Hike to Lake Solitude (back side of Sunapee)

Friday, Oct. 27, 2017 - I wanted to revisit "the hike that started it all" (My 1st 4,000 footer - Mount Tecumseh - was on Sunday June 22, 2014). My "first hike" was up the backside of Mount Sunapee in New Hampshire 3 weeks earlier, on June 7, 2014 - there were blue blazes on the trees, and Lake Solitude was BEAUTIFUL:


as was the view from Mount Sunapee:


But this is not a blog about 3 years ago - it is a blog about TODAY!:

We started hiking about 11:15:

Andrew Brook was ROARING:

and Wendy did a GREAT JOB hiking up through the fall woods:

although it did get a little tricky crossing the Brook (many times!):


The "old-birch-tree-growing-over-the-moss-covered-boulder" was a nice touch:


The hike was "supposed to be" 2 miles up, and 2 miles back. After 2.65 miles (and over 2 hours) hiking up trails-that-were-streams-with-boulders, Wendy had had enough and stoped for lunch. I continued on a bit farther, and Lake Solitude was once again very beautiful:





We headed back down, and it was much faster going-down - we wound up doing 5.37 miles total in 4 hours 3 minutes:


It was a beautiful day for a Fall drive in New England, and we got home in time for dinner-before-church. Thank you God for these wonderful adventures!

Today, it was musc from my purple nano:

Dave Matthews Band - Live At Red Rocks 8.15.95 1997 live album (2 cds)


Jackson Browne - Lawyers In Love, 1983


Led Zeppelin - Houses of the Holy, 1973

NE 100 Highest - East Sleeper, New Hampshire

Thursday, Oct. 19, 2017 - The New England "100 Highest" - East Sleeper, New Hampshire:

There is always "another list". Having finished with the New England 4000 Footers (67 peaks), the "next list" is the New England Highest 100 - it consists of the "next highest" 33 peaks in New England. If you have been following my blog, you know that it is a "list I will not complete" - there was NO TRAIL to Fort Mountain (it is the far-upper-right black X). A new black X addition to the map (in the middle) is the Peak Above the Nubble - all its hiking descriptions include the word BUSHWACK!

The other 6 I have done (South Brother, Mount Coe, Mount Bigelow-South Horn, The Cannon Balls-NE Peak, Jay Peak, and Big Jay) are marked with red X's, and today's peak East Sleeper is in the purple circle. Today I hiked 13.31 miles in 5 hours 15 minutes:

The Google Earth view, looking up Downes Brook Trsil

The red in the upper-left is a hike I did in 2014 to Mount Whiteface. Here is a Google-Earth-screenshot of today's East Sleeper hike among other hikes I have done along the Kancamagus Highway (State Route 112) in New Hampshire:


After breakfast-in-Boston, I returned some cds in Winchester, then continued up 93 North. Stopped for coffee and gas in Tilton, New Hampshire, and to mail a postcard in Lincoln, New Hampshire. The Kanc has new blacktop, and is a BEAUTIFUL ROAD. Its a BEAUTIFUL day in New England! Parked at the trailhead, and started my hike at 12:25. Downes Brrok Trail is the "nicest trail I have ever been on":

(not "the BEST", or "the Most Rewarding", but just really really "NICE".)

The trail is generally an old logging road, running straight and true, and crosses over Downes Brook 9 TIMES:



and there are usually easy cairns to mark the brook-crossings:


Downes Brook Trail is 5.2 miles long, and for much of that goes right alongside Downes Brook. It ends at the Kate Sleeper Trail, which runs along the top of the ridge from Whiteface to the Pyramids:

There are some "blow-down" areas:


and one moss-covered, rock-climbing area


0.8 miles west, and you come to an unmarked path leading up to the right, to the summit (3:30 PM):


nice forest up there:


OK views from the blow-down areas:


But the hike was really about Downes Brook: looking upstream

and downstream

around 4 o'clock.

I made GREAT TIME heading down, and I finished the hike at 5:40. The sun was going down, and I was heading home!

Until I got 30 minutes down the road - my 2015 Honda Fit STOPPED WORKING as I was going up the hill next to Chocorua Lake:

It was like I "dropped the transmission" on the old BMW 2002tii (which I did coming out of Boston one Thursday morning on Route 1 North). The "engine" worked, but nothing was going to the wheels, either in Drive or in Reverse. I coasted back down the hill, with my red flashers on, and got to the side of the road. There was NO CELL PHONE SERVICE, so I just waited for 1 hour 30 minutes until a super-nice guy in a truck stopped and asked if I was ok. He let me use his phone (SURE, HE GETS RECEPTION!!), and I spoke with AAA. A tow guy was there 15 minutes later, and he towed me south to Tice's Automotive Services in Tamworth. It turns out that it is RIGHT NEXT DOOR to the Day's Inn I stayed at in August 2015!! So that's where I spent the night.

I'm certainly wondering how "car breaks down" fits into God's plans, but I still have to say "THANK YOU GOD for all these wonderful hiking adventures!!!"

Today, it was a morning for jazz:

Chick Corea Akoustic Band - Alive 1991 live album


Gary Burton, Chick Corea, Pat Metheny, Roy Haynes, Dave Holland - Like Minds, 1998


Chick Corea, Miroslav Vitous, Roy Haynes - Trio Music Live in Europe, 1986 live album


and then it was time for some Rock and Roll!!
various artists - Lipstick Hits, 2000


Jefferson Airplane - The Woodstock Experience, 1969 live

21-minute version of "Wooden Ships"!!!!

NE 100 Highest - Jay Peak and Big Jay, Vermont

Tuesday, Oct. 17, 2017 - The New England "100 Highest" - Jay Peak and Big Jay, Vermont:

There is always "another list". Having finished with the New England 4000 Footers (67 peaks), the "next list" is the New England Highest 100 - it consists of the "next highest" 33 peaks in New England. If you have been following my blog, you know that it is a "list I will not complete" - there was NO TRAIL to Fort Mountain 2 weeks ago!

(It has a black X on the above map.) The other 4 I have done (South Brother, Mount Coe, Mount Bigelow-South Horn, and The Cannon Balls, NE Peak) are marked with red X,s, and today's peaks Jay Peak and Big Jay are in the purple circle. Today I hiked 5.4 miles in 3 hours. This is what the gps-track looks like when MapMyWalk dies, and then is revived by plugging it into my car charger:

NOTE: I DID NOT BUSHWACK DOWN FROM BIG JAY!!!!

This is what the 2.7 mile one-way hike looks like::

The return is just back down the same trail.

It was a beautiful-but-cold morning - 36º as I drove through Reading at 7:15 AM! Four hours later, even with some clouds moving in, it was a beautiful day in Vermont:




On Route 242, just down from Jay Peak in Vermont, I stopped and saw a pretty little waterfall:



The trail up to Jay Peak is lovely - looking up the trail:

and looking back down the trail:

(the leaves are all turning/have turned here in Northern Vermont.)

You don't often see stairways while hiking in the mountains:


The stairway opens onto a ski slope:

with a really nice view east:


You continue up the ski slope:

, past the ice on the tree branches:


and get to the summit of Jay Peak:




The "mile" trail over to Big Jay (sorry - "herd path") is ok:

but it still took me about 45 minutes to get through the bogs and branches to get to the summit:



AND THAT'S WHEN MY iPhone Battery DIED!!!! I figured that I didn't need an extra battery for a hike of only 6 miles, but I guess I was wrong. An extra battery will always go with me in the future (one more thing to think about).

I retraced my path back down the mountains, and I finished the hike at 3, and with a stop to pick up a pizza and gas in Concord, NH, made it home a little after 7. THANK YOU GOD for all these wonderful hiking adventures!!!

Today, it was "music" in my orange nano:

I burned a copy of the 7-cd set A Call to Conscience: The Landmark Speeches of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

and listened to cds 3-through-7 today, beginning with his "I Have A Dream" speech (August 28, 1963 in Washington, DC) and ending with "I've Been to the Mountaintop" (April 3, 1968, Memphis, Tennessee, on the eve of his death). pretty powerful stuff, and maybe just as applicable today as it was then.

and of course I had to ROCK OUT on my way home!!

Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band - Hurricane Relief: Houston '78, 1978

Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band - Boston Aug. 27, 1999, 1999

I was there that night in Boston. EXCELLENT SHOW!!