Welcome to Floridachusetts!!

The weather over the past few days has been very tropical and humid, YUCK!! I feel like I am back in Florida with the daily rain storms, except we don't have AC like those lucky people. Its okay though because apparently it is only going to be like this for another week, Yippee!! Keep those umbrellas and rain jackets handy. Whats with people who accuse other people (generally visitors) of bringing bad weather with them? Like its their fault, seriously.

Now for the weekend, because I am sure you are all curious. Friday night I saw American Wedding, which was okay. Certainly not as funny as the other two, but a good laugh and worth the price of a ticket.


On Saturday Emily and I went up to the mountains of New Hampshire and had quite an adventure. After considering advice from some friends I decided hiking Mount Washington was a bad idea and instead we should do some touristy stuff, but upon seeing the mountains I couldn't fight the urge to climb a 4000 footer. I broke out my maps and picked a nice three hour climb of Mount Liberty. My leg had been feeling better, so I thought I could do such a small hill. We packed our bags and set out at 10:30. After a few hours of hiking we made it to what we thought was the summit, but after five minutes of looking into the fog(clouds) found the actual summit one feet away. We couldn't see anything, but it was nice to be up there. I then suggested we hike across the ridge to Mount Flume another 4000 footer, it was only a 30-45 minute hike and we made it across in a timely manner.

Now this is where things got interesting. In my constant obsession for doing loop trails and not back tracking I suggested we hike down the Flume Slide trail. The mountain guide describes the trail as being steep and rocky with slippery granite slopes especially in the rain, oh yeah and descents are not recommended. I took this as a challenge and we foolishly headed down the treacherous Flume Slide trail. It was slow going, but we made it down first through the baseball to grapefruit sized loose rocks then on to the slippery granite faces and finally into the forest. We were supposed to find a trail after the granite faces, but could not find it at all. I am not sure if we even went down the right slide and this is probably why we couldn't find the trail. It was now around four o'clock and we were encountering thick forest with the GPS reading 2.5 miles to the car. After a bit of discussion we decided it best to go back up to the top and just retrace our steps. If we didn't, we would probably still be out there right now. We struggled back up the mountain and finally after an hour made it to the top of Mount Flume again. We finished the rest of our water and got psyched up for the hike back down. On the bright side the clouds from earlier had burned off and we could actually see the mountains around us.

At five thirty we began our second descent and made it back to Mount Liberty by six thirty. At this point we were both completely exhausted and drained of energy from hiking for eight hours. We continued down and were quite thirsty and even re-enacted the Old Mount Speck water puddle scene. Finally at eight thirty we made it back to the car and the two nalgenes full of water. We had a few scrapes, bruises, and a bunch of bug bites but were okay and still in good spirits. My knee was fine throughout the entire hike and my right knee was actually sore, but probably because I hit it on a rock at some point. We cleaned off using some water from one of the streams we came across and made our way back to Lincoln. We went to eat at Gordie's and ate a ton of food, it was so good. After a little nap in the car we made it back to Amesbury just before one in the morning.

It was certainly a memorable day and I will probably refer to this story everytime I hike for the rest of my life. I want to thank Emily for being such a good hiking partner, even when we were completely lost she didn't get upset and remained calm through the entire Flume Slide trail fiasco. Not to mention the fact that she was still able to walk after ten hours and didn't complain once. Not a once!! Hiking Slideshow

Sunday I woke up a little late and dealt with the power going on and off, wreaking havoc on my internet usage. Britt asked me if I wanted to go to the Peabody-Essex Museum in Salem (go figure). Nissa and Andy came over and we piled into my car and picked Ry up before making our way southward. The museum was rather interesting and well worth the twelve dollars. My favorite item on display was the childrearer (see the slideshow), it is a wooden receptacle the Chinese would place their children in to keep them from running around, it seems like a perfect invention, crude but perfect. After the museum we were caught in the rain looking for a record store and eventually drove to find it. Dinner at Salem Beer Works was great, especially because of the waitress. We went back home and reconvened later for Sex and the City. It was a very busy day and I am now quite exhausted. Salem slideshow

I did get an update on my knee, the good news is my ACL is apparently not torn, the bad news is I may have fractured my patella. I will find out what the treatment is on Thursday, but apparently the doctor who talked to my mom about the MRI says I shouldn't be walking on it. I guess a ten hour hike would be considered walking, OOPS!!!