outside greeley ponds lot down the kancamagus

outside greeley ponds lot down the kancamagus
Originally uploaded by wereldmuis.

When I finally hit the parking lot, I saw that my car was the only one left. It was almost 6 o'clock.

I took a little time to rest, and view the fall foliage along the Kancamagus Highway, something I hadn't bothered to do when I first got there.

The elevation gain from the Kancamagus Highway to the peak of East Osceola is 2216 ft, over a distance of 2.8 miles, and it took me about six hours of hiking to do it. That's a pace of about 1 mph, which seems to be about what I normally do when hauling a backpack over heights. I think I will try to do the two summits again another day, probably without a backpack.

Today, after a good night of rest, just about every muscle in my body is stiff and sore. I can't wait to go back, though!

first view of greeley ponds

first view of greeley ponds
Originally uploaded by wereldmuis.

I got to Greeley Ponds trail at 4:30 p.m. The sun was setting around 6:30, so I had more than an hour to get back to the car. I decided to take a side trip to Greeley Ponds. I went out about 15 minutes till I hit the first little view by a sandy beach, and then turned back.

On the way back I had to cross the couple of deep streams that I'd passed pretty easily on the way up. They had become deeper now, but fortunately they were still passable.

trail to mt osceola

trail to mt osceola
Originally uploaded by wereldmuis.

This is the trail downhill, as it heads to Mt Osceola from the summit of East Osceola. It's calling me onward!

Once I had reached the cairn, I was curious about how the trail would proceed if I continued towards Mt Osceola. I knew there was supposed to be a steep chimney on the way. There's a trail you can use to avoid it, but I definitely wanted to climb the chimney.

It was tempting to continue on and ascend Mt Osceola, but it was already around 2:30 p.m. at that point, and I knew the descent was going to be arduous and time-consuming. So I decided that pancakes were the better part of valor, and retraced my footsteps.

I had noticed that the boy scouts were using hiking poles on the ascent, and I thought I would try using mine on the way down. After a brief attempt, I decided that they were less than helpful, and stored them away again. Instead, I made my way down most of the rocky parts by climbing down backwards (i.e. facing the rocks, the way you would when climbing up). It was slow going, but my knees thanked me. I've rarely had to do this on a trail before, but this trail is especially difficult, without doubt the most difficult trail I've ever hiked. Normally, I'd slide down the bigger rocks on my butt, but it wasn't comfortable doing that with my backpack on (the bottom of the pack sinks lower than my butt, which made maneuvering difficult).

The trick to climbing backwards is to take a moment to reorient yourself when you turn around again. I found that when you've been climbing down backwards for a minute or two, and then turn around, you can experience a flash of vertigo. This is fine if you just stand still for a moment to reorient. The first time it happened, I nearly lost my balance; vertigo doesn't go well with a loaded backpack on a steep trail.

I traversed the rocky slide this way, as well. I think I could have gone down it face-first if it had been dry, but I decided that it would be helpful to have a handhold for security.

The trip down was actually fairly uneventful. I think I'd become overly nervous at the summit because I had gotten cold. But that's fortunate; if I hadn't been as nervous, I'd probably have attempted the summit of Mt Osceola, which would have been cutting it close - I might have ended up hiking out in the dark. So I think I did the smart thing to head back down when I did.

cairn at east osceola

cairn at east osceola
Originally uploaded by wereldmuis.

This is the cairn which marks the summit of East Osceola. East Osceola is the first peak that I've reached among the 48. I guess I will have to start a list now...

At this point, I was feeling too trepidatious about the climb back down the way I had come to do any sort of victory dance. I decided to celebrate when I reached the parking lot again.

the view

the view
Originally uploaded by wereldmuis.

This is the view from the outlook at the top of the gully, described in the AMC White Mountain Guide (p 349).

I think it was about 5 or 10 minutes after passing over the rocky slide that the trail passed through a steep, sandy, slick gully, and then rapidly leveled off. The troop leader was waving me up, saying that we had reached the summit. The scouts were sitting around taking a break at a short spur trail to the right where there was, in theory, a view. However, there was no view today.

Before leaving their spot, the troop leader invited me to stay at their campsite further on, which was very nice of him. By now, though, I'd become convinced that I'd be wiser to turn back. I looked around at the non-view, and then turning around, I noticed that the trail continued on upwards. So the troop leader had been incorrect, or at least I had misunderstood him; this was not the summit! Still, the trail looked much easier now, so the peak must be near. I continued on up, past a few more steep rocky bits, until the trail went completely level and easy.

rocky slide

rock slide
Originally uploaded by wereldmuis.

This is a view of the rocky slide! It's hard to tell from this photograph, but it's pretty steep. You'll know it as soon as you see it. I guess it's called a slide because you get the impression that you could easily slide right down it off the mountainside.

To give you some perspective, it's about a 20 or 30 foot climb to get from the lower side of the slide to the upper side where the trail continues. It looks more difficult than it is, since there are lots of little horizontal mini-steps to set your feet down on. It's actually kind of fun. It would have been more fun if it hadn't been wet, and I hadn't been carrying a 26 lb pack on my back.

As I crossed it, I was thinking how not-fun it would be if I decided to abort my mission, and had to travel back down this way to get to the car. Going up steep grades is always easier for me than going down. Less slippery.

steep and rocky

rocky trail
Originally uploaded by wereldmuis.

This is a view down the Mt Osceola trail, on the way up from Greeley Ponds trail to the summit of East Osceola.

After a reasonable uphill grade, the trail became steeper, and filled with huge rocks that made the climbing difficult. I wound up doing a lot of climbing with my hands, to avoid putting lots of weight on my knees while they were bent.

I had seen several descriptions of a "rocky slide" that was supposed to be along this part of the trail. I kept wondering if I had found it, since I wasn't sure what a rocky slide was supposed to be. In my mind, it would be a long smooth slab of rock; a slide that was made out of rock. I had crawled over numerous slabs of smooth rock. I kept asking myself: "Is this the rocky slide? Is that the rocky slide?" But perhaps they meant a "rock slide", an area where a lot of rocks had fallen down. The entire trail in this area could be called a rocky slide, in that case.

The trail kept getting steeper and more rocky. Around noon, I decided to take a break to eat. I was a little disappointed, because I was hoping to eat at the summit, but the trail seemed never-ending. For lunch, I had an Art's Original Pro Bar (IMHO, it's one of the better bars out there with a good amount of fiber and protein, tastes fresh, and doesn't make you gag).

I had been nice and warm due to exertion, but while I stopped for lunch, I began to get cold. I noticed a few things. My feet and hands had rapidly become cold once I stopped moving. My arms had become wet due to water dripping down through my rain jacket cuffs when I lifted my arms climbing rocks or just eating. When I drank from my water bottle, the water felt like it had been in the refrigerator - pretty cold, 40 °F or less.

I began to have second thoughts about camping out overnight. Of course it would be colder at these higher elevations, but I had no way to be sure it would be bearably warm overnight, even further down. The weather report for Waterville Valley had predicted temperatures in the 40s overnight, but if they weren't (and possibly if they were), I might be in danger of hypothermia, especially if I stayed wet. The fact that I'd gotten cold so quickly kind of worried me.

As I was sitting on the rocks deciding what to do, I was approached by a group of backpackers. It turned out to be a boy scout troop! They were using poles, and traveling pretty rapidly up the side of the mountain. I asked the leaders how much farther it was to the summit, and they thought it would be perhaps 10 or 20 minutes, so I decided to hike onward.

view from mt osceola trail

view from the trail
Originally uploaded by wereldmuis.

This is a view from the Mt Osceola trail, before it gets very steep.

From the intersection of Mt Osceola trail with Greeley Ponds trail, it's a distance of 1.5 miles to the peak of East Osceola, with an elevation gain of 1856 ft. The AMC guide is terse about this section of the Mt Osceola trail, just describing it as "steep". Chris Oberg and Robert Havasy have a more picturesque description of the hike up this section.

So I knew things would get steep. But the start of the trail is a very gentle, uphill slope, so the steep part kind of smacks you in the face when you get there.

mt osceola intersects greeley ponds

mt osceola crossing greeley ponds
Originally uploaded by wereldmuis.

Here we are at the intersection of Greeley Ponds trail with Mt Osceola trail. Up till here, the trail is reasonably level. It's kind of root-y and rocky, and awash with puddles due to the rain.

At this point, I was feeling reasonably upbeat. The rain was holding off, the temperature was comfortable (it was 56 °F in the parking lot), the walking had been mild. Even the heavy weight of my pack was bearable.

view from Greeley Ponds trail

some peak
Originally uploaded by wereldmuis.

This is a view of a distant peak, taken while traveling along Greeley Ponds trail. I suppose it might be Mt Osceola or East Osceola, but I'm not sure. It was in the right direction for one of those, to the southwest.

I deliberately hiked very slowly, for several reasons. I was not in great condition; I hadn't done so much hiking this year - very little of it with a loaded pack, and most of it more than a month ago. Now, I was carrying a pack weighing about 26 lbs. Sometimes a lot of hillwork can give me knee pain. I wanted to avoid that if at all possible, and going slower seems to help. Also, I wanted to avoid getting blisters in my new boots, if possible. Further, I wanted to dole out my energy use slowly, knowing that between here and Mt Osceola was the most difficult part of the trail.

My new Asolos performed very well. Soon after starting on Greeley Ponds trail, I had to cross a couple of streams that couldn't be managed without stepping into the water a few inches. No leaks! There were pools of water everywhere along the trail, and my feet never got wet.

It took me about 50 minutes of hiking to cover the 1.3 miles of Greeley Ponds trail before it intersects with the Mt. Osceola trail. At this point, I stopped to apply Dr. Scholl's Blister Treatment cushions on some spots where the shoes were rubbing my heels. I've only used these before on actual blisters, but I decided to try them out for blister prevention. In the end I think they worked pretty well, but I still managed to get a blister just outside of the cushion on my left foot. Other than that, no blisters, excellent!

The Plan

greely ponds parking lot uncrowded
Originally uploaded by wereldmuis.

This is a view of the Greeley Ponds parking lot, with signs pointing the way to Greeley Ponds and Mt Osceola. This shot was taken around 9:30 a.m.

It was incredibly quiet there, which was nice; I guess people were scared off by the threat of rain. In fact it had rained on and off during the drive up, but once I got there, it stopped raining, and didn't start again until noon.

I planned to do one night out in the Whites. I had decided on a loop involving Mt Osceola. I would start at Greeley Ponds trail off the Kancamagus Highway, then follow the Mt Osceola trail over the peaks of East Osceola and Mt Osceola, and then loop back either by East Ponds trail to the north, or Greeley Ponds trail to the south, the following day.

Getting to the summit of Mt Osceola from the Kancamagus Highway sounded steep and difficult, but I figured that it would be better to do that first, while I was still relatively fresh. There was a danger that I might decide to bail at some point, which would mean I'd need to turn around and descend it again. I knew that would be really tough, but decided to risk it.

new boots

new boots
Originally uploaded by wereldmuis.

These are my new boots, as I stand in the Greeley Ponds parking lot on my first trip to the White Mountains.

One of the reasons I didn't do as much hiking this summer is that my boots, a pair of Lowa Renegade GTXs, are in such bad shape. They're nearly ten years old. They've become leaky with some pretty big holes in the toes. And the soles are worn unevenly; in some places the treads are gone.

I tried to buy a pair of identical-but-new Lowas because I was so happy with their fit and flexibility. While Lowa still makes the Renegade GTX, it seems they have resized them. I bought a new pair, same size as my old, but my orthotics, which were cut to fit my current pair exactly, did not fit into the new boots. And the next size up was far too big.

So I knew I was doomed to have to go shopping for hiking boots, an activity that I dread, and I procrastinated.

It got to the end of the hiking season and I still hadn't gone on a backpacking trip, mostly because of the boots. I had one weekend targeted to go backpacking, so I could procrastinate no longer. I went to REI and EMS, and after much suffering and despair, I finally wound up with a pair of Asolo Styngers. These are about as light as my Lowas (about 2 lbs), and seem to fit me about right (not as well as the Lowas, unfortunately).

I was going to use these boots under non-ideal conditions. I had bought them one week before my backpacking trip, so there was no time to break them in. And I'd be hiking in the Whites, unfamiliar terrain. It would be a good test of the boots!