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From
an open ledge, I could see Mt Washington and the Presidentials in the
distance. The weather was looking rather ominous, so I didn't linger. A
few steps up the trail, there was an open area with the shell of an old
fireplace. According to the guidebook, there was a shelter here at one
time. I quickly ate a power bar, gulped down some of the ice water in my
bottle, and then plunged onward toward Mt Waumbek, another mile away along
the ridge.
The
trail wound gently downhill for a distance, then came to an area where the
packed pathway split. I followed the left split first, but it reached a
dead end after about 10 or 20 yards. I returned to the fork and followed
the right trail, which continued downhill for some distance, then leveled
off and began to rise almost imperceptibly toward the summit of Mt
Waumbek. The breeze began to pick up and a few showers of snow fell from
the treetops. I was tired. The trail seemed to trudge on forever, and the
large snowshoes made my feet feel like lead weights. I probably should
have taken them off, but I kept expecting to run into some soft spots
where I'd posthole.
Mt
Waumbek itself was unspectacular. There wasn't anything worth taking a
picture of, and I was tired and in a hurry to get back before it started
snowing. In fact, I wasn't even sure whether the flakes filtering through
the air came from the sky or from the trees. I was also getting stomach
cramps, probably from a combination of the new power bars with added
caffeine, and the partially frozen water I was drinking.
Back
on Starr King, I began to see pawprints next to my tracks in the trail. No
other people had recently passed by. I
first suspected a coyote. When I saw a large light-colored dog-like shape
ahead, I stopped dead in my tracks. Then I noticed a person was with the
animal which turned out to be just a large retriever. Actually, there were
two people and their two retrievers. The dogs must have run ahead on the
trail while the couple rested at the summit. Since
I had been having troubles using my camera's self-timer, I asked them if
they could take my picture for me. The woman took my picture, and then I
started back down. Soon after I descended back down to the deciduous
woods, it began to snow lightly. At
my car, the snowfall was picking up and accumulating on the roadways. On
Rt 3 between Twin Mountain and Franconia Notch, where the wind had drifted
some snow onto the road, there was a bad accident. A van and its utility
trailer had turned over on its side, and police were directing traffic
around it. I hope that the person or persons in the van had been wearing
seatbelts and were not badly hurt.
The
drive home was a nightmare. The highway was clogged with people returning
from long skiing weekends, and the snow had caused a number of minor
accidents. I was glad when I got home again.
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Mts
Jefferson and Washington from the summit of Mt Starr King. The views from
Starr King were pretty good considering the weather, which was beginning
to look more and more like snow all the time. |
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