i love the outdoors & i am def adventerous: running, walking, biking, hiking, exploring, and i am down for pretty much ANYthing once. i've done some light hiking, but, i wouldn't call myself an "experienced hiker." and my husband, who is also down for anything, isn't exactly a hiker either. i would rate myself as intermediate, probably just because of my running experience. but, we decided to hike mount washington, the largest & most difficult peak in the east, anyways. haha.
let me start by saying, overall, we had a great time. it was more difficult than almost anything i have ever done, and my husband wanted to "pull the plug" two hours in, but, we ended up making it to within 0.8 miles of the summit. the roundtrip took us about 7 hours. i went from shorts & a T-shirt to fleece, gloves, and a hat. and i would definitely do it again.
loaded with enough food for a small army, which included about eight peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, we started our hike at pinkham notch at about 8:15am. it was a beautiful day, not a cloud in sight, and about 70 degrees. the forecast was sunny and mid 80s. the forecast at the summit, however, was 40-50 mph winds, and a windchill of 25 degrees. oh well, we said. let's go!
the first half wasn't too bad, but definitely long. we made it to the halfway shelter at about 10, or 1 hour and 45 mins into the journey. paul looked like he was struggling a bit, but looked revived after a peanut butter and jelly sandwich & a bathroom break. we spoke to a few people that he hiked to the summit before. they informed us that it was at least twice as difficult going foward, and if we hiked "reasonably fast" we would make it in 2 1/2 hours. yikes!
well, hard was an understatement. it was "seriously uphill." seriously uphill, as in, i was using my legs AND hands to climb the rocks as a cougar would, and we were stopping about every 2 minutes. oh man, but, it was beautiful. we met a woman and her father at the halfway point & chatted a bit (who were from winchester, ma by the way! small world). she was about 50, and in great shape, and her father had to have been at least 70 - and he waved and flew right by us, as we were trying to recover on the side of the mountain. my husband, sweaty, wheezing, and 30 seconds before told me he was ready to "pul the plug," looked at me and said "no way is that old man beating us ..." and off we went!
all and all it was amazing, and i would definitely recommend it to anyone who is in average shape physically, but excellent "mental" shape. we didn't make it to the top. we stopped about 0/8 miles from the summit, as it was already 12:30, and i was nervous about getting down before dark. we took a different path back, and hiking down was a lot easier. when i say a lot easier, i mean really really hard ... but easier than going up!
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