Ritzhikes

Where: Desolation Shelter via Cedar Brook Trail When: 8/14/87 With: Solo This was a checkout hike. I wanted to see if this route was skiable, so I decided on a non-snow trip to reconnoiter the path. I followed the same route at the beginning as my previous hike , parking at the switchback on the Kancamagus highway and then taking the Hancock Notch trail in to the Cedar Brook trail. Here's where I started on new trail for me. It was a short, easy climb to the height of land and then I started down. I stopped just inside the forest to take a picture. The sunlight was coming down the trail from the clearing at the height of land, and I lashed my camera to a tree and used the timer to get the shot. As I continued my descent, I heard a noise in the woods to my right. A couple of grouse were chasing me, paralleling my route on the trail. I stopped and they scattered up the hill into the woods. When I started again, they returned to the chase, so I stopped again, and they scattered a...

Where: Mt. Kinsman When: Summer, 1987 With: Stupid Society Could this be the first full Stupid Society trip? We headed north in Chip's Bombermobile, with the traditional drive off the road just before the parking lot. We went back to a place that all but Dave had been to before. A repeat of my trip of the previous year along Cascade Brook. Chip and Seth had also gone in earlier in the season, on my recommendation. They got rained on. This trip had much better weather and we had a nice hike to the campsite I'd been at before. We even stopped for a dip in the pool, as I had. It took some effort, but Seth finally managed to get a fire going. I think this was the hike I brought the Cuban cigars (brought back from Aruba). Anyway, I remember only bits of things about the camp. Hammocks strung across the stream. Seth sleeping outside on the ground because no one offered him a spot in their tent. The next day, we discovered during breakfast that for once, we'd seriously und...