Mt. Chocorua

It's Memorial Day weekend already - how did that happen? I've been itching to go hiking, and now that things are opening up again, I decided it was time. I decided I would drive from home to the trailhead without stopping, I wouldn't hang out at the trail head, I would stay 6 feet away from other people at the top, and after I would drive right home, or only stop in MA, near me. And that's just what I did!

I've driven past Chocorua a lot of times on the way to North Conway, and to other mountains that I've climbed. Every time I go up there, I look at it and think that it seems like a cool mountain to climb. It's pretty bald up top, and slabby. The peak is a rock that really stands out - it's bald and has a pretty interesting shape. It's not a 4000 footer, it's "only" 3475', but the loop hike I did was 8.6 miles, with 2700 feet of elevation gain (it starts in a valley), so it was harder than some of the 4000 footers out there!

Today was a perfect day for hiking - bluebird sky at first, and then these crazy awesome clouds came in when I was close to the top. I did a loop - the piper trail up, which is 4.2 miles and has some really cool slab to go up. There were a few spots with a snow monorail left, but no need for micro spikes (which I knew from other people's trail reports for previous days - thanks folks!). The first .6 mile I did in 11 minutes, and I felt pretty proud of myself and smug. The next turn off was .6 mile later, and I got there at 30 minutes. Then at was .8 mile to the next turn, and another like half mile to this cabin. I was really impressed with myself, because I got to the 2 mile point in an hour! But that's when things got dicey, and slowed down. The next bit to the cabin wasn't so bad, but then it was tough going, and my stomach alarm went off and I had to stop and eat something. In the end, it took me 3 hours to get up, which I felt pretty good about. Partly because there were switchbacks. I sat up top for about a half hour and enjoyed the view, and ate a cheese sandwich on this amazing honey oat bread that I've been making.

I sat looking at the view of the whites, and it was cool to know that I'd climbed the tallest peeks that I was looking at. Maybe this year, in addition to trying to do the last 5 solo, I will try to climb some of the subpeeks - I bet they'll be less crowded. There were a lot of people on Chocorua, probably a dozen passed me on the way up and the top was full. People were mostly keeping away from each other, it was a chill crowd (literally in some cases, there was a lot of bud on that mountain!)

I decided to do a loop because it looked like the downward part would be less steep, and I thought there would be fewer people going that way. I took Liberty to Hammond to Weetamoo to Piper, which is 4.4 miles - so just a little bit longer. It was super steep at the top, going down the first part took forever. I was using my hiking poles, and also trying to use my parkour moves, but the poles got in the way. Eventually I decided to put the poles away, and head down with parkour. I have to say, even though it took me 3 hours to get down, I still felt like parkour helped me to move faster. I got in some good tiktoks and definitely am better about trusting my feet and stepping on the balls of my foot instead of the heals.

By the time I was half way down, I was regretting doing an 8.6 mile hike for my first real hike of the season. Why don't I do a nice 6 mile, 2000 footer? My feet and legs were killing me! I wanted to just sit down and not walk any more - instead I tried to use gravity and run on gentle downhills so I could sit down sooner. One thing that I'm worried about is that I finally have almost grown my left toenail back - it fell off in a pool in Thailand in December, and it sooo close to being normal again. And it's really sore. If it falls off again, I'm going to be really bummed. Anyhow, it was a good hike, and I was so happy to see the parking lot, and my little Honda Civic.

There's another trail up the other side, Champney Falls, that's really popular. I think a lot of the folks today took that trail up - it's a little less elevation gain=2500 feet, there's a waterfall, and there are still switchbacks. It's 3.8 miles each way, 3.9 if you go to the falls (which I assume you should), so it would be almost a mile less than this route was. It's also an extra 25 or so minutes drive each way, it starts on the Kancamagus Highway (which is just fun to write). Probably a weekday hike one summer, if I ever have summer Fridays again (I bet they are going to be vacation days in the future).

Now that I'm done, I give it 2 thumbs up, but it's not an easy hike. Better for the second or third hike of the season. Final note, I made 8 full masks since I last wrote, plus cut a huge stack and did the first step in sewing them. No idea how many, I bet about 15. Anyhow, masks done, 129.

Masks

This isn't really a exercise update, though I did go for a walk on Crane's Beach this weekend (which was wonderful and made me wonder why I don't go to the beach more, especially since it's so close). I also did geriatric parkour - we have a new woman in our group who seemed pretty cool. I did yoga today. And, I've been learning to play the didgeridoo, because I have my brother's didj (as we didgeridoo players call it), and so I may as well try to play it. I think I'll try to go out at 7 every evening to play on the front steps. There are some people up the street who make a lot of noise every evening, it would be nice to join in.

I've been making masks, and I realized I should keep track of numbers, just to keep track. So, I've made:
1 for me
8 for my sister in CT
3 for my sister in MA
3 for my mom (who looses them)
5 for my sister's friends
2 for friends here
6 that I sent to MI
79 for my mom's peeps
14 that I dropped off at the library today

That's 121 total so far! Wow. I may be forgetting some. But I think that's a reasonable estimate.

Today at work they announced furloughs. I've never been part of a layoff or furlough, this was my first time. Right now, it's just for the month of July, and I am not affected. Out of our office of 30, they are only keeping 2 student facing people - I'm one of them, and the fellowships person is the other. I was really shocked, not that I wasn't furloughed because this is my busy time of year, but that they are basically closing up services for students for the month. I feel like there may be more furloughs coming, and that in the future ones I may not be working.

Wachusett Mountain

Sunday was another beautiful day! I slept in a bit, when to socially distant Parkour, and then to Leominster to hike Wachusett. We had a new woman in parkour - she usually does a more advanced class, so it was really nice to have her there to raise the bar. Holy cow - she can jump really far! I want to work on that, jumping far and landing with precision. I was talking about how parkour helped me with hiking, and could I say "I parkoured the fuck out of that?" I think I can. After class I climbed the wall that's there 10 times - I think I'm getting better at it. Climbing in my sneakers is becoming more comfortable, and I don't get scared at all, even though the wall is about 10 feet tall, and there's no cushion at the bottom.

After, I drove out to get a bigger hike in. Wachusett is a 2000 footer, with 750 feet of elevation gain on the trail that I did. I was thinking that I would go up to the top, over, down the other side, and then up again, so it would be 1500 feet of elevation gain, and much more like a mountain. But, it was hotter out that I expected, and I was low on fluids by the time I got to the top, so I just went back down. I did this nice little circle - up Stage Coach trail to Harrington which I took to the top. Harrington got pretty steep for a little bit at the end. Then I took Mountain House from the top to Jack Frost and then High Meadow to Echo Lake. The whole hike was probably a little over 3 miles and it took me a little over 2 hours, but I wasn't rushing. I felt good at the end, a little tired, but I could have hiked further (with fluids).

We still have no news about upcoming furloughs. Except we know that we could be part-time, not working or full-time, and our status could change with the amount of mission critical work that we have to do. And we will know about summer by May 15, but it seems very in the air, like at any time you could wind up having a change in status. Plenty to worry about!

On the bright side, the rhubarb is coming up in the garden, and I made the most delicious strawberry rhubarb tart last night. And then ate the entire thing! I will definitely make this recipe again, super easy and super delicious!!