The Adventurous Life: June 28-29: E Osceola, Mt Osceola; Mt Hancock, S Hancock (peaks 8-11)

Day 3: East Osceola, Mt Osceola

Trails: In Greeley Pond Ski Trail, up and down Mt Osceola Trail, around Greeley Pond North, out Greeley Pond Hiking Trail.

Distance: 7.4 mi, Elev Gain: 3343 ft, Book Time: 5:57, Actual Time: 7:00

East Osceola

Mt Osceola - John joined me to get his first experience sleeping in a hammock. He also got his first experience using an iPhone camera.

Day 4: Mt Hancock, Hancock South

Trails: from Kancamagus via Hancock Notch Tr, Cedar Brook Tr, Hancock Loop Tr

Distance: 9.8 mi, Elev Gain: 2940 ft, Book Time: 6:21, Actual Time: 5:30

Mt Hancock

Hancock South - I ran out of fingers, but came up with an elegant solution.

Another shot on peak #11. Which is better? My kids say neither!

People on the Trail

My friend John M. joined me for the weekend of hiking. It was great to have company, especially since we didn't see many other hikers except for at the summit of Mt Osceola.

John and me at the start of the weekend.
The small parking area at Greeley Pond Ski Trail was free, but we the ski trail took us through knee deep mud and mosquito infested swamps. On our return we took the real Greeley Pond hiking trail to the much larger parking lot and walked 1/4 mile on the road back to the car. Had we known, we would have gladly paid our $3 to avoid the bugs.

John and me on East Osceola.

John took a nap on Mt Osceola and missed the group selfie.

John and me on Mt Hancock

Me and John on Hancock South.

From the top of Osceola I could look down and see a few Rippers riding up the Kanc, training for the Mt Washington Hillclimb. Actually, Bill AA emailed me that he saw my car parked along the highway as he, Jim G, and Dave B rode by.

This is how the Rippers knew it was my car they rode past. I hire a sports model to pose next to it while I hike.

After dinner, John and I stopped by the Basin. In the parking lot I ran into Jay P, who worked with me at Teradyne.

Highlights

John and I identified the same 3 highlights of the trip.

#1 - The Chimney

Hiking from East Osceola to Mt Osceola you climb The Chimney. It's not technical, but you are definitely climbing, not hiking. It was really fun. Unfortunately, the photos don't capture how cool it is. There is a bypass trail if you don't want to climb The Chimney, but the bypass isn't walking either. We took the bypass on the way back and it involved cautious downclimbing.

#2 - Mt Osceola summit

Hanging out on top of Mt Osceola. A really wonderful summit with many people enjoying the view. We found two friendly and knowledgeable hikers who pointed out and named the peaks for us. Interestingly, they only agreed on about half the peaks.

Hang on!

A view of the Tripyramids. I'm looking forward to hiking them for the first time on July 12.

#3 - Hobbit Trail

On Hancock Loop Trail, we encountered a white sand path running between dark green mossy banks. It was magical; I expected to find elves or hobbits at the end of this trail.

Cypripedium acaule

Prior to this spring, I'd never seen a Pink Lady's Slipper in the wild. Now I have seen them while mountain biking in the Middlesex Fells and while hiking in the White Mountains. Dozens and dozens of them!

I didn't get any good photos of the Pink Lady's Slippers, but I found some interesting information (and better photos) here:

Pink Lady's Slipper is an interesting wildflower in the Orchid Family. They are endangered in some areas because they take a long time to grow, and because people collect them.
In order to spread and grow new plants, Pink Lady's Slipper needs help from other organisms. First, when a new seed is ready to grow, it must have a fungus help it. The fungus has not been identified by scientists yet, but we know it is in the Rhizoctonia Genus. The lady's slipper seed does not have a food supply inside it, like most seeds do. It needs the threads of the fungus to break open the seed and attach themselves to it. The fungus will pass on food and nutrients to the Pink Lady's Slipper seed.
The seed will grow very slowly into a new plant. Without the fungus helping it, the plant could not grow. The plant will return the favor to the fungus when it is older. The fungus can soak up nutrients from the lady's slipper that it could not get by itself. Pink Lady's Slippers can live to be twenty years old or more.
This wildflower also needs help from bees. Its closed flower means that only a strong insect, like a bumble bee can push its way inside. The flower smells sweet, so the bee is tricked into thinking it holds nectar. When the bee gets inside it not only finds no nectar, but it realizes it is trapped. It cannot get back out the way it got in. The bumble bee explores and find a new way to squeeze out of the flower. To do so, it must push past a part of the flower called a stamen. The bee gets out, but it also gets covered with pollen that was on the stamen.
If the bumble bee gets tricked again by another Pink Lady's Slipper, it will deliver pollen from the first flower, and get covered with pollen again by the new flower. The bee may do this several times before it figures out to avoid Pink Lady's Slipper. The bumble bee gets nothing out of the relationship. Without the bee's help, the plant could not make new seeds.

Flora and Fauna

Walking back to the car along the Kanc (from the Greeley Pond Hiking Trail to the Greeley Pond Ski Trail), we passed a patch of alpine strawberries. Yum!

Poor bunny. It didn't move even when we hiked right past it.

After Hours

After hiking both days, we drove to Truants in North Woodstock for burgers and beers and World Cup soccer. Sunday we watched the amazing comeback victory by Netherlands over Mexico.

Saturday, we got ice cream at Udderly Delicious and watched people stagger home from New England Brewfest.

Gear Talk

We set up hammocks in the woods, a quarter mile from the Hancock Notch Trailhead (and a hundred feet from the trail). Both hammocks have mosquito netting and are easy to hang between trees in terrain that makes it impossible to pitch a tent.

I hiked in my "new" Five Ten approach shoes and they were so much more comfortable than the worn out Montrails I used last weekend, when I suffered toe bang and my left big toenail turned black. My friend Mark P suggested I put SuperFeet insoles in my shoes, and they had two big benefits. First, the only other time I tried hiking in my Five Tens I got painful blisters under my anklebones; the inserts raised my heel just enough to avoid rubbing my ankles. Second, the insoles keep my arch from collapsing which helps prevent toe bang. As Mark explained it, when the arch collapses the foot elongates and the big toe hits to end of the shoe. Ouch!

Rocks and Water

It's the Whites, so even an easy hike has lots of scrambling over rocks.

Channeling Mooka-man... King of the Mountain!
My kids are adults now, but when they were little they hiked with me in the Whites. Last week I hiked some of the same trails we did together 10-12 years ago and it brought back lots of happy memories. This week I channeled Mooka-man, who was want to climb every boulder and proclaim himself "King of the Mountain!"

Lots of stream crossings

The water levels were still a bit high from Wednesday's huge rainstorm, but we were able to keep our feet mostly dry with some judicious rock hopping.