New Hampshire's White mountains in Septe mber

“no walkie talkie here but maybe i will pick one up at Campmor on the way up.”

“OK. I just git concerned when I see 11 miles!I have never hiked the area and just want to be sure I will be comfortable.
Sir pete, Send me your phone numbers again please. I had to delete my addy book to get to my emails. jerbear@backpacker.com, thanks. Lookin forward to be hikin again! Oh yea!”

“WD- waz up! Hey send me sirpetes phone numbers. I need so answers to a couple of questions!”

“Check ya mail Jerbear.”

“What kinda instant messaging have y'all got. Maybe we could all discuss things on line.

I have ICQ, Yahoo and AOL. (ICQ doesn't work well at all for me).”

“I am on netzero and have none!”

“I got ICQ”

“Jerbear... would you be able to load ICQ? 'dude, Pete and I all have it... and if you did too, we could set up a 4 way conversation and avoid paying long distance.”

“I am not very profiecent at puters!”

“Jerbear -

Just go to ICQ.com and download. Each of the guys can you their ICQ #'s and you can send a request to add them to your list. It's really easy and the instructions are right on the website. Good Luck

tex (sirpete's sister)”

“I don't have icq and don't really want it. Jerbear check your email, Tx you too. After having spoke to all of you on the phone I think that we are all on the same page as to starting @ rt 2 and heading south. Mark is ok with it not being the AT and I think that the lower milage for the first day works out better for Jer. As far as the rest of the trip I think Ped has laid out a pretty good itinerary. We still need to get together about our different campsites, Ped I will send you all my info on ours.”

“Sorry Pete... I mispoke when I said you had it... my confusion.”

“no prob dude. LOL btw good to hear your voice! Right after I talked to you Mark called cause he saw the post. I spoke to Jer this morning also. 3 weeks to go
!!!!!”

“I got all my food packed & loaded. I'm going to weigh my pack and see where I'm at on weight.”

“My pack is just under 40 pounds w/water & food. That's 6 days worth of supplies. No problem.”

“coool”

“My wife and I just climbed Mt Madison and Mt Adams as a loop this past weekend. You are going to love both summits. The views are spectacular. Although Adams is closer to Washington, we thought the view from Madison was slightly better.


The loop was roughly 10+ miles, which took us 9.40 hours to complete with time on both summits and a quick break at the Madison hut. I did notice a sign on the way out that said the RMC http://www.randolphmountainclub.org/aboutthermc/thermctoday.html">Randolph Mountain Club now charges a small fee for staying in their shelters. You might keep that in mind if you are going to camp at one of their locations.”

“SP- nice pics thanks!
WD-<40lbs, can you carry my soda and candy? Pwease!LOL
MR-thanks for the trip report! Sounds awesome.”

“So, have we decided on whether we aim to start at Pinkham for a four day traverse or Appalachia for a 3 day?

Thanks for the report and the reminder on the fees Mad. There are fees just about everywhere. According to the 2001 thru-hikers handbook, fees are 6$ at all the AMC tent sites and shelters we have discussed, 5$ at the Perch, 8$ at Crag Camp and Gray Knob. The only sites (I can think of) that we've mentioned without a fee are Osgood and Valley Way (both USFS run). This means we should be budgeting 6 dollars a night for shelter during the trip.”

“PS: these fees are per person.”

“I don't mind giving up $6 to hang at a shelter. I'll never understand why there is a fee at all though. Ain't it supposed to be in the backcountry?

About the starting place, It don't matter. Let's see what the weather looks like and then make that call.”

“The weather will be excelent for the trip.What would be a good town to search for the the weather situation?”

“For you information, there has been a fire burning on Mt Madison since Saturday. We saw the smoke from the Summit of Madison around 12:00 noon. By the time we reach Adams we no longer saw smoke and thought the fire must be out. We were wrong. As of today, they were still fighting the fire. ”

“My link didn't work. Try this:

”

“weather

You want a town that is north of Franconia Notch since the weather is so much different than in the south of NH. You can also use North Woodstock for you Franconia trip.”

“I'd like to have a default starting point agreed on... then we can change our minds if there are reasons to. That way we can reduce the amount of indecision Saturday morning.”

“Cant help you Ped, but I will be at the campground fri aug 31!”

“Here's the weather link for a presidential's traverse:


Mount Washington Weather info”

“Thanks!”

“Well Jer, the fact that we're all camping at Crawford notch is a good start.

And for now, it seems like we've got it narrowed down to Appalachia vs. Pinkham notch unless the Presidential traverse is a no go.

Maybe another way to get at this question is: how important is it to get an AT section under your belts?”

“means nothin to me!”

“I'm going to thru-hike it someday anyway so We can do what we need to do. My main thing is to hike & camp in good company and do the traverse. If all we can do is stay low and just come up to peakbag, then that's what we'll do.

Thanks for the weather link Ped.”

“Ped. If we start at Pinkham it's likely going to take 4 days to get across the Nortrhern section, where is that going to put you for getting out on Wednesday? Seems to Me that you would want to start at Rt 2 so you can get to Franconia with us?”

“Speakin of time frames, Ped is going out wed? and the rest are leavin when? WD, Sirpete,Where is AmyGee, any chance of her meetin us?”

“Thanks Pete, for thinking of me. I can go out Wed. from wherever we are gonna be... but it is another reason why it would be good for me to know in advance what route we are taking. I might be able to preposition my car in at my most likely exit point.

I guess I do like Appalachia as the starting point, unless the weather forecast gives us a reason to think that delaying our exposed "hump" day would give us safer conditions and/or much better views.

BTW: There is a weather forecast phone number which I have not tried yet: " the new Observatory Weatherphone, updated daily from the summit of Mount Washington. Call (603) 356-2137 or (800) 706-0432 and press 1 for our White Mountain regional forecast."”

“Jer: Amy is in the Dominican Republic doing a sort of 6 week internship for an ecological project there. She recently climbed Pico Duarte a 10K plus peak and the highest in the Carribean. She gets back in a week, but will need to collect PatchyG and her cats and find a home for herself and them and a job real soon. Between that and the fact that she seems to feel a little bad about leaving her critters for that long (and sticking other people with the job of taking care of them) she told me she doesn't expect to make.
I'm hoping we can change her mind, 'cause she is way kewl to backpack and hang out with and 'cause maybe she'll help put a damper on the unfunny sexist low life talkin that y'all gave me a brief preview of about a week back.”

“Well then I guess I will just keep that there Polar Fleece Thong for my self! LOL”

“Ped I would say after talking to all that are involved that starting at rt 2 is the deal. As for the weather well we won't know that until it happens. We all are mentally prepared for day 2 and there isn't anything we can do about it no matter where we start. But after that we can settle down a bit.

JB, Dude and I are there for the duration, we don't have to be back to PA until Saterday, are plan is to hike across to Franconia notch, so if we get done early we are going to hit something else like the Dak's”

“Kewl! Sounds good Pete. We can always change our minds if there is a reason.”

“LAUGHIN MY MOTHERFUKIN A$$ OFF AT JERBEAR!!!!!!!
HAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!!!!
That's why I like to hike with you man! You are TOO Funny!!

I literally had my eyes watering from laughin so hard.
Thanks for the laugh bro!”

“yep just wouldn't be a trip without'em. We are truely blessed”

“LOL! Good idea Jer! Now I will definitely remember to bring a camera.”

“Now ya all know I dont wear them things,but thought we may coax AG into a small show!!..LOL
I am in for the duration! Gettin pumped.
DUDE-Perhaps susan would like to do the modeling? Hope you are still laughin! LOL!”

“She models for me all the time!
YO Bear!!”

“eweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!”

“Guys . . .check out this cut and paste from the View from the Top"
website.

Look for her admonition at the bottom re: tent site availibility.

There area you will be in is no less populated (probably more).

You may get some easing because you will be after lots of school openings (less people with vacation time).”

“Errrrrr Lee??? What cut and paste? Was this amongst the views lost pages due to the ISP transfer?

Anyway, we have worried plenty about site availability and have structured our trip to try to avoid the worst of the pitfalls. ”

“Oh well there goes my attempt to play an prank on Lizs/Svetlina I think... Shows why I'd never make a decent troll...

Well, maybe she won't visit here? Anybody know how a modernized Amish person would talk????


Pedxing”

“I told Bigfott I would try to pull a "Svetline" on Lizs... but haven't figured out how to sound Amish.. anyway, if I do try this... don't tell Lizs....”