Parka Place

Parka Place (I live in the second building from the right). This pic was taken from the bridge that crosses over the Saco, along highway 302.

The Saco River, looking NW (I think!)

Sparkles in the very cold through the woods

Trees behind the house



The hill and a rooftop from the road winding through the little alpine housing development that you get to via the trail in our backyard woods


View one (looking E from the back of our cabin)

....two.... looking W (Tom's car, our cabin)

Three, looking NW

Four, looking Nish

Five, looking NNE

Six, looking NE (a little baptist church)

....Seven, looking SW toward our cabin and the house.

Whilst off the mountain, I'm living in a little town called Glen. It's situated at the intersection of highways 302 and 16. There are a couple of gas stations, a Family Dollar, Dairy Queen, a bank, a grocery store, and a couple other little shops. The house I'm staying in is a two-story cabin alongside a nice Victorian house. Collectively the house and three cabins are called "Parka Place" because they're located right across the street from the "Red Parka Pub". The cabin has three other guys living in it - Tom (on my side), Travis and Chris (on the other side). Jan, my landlord, says that you can see the mountain from the house, but I haven't yet --it's quite often obscured by clouds to the point that it is apparently just gone. However, you can definitely see the Saco River, which runs about 15 feet in front of the house.

I've been exploring a bit, and found a trail that goes into the woods and back to a little alpine housing development. There are a couple of other places to walk, but the highway isn't so good for pedestrians. Tom, my housemate, says that there are some logging roads that take you up to the foothills so I'm hoping I can go check those out soon.

Photos from my hike to the Lakes of the Clouds hut

On Tuesday of my first week, Steve Moore (the week's volunteer) and I hiked down to the hut that's maintained by the AMC near the Lakes of the Clouds. The Lakes are actually ponds up in the mountains, although they currently look like --well, snow. It was pretty difficult for me, and Steve was leading me by 15 feet almost the whole way. There were a few icy parts which would have put me a good 30 feet below him if I'd slipped... I ended up crawling over those. As Mike Finnegan (the IT guy on my shift) said, "You have much to learn."

The area was absolutely surreal. The undercast skies made for a beautiful bed of clouds covering the valley, and everything around us was painted in a pallete of whites. We could see the Franconia Ridge ahead (also part of the Presidentials), and the summit slowly crept up behind us. We saw some beautiful little flakes once we got to the hut, and ended up in some very light snow showers and freezing fog on the way back. Temperatures got a bit lower and wind picked up, but the skies cleared as we neared the top again.

The Crawford Trail is a section of the Appalachian Trail, and also the oldest continuously maintained trail in the U.S. It was quite steep at parts, and marked by cairns (piles of stones). I'm hoping that I'll get to do this trail and many others that are around the summit in the next few months. This hike kicked my butt, and I'll need to do some more training to keep up with the guys!

Photos from week one, Thursday

First day down

I've just come down from the mountain for the first time. The first week was definitely exciting, and not at all what I was expecting. Quite beautiful, quite cold, and I've got quite a lot to learn.