Bear! On Hedgehog

I went to NH for the weekend and stayed with my friends at their cabin. On Saturday we went climbing on white horse ledge. Today, I hiked Mt. Hedgehog where I saw a bear!

My friend and I did beginner route on whitehorse. She led and I had two ropes, and didn't freak out at all, even though we did 5 pitches! Largely because it was a 5.3, and so it actually wasn't really difficult, even for me and I haven't been climbing very much over the past two years. It was pretty cool to do 5 pitches - that's pretty high, although one was a little tiny pitch. One of the pitches had a really nice crack in it - I usually don't love crack, but even I have to say that this was a awesome one!

At the end of pitch 5 we had to leave, and we repelled down one pitch, and then my friend thought there was a trail in the woods. Nope. We bush wacked out, me sliding on my butt. Super fun, and good way to do a little high climbing without terror.

Today I decided I wanted to get in a hike - I was trying to decide which one, and finally settled on Hedgehog because I would never just drive all the way up there for a 5 mile hike. Looking at the map, most of the uphill was in the first 2 miles, and then it was a gradual stroll down. I have to say, all trails let me down this time, though I guess it was my own fault. I got to the top and didn't realize it was the top, and barely caught the view. There was another spot that looked like the top of the mountain, but I think it was actually one of the tripyramids. I was so scared I would have to go up it, I didn't pay close attention.

But, to make up for not really taking in the view, I did see my first bear while hiking! I was getting close to the bottom of the mountain, and I heard this loud >crash< in the woods. I was thinking it must be some kind of big animal, when I saw the bear in the woods. It was pretty big, and bear shaped. I tried to get my camera to take a picture, but then realized it was coming towards me. It was just sauntering along, bear-like, and I thought "oh shit, that bear is close" and I said "hey there, bear." It looked up and saw me, and I think it though "oh shit, that human is close" and it took off running away from me. I was pretty relieved, and just to make sure it really went away, I yelled "run away bear, run away!" And then I skedaddled on down the trail. It was actually pretty close to the end, but clearly shy about people. After, it was pretty awesome. 

There's a new(ish) restaurant on the Kanc called "Cheese Louise" and they have artisanal grilled cheese sandwiches. I got one with two cheese and tomato soup. It accidentally had bacon on it, and I ate it anyhow! (it would have just been thrown away if I didn't eat it and that would be sad for the poor pig). It was delicious and I think I need to make Cheese Louise a regular part of my trips in that area.

Silent Dance

I went to a silent ecstatic dance this evening - it was so fun! The dance was by Pleasure Bay, which I have driven past before, but I guess I never realized how nice it is. There's like a whole beach right in the city - like miles of it! How have I lived here this long and not realized it?? I guess the area was closed down due to poor water quality when I moved here, and I just decided I was a North Shore gal when it came to beaches.

Anyhow, the dance itself isn't silent, they give you headphones and there's a DJ (who also could have been a 1970's porn star) who plays music. You take off your shoes and dance in the sand, but people walking by can't hear the music. It was so fun! The thing about it is no one cares how you dance, you don't have to have a partner, you just do your thing. I went with two friends, and we jumped into the water and swam around for a little while. 

The beach is really close to the airport - there was a pretty constant flow of really low planes, but with the headphone on your couldn't really hear them.

We got there around 6:30 and danced until the sun set, and then we meditated for about 15 minutes, and went home. A really good way to spend a Friday night.

Mt. Lafayette via Skookumchuck Trail

It's been a while since I've done a 4000 footer, let alone a 5000 footer. I was going to do one over July 4 weekend, but then instead I was a complete blob and lay on my couch instead. So, today was the day! I've been wanting to do the Skookumchuck Trail for a while - it goes up Lafayette, but supposedly almost no one uses it. It turns out that is true - while there were a million people on top of Lafayette, I only saw about a dozen on the trail up, probably about half trail runners. I don't think it was as pretty as Falling Waters, etc, but it was a much more zen experience.

I managed to get up a little before 7, and was out the door by 7:15. When I got in my car, the tire sensor went off, which was really annoying, but I stopped and put air in my tires and discovered the sensor was right - they were low on air! My car is about to reach 100,000 miles - yikes! It has less than a thousand miles to reach the big milestone. On the way back the passenger side airbag light kept coming on - I guess if the worst thing is some sensors, that's not too bad.

Anyhow, I got to the parking lot at about 9:30, which wasn't bad. It was so empty, which was crazy because they were sending people to a backup lot at the other trail. These two trail runners got there as I was putting on my shoes - apparently they were just finishing! They had started at like 6:30, gone up to Lafayette, down the trail by the hut, to a second car. Crazy!

I thought the trail was pretty hard - not at first, the first 1.8 miles was pretty easy - there was even some downhill. The trail follows the highway for the first mile or so, and you can hear the cars. Then it hits a pretty brook that drowned out the noise. At mile 1.8 there are stairs - a lot of stairs. I think it was the highest grade of the hike. After you hit that set of stairs, it gets real. Mile 3 has the most uphill - none of it too killer, but relentless until you get close to the tree line. 

I was getting so hungry by this point, I had to stop and have a snack - I had a bunch of nuts which were very good. As I got to the top, I saw this woman, wearing jeans and very new boots, she was moving even slower than me - I actually passed her! I got to the ridge in about 3 hours. I do like a good ridgeline usually, but I was so hungry I wasn't sure I could make it to the top without eating - and in fact after realizing that what I thought was the summit of West Lafayette was a false summit, I had to sit and eat some sugar. Then I made it up West Lafayette where I had a cheese sandwich with avocado,  a pickle, and some more nuts. I was so hungry I was shaky, and for a bit I thought about not going to the top. But then I remembered that I had climbed Lafayette for my 50th, and I'm going to have my 55th (how did 5 years go so fast?) in two weeks. And I was all "Is that it? 55 and I can't do these hikes?" So of course I had to, and I was so glad I did! It wasn't that hard to get to the top, the view was amazing - there were all these puffy clouds that were so low you could almost touch them - but not really. As I was eating a glider plane flew overhead and it was just so nice. I love how you can see the hut on Lafayette, and it looks so small. I hung around for an hour or so up top between the two summits (I had an orange on Lafayette, and it was delicious!) then I headed down.

Down was so much easier for me on this one - the trail wasn't too rocky, and I used my parkour skills on the rocks there were. I didn't move particularly fast, but I outpaced this guy who was behind me. Except, I ran out of water! Not good - I had my water filter and all, but I had to hike a full mile to get to any water, and then my filter didn't work! It's a new one - I guess it's possible that I wasn't using it right, but not sure how that could be. I was really sad - the water was just trickling out. I got a little to drink, but not as much as I wanted. By the time I really had a water bottle full, I was about a mile from my car, and decided not to get it all filtered. When I got back to the car it was in the sun and the one bottle of water I had was so hot I couldn't drink it. I stopped at a convenience store and got lemonade and an ice cream pop. They were really good.

All and all a good hike for a day that you don't want to be around others, but want to do Lafayette. I think I might go back to the traditional route to do it again.

Swam Crawl to the Point without stopping!!

Super exciting accomplishment today - I swam all the way to the point without stopping! It was a super hot day today and there were a million people on the beach. When I got into the water I reached the edge of the people and just started swimming - it felt pretty easy. Unlike what I usually do, I didn't count my strokes, I just swam, and it was effective. I could see the shore going by, and I started to realize that I could get out to the point - I kept pushing for it, and I made it! Then I stopped and breathed for a while cause it was hard. It took about 10 minutes, which I felt OK with. 

It was a super windy day (I was actually swimming into the wind to the point). Once I started across the water I could really feel the waves pushing me around. It was kind of intense. I was glad that I swim with a buey, even though I didn't need it, it was nice to have there. I did use it for a couple rests. The way back was really hard because I was swimming parallel to the waves, and I think I was also a little tired from my 10 minute swim. 

After swimming I got to take out my friend's inflatable paddleboard. It was so frustrating going into the wind, but then on the way back I didn't even need to paddle, I just stood up and the wind brought me back.

We had another pizza party on the beach. I managed to only eat two slices of pizza!