Saturday morning

We had a hearty continental style breakfast including our first picked whitefish (yum!) along with more muesli and yogurt.  There was fruit and pastry and boiled eggs as well.  After fueling up it was time to hit the road. We debated taking the ferry from Stykkisholmer but the drive was the same length so we decided to drive and see the fjords. (foreshadowing). The first dirt road we were on was quite muddy and bumpy but pretty straightforward driving.

By this time, we had calibrated civilization.  Any group of 3 or more buildings was “town,” or any intersection or stopping point with a petrol station/small convenience store and a guest house (sometimes a home with an outbuilding, maybe 5 or 6 rooms) was a notable spot on the map and guidebook.  Most had “cakes” that we came to understand as any type of pastry, mostly danishes  (from the Danish influence), made with either wheat or oat flour, and some with rhubarb or nuts as a filling.  We later discovered one tasty item we tried was called “Happy Marriage” – an oat bar with jam.  Arugula, peas, lamb and fish were plentiful, but most other provisions were imported.  A few types of green-house grown vegetables, such as tomatoes, could be grown locally using the plentiful summer daylight and geothermal heating. It was best to not worry about the cost or exchange rate and just get whatever sounded best, since everything was very expensive compared to the US.

Upon making it to the north side of the peninsula we turned onto another dirt road. This one was being re-graded which narrowed the road to one lane. On trying to pass the grader, we slid sideways and got stuck in the soft dirt on the side of the road. I was unable to move the car. Fortunately the road was fairly busy and a car with 3 young men stopped to help us. As we were debating the best approach, a tour van driver who saw us slide off hopped out, barked some instructions, and had us back on the road in short order. The whole thing probably took less than 10 minutes but it was a little more excitement than I was looking for.

A little more dirt road and we were back on pavement. We stopped at a town which had an N1 (petrol) station. I figured out how to buy a petrol card since many of the stations around the country are unmanned and US credit cards (which have no European style PIN) do not work.

The station was also a grocery store and sold appliances. Kinda the main store for the whole “town” of approximately 1000 people, and reminded me of the store in Herscher, IL near our cousin Eric. One or two units of a variety of standard items (like frozen fish, packaged dinners, a small array of meat, lots of kinds of yogurt and cheese, and an aisle of pasta and dry goods  that could be reonstituted when boiled for a quick meal or camping), but very little produce. We were lucky to find some bananas and an apple and plums, picked up some fig bars, and a yummy Skyr yogurt drink and got back the road.

Our next destination was a major waterfall about 2.5 hours away. As we left town we quickly started ascending and had some great views of flowing rivers. There was no rain so visibiity was much better than the previous day. We stopped at a small waterfall to take some photos. Along the way, we saw plenty of sheep.  Most were mothers accompanied by two lambs, and the two lambs were good about running to mama when cars approached.  At one such instance, a confused lamb ran into its sibling and mounted it in the road instead of getting out of way.  Silly lamb! Finally they both cleared the road and we moved along.

Then we kept ascending and descending. Then the roads turned to dirt. Then we were driving on a narrow road along the walls of the many fjords. Climbing one side, heading over the summit, and then descending the other side. We headed up each valley, usually crossing a one lane bridge where the glacial river emptied into the fjord, then heading back up the wall of the opposite side of the fjord. It was challenging driving.

We finally got back on some pavement at a small gas station/restaurant/swimming pool where the road split to the waterfall and the other way to our hotel. We decided to go to the big waterfall called Dynjandi (good decision). It was another hour of narrow dirt road but this time the scenery was not fjords, but instead a rocky open landscape with very little plant life. There were still snowpacks in the north and west facing cliffs and glaciers in the distance. It was much more brown (and red from iron in the soil).

Finally we descended to the falls. One huge main head fall about 1km from the road descended several hundred feet to a series of smaller falls (all named) that emptied into the ocean. Unfortunately this was our first encouter with bugs – there were swarms of small flies. Brian took lots of pictures, and Susan was glad they had a WC at the parking lot. Never take petrol or bathrooms for granted in Iceland. Also refill or unload (or both!) each time you see one.

After walking around the falls and enjoying the invigorating mists, we headed back over the dirt road to the gas station and filled up again (with a WC stop and another oat “cake” for a snack) before heading toward the hotel. Halfway to hotel the road turned to dirt. We saw a sign advertising a bar and big screen TV showing soccer so we decided we would eat there rather than at our own hotel. We considered a nice bistro in a fishing village across the fjord, but it would have required an extra hour of travel and I was tired of dirt roads.

We checked into the hotel, which was a former boarding school. Our bedroom was a dorm room with an updated bathroom. The bed was also very comfortable (individual duvets again). Su took a short nap and we headed the 10 minutes down the dirt road to the next hotel for dinner.

Due to the continuing rainy weather, bad visibility and being tired of driving we decided to change Sunday/Monday plans. We booked a spot for the car on the ferry back to Stykkisholmer so we wouldn’t have to drive the winding mountain roads farther north, and then a long drive back on Monday. It was fun to do once and great scenery but I didn’t need to do it again so soon. At this point we did not have a hotel for Sunday night but figured we would be able to find one. Su picked out some things to do in the rain Sunday (explore town, go to the swimming pool) near Stykkisholmer, which is a huge town of 2000 people.

Dinner was just ok (fish and chips for Brian, shrimp fettucine for Susan) but we were ravenous. After dinner we both wished we’d tried the grilled salmon and vegetables, maybe next time.  We were joined at dinner by a large group of motorcyclist who were staying at the hotel’s block of rooms in a second building.  They were enthusiastic but polite, and it added an air of energy to the dining room.  The site also had camping in addition to outbuilding and the main Inn. After dinner I watched a few minutes of soccer in the bar before heading out to the evening entertainment – the Latrabjarg bird cliffs. We discovered that after dinner is the best time to go see Puffins, and with daylight extended nearly all night, there was no reason not to head over.  It was a 30 minute drive on narrow dirt roads (again!). The car by this point was filthy and I was exhausted from driving.

The bird cliffs are the westernmost point in Europe (not counting the Azores). Thousands of black birds (terns and other varieties of sea birds) and gulls nest on the cliffs. We managed to see 3 puffins, cute friendly quiet little birds compared with the others, and I again took many photos. The ground was amazingly soft and it was so quiet other than the crashing ocean and birds. We walked about 1km up the cliffs before turning around. We came back down to car and read about a famous shipwreck and heroic rescue by the townsfolk before heading to our hotel. At this point it was 2200 and the sun was still in the process of “setting.” The sky would have maybe turned red if we had stayed until midnight but we were sleepy.

Thursday evening
Despite taking the scenic route through Everett and Revere to avoid I-93 traffic, we arrived at the airport 1 hour earlier than needed. Check-in was fast and we headed to the Air France lounge for “dinner.” The food was ok, the lounge was crowded, we were sleepy and ready to start our adventure.

Boarding was delayed (late inbound aircraft) so we didn’t get settled until nearly 10pm. Economy Comfort meant a larger seat and access to the pre-flight lounge, but not much else. We tried to fall asleep right away. Susan slept the first half of the flight but I was cold. Got my sweater when she woke up and slept almost 2 hours before landing. On the other hand Susan had trouble getting comfortable and didn’t sleep much the second half of the flight.

The last sun we saw for 3 days was as we descended through the clouds to the airport at Keflavik. Upon landing we immediately took note of the huge fields of purple lupine that we would see over much of the countryside. We deplaned out on the tarmac and boarded a bus to the terminal. Customs was fast and baggage claim was fast. We had a short wait at the Hertz counter for our Yaris. We should have known the clerk’s insistence on our checking the car for scratches was foreshadowing for the roads to come.

Our Yaris was a 6 speed manual and drove nicely. It was early (~7:30am) so we decided to head into Reykjavic for some breakfast at a cafe. I signed up for a $10/day verizon international plan. We’ll see what the charges are once I get back home, but it seems to work great and we made good use of it during the trip to make reservations and look up information. I could use google maps for navigation and found the cafe and parking easily. We enjoyed a breakfast of yogurt, granola, and fruit and grabbed a muffin for the road.

After breakfast we walked back up the hill about a quarter mile to a giant stone Lutheran church with a statue of Leif Erikson in front. We had apparently chosen a cafe in the older, touristy section of town so we got to take in some sights. Lots of colorful houses, mostly metal or cement with little courtyards. There were many flower pots, some strawberries growing on a front stoop, and a number of little hot dog and pizza shops in the neigborhood. The town had a very European feel between the tight street, shops, and road signs. Road signs have been easy to read and my German is coming in handy for many nouns which have similar roots.

We drove toward Hotel Budir, our hotel.  After not getting much sleep on the plane and having a little breakfast, Su was ready to doze off, and slept a good 20 min on the way out of Reykjavik.  There was a long 6km tunnel on Hwy 1 north of Reykjavik on the way to Akranes. It started to rain, a consistent pattern during the weekend.  Once we got away from city/main road (Iceland 1), there were lots of sheep along the roads and a good number of horse farms. We appreciated Dan Dunn’s parting advice, “Don’t hit a sheep!” since evidently the car driver has to pay the farmer for the sheep, and with free range grazing, it would be challenging to find the farmer.  We fortunately only saw one dead sheep on the road, so it looks like most drivers are careful, and sheep generally skittered to the side of the road once the cars approached.

We got to the local mineral baths about 1130am but the internet was wrong and the baths didn’t open until 1300, so we headed to the hotel. Our room was not ready so we changed clothes in the WC and headed to a cliff/ocean walk. It was raining fairly heavily with winds from the ocean, so we were damp on the way out, and soaked on the way back. Saw a ton of troll stones (rock formations that looked like trolls and had signs and names), lots of moss and small wild flowers and a few birds. We even saw an arctic fox from a close range. He was wet and on top of a short rock formation just off the trail. He scampered off pretty quickly once he saw us but I managed to snap a very quick photo. The hike was through an old lava flow so lots of volcanic rocks, some mixed with stones smoothed by the ocean water. Everything was so green. So many shades of green.

Afterward, we decided it was a great time to warm up at the swimming pool and drove straight there.  We paid admission and rented towels. As the sign and and attendant reminded us, you must shower first without your suit. It is demanded, in the kindest Icelandic way, as they don’t use chemicals in the baths, just the natural minerals.  This one was special due to the amount of iron, calcium, and healthful algae that grew in it.  There was one large swimming pool and two smaller round tubs. The pool was cooler (but still quite warm, over 90 degrees F) and the tubs hotter ~38C. The water smelled of iron and there was lots of algae growing on the bottom/stairs that made it very slippery, but also made it feel more natural. We chatted with a family from NJ who had vacationed in Iceland at least 11 times, and said how nice this pool was compared with the commercialization of Blue Lagoon which we had missed because we couldn’t get a reservation.  Nice and warm, we showered off and happily climbed into the car. But alas, on the way back to the hotel, Su realized she left her suit hanging in the changing room, so we had to drive back for 3rd time that day before heading to hotel. We noted that our skin was glowing like after a mud bath/massage.

We checked in and got an 1830 dinner reservation. Our room was on a corner of the inn so we had a great view of the river flowing into the ocean. But unfortunately it really clouded up and started raining more, like being in a cloud of mist, so there was low visibility.  We didn’t get to see Snaefellsnes glacier at all despite being so close.

After snacking during the day, but not sitting down for a meal in over 24 hours, we were ready for a nice dinner.  We were the first ones in the dining room to start, and picked a nice bright spot by the window. Brian started with cod cheeks (a local delicacy we’d read about) and Susan had cauliflower soup, which was delightful. We were disappointed that the catch of the day was catfish, so we passed on that and instead both had lamb with spring herbs (pea tendrils, green onions and something resembling anise pods), peas and yummy potato cakes. Brian had two different icelandic beers. One an organic pils which was very good (must be the crisp Icelandic glacier water?) and a red ale that was quite sweet. At one point during dinner Brian stopped and said “listen” – the muzac was an Icelandic rendition of “We don’t have to take our clothes off,” kind of an odd choice for dinner music. By 20:00 there were maybe 8-12 more people dining but we were ready to sleep!

We sat in the cozy lounge for a little while, with only Igor the sleeping dog and one man talking on his cell phone as company.  It would have been a great place for an after-dinner drink if Su had been drinking and we were less tired.  We finally agreed that it was late enough to stave off jetlag and head back to the room around 2100. Brian had managed to stay awake the whole day. We both fell sound asleep and slept 10 hours. We had a full size bed and each person had an individual duvet.

I still had some nervousness, but was much calmer than most races.  I think having Brian and Isaac around helped, as well as it being a much smaller race than I have done in a long time.  It was reminiscent of high school cross-country races, with a little bit of catching-up with other runners, friendly banter about the course’s hills and turns, and general enjoyment to be out running on a beautiful morning.  I did a few laps on the track to warm up and work out the nervous energy, went to check on Isaac and Brian at the playground, and then did one more lap with some pickups to get my legs moving.  Without much fanfare, we lined up at the blue tent indicating the starting line, Brian with the stroller toward the back, and me running solo near the front.

I had decided to run this event based on feel, and not use a watch.  I wore the Garmin for data collection purposes, but didn’t glance at it once (which turned out to be hard to resist!).  I just kept asking myself if I could go harder, and listened to what was limiting – catching my breath, leg turnover, muscles, mental state?  When the horn went off, I took of at a sprint like the rest of the front runners.  It was fun to tear out of the parking lot and down the road.  After about a quarter mile, I settled in, checking on those around me.  A group of girls from Team Run (affiliated with the sponsoring running store) were leading the pack, and I was a reasonable distance behind.  I tried to keep tabs on the top women other than the youth team, and felt like I was probably running around 3rd to 5th.  I ended up pacing most of the time with Alex, a super kid with amazing talent – can you believe he’s only 8!  I towered above him and felt bad several time when I was literally breathing down his neck.  I’d pass him on the down hills, while he had an edge on me when going up hill (size and I’m just not in hill shape yet), exchanging a few words of encouragement here and there.  Mostly I was breathing too hard to talk and be social, even though there were several other guys running about the same pace as we were.

A 5K still seems to go way too fast.  There’s no settling into a pace or clicking off the miles – it’s go out hard, try to stay focused, and finish strong!  It was easy to know how far we had left when we started cruising back up the road, and once we entered the track, there was 300m left to go.  I had been closing on another woman in my sights, and thought I might be able to catch her with a burst of speed.  Unfortunately, speed has never been my strong suit, and this day was no exception, so I wasn’t able to catch her, and in fact got passed with about 100m to go by another woman despite a pretty good push at the end, at least for me.  I finished in 23:11, almost a minute faster than my last 5k, and sub 7:30 pace.  Improvement is good!

I walked through the short chute and grabbed a water, tried to catch my breath, and turned around to see Brian and Isaac finishing right behind me!  Brian was going to take it easy, but evidently he was feeling spunky with the stroller, coming in at 24:46.  The full race results are here.

Since they had age group awards, and it was a small race, I knew I had placed.  So we hung out on the track, grabbed refreshments, and let Isaac run around to his heart’s content until the awards ceremony.  The sun was warm and it was so nice to just be out among other local runners.  Isaac decided to get in his own workout, so cute to see him on the track!

If you can’t see the video below, here is the link: Isaac running track!

No need to beware the ides of March in this case, as we all had great races and a lot of fun.  There were about 500 runners in the 5K and another 500 in the 10 miler, so a fairly large number of people were pulling into John Prince Park as the sun was starting to rise.   It was a relaxed but well organized race with plenty of facilities, space to warm up and stretch, and of course awesome weather.  Many of the Floridians were wearing their long sleeved, bright lime race shirts, but our group opted for short sleeves or tanks.  With a race time temperature of about 70 degrees, it was pleasantly warm, with a slight drizzle that seemed to evaporate as soon as it touched our skin.

We decided to each run our own race.  Leslie knew the crowd, found a spot at the start that felt comfortable for her, and avoided some of the weaving. Brian, Sarah and I all paced closely together for the first mile, weaving through the crowd (despite Leslie’s suggestion that we should move up at the start line.  Lesson learned.)  The course was along a recreational path along the water, really pretty with plenty of turns to keep it interesting.  The crowd was a little congested at the start, but after the first mile it was mostly single file, with enough people to have someone to pace with you, or someone just ahead to target for passing.

As Brian predicted, I went through the first mile at a 7:45, with Brian and Sarah a few seconds back at sub-8s as well.  I held on for a 7:45 second mile, and stuck to nearly the same pace with a 7:48 3rd mile and 44sec last .1 for a 24:03.  I heard a spectator cheering on a woman just ahead of me, telling her she was placing in her age group.  And she looked about my age.  Sure enough, 3rd in my age group was just 5 seconds ahead of me.  Lesson #2, don’t forget about being an “age grouper” now, those few seconds of weaving or loss of focus can count!

Brian  came through shortly after in 24:21, with Sarah right behind at 25:23.  We had just enough time to walk back to the 3 mile mark and see Leslie coming through, so we could cheer her through the finish too.  We did a leisurely cool down, stretch, and snacking before heading back to the car.  It always feels good to have done a race and have your whole Saturday ahead of you at 9am!

I had not run a 5k in a very long time.  It is just as short as I remember it, hardly time to get into a groove before the race is over.  It’s all about starting out hard and pushing yourself the whole way.  My limiting factor as this point is that my core muscles still have not recovered from pregnancy/childbirth, so getting them toned up will be a focus for the coming months.  I also experimented with caffeine, which I have not really had since February of 2012.  I had nearly a cup of coffee before we left for the race.  It was hard to tell if I was affected by normal race butterflies or if the coffee caused a bit of distress, but I don’t think I’ll be resuming consumption of regular coffee again quite yet.

Overall, a really fun day, I would definitely come back next year, and maybe try the 10 miler!

Peak #13 Passaconaway Mar 28, 2006
This doesn’t technically count as a winter hike but easily could. I hiked this one solo. The trail was packed snow and ice so I did a lot of postholing and careful scrambling. This was before I learned about the wonders of yaktrax, crampons, and online trail reports.

Ice on the trail

Presidential range still snowed in

Peaks #14 Mt. Field and #15 Mt. Tom May 3, 2006
A three day hiking trip with hiking buddies Steve and Rich. Day 1 Steve and I drove up together and warmed up by hiking part of the Mount Jackson trail. Steve had brought an extra pair of crampons for me to use and boy did they make a difference. Lots of postholing.

Day 2 all three of us hiked the Avalon, Field, Tom loop. Steve and Rich did not want to go up Mt. Tom as it had been a long tiring day in the snow and ice already so Steve made me a bet. If I could get up Mt. Tom, back down, and catch them on the trail before they got to the car, he would buy wine at dinner. They set out going straight back and I had wine on my brain and charged up Mt. Tom. I caught them just below snowline as they were taking off their crampons and greatly enjoyed my free wine that night. This was also the first time I’d ever seen a moose in the wild. At dinner, a large moose wandered into the field outside the Highland Lodge to graze.

It was a little wet

Peak #16 Whiteface May 7, 2006
Hiked with Susan who thinks this may have been one of her very first hikes back in college with a friend from WILG. A little snow still at the top but mostly clear.

Peak #17 Tecumseh August 5, 2006
Hiked with Susan. It’s a short fast mountain. Here are my trail notes from that day:
1:45 up, 1:10 down. Su and I. Gorgeous 80 degrees and not very humid. Hike was like a giant stairmaster.

Reporting for duty!

Peak #18 Hale October 21, 2006
Did this hike with the Susan and all 3 (at the time) Sheldons. It was early season snow and while the trail was easy the Sheldons had to turn around early after Max took off his mitten and threw it out of the backpack which wasn’t noticed until later when Max started crying and they had to turn back. It was still a fun time and a beautiful day.

Snow in Crawford Notch

Dan and Max

Susan near the summit

Peak #19 Jackson May 26, 2007
Hiked with Susan. A short hike on a lovely spring day. Nice views of the notch and north to Washington.

Mt. Washington from Jackson summit

Peak #20 Carter Dome June 14, 2007
I solo hiked this on a long, long day. I hiked in 19 mile brook trail to Carter Notch hut, climbed Carter Dome, and came down the Carter Dome Trail. The hike from the hut to Carter Dome was incredibly steep. The picture is from the trail down to the hut I had just stopped at. This was also my first hike on Carter Ridge and I was amazed how great the views were of Mt. Washington to the west and of Maine to the east.

I came from down there?!

Peaks #21 North Kinsman and #22 South Kinsman June 21, 2007
Hiked with my buddy Brian. One of my most memorable hikes. I had never hiked with Brian before but knew that he did a lot of outdoors type stuff. He worked with Susan so I knew him socially but we were not yet really friends. We decided to hike the Kinsmans going up Fishin’ Jimmy trail. We had a great, long hike up and turned around to come back down. I had been leading so I let Brian lead on the way back down. Big mistake. I did not realize he was navigationally challenged although he would have freely admitted it if I had asked him. We ended up taking a wrong turn and when I realized it and checked our map we were already hiking on a fun trail with a short series of peaks called “The Cannonballs.” We finished our hike, extra miles and hills and all, had a good laugh, a good burger at a place Brian showed me, and a friendship was forged. However, whenever we are outdoors together, I navigate!

Peaks #23 Hancock and #24 South Hancock July 12, 2007
I did this as a solo hike mostly to knock it off my list. Not a lot of great views, just some pretty wooded trail. The memorable thing about that day was finding a huge “sign” on the ground made out of sticks pointing someone named Ann in a particular direction near the trail split.

I’m going to split this post into four parts since there are so many memories and photos I want to share. As I went back through the photos I had to make some changes to the “official” ordering of my list as some of the old photos confirmed that I had in fact hiked a peak well before I recorded it after re-hiking it later.

This is Part 1
Part 2 (coming soon)
Part 3 (coming soon)
Part 4 (coming soon)

First White Mountain hike: Back in Spring of 1995 or 1996 my girlfriend and I went to the White Mountains for the very first time. I attempted to hike Mt Lafayette having no real gear or idea what the conditions would be like. This was early in the internet and there was no website with current trail conditions and trip reports like exists today. I remember trying to borrow boots from my friend Chris but in the end I think I opted for tennis shoes. I also wore jeans and had to borrow a pack. I also had to rent a car in order to make the 3 hour trip north. We made it as far as Greenleaf Hut which is about 1000 feet below the summit all the while scrambling up icy slides in our tennis shoes. Needless to say we did not reach the summit and slid most of the way back to the car on our butts. Nevertheless I had a great time and my interest in hiking in the Whites was born.

So young, so clueless

#1 and #2 – Lafayette and Lincoln: Later in 1995 or 1996 I went back with my friends Chris and Dan to do that same hike. I don’t know exactly when we hiked it and I don’t have any photos but I remember it being a grey, rainy, and wet day on Franconia Ridge. We hiked up the Old Bridle Path, had lunch crouched behind a rock on the ridge, and hiked down Falling Waters trail.

#3 – Moosilauke I’d forgotten that I did this hike in 1999 with Chris until I went looking for photos and discovered one of Chris and I at the Moosilauke trailhead. Initially I thought when I did this hike in 2004 with Steve it was my first time. What I do know about the Moosilauke hike with Steve in 2004 is that was the first time I was made aware of the 4000 foot list. Steve was working on completing his 48 at the time and told me about it. At that point I started tracking what I had hiked.

Lunch with Chris in 1999

#4 – Cannon Another double hike! As my discovered photos indicate I did this hike with Chris and Tenille in the summer of 1999. However I didn’t remember that until November of 2011 when I hiked Cannon in the snow with Susan, Steve, and Erik. When I got to the tram station and ski lifts at the top a flood of memories came back from that day in 1999. The vivid memory other than the ladders pictured below are of coming off of a relatively secluded trail and finding 11ty billion tourists on the top who had ridden the tram up from the base station.

Tenille and Chris on the ladders

Steve and Susan in the snow in November 2011

#5 – Osceola I have no photos of this trip. Sometime in 2001, Susan and I hiked Osceola. Since I wasn’t keeping track of my peaks yet I’m not sure if we hiked East Osceola in 2001 or not. This would prove to be a problem later as when I went back to officially hike East Osceola as my 25th peak in 2008 I got bit by a tick and ended up with a nasty illness that took about 4 months to recover fully from.

#6 through #12 – Presidential Traverse! One of the classic New England hikes. This is an approximately 20 mile hike over the alpine peaks of the Presidential Range in the White Mountains. I did this hike with Susan and Dan (in body) and Steve (in spirit since his body was at home recovering from kidney stones). We did this hike over 4 days and hiked Pierce, Eisenhower, Monroe, Washington, Jefferson, Adams, and Madison. Day 1 was a short hike up to the Mizpah Spring Hut. Day 2 took us to Lake of the Clouds Hut which we got to right before a huge storm rolled through, Day 3 took us to Madison Hut and day 4 we hiked out. The weather was clear all of the days except for the storm while we were safely in our 2nd hut.

I hope I can do this hike again someday. One of my favorite things in the world is to walk along an exposed ridge line and this is the longest stretch of exposed ridge I can think of in New England.

Susan near Lake of the Clouds Hut

Why do they call it Lake of the Clouds?

The summit of Mt. Washington is cold at 9am, even in August

Mt. Washington and Great Gulf Wilderness from the north

Morning on Mt. Monroe

Part 2 (coming soon)

Our friends threw us a party last weekend, a mix of typical shower fare of nice tea, finger sandwiches and bite-sized desserts, with overalls and mason jars for the “Cletus” theme.  CletusFest was a fun preparation for baby’s arrival, with lots of advice and a practical array of gifts, which as requested were in most cases gently used by the experienced parents in the bunch.  We are so fortunate to have generous friends and family!

We just passed the 38 week gestation mark.  When asked once again whether I’m having Braxton Hicks contractions or feeling any different, I said no.  Then when Kim was checking out the baby’s position, she noticed that my abdomen was very hard – pointing out that I was having one right then!  So now I know what they feel like, and I’m trying to do a better job hydrating (especially at work).  But it’s also comforting to know that my body’s getting ready for labor.  We’re excited that baby *could* arrive any day, even though it’s likely to still be a few weeks.

So while we were putting away some things in the nursery, Brian decided to practice diapering.

Brian is very serious about diapering the teddy bear

And I tried on the Baby Bjorn, with the assistance of the Pink Bear.

the pink bear enjoys being held in the Baby Bjorn

This week’s plans are to install the car seat, send in our absentee ballots, and keep doing our normal activities as we enjoy this time together before baby arrives.  Stay tuned!

First radishes of 2012

Here is the bed with radishes in the top left, parsnips are in the right side of that row, carrots in the middle, and beets at the bottom.

Radishes, parsnips, carrots and beets

Several other plants have set their fruit.  The first hot pepper:

First hot pepper

The first bell pepper:

First bell pepper

And the first tomato:

First tomato

The beans are looking strong and have a few flowers. Brian says they are almost ready to “hill.”

Green Beans

The lettuce and chard are holding their own despite the hot weather we’ve had the past couple weeks.

Chard, kale and lettuce

The two disappointments are due to late plantings: our little spinach plants that are going to seed as soon as they get 4 leaves up, and the kale is only sparsely germinated.  We’ll be doing 2nd plantings of these later in the summer for fall harvest.

In other news, “Cletus” is continuing to grow, so far right on target for size based on due date.  It’s a lot bigger than when we last took a peek; this time the head takes up the whole ultrasound screen.  Here’s a profile from the 21 week ultrasound:

Profile of little Juddmansee

And one of our favorite survey shots, the leg:

Future middle distance runner

Though it was hard to capture in still photos, we got a nice view of a hand grabbing a foot, all four chambers of the beating heart, and the umbilical cord (it looks like a chain of bubbles).

Last night we discovered that “Cletus” is not much of a fan of fireworks, or else there was some really complex choreography that it thought should accompany the rhythmic booms at Canobie Lake last night. Brian and I got to feel constant motion for 15 mins straight, not just a couple kicks! I suppose if the little one can feel/hear the sounds but not see the spectacular visuals, it would be a bit disconcerting.  We hope that our hands on my belly helped provide a little comfort and reassurance.

My goal for June is to improve my consistency and continue to hit my mileage targets.

44
Since learning about it several years ago, I’ve been working on hiking the 48 peaks in New Hampshire that are 4000 feet or higher. On Sunday, Susan and I decided to go hiking and knock another peak off of the list. We chose Wildcat (D and E peaks) to be my 44th of the 48 4000 footers.

There are two main routes to access Wildcat D. One is a long, though pleasant, hike in along 19 mile brook before ascending to Wildcat Ridge and hiking across the A, B, and C peaks to reach the D peak. Since we had already hiked that end of the ridge we opted for the more direct route. Of course, more direct means more vertical in a shorter amount of time. After setting out from the car and crossing the Ellis River (pictures of Su crossing the river on the way down later) we immediately started up the New England version of a stairmaster.

Believe it or not, this picture was taken in one of the easier, more level, sections of the trail.

Susan ascending Wildcat Ridge trail

The trail continued ascending steeply with occasional short steep descents mostly in woods with annoying flies for the next two miles. Just when it seemed like the short hike (ha, short) would never end we hit the top of the ridge, descended briefly to the ski gondola station at the top of Wildcat Mountain, and were rewarded with a great view of Mt. Washington across Pinkham Notch.

Mt. Washington from Wildcat Ridge Trail

Wait, we could have taken a gondola to the top?

Not a bad reward for a lot of work

At the top we snapped a few photos, devoured our sandwich, and liberally reapplied bug repellent. Apparently I got some on the lens of my camera as a lot of my later photos are blurred. Oh well, better than being eaten alive.

The descent went much more quickly than the ascent and despite being hard on the legs didn’t leave us nearly as winded. One final crossing of the Ellis River and we were back at the car and off for a well deserved burger on our ride home.

Ellis River crossing

The obvious place to put the garden in the back yard is off to one corner behind the driveway. Because of the trees around our property and the location of the house this is about the only spot that gets sufficient sun to grow any hot weather crops. The problem with this location is that the previous owners had used it for some other purpose and it was covered with stones, weed cloth, a layer of pea gravel, and finally a layer of decomposing plastic. Before we could plant we’d need to clear the area.

Moving enough stone so that we could think about putting down the beds took a week or two. During that time, I started looking for lumber to build the beds out of. The best materials to build raised beds out of appeared to be cedar or redwood as they are both naturally water and insect resistant. Unfortunately in the northeast it is hard to find these woods in rough cuts. Most of the cedar gets made into deck material which is substantially more expensive than rough cut lumber. I managed to find one mill in southern New Hampshire that had enough 2×6 rough cut cedar to make six 4 foot by 8 foot beds.

The lumber arrived but still needed to cut to length to assemble. The design I chose was to build two 4 foot by 8 foot frames out of 2×6 and to stack them on top of each other and held together by 4x4s in the corners. I enlisted the help of my friend Dan to help cut and assemble the beds. This was a bit of an adventure as my selection of tools was somewhat limited. I did not have a lot of garage/workshop space in Newburyport and kept my tool collection pretty small. Fortuantely, I do own an electric chainsaw which turned out to work the best for cutting the boards down to size.

Once the beds were built and the gravel was cleared enough to place the beds it was time to order loam. Seven yards of loam arrived last Friday in a pile on our driveway. The weather was going to be sunny and warm Saturday and Sunday with rain on Monday so we had two days to get the beds placed, leveled, and filled.

Placing and leveling the beds turned out to be quite a bit of work as the area we were working in has a bit of slope as it went towards the back of the yard. Also, once the beds were placed we had to finish making sure all the plastic was removed from the bottom of the beds. The 2 back beds required digging down another three inches or so in order to get all the plastic out. Finally once the beds were in place we had to move stone back around the beds to use as walkways. By Saturday afternoon we had all 6 beds placed and leveled.

After the beds were placed and leveled we went to the local Agway to pick up some composted manure to give the loam a little boost. Who knew you could fit 1000 pounds of manure in the back of a car? In the future we will use compost from our backyard composter to enrich the soil.

Sunday morning we got up early and finished pulling plastic out of the bottom of the beds. We then filled each bed with loam to about 6 inches from the top, then added and inch or two of composted manure, and then topped it off with loam.

We finally finished up about 5pm on Sunday and were completely exhausted. In the end we ended up moving about 6.5 yards of loam (or about 16000 pounds) in a wheelbarrow in addition to all the stone that we also had to shovel. We’re both sore today, but it looks like we’ll be able to actually plant this week! Future tasks will include putting up fencing to keep deer out and figuring out how to adjust the yard sprinklers to hit the garden but for now, SUCCESS!