Epic Butt Sledding Weekend

I went up to North Conway this weekend and stayed at my friends Greta and Eric's cabin. On Saturday Eric did some crazy intense ice climbing madness, and Greta and I took her dog and hiked Mt. Pierce. It's one of the 4000ers, a lower one at 4311 feet. The trail up was pretty gradual and through a really nice pine forest pretty much the entire way. The gradual but uphill part meant that I could keep up with Greta :)  It's about 3 miles each way. We started at 10 am and it took about 3 hours to get up.

The top had a totally amazing view of Mt. Washington. And a whole bunch of people :)  After I ate we headed down. We'd carried our butt sleds up. It turns out they are totally light, and I didn't even think about it being there. The way down took about 45 minutes.  It was so fun!  I made Greta go first, and Conway (her dog) ran down after her. There were a few sketchy spots, and a few times we got air bound. It had been way too many years since I last went sledding, it was just as great as I remember it as a kid!

I had so much fun that I decided to do another one today. Greta and Eric were going ice climbing, so I soloed it. I decided to do Doublehead because there is an old ski trail down it. It's shorter than Pierce, and the ski trail is wider than the path was. Doublehead, not surprisingly, has two peaks, connected by a ridgeline. I walked up the ski trail to the "Old Path" which was a little shorter than the ski trail to hike up. It was one of those paths that goes pretty much straight up the mountain with the occasional flat spot. The trail had been a sheet of ice, but then there was about 4 inches of snow last week. Parts of the trail were still super slick, and at one point I was pulling myself up with trees. I kinda questioned my decision making. Especially because, even though there were a bunch of cars in the lot at the bottom, I hadn't seen anyone on the way up. I finally got to the top of the ridge, and first went to the right .3 miles to the smaller peak. Nice view. Then down and back to the ridge, to the higher peak with the ski trail going down. That was the hardest part! I was a little sketched out by that time because it was so icy in some spots, and I was dragging myself up by the trees. There was no one around at all, and if I fell and hurt myself it would have been bad. Anyhow, I made it to the top, to this cabin up there. I had brought pop tarts to eat, they were SO good.

Then, sliding down! I didn't see anyone at the top, so I figured they were long gone. So, I better not run into a tree. The ski slope was about 10-15 feet wide. Anyone who skied it, in my opinion, is super brave. Some of it was really steep, there were some hairpin turns, a bunch of streams crossed it, and there were a couple fallen trees. It took me over two hours to get up, and about a half hour to go back down :) I did meet one guy hiking up, but that was all.

So, some tense moments, some really cool moments, not quite as fun as Pierce, but an outstanding way to spend the weekend!

Tonight's the last Downton Abbey. Sad, that was my only show, I need a new one.