Woodstock to Woodstock. After rafting we would bike back to the car and eat in N Woodstock.

The Pemi is generally gentle and shallow south of Lincoln, NH, but this season it's been running high and fast due to all the rain, mildly exciting rapids for a blow-up raft. We started off on some small rapids, perfect for our first attempt. At one point we came to what seemed like an impasse, as a group of 4 kayakers got out and dragged their boat on the shore and around the rapids. We thought it was ok for us and carried on, thoroughly enjoying the mild white-water ride. We waved as we passed another couple who were resting on a beach with their kayaks. What a day we were having!

We soon came to another section that was a bit sketchy. We ducked under tree branches and fended off a downed tree with broken, pointy limbs that surely would have popped our raft if Chris wasn't quick with his hands. Another raft, deflated and washed up on a nearby shore told of a more unfortunate ending. We stopped to check our boat a little further down the stream to make sure we didn't have a leak. Just before launching back into the river, we saw the kayaking couple get caught in the downed tree. Both fell out of their boats but were quickly out and walking in the shallow water. The woman started yelling at the man she was with, tossing her paddle at him. After making sure they were ok, we decided it was best to carry on downstream and let them sort out their personal issues.

We paddled in peaceful water to a beach with a long, smooth rock perfect for sunning on. We stopped here to pick wild blueberries and watched the water go by. Chris noticed a floating broken paddle, and then another. He jumped in to get both and soon the other group of 4 kayakers stopped by the beach to chat. They told us they had helped out the couple who fell out of their boats and got one boat unstuck. The other boat remained stuck in some trees and they man never attempted to get it out. They also were pretty sure the broken paddle parts were the woman's whose boat overturned. That couple surely wasn't prepared for terrain like that, they seemed to be out for a more peaceful trip, and the kayakers watched as they ended their trip with a phone call for a ride home.

We continued on our adventure, running into the 4 kayakers every once in a while. At the end of our route we came upon some beautifully sculptured river rocks with smooth scoop-outs perfect for sitting in. We relaxed here for a bit, discussing whether we should attempt the set of rapids, known as "The Ledges" something the 4 kayakers had alluded to. We decided to scout it out and agreed it was doable. We pushed into rapids with our oars and newly acquired broken paddles and successfully ran the rapids, bouncing along rocks and waves, hooting with great joy! It wasn't a huge set of rapids by most standards, but for an inflatable raft for 2, it was exhilarating!

The only downside to the afternoon was realizing we left the bike keys at the start. Thankfully we caught a ride to our car with a newlywed couple and picked up the bikes and raft on our way back. We enjoyed lunch & ice cream in North Woodstock, and stopped by Cascade Park behind RT 3 to watch a father and two sons barreling over the small set of falls on inflatable snow tubes. They looked pretty happy too!

Favorite Hiking Sandwich

If I'm on a 1 or 2 day hike, than you can bet I ate an egg & cheese on a bagel sandwich that morning, or there's one in my pack for lunch... or both! This old standby keeps me satiated and happy, winter or summer... and outside of pizza, its my favorite near-town trail food.

Recently, a kind co-worker of mine gave me a Hamilton Beach Breakfast Sandwich Maker. I have a variety of electronic kitchen gadgets including a panini maker, grilled sandwich maker, George Foreman Grill... so this easily fit into my kitchen acquisitions. When I first heard about the machine from another co-worker, I knew HB had hit upon a fabulous idea. What better than to make your own sandwiches, avoiding the early morning pickup at the dreaded Dunkin Donuts (when no local bagel place can be found). Even better, I can bring the machine to the motels or cabins I frequent in winter and make them on the spot that morning. So as long as I have 5 minutes of electricity, I can make my own yummy sandwich.


Breakfast Sandwich Maker
The day after the received the gift, I put it to good use in my home kitchen. It works in a few simple steps:

1. Plug it in to preheat, the green light will turn on when ready.

2. Add your bottom bread (mini bagel, english muffin, deli flat, croissant or frozen pancake) in the bottom compartment. Top with your favorite cheese, pre-cooked meat, or vegatables.

3. Close that bottom compartment revealing the egg tray. Crack you egg(s) in here or pour in your scramble. They recommend piercing the yolk for full-cookage.

4. Top the uncooked egg with the other bread piece. You could add a layer of choose or whatever here too.

5. Let it cook for 4-5 min. Before opening, slide the egg divider over so it falls onto the sandwich bottom, then open the maker and enjoy!

bottom bread and crumbled feta cheese
egg in the egg tray









It not only cooks the egg but also toasts the bread and warms up whatever other ingredients you pile inside within 5 min. Its very easy to disassemble, wash and dry. The machine itself is quite small, so it packs away on a shelf or cabinet easily. It has a non-stick coating that sort of keeps things from sticking, nothing a little butter can't fix. You can even cook frozen pancakes in it for a pancake & egg sandwich (its quite delicious if you haven't yet tried it).
finished sandwich