Mt Adams, December 2018

Long weekend in New Hampshire with Caitlin over my birthday: One night in the #RacePrius and two nights at the RMC’s treeline Perch Shelter in single-digit temperatures yielded one crystal clear day up to the top of Mt Adams, second highest peak in New England.

More pictures are in the Flickr gallery.

Caitlin ready to go.

Alice Miranda decided it was ok we were going camping without her because she got to sleepover at Nana & Pop-Pop’s with her cousin, a pretty sweet deal.

Major trip leader failure when I inexplicably did not think to make a hot water bottle for Caitlin to put in her sleeping bag the first night (to be clear, I didn’t and don’t make one for myself either). After much feedback from the expedition group this lapse was rectified with prejudice the second night.

View near the shelter.

A big reason I picked this location was to see more of the RMC’s comparatively quiet, under-hyped trail network at the north end of the Presidential Range. Without it and their giant cairns I would have been in a lot more trouble when I got caught by a snowstorm and had to bivy on Mt Adams this past March. I’m happy to be a supporting member and it was good to revisit the area with excellent visibility and show Caitlin, though I was careful to not emphasize the ravines or point out the specific kind of terrain I wound up sheltering on…

With this trip I’ve gone backpacking at least once each month this year, my only outdoors goal for 2018 left standing after I broke my sternum in June. Not much at all compared to how many race weekends, plus backpacking trips, plus work travel I used to do, but feels like a lot these days.

Again, more pictures are in the Flickr gallery.

At the summit of Mt Adams on a crystal clear day.