Greetings from....

Black Mountain Fire Tower---minus the fire tower (it should be renamed Black Mountain Cell Tower and Windmill). We hiked Monday morning with our friend Pete. In lieu of climbing a High Peak, we chose something local since Brian was just coming off a 12 hour night shift. We started a little after 9am and reached the summit around 10:45am. The trail had been groomed by snowmobiliers, so all we really needed were microspikes. There were several slick icy spots and the 'spikes just bit right into it. Love those little things!

Black Mountain was my first real hike with Brian in the sping of 2007. I don't remember how long it me took the first time, but this time I did the 6.6 mile loop in roughly 4 hours and 15 minutes. The backside of the mountain was not as bad as we thought---not a lot of ice and not as steep as I remembered. We passed the ponds and may go back in summer to one of the lean-tos that overlooks Black Mountain Pond. Great day for a short hike to stay in shape til I can climb another High Peak!

Woo-hoo...I'm a 9-er!

Only 37 more High Peaks left to climb! Brian, Pam and I headed up to Keene around 5:30 am on Wednesday (also Brian's b-day). This was Pam's first High Peak and she did an awesome job. She was much more prepared than I was for my first High Peak.

We decided on TableTop since it was supposed to be a gorgeous day. It was just about 35 to 40 degrees out when we left the trailhead. We kept up a pretty decent pace, made a pit stop, and de-layered by the time we got to the second trailhead. It started to get windy so we kept moving. We made it to the intersection and pointed out the Phelps trail to Pam...onward to the next intersection, only 1.2 miles. We were going to wait to eat lunch at that point but my belly had other plans. We went another few tenths of a mile and stopped so I could feed my face. That's when Brian demonstrated the fine art of falling into a spruce trap...poor guy!

After that quick break, we got back on track. A quarter mile or so later, Pam had a snowshoe malfunction. She was leading and Brian found a washer and nut where she had just stepped. He did a quick fix and tightened up the rest of the loose nuts and we were on our way again. He pointed out the snow fleas on the trail and the pine marten poop....what a guy! We made it to the intersection and found the well beaten path to TableTop. It wasn't too bad, but he said the woods would get tight and they did. This last section to the summit was very do-able, not as bad as I anticipated. We had some good views looking back down into the valley. We made it to the summit. Actually, we blew right by the summit sign. We backtracked about 30 feet and said "duhhhh". I tend to hike with blinders on---I'm either looking down or straight ahead, not up. Oh well. We made it! After another snack break, we started down. We remembered Pam wanted to take a picture of the old man's beard hanging on the trees...so we did that. Right after we passed the Phelps intersection, Brian felt a sprinkle. Wouldn't you know, by the time we got to the high water bridge, it started to rain---and of course, we didn't pack our cheapy ponchos. It rained when we came down the same trail after doing Phelps, again no ponchos. I think the Van Hoevenburg trail has it in for us. We kept plugging away and made it to the parking lot just before 4pm. Ten miles, eight and half hours, potty breaks, snack breaks, layering/delayering included---not too shabby for two newbies. This was a cake walk for you-know-who!

Scrappy Valentine's Day

a few days early! I managed to complete a little gift for my son's teacher...now all I have to do is fill it. Patrick's mission today was to find out what kind of candy Mrs. C likes. I told him to casually ask her, LOL! Dead give away! I have had this box from W-M hanging around forever and figured I should put it to good use. I love the scalloped detail on the lid. The best part of this project is that I didn't have to leave the house to purchase anything. All those years of buying paper, stickers, ink, metal bits and sparkly do-dads has finally paid off.

Sweet Treats Box: Medium scalloped chipboard box: Provo Craft, Patterned Paper: Basic Grey Blush Crush and K&Co, Chipboard Letters: American Crafts Jewelry Box, Lace Border sticker: Mrs. Grossman's, Rub-ons: Heidi Grace, Bookplate and brads: Joann's, Ink: Ranger~TH Distress Ink, Photo Corners: Canson, Adhesive: Xyron, Other: sandpaper

A hike and a LO

I should have posted this last week, I guess I'm getting lazy in my old age...[snicker snicker]

First of all, Brian, "Poppyseed" Pam and I decided to go up the backside of Buck Mtn. on Thursday (Jan 29) from Shelving Rock Rd...again. We did this same hike in November. It is a short one, 5 miles round trip. It is really nice--starts off with a gentle roll, begins to climb and then ends with a short steep climb. The last person to sign the register did so on Jan 20th, so there was some trail breaking to do since we got about 8 to 9 inches of snow the day before. Brian did most of it, especially near the steep parts and Pam did some too. I didn't do any. My job was to squash down the snow, ensure a nice semi-smoth trail on the way out :) . Pam and I decided to ditch our jackets maybe a mile in and go up in fleece. I was pretty comfortable and stayed warm as long as I was moving. I'm not sure what the temp was, maybe in the 20's that day. It was a little comical as we were trying to ascend some of the snowy-rocky spots. Pam went in up to her knees a few times---ok, I did too. Not to mention We moved along at a good pace and reach the summit. Lake George looked good and frozen to me. It was a little overcast near Gore, but other than that, the view was great. We had a leisurely lunch and hot chocolate...and we think we spotted an eagle flying out of the tree line. I wasn't sure at first what it was---too big for a hawk, too brown to be a raven, defintely not an osprey. Anyhoo, we took some video, packed up and headed down. We were back at the truck by 2:15....not bad (for me) 5 miles of snowshoeing in 4.25 hours. I could have trimmed off 30 minutes but my right upper thigh/groin pull was starting to act up.

I could wait to get back home from snowshoeing so I could finish and post this LO. I have had some heritage pics sitting in my hard drive for a while and couldn't wait to do this one. This is my MIL's great great grandfather, Columbus W. Hxxxxxx. I had some basic information on him but was curious to find out a few details about his time in the Union Army. I spent a few hours googling military databases was successful--found enlistment date, muster dates, regiment and company numbers. The paper under the photos was a printed copy of battlefield/casualty report from the 92nd Regiment. The title is borrowed from the first line of "Taps". I wanted this to reflect a Civil War era feeling. Patterned Paper (Cosmo Cricket), Foam stamps (MM), Acrylic stamps (Studio G), Ink (Staz-on, TH Distress Ink, Rub-ons (Marcella-K&Co), Metal frame unknown.

I hope to scrap a few more heritage pages soon~~