Metalheads who Hike

There's what I've been looking for!

So glad that the two of you had a great time, and I thoroughly enjoyed lunch and meeting you guys.

I searched for pictures of Bankhead National Forest and it looks gorgeous!  Very nice.  Yikes, be careful with those cougars though...  I came pretty close to one while on a night-hike with a friend some years back.  That was a bit unnerving.

Woah!  You can't just drop that and go.  Cougar story, cougar story!

It's a little bit interesting here in NH -- multiple informed, credible people have claimed clear and certain sightings, but Fish and Game won't acknowledge a population.  If they acknowledge they're here, then they have to manage them, and of course they're already strapped and pulled in too many directions as it is.  I almost always hike with a friend for the last year or so, but before that I was almost always solo. . . the bears and moose are cool, we get along just fine, but I don't want mountain lions here!

So I don't have a story other than that, but I'm interested?

Haha well it’s not THAT exciting, but it went like this:  My friend and I decided to go on a night-hike/walk at a spot up the coast a bit from Santa Cruz called Rancho Del Oso.  For the first handful of miles, it’s basically a fire road and easy to navigate at dark.  I had a puny little blue LED flashlight in my pocket and there was no moon.  As we were walking, my friend said something to the effect of, “isn’t it weird how in the dark things look like they’re moving but aren’t?”  I replied, “yeah totally” because I’ve noticed that too.  Anyways, later on as we were walking there was a large object roughly 10 or 15 yards in front of us on the road.  It looked like it was moving but I thought to myself, “we were JUST talking about how things look like they’re moving but aren’t; it’s probably just a log.”  My friend asked, “is that a person ahead?”  As I began telling him that no, it’s probably just a log, it really OBVIOUSLY moved.  I scrambled to get my flashlight out and was just able to illuminate its legs as it sauntered up onto the hillside and disappeared above us.  It was clearly a mountain lion.  We stood there for a moment, unsure whether to continue forward or not, though it was the only way we could go to our car so we cautiously continued past where it went up the hill.  As we continued walking, we heard something in the reeds to the other side of the road.  Flashlight in hand, I illuminated something with two glowing eyes.  It was just a deer… which the mountain lion was probably stalking for its dinner.  That deer had no idea how lucky it was!
 
I haven’t downloaded the pictures onto my computer yet, but this past Saturday my wife, parents, sister, her boyfriend, and I went on a lovely 14 mile hike through that same area, starting up at Big Basin and hiking all the way to the beach.  It was great!


Grindboy, that is very interesting indeed...  Be careful!  From what I hear, they'll typically attack from behind, going straight for your neck and head.  Having a readily-accessible knife is a good idea too.

Alright, time to post some pictures.  Unfortunately, my phone camera isn't the greatest and was having a particularly difficult time with the lighting.  But alas, I got some good ones anyways.



I really like this picture.  It was a lot steeper than it looks.


They'll let anyone on the trails it seems...




Wahoo, we made it to the beach!

I'd say that's actually about as "good" of a mountain lion story as you want to have.  I once heard somebody say, in reference to them, "They know what to do."  To actually see one is crazy! 

For all the rumors and sightings out here, I haven't heard of any actual encounters or attacks, so as long as there's no problem, there's no problem.

Definitely cool pics -- I'm well aware that still pics just don't capture steeps, for whatever reason.  And I'm admittedly a little jealous of the west coast waterfalls.  Ours are nice, but nowhere near the same.

Yeah you don't want to get much closer to mountain lions than that.  I had a friend in college whose dad was watching a mountain lion stalk him while they were mountain biking through the park.  His dad didn't say anything because he didn't want him to stop.  Yikes.

I'm inside on a scheduled hike day today because of bad weather.  Grrrrrr!!

However, my last time out, higher up there was just enough of a dusting of fresh snow that made for incredible wildlife tracks.  I'm sure it was far too small to be a mountain lion, but my friend and I came across the best/clearest (I'd imagine) bobcat print I've ever seen.  Actually, maybe the first bobcat print I've seen.  It was pretty cool, and couldn't have been more than 10-12 hours old.  That's the whole story though, nothing dramatic.

Ooh cool!  I think bobcats are some of the neatest critters.  I've seen a few of them in the wild and they're just awesome to look at.  I've gotten pretty close to one actually.

Am I towing the SPAM line?  Or is this double appropriate for the forum?

How did I miss this when you posted it a YEAR ago?!?  That is hilarious!  I love it.  Seems like there are a few inside jokes referenced too with good stories I'm sure.

With the baby, two jobs, and it being winter, I haven't done a whole lot of hiking (and am super out of shape...) but I've been on a couple fun little adventures.  Come springtime, Gloria will be big enough to put in the carrier and we can go hiking as a family.

oldschooldoom wrote:Wiki shows that Mt Washington summit is 6,288 ft. The world's highest windspeed of 231 miles per hour (372 km/h), was recorded there in 1934.

Quoting myself four years later. Little did I know I would be on top of Mt Washington last autumn.

Ah, I apparently missed this "bump."  Thanks for the nice words Kerrick -- yes, Death March is triple chock full of inside jokes.  I think it's by far the worst song that I've done so far (so far. . . worse could always be lurking!), but it's the one that's gotten by far the most views.  I posted it on a NH hiking facebook page, and of course a lot of people ignored it, but it's had a somewhat steady stream of people sharing it ever since.  At least SOME of the jokes are "inside" to NH hikers, and others to me personally.  So nobody really gets everything -- it's a good thing I do these mostly for my own enjoyment!

I love that you're looking forward to hiking with the child.  It would kill me to move to a new place with a lot of interesting stuff and not be able to get out!  It does look like you have some though -- the big one of you ruining a beautiful view looks nice!  Is that Idaho?

Old School -- that's super sweet that you were on Washington!  Did you drive, hike, or take the cog?  It's not necessarily my favorite summit, per se, for a few reasons -- but the mountain really is incredible in a lot of ways, and any/every way is amazing in it's own right.  We just had a few days of incredible winds about a week ago -- the highest gust on Washington was 182 or something around there, which apparently broke their Feb record.  Crazy!  I hope you had a good time on the mountain and in New Hampshire, if apparently you aren't from around here?

Thank you for asking, I was living near Providence. I planned the fall trip to see the leaves on the second week of October.
My first stop was the NH state house

Then DROVE to the top of Mt Wash as I was pressed for time.

Spent the night in my car in Bethel, ME
Then on to Quebec

I've lived here for 10 years now and never been to the state house.

Looks like you had a socked in day atop Washington, which is too bad.  It's not the best for views anyway, since everything else looks small.  Hopefully you got some good looks into the Great Gulf on the way up the auto road?  IMO that's the most amazing feature in NH anyway, and the auto road goes right up it's S ridge, if the clouds were low enough to afford you some views in.  And hopefully the foliage was good for you?  I felt like this year was a little bit strange.  I just looked back at my pics to see where I was when -- 2nd week of October I went up one of the higher peaks, but it seemed like the best foliage was done, and so I went S after that, and still didn't have great luck. . . but then I saw plenty of pics later from the mountains that looked excellent.  So I don't know if I did things wrong and missed the best colors, or if they really behaved strangely.  I don't have that piece of living in NH down yet!

If you go to the capital, watch for shirtless men in cold weather trying to uproot a tree while screaming like they are at a metal concert


Visibility was dangerously poor in the top half of the mountain. Creeping along in two way traffic on one lane. But quite an exhilarating ride on the bottom half getting up to 70 on one stretch of two lane black top.


There's a pretty good ap called Leaf Peepers that is good for the whole U.S.

I highly recommend stopping at Glen Ellis Falls on the way up there if you've never been

Ha ha, yeah, the state hospital is in Concord, and NH does have our share of characters.  Glad that some of the locals were able to provide you a memorable experience.

70 mph on the auto road?  I haven't been on there in a while, but holy smokes.  It does look like you had some decent color but the clouds are tragically low!  I will check out that app -- there had been a NH foliage tracker app, but it was never updated for last season. 

Agree that Glen Ellis Falls is one of the nicest falls in NH.  We don't have the couple hundred foot drops that you can find out West, but Glen Ellis is a beautiful spot.  I also love the interpretive sign, that helpfully informs the visitor that there is water in the mountains:

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70 mph anywhere on this road is nuts! I was white knuckling it. One foot hovering over the brake pedal. But 70 mph is nothing for pro racers on this road. Check out what Travis Pastrana did in 2017...5 MINUTES TO THE TOP!!! 7.4 miles. I can't imagine going nearly 120 mph on this road. Every turn is a near crash if you watch the vid in the following link
https://mtwashingtonautoroad.com/events/climb-to-the-clouds

Sorry, the leaf app is actually called 'Leaf Peepr'

LOL, I think we may have taken a pic of the same sign

It's not too strenuous of a hike, fun for the whole family


and the pay off is definitely worth the effort




Sorry, okay back to actual hiking posts next

Those racers are absolutely insane.  I've seen a couple clips of crashes, and somehow or another nobody ever really gets hurt or tumbles all the way down into the Great Gulf.  I mean, there's one turn that they call "Oh my God Corner" for the casual driver at 20 mph!  Also fun, they have a road race one day a year.  Strangely enough, it's so popular there's a lottery to get in, and you can guess what the race shirts say:  "Only one hill!"

Definitely the same sign at Glen Ellis Falls.  I think things are hilarious.  I hope we really haven't become SO civilized that we have to have signs in the mountains so that city folk know that we have. . . water. . . (and at the water fall, no less).

To count this for actual hiking, good news is that I get to go out tomorrow!  Bad news is that it's going to be cold and high winds, which means that I have limited good options, especially the way higher trails get blown in mid-week in winter.  SO much snow up there right now!

Looks like a couple previous posts were removed about the pro racers on the hill. That's okay, no big deal. Now back to actual hiking contributions.

Also while in New England I "ascended" to the highest point of another state. Now I am among the elite HIGHPOINTERS club.

It was a non-strenuous "hike" from my car parked along the highway for a 0.3 mile horizontal trek through a wooded area.

There is even a Facebook page for Highpointers


To ascend the summit, there is a .3-mile long trail that has a mere 10-foot elevation gain. The hill is 812 feet high and is located 15 miles west of Providence Gotta love Rhode Island, LOL

oldschooldoom wrote:Looks like a couple previous posts were removed about the pro racers on the hill. That's okay, no big deal. Now back to actual hiking contributions.

???  I'm pretty sure I'm the only mod who's logged in lately and definitely didn't delete any posts in here...

It's true that osd definitely had a post or two that were appropriate for the discussion if not exactly on topic regarding Mt Washington auto race.  For what it's worth.

Naturally there's a good bit of crossover between hiking and highpointing.  Highpointing is the kind of thing that I think is a very cool idea that just doesn't turn out to be that cool in reality (although I reserve the right to become obsessed with it at a later date).  The highpoint of FL, for example, is elevation 345 ft.  That's just silly to me.  And, of course, to do them all you have to not only travel to many distant and ridiculous places, but actually summit Denali.  FL's Britton Hill and Denali for the same challenge?  Just strange.  Even, for instance, NH county highpoints, which is a cool idea again, turns out not that cool.  The highpoint of my county is an otherwise random spot on the side of a small mountain.  I've hiked the small mountain to the summit, but the summit's in the next county over (and far from the highpoint) -- I would have to bushwhack to some random spot there the county line is drawn to be at the highpoint of my county.  Just not appealing to me.  Plus, another county in the western part of the state has a highpoint that's in a super exclusive private game preserve that's doesn't allow public access, except perhaps once a year with a group of 10 or more each paying $50, if you get lucky.  Just strange stuff.

So anyway, I think my state highpoint total is at 4/50 -- 5/50 if you count by car, I think?  I DO have MA in my sights for the future, so look out!

I wish that the posts are numbered here like they are at some other forums. Then we can tell which ones are removed.

I am not bragging about being in the Highpointers club, LOL. I agree it is kinda silly. Truthfully, I did not know such thing existed until I was googling "Highest point in Rhode Island" last summer. I went on this, ahem, hike on a spur of the moment last September.

I have done a number of true Fourteener hikes but they were far from being the highest points in Cal, Colo and Utah. Just to be funny, one day I want to hike to the top of Mauna Kea to say that I hiked the tallest mountain in the world. Measured from its base on the ocean floor, it rises over 33,000 ft, significantly greater than the elevation of Mount Everest above sea level. But from sea level, Mauna Kea is only 13,803 ft.
More pix from the mighty Rhode Island High Point:

I've been getting out with the family and hiking around North Georgia lately. A friend at church dragged us 8 miles on Blood Mountain. I was dead by the end of that. It was beautiful, but I needed to work my way up to that. We did Raven Cliff Falls and Pine Mountain this week.