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Welcome to Boo and Madhatter's photo site. We hope you enjoy looking at our trip reports. The "featured gallery" has our most recent hiking trip. The "family events" gallery is pictures other than hiking. Probably not as interesting but you might see us acting or doing something goofy. Enjoy in any case!

Boo and Madhatter

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Mt. Carrigian 10/23/09 : The weather forecast for Saturday caused us both to play hookey from work on Friday. The Friday forecast promised nice, cool, and sunny weather while Saturday's was for some nasty stuff. Not a hard decision when one wants to hike. Our destination for the day was Mt Carrigain at the foot of the Pemigewassett Wilderness. The parking lot had a few cars in it as we arrived and we were surprised at the number of people we saw through out the day. I guess we were not the only ones to take advantage of the good weather. The trip up the Signal Ridge trail went very well although there are sections of the trail that are completely rocky. This gets old on the feet after a while. The reward comes in reaching Signal Ridge itself with its beautiful views in all directions. The summit of Carrigain sits a short half mile away with its fire tower standing above the trees. Very little snow and ice is on the ground as compared to last week's hike to the Osceloa's. Must have been warm during the week. There is frost on the trees which has its own beauty. After summiting, we had our lunch while enjoying the sun. We met Glenn and his black Lab Brody when they arrived at the summit. This was Glenn's final summit as he completed the NH48 (it was Brody's fifth summit). Congratulations to Glenn! In conversation, we found out that Glenn had completed the AT trail back in 2005. He's quite an accomplished hiker. We enjoyed our time with Glenn and Brody but soon started our trek down. We enjoyed the fall afternoon and walking through the fallen leaves. A great day to be out in the woods. Now, we both have to work on Saturday. C'est la vie!

Mt. Carrigian 10/23/09

The weather forecast for Saturday caused us both to play hookey from w ...

Updated: Oct 23, 2009 8:22pm PST

Mount Osceola & East Osceola 10/17/09 : A beautiful trip up the Mt Osceloa Trail to the summits of Mt Osceloa and East Osceola on a bright, sunny, and cool morning. At around 3,000 feet, the snow and ice started and it wasn't too long before we added our microspikes to our attire. They helped quite a bit and made the trek to the top relatively easy. We had the main summit to ourselves when we first arrived and enjoyed the tremendous views. The trip over to East Osceola was uneventful and enjoyed a few nice outcrops that yielded some beautiful views. We took our summit pictures on the viewless summit and headed back to the main summit for our lunch. Madhatter decided to tackle the "Chimney" (a short steep incline) on the way. He made it without incident while Boo took the by-pass. Arriving back at the main summit, we found a huge crowd of people hanging around. A couple of large groups had arrived. We found an out-of-the-way spot to have our lunch and then beat tracks to leave before the large group headed down. We made short work of the trip down and were appreciative of having our microspikes on our feet. A nice day all around.

Mount Osceola & East Osceola 10/17/09

A beautiful trip up the Mt Osceloa Trail to the summits of Mt Osceloa ...

Updated: Oct 17, 2009 5:46pm PST

Zealand, West Bond & Bond 10/10/09 : The early morning skies were dark and drizzly as we decided to wait until 7:00AM to begin our hike. The weather forecast called for clearing skies by late morning so we decided to go ahead with our planned hike for today of Zealand, West Bond, and Bond Mountains. We made quick work of the hike to Zealand Falls hut. Passing the beaver ponds it seems as the beavers have been busy as the water levels seemed higher than last time we went through. The water seems to be encroaching the trail in some spots. We decided to go to Zeacliff on our way back as the clouds were still quite heavy as we passed and things were suppose to improve. Naturally, the rain started as we ascended Mt Zealand and would persist until the Guyot summit. Nothing too hard but a nice hypothermia-type of rain. Seriously though, we were adequately protected from the elements. The winds were strong as we passed over Guyot and we were happy to drop back down to treeline to get a break from the winds. On the summit of West Bond the winds didn't seem as strong but we still kept our visit short as there were no views today. After a quick lunch break at the West Bond trail junction, we headed off to tag Mt Bond before we started out trek back. We enjoyed the view of the clouds, snapped our summit pictures and started back. The winds were really howling on Mt Guyot this time. Boo was knocked down a couple of times before we made it back to treeline. As we approached Mt Zealand the skies finally started to break and soon the sun made an appearance. We passed many groups heading to the Guyot shelter area on our way back so I'm sure it was a busy night there. We were rewarded for our patience on the Zeacliff as the setting sun gave us some beautiful views of the eastern Pemi wilderness. We didn't stop at the Zealand Falls hut on the way back as the hour was getting late. About 20 minutes from our finish, we ran into DaveBear (Rocks on Top) and his daughter Kim heading out to the shelter as well. We exchanged pleasantries and wished them well. We ended our hike under headlamp. We throughly enjoyed our day despite the drizzle and wind.

Zealand, West Bond & Bond 10/10/09

The early morning skies were dark and drizzly as we decided to wait un ...

Updated: Oct 11, 2009 2:31pm PST

No. and So. Twin Mts 09-26-09 : The day started very cool with a hard frost on the car when we awoke but the weather promised to be clear and nice. The weatherman got the forecast 100% correct. The North Twin trail was in great shape and as we started to head up the trail, we were soon shedding layers. The upper part of the No. Twin trail gets fairly steep but the reward is great when you get to the ledge and the first outlook. There is a beautiful view over to the Presidential Range with a nice show of fall colors. We soon continued on to the actual summit of North Twin and then over to another viewpoint. After enjoying that view, we started our trip over to South Twin Mt. This 1.3 mile jaunt quickly passed and soon we were on the summit. Views were great in all directions. With the beautiful weather came a number of other hikers out on the trail. It was fun to speak to a number of them. Everyone was enjoying the day to the max. We moved slightly off to summit to have our lunch and ending up spending over an hour lounging and enjoying the views. All good things must end so we packed up our stuff and headed back to North Twin. We peeked one more time at the summit view and then started our trek down off the mountain. Arrving back at the trailhead, we both remarked on the outstanding views we saw and the wonderful weather. It doesn't get better.

No. and So. Twin Mts 09-26-09

The day started very cool with a hard frost on the car when we awoke b ...

Updated: Sep 27, 2009 7:19am PST

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