In two days I head to the White Mountains for a solo hiking trip. My original plan was to do Mt. Washington, with the driving force being completely disconnected for at least a short while ( < 48 hours ). Subconsciously, I think doing Mt. Washington would be a memorial trip as well to my Dad. He and I climbed the mountain several times when I wasn’t even a teenager, and I’ve always associated it with him (the only other mountains we climbed were Monadnock and Katadhin). I haven’t climbed Washington in about 18 years, my last trip being with some co-workers at Corporate Software/Stream.
Then I read a post on boston.com about an author who wrote a book called “Following Atticus”. For some reason I looked up the book [Following Atticus: Forty-eight High Peaks, One Little Dog, and an Extraordinary Friendship (P.S.)], and found it to be highly interesting to me at this time of life. And then I got the notion about maybe tackling the white mountain 4,000 foot mountains. Maybe I could put this down as a goal for my 40’s.
Then the trip up Washington became questionable. I’ve already done that mountain, do I really need to do it again? I could do a different loop, come up the West side and hit Monroe as well as Washington in one trip.
Based on a mention in the Atticus book I got a book [The 4000-Footers of the White Mountains] that outlined all of the mountains in the club, with all the trails and loops that are available. In there I learn about some multiple summit trips.
Now I’m switching into a contest territory, and I’m trying to catch myself.
The weather forecast is calling for showers likely on the two days I’m in the area. Mt. Washington is probably not the right mountain to start off with in the rain. It will be slightly more dangerous than others, and the view will be horrible. So maybe I’ll do the Monroe / Eisenhower / Pierce run. Maybe I’ll tackle a different group somewhere. I’m spending the night at Dolly Copp at the base of Washington, but my options are still open, and my research is ongoing.
Hopefully I will be updating this blog a few more times this year with a trip report and some thought about future trips. Winter hiking is not in my plans, but I need to make some personal commitments to get a few more summits completed in 2013.