Ritzhikes

Where: Hancock - Carrigain When: Summer, 1987 With: Solo The AMC White Mountain Guide says, "The ridge line joining Mt. Carrigain and Mt. Hancock has no trail and is rough bushwhacking." This sounded good to me, so off I went. My plan was to go up Hancock, bushwhack along the ridge, and then drop down to Carrigain Pond for the night. The next day, I'd head up Carrigain and then go back to the car on the Hancock Notch trail. The first part of the trip was exactly as advertised. I hiked in and went up the North Hancock side of the Hancock Loop trail. It was easy at first, then very steep. Fortunately, it wasn't too long and I was soon on top, admiring the view. After a bit, I headed toward the South peak. I was stopped at one point by a grouse in the path, making a big fuss. I looked around and spotted 4-5 chicks nearby. I backed off a bit, let the whole family pass, and then continued on. I was keeping an eye out to the left, looking for a likely spot to pick u...

Where: Old Osseo Trail When: Summer, 1987 (?) With: Chip I'd enjoyed this hike and convinced Chip to check it out. We headed up Friday night after work and arrived at the Wilderness Trail trailhead in darkness and rain. A Forest ranger came over to check us out and we convinced him we knew where we were going and were properly equipped. We put on the rain gear, grabbed some flashlights and headed in. Before too long, we were at the Osseo trail and in to the campsite, beside the stream. We set up camp and had a nice dinner of fresh mushroomburgers and vodka. A rainfly created a nice dry area, so we were pretty comfy and wound up staying up past midnight. The next day was dry and we went up the trail. Easy at the bottom, tough at the top. Very steep with steps cut into the hill. We made it up though, with Chip carrying a huge amount of water, and found the old trail. We made it to the campsite pretty early and spent the afternoon hanging out and sleeping. Some flies were anno...

Where: Wachusett Reservoir, Clinton MA When: 1 April, 1987 With: Dave & Lia An XC ski trip. I vaguely recall that this was not our original destination, but it's where we wound up. I'm not sure if we skied along the reservoir itself or in an adjacent property, but I think I remember seeing a small aircraft flying low along the ice (manned or model...not sure). That would indicate we were along the reservoir. The photos only show woods and snow though...no reservoir. More pictures

Where: Desolation Shelter via Zealand Notch When: 2/20/87 With: Chip Buoyed by the success of our last winter hike , we decided to have another go at it. Our plan...drive up to the Zealand Trail trailhead, 3.6 miles in from route 302, then ski through Zealand Notch, pick up the Shoal Pond trail, and follow that down to Stillwater and Desolation. The next day, ski back up and head over to the Ethan Pond shelter for the next night. As always, things didn't quite go the way we planned. To start, the road to the trailhead is closed in the winter. What should've been a 5-10 minute drive wound up being several hours of hard, uphill skiing. By the time we finally reached the trailhead, we were ready to stop right there, but we kept on. As expected, the route from the trailhead in was pretty easy going, and soon we were at the Zealand Falls hut. Or rather, we were at the base of a steep climb up to the hut. We ditched the skis and climbed up. We were greeted by the caretaker an...

Where: Wachusett Mountain When: 1 February, 1987 With: Chip I have no idea how/why we decided to go here. We must have had a map or some indication of trails in the area. We drove out from Boston, probably along Route 2, and found our way to the backside of Wachusett Mountain, along Westminster Road. We may have parked at the Stage Coach Road trailhead (obvious parking area), or where the Harrington and Dickens trails meet at the road. The latter location is less obvious, especially in the winter, but our photos show us visiting spots along those two trails. Details are very sketchy, but our first route took us uphill and eventually to the wind turbine farm. I remember being on an open slope under the turbines, and it being very windy. From there, we made our way back to and across Westminster Road, and presumably followed the Dickens Trail, because we wound up at a telecommunications facility next to that trail. We scaled the fence and climbed the tower as high as we dared. I remember...

Where: Desolation Shelter via Wilderness Trail When: 1986/87 Winter With: Chip I'm not sure how it all came about, but there we were, Chip and I, standing in the snow at the beginning of the Wilderness Trail with backpacks and skis. Somehow, we decided to take another shot at winter camping, now that three years had passed since our last attempt . Funny, we couldn't convince Dave to join us this time. We decided to head in on the jeep road on the east of the river, rather than on the Wilderness Trail itself on the west. It began to snow and we stood on a bluff on the river, marveling at the sight of the falling snow and the mountains and proclaimed, "Those bums!" Our friends were missing a great hike. We crossed the river at Franconia Brook, taking longer than expected but making it, and then headed in further, recrossing the river on the suspension bridge at Cedar Brook. It was the first ski of the season and the lack of conditioning started to show as the tr...

Where: Mt. Kinsman When: Autumn, 1986 (?) With: Solo The trails in this area looked good on the map, so I headed up to see for myself. I parked the car at a new lot, walked on a trail along the East side of 95, then crossed under and headed up the Cascade Brook and Kinsman Pond trails. Pretty trails, mostly along the brook. I don't recall much of the early part of the hike, due to a smoke stop early on, but eventually I came to a small, deep pool in the brook surrounded by rocks. It was hot, I was alone, so I stripped and dipped. Very nice. Continuing up the trail a bit, I suddenly came upon a campsite on the left, right on the brook. Flat, cleared, water access, and even a view. "What a lovely site," I actually said aloud, surprising even myself. With such an immediate reaction, how could I go on? I stopped and set up camp. I was well settled in when I heard a noise on the trail. Four young women soon appeared and we chatted. It turned out they had discovered t...