The Best Vacation Ever July 20th 2006
Thursday, July 20th 2006. Beautiful day. Cool this morning -- good sleeping weather -- and expected to be dry and in the 80's with plenty of sun. Perfect climbing day and even better, it's mine, or Babs and mine as today The Girls have The Kids. Huzzah. The warm glow, however, does not last. Bean doesn't like the pink shirt with the spaghetti straps, she wants The Other One. The Other One? Which Other One? No one knows but her, and she's not cooperating. T's just crying because it's early and he's hungry and he's two. Children don't realize but whining compounds and after six days of it plus the heat plus the car (Eye of Sauron still glares) I just want to sleep until Saturday when we can leave this place and head to NYC. It's not really the kids fault. We get to dinner too late and the service here is anything but quick. Oh how I long for the efficiency of any Manhattan eatery. There's always a wait for a table -- something unheard of in The Big Apple -- the wait staff is typically competent, but moving at, shall we say, a New England pace. All of this means the Little Ones get to bed late and since we're all in tents are up with the sun. But children are a blessing, right? (A blessing, yes or no. Discuss). My brain is a dial tone: alive, but nothing happening. As I said yesterday I'm all pulp and rind, no climbing juice remains. Over breakfast at a nearby diner I explain to Babs that anything requiring focus and forbearance is completely out of the question. I want to climb, but know it's Just Not There today. She's disappointed, especially since this is our last day (L&T have tomorrow; we leave Saturday), but handles it well. Eventually. She suggests, and I agree -- hang on here folks -- a hike. Not just a hike, but a walk up Mount Washington. This is perfect. Physically draining (no exercise for the past six days) and requires virtually no thought whatsoever. Oh, the hikers reading this are stiffening their spines and stirring up their umbrage. "Hiking mindless?", they say. "Well, I'll have you know the one needs the proper footwear, raingear and route finding skills". Ah, yes, but I need all of the above to pick up my laundry too but I wouldn't exactly consider it Einsteinian in difficulty. We did pack rain gear, water and proper footwear and headed to Pinkham Notch. Some beta from an ancient Appie in the Visitors Center convinced us to head up the Tuckermans Ravine Trail and descend via the Lions Head Trail. The ascent is visually stunning. Black broken rock cleaved by waterfalls. A quick look over the shoulder reveals verdant rolling hills with no sign of the trail below; reminiscent of the Scottish Highlands, minus the kilts. Once above tree line the air cools and the wind picks up; ideal hiking weather. The entire ridge line consists piles of grey boulders with a patina the color of oxidized copper (that would be green for those not familiar with the Statue of Liberty and it's caused by the lichen that live in alpine environments). Three hours and fifteen minutes later. Once atop, it's totally civilized. A weather station festooned with all manner of scary looking antennas, a gift shop and food. Yes food. The best damn chili I've ever had for three bucks. We sit for a while and soak in the views. Babs buys some t-shirts for the kids, we rehydrate and head down. Impossible to get lost as there's cairns every 10 feet or so. This would be the mindless part; one foot in front of the other clambering from one boulder to another, aged knees aching with every step. Two and a half hours we reach the car. Tired, but as they say, it's a good kind of tired. And sore. Lordy how these joints have aged. The hike itself was easy. We've done approaches with much more weight, but the length is not something we're accustomed to. L&T have already eaten with the kids so we're free for the evening. Yeah, dinner alone. How can this be? We dine alfresco (as if we haven't been outside enough) at a nearby establishment just north of town. Curious item: our beverages have to be in plastic cups, no glass on the deck. State law. Adults are required to wear neither seatbelts nor motorcycle helmets but the legislature is afraid some local hooligans will start lobbing glassware from elevated decks. Plates are ceramic and the flatware is metal. I guess no ones yet tried to sharpen their spoon into a shiv to deal with poor service. It's been a good day. Quality time spent with the wife away from the offspring. I regret that we won't have any more time to climb this trip, but do not regret my decision. No mojo, no go Joe. Heard back from Echo Lake State Park on my rock drill complaint: Dear Mr. Antol, Thank you for your recent email about your trip to Cathedral Ledge at Echo Lake State Park. The Division of Parks and Recreation works in close partnership with the Student Conservation Association on the SCA-NH Parks AmeriCorps Program, a residential 8 month program that provide environmental education in underserved schools in Manchester and Allentown New Hampshire in the winter and conservation work in the parks in the summer. The conservation interns are closely supervised by SCA staff and receive extensive training in a variety of trail building methods. The use of the rock drill is temporary and I am sorry your trip coincided with the days they were using this tool. The project was carefully planned by the Program Director Ethan Hipple and Park Manager Erik Nelson, both recreational climbers. In addition to the signs on site explaining the work being conducted will also post a notice on our website. Sincerely, Allison A. McLean Director Well, at least they got back to me. It's more than I expected. For the record, I saw no signs. And the drill is still unnecessary. That's all for now. Sorry it's a bit dull. More tomorrow.
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The Best Vacation Ever

July 20th 2006

Thursday, July 20th 2006. Beautiful day. Cool this morning -- good sleeping weather -- and expected to be dry and in the 80's with plenty of sun. Perfect climbing day and even better, it's mine, or Babs and mine as today The Girls have The Kids. Huzzah.

The warm glow, however, does not last. Bean doesn't like the pink shirt with the spaghetti straps, she wants The Other One. The Other One? Which Other One? No one knows but her, and she's not cooperating. T's just crying because it's early and he's hungry and he's two. Children don't realize but whining compounds and after six days of it plus the heat plus the car (Eye of Sauron still glares) I just want to sleep until Saturday when we can leave this place and head to NYC.

It's not really the kids fault. We get to dinner too late and the service here is anything but quick. Oh how I long for the efficiency of any Manhattan eatery. There's always a wait for a table -- something unheard of in The Big Apple -- the wait staff is typically competent, but moving at, shall we say, a New England pace. All of this means the Little Ones get to bed late and since we're all in tents are up with the sun. But children are a blessing, right? (A blessing, yes or no. Discuss).

My brain is a dial tone: alive, but nothing happening. As I said yesterday I'm all pulp and rind, no climbing juice remains. Over breakfast at a nearby diner I explain to Babs that anything requiring focus and forbearance is completely out of the question. I want to climb, but know it's Just Not There today. She's disappointed, especially since this is our last day (L&T have tomorrow; we leave Saturday), but handles it well.

Eventually.

She suggests, and I agree -- hang on here folks -- a hike. Not just a hike, but a walk up Mount Washington. This is perfect. Physically draining (no exercise for the past six days) and requires virtually no thought whatsoever. Oh, the hikers reading this are stiffening their spines and stirring up their umbrage. "Hiking mindless?", they say. "Well, I'll have you know the one needs the proper footwear, raingear and route finding skills". Ah, yes, but I need all of the above to pick up my laundry too but I wouldn't exactly consider it Einsteinian in difficulty.

We did pack rain gear, water and proper footwear and headed to Pinkham Notch. Some beta from an ancient Appie in the Visitors Center convinced us to head up the Tuckermans Ravine Trail and descend via the Lions Head Trail. The ascent is visually stunning. Black broken rock cleaved by waterfalls. A quick look over the shoulder reveals verdant rolling hills with no sign of the trail below; reminiscent of the Scottish Highlands, minus the kilts. Once above tree line the air cools and the wind picks up; ideal hiking weather. The entire ridge line consists piles of grey boulders with a patina the color of oxidized copper (that would be green for those not familiar with the Statue of Liberty and it's caused by the lichen that live in alpine environments).

Three hours and fifteen minutes later. Once atop, it's totally civilized. A weather station festooned with all manner of scary looking antennas, a gift shop and food. Yes food. The best damn chili I've ever had for three bucks. We sit for a while and soak in the views. Babs buys some t-shirts for the kids, we rehydrate and head down. Impossible to get lost as there's cairns every 10 feet or so. This would be the mindless part; one foot in front of the other clambering from one boulder to another, aged knees aching with every step.

Two and a half hours we reach the car. Tired, but as they say, it's a good kind of tired. And sore. Lordy how these joints have aged. The hike itself was easy. We've done approaches with much more weight, but the length is not something we're accustomed to. L&T have already eaten with the kids so we're free for the evening. Yeah, dinner alone. How can this be? We dine alfresco (as if we haven't been outside enough) at a nearby establishment just north of town. Curious item: our beverages have to be in plastic cups, no glass on the deck. State law. Adults are required to wear neither seatbelts nor motorcycle helmets but the legislature is afraid some local hooligans will start lobbing glassware from elevated decks. Plates are ceramic and the flatware is metal. I guess no ones yet tried to sharpen their spoon into a shiv to deal with poor service.

It's been a good day. Quality time spent with the wife away from the offspring. I regret that we won't have any more time to climb this trip, but do not regret my decision. No mojo, no go Joe.

Heard back from Echo Lake State Park on my rock drill complaint:

Dear Mr. Antol,

Thank you for your recent email about your trip to Cathedral Ledge at Echo Lake State Park. The Division of Parks and Recreation works in close partnership with the Student Conservation Association on the SCA-NH Parks AmeriCorps Program, a residential 8 month program that provide environmental education in underserved schools in Manchester and Allentown New Hampshire in the winter and conservation work in the parks in the summer. The conservation interns are closely supervised by SCA staff and receive extensive training in a variety of trail building methods.

The use of the rock drill is temporary and I am sorry your trip coincided with the days they were using this tool. The project was carefully planned by the Program Director Ethan Hipple and Park Manager Erik Nelson, both recreational climbers. In addition to the signs on site explaining the work being conducted will also post a notice on our website.

Sincerely,

Allison A. McLean
Director

Well, at least they got back to me. It's more than I expected. For the record, I saw no signs. And the drill is still unnecessary.

That's all for now. Sorry it's a bit dull. More tomorrow.

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