Posted September 19, 20186 yr Hey Guys, figured we should start this thread outside of CVNP's. First post, my fiance and I will be going to New Hampshire over Columbus Day weekend to hike and be foliage tourists. Our hikes will be limited to October 6th, as we will be heading to Boston the following day to see family. We will be climbing Mount Osceola in the morning, then getting back into our car and doing a more flat hike to East Pond. Views from Osceola and East Pond are pictured below. View from each side of Osceola [240 degree view from the top] East Pond This will be our first true hike outside of Ohio, PA, MI, or New York. So advice will be much appreciated! We are bringing the following with us: - Hiking boots - My 50L trail ready back pack. - Neck gaiters (ticks are particularly bad in NH this year) - Waterproof coats if need be - Lunch (Half loaf of bread, organic peanut butter, and pears) - Selfie stick (Millenial lifeline) - Tree hammock - (I'm bringing Thoreau ;) ) - and two 32 oz. Nalgene bottles filled with water. - Bug spray Are we missing anything glaring? I understand we aren't scaling Everest here, but I just want to make sure we have our bases covered. All tips/pointers/suggestions about what to bring or what to see while in NH (We're staying in Waterville Valley) are greatly appreciated.
September 19, 20186 yr How long are your hikes? The bug spray will be key. I was just hiking in Vermont a few weeks ago and the bugs were really bad.
September 19, 20186 yr That's a nice area of the country, but I haven't been in that specific area in the past ten years or so. You seem fairly well-prepared already. The area is rocky (granite), so good boots will be key; and often steep, so you might take more frequent breaks. Ticks are more likely to attach to your feet/legs and crawl up, so gaiters to bridge the shoe/pants junction would be better than neck gaiters if you're that concerned about ticks. Spray your pantlegs with bug spray, don't walk through any meadows, and check yourself post-hike. I'm a mosquito magnet, but ticks have rarely bothered me despite lots of time in the outdoors and companions who were not so lucky. Other suggestions might include a small blanket or foam pad to sit on (but not necessary), some extra dry socks, and a small first-aid kit (blister treatment is probably the most likely first aid you'll need). Check the weather -- the temperature at the peak will be much lower and it will be windier than at the trailhead. A raincoat may be sufficient for some extra warmth, but you might want a fleece for your lunch break. My trips to that area generally demand trying a new regional beer, eating some lobster, and a trip to Ben & Jerry's (the latter being much less of a novelty now than it used to be -- but still a nice reward after a hike!) Also, New Hampshire doesn't have a sales tax (or income tax -- so you can imagine what property taxes are like!) but I think there are hotel and restaurant taxes to collect tourist dollars. Without a sales tax, outlet malls can be worthwhile, if that's your thing. Antiquing is big there and it seems every small town you drive through will have some antique (or junk) shops. I'd check TripAdvisor or Yelp for hotel and restaurant ideas. Share pictures and stories when you get back!
September 19, 20186 yr Author Awesome, thanks guys! Re: the ticks, I bought waterproof hiking pants that will go all the way to my laces, and I doubt we will venture much off trail at either spot. Good call on the extra socks. I'm really huge on transcendentalism, so I'm stopping at Walden Pond on our way back too. But the antique point is excellent. We close on our house in a week so it may be a great time to go deal shopping.
September 27, 20186 yr aww man you just missed brimfield, the biggest antiques fair in the east. regardless, there are some antiques stores in concord i think near waldon that my spouse has been to that you could easily visit, but really from her reports you can find something antiquey almost anywhere in towns up there. since you are in that area, if you can arrange it i would add check out the gropius/breuer house just to the south of waldon if you have time and like that classic modernist business (and maybe our 'ol cleveland homeboy philip johnson's glass house in new canaan, ct., too).
September 27, 20186 yr Author aww man you just missed brimfield, the biggest antiques fair in the east. regardless, there are some antiques stores in concord i think near waldon that my spouse has been to that you could easily visit, but really from her reports you can find something antiquey almost anywhere in towns up there. since you are in that area, if you can arrange it i would add check out the gropius/breuer house just to the south of waldon if you have time and like that classic modernist business (and maybe our 'ol cleveland homeboy philip johnson's glass house in new canaan, ct., too). Awesome! Thank you!
September 27, 20186 yr I've hiked up Mt. Monadnock, NH twice. It's pretty easy and the definition of a "day hike". Last fall I got lost in North Carolina in that area where that dude hid from the FBI for 4-5 years. I was only lost for about 30 minutes and only the second time I've done that. Your mind really starts freaking out. The woods suddenly become scary. The story as how I got lost was pretty lengthy so I'm not going to bore people with it.
September 28, 20186 yr My sister lives in NH, about 30 mins from Lincoln. It's not too bad. We traversed it, can't remember which side we started on but we went across greeley pond and Osceola trail. If I remember correctly it's pretty steep most of the way. We like to go to purple tomato when we are over there. It's a grocery store that makes sandwiches and some other stuff. Polly's pancake is a good breakfast place, it's in Franconia. Conway/ North Conway is cool too in terms of little towns.
September 28, 20186 yr Cincinnati woman missing in the Smoky Mountains: https://www.wcpo.com/news/local-news/hamilton-county/cleves/cleves-woman-missing-in-great-smoky-mountains-national-park
October 3, 20186 yr The search comes to a tragic end. Woman is found dead about two miles from the point where she went missing: https://www.wcpo.com/news/local-news/hamilton-county/cleves/missing-woman-found-dead-in-great-smoky-mountains-national-park
October 9, 20186 yr This family from Cincinnati (Bellevue, KY, actually) with six kids ages 1-16 just finished the Appalachian Trail. Their vlog has gotten virtually zero views, maybe 10,000 for their most-watched upload. Here we see them in knee-deep snow in the Smoky Mountains, spending the night in the Newfound Gap Rd. women's bathroom: ...so they end up getting intercepted the next morning (next episode) by child & family services, for obvious reasons. It's really stupid to sleep and have your kids sleeping on the floor of a public restroom, to say nothing of hiking through a mountain range during winter weather. SPOILER: they somehow end up making it all the way to Maine without any major mishaps -- no illnesses, no injuries. But the parents do get separated from the kids in the 100-mile wildnerness because they take the wrong fork (not the kids), which is totally unforgivable. If you're going to die on this hike, that's the place where it happens. The parents never seem to grasp how serious that situation was.
October 10, 20186 yr Author My fiancé and I had a successful hiking trip. Pictures honestly cant even begin to do the foliage justice. Everyone should put the White Mountains during peak foliage on their bucket list. Boston was fun too, but this took the cake. Pictures are from the Osceola summit, parts of the trail, and a hidden mountainous pond called East Pond, which was worth the constant uphill hike. Edited October 10, 20186 yr by YABO713
October 24, 20186 yr Looks like a great trip! Good looking couple. I've only drive through the white mountains in early November when most of the foliage was turning brown. My wife wants to go to Vermont someday so maybe we'll throw this on the list.
January 15, 20196 yr Our favorite over-achieving Cinicinnati-ish home-school family just posted a 60 minute highlight reel of their 2018 Appalachian Trail thru-hike:
January 17, 20196 yr 22 minutes ago, YABO713 said: They named a kid Seven. K. Yeah, and since he was homeschooled, he didn't get bullied for it. I'm 40 and people still make fun of my name all of the time.
January 17, 20196 yr No. My brother, who does not live here, found these videos because he and his friends are much more into hiking than I am. He told me that he watched almost every hour-long episode of their hike while at work (he has one of those jobs where you sit around for long periods of time while the computer renders something). We agreed that the kids are fine but those parents are each fairly annoying.
May 13, 20196 yr Machete attack on two hikers on the Appalachian Trail: https://www.cnn.com/2019/05/12/us/appalachian-trail-machete-attack/index.html Apparently one of the two hikers has died from their injuries.
May 29, 20196 yr Here is a detailed follow-up to the Appalachian Trail incident: https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2019/05/25/the-long-twisted-fatal-journey-hiker-called-sovereign/NmN3GKuQDZub5tfOdbL6pI/story.html Also, and interview with the woman who was found after getting lost for 17 days in Hawaii: https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/claudiakoerner/hawaii-woman-how-survived-lost-forest
August 14, 20195 yr Nepal might enact some common-sense regulations for Mt. Everest: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/everest-climbers-set-to-face-new-rules/ar-AAFO2ZP?ocid=spartanntp Requiring them to climb another major mountain in Nepal first is genius - it forces them to make two trips in two different years, so more $ along with keeping people off Everest who don't belong there.
October 11, 20195 yr Some teenagers managed to kill a woman in Hocking Hills by throwing a tree branch off a cliff: https://www.wcpo.com/news/crime/teens-charged-in-hikers-death-in-hocking-hill-state-park
February 24, 20205 yr Wow: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/23/opinion/appalachian-trail-pipeline.html?action=click&module=Opinion&pgtype=Homepage
May 15, 20205 yr A follow-up on the Tennessee woman who went missing in Maine in 2013: https://www.wired.com/story/why-humans-totally-freak-out-when-they-get-lost/?utm_source=pocket-newtab
September 30, 20204 yr I did a solo backpacking hike in the Smokies in early September. Specifically, I did a loop from the Elkmont parking lot up Jake's Creek to the AT then back down to the parking lot via Goshen Prong. Day 1 was 6 miles to backcountry campsite #26. Day 2 was 12 miles to camspite #23. Day 3 was about 7 miles out (I added a mile or so by taking Cucumber Ridge back to Jake's Gap rather than hiking straight out via the Little River trail). It was the first time that I backpacked by myself. Somehow there was nobody at either backcountry campsite and I didn't see anybody at all except on the AT. I found the solitude to be a little tough to deal with mentally since the bear situation in the Smokies is intense. I saw bear droppings regularly and ended up coming face-to-face with one on the last day - like within 35 feet. The damn thing even took a few lazy steps toward me before veering to his left and disappearing into the brush. The old growth sections of the Smokies are really incredible. You see stuff you've never seen before every hundred feet or so because there are many things that literally only live in the park and nowhere else on earth. I saw many types of butterflies that I didn't recognize, two millipedes that were the size of hot dogs (literally - they were HUGE), and many types of mushrooms, flowering plants, and other things that I couldn't identify. I don't know what exactly this was: My tent at campsite #26 before the sun went down: Another view of campsite #26 - the sound of the insects at night was DEAFENING. 10X louder than the cicadas when they come to Cincinnati. The signage in the mountains is pretty bad...for some reason the trail changes names at campsite #23. So this sign is not at an intersection of trails but I found it pretty damn confusing. Campsite #23: This panorama doesn't do any justice to this spot...the Goshen Prong trail is spectacular. I highly recommend it if you're looking for a true hiking challenge (thousands of feet of elevation change in just 2 miles) and old growth forest that is like some sort of Hollywood fantasy forest. I'm glad I did this modestly ambitious first solo hike and had some stuff go wrong to learn from. It gives me a lot of confidence to go out and try something bigger next year. Edited September 30, 20204 yr by jmecklenborg
September 30, 20204 yr 5 hours ago, jmecklenborg said: I did a solo backpacking hike in the Smokies in early September. Specifically, I did a loop from the Elkmont parking lot up Jake's Creek to the AT then back down to the parking lot via Goshen Prong. Day 1 was 6 miles to backcountry campsite #26. Day 2 was 12 miles to camspite #23. Day 3 was about 7 miles out (I added a mile or so by taking Cucumber Ridge back to Jake's Gap rather than hiking straight out via the Little River trail). It was the first time that I backpacked by myself. Somehow there was nobody at either backcountry campsite and I didn't see anybody at all except on the AT. I found the solitude to be a little tough to deal with mentally since the bear situation in the Smokies is intense. I saw bear droppings regularly and ended up coming face-to-face with one on the last day - like within 35 feet. The damn thing even took a few lazy steps toward me before veering to his left and disappearing into the brush. The old growth sections of the Smokies are really incredible. You see stuff you've never seen before every hundred feet or so because there are many things that literally only live in the park and nowhere else on earth. I saw many types of butterflies that I didn't recognize, two millipedes that were the size of hot dogs (literally - they were HUGE), and many types of mushrooms, flowering plants, and other things that I couldn't identify. I don't know what exactly this was: My tent at campsite #26 before the sun went down: Another view of campsite #26 - the sound of the insects at night was DEAFENING. 10X louder than the cicadas when they come to Cincinnati. The signage in the mountains is pretty bad...for some reason the trail changes names at campsite #23. So this sign is not at an intersection of trails but I found it pretty damn confusing. Campsite #23: This panorama doesn't do any justice to this spot...the Goshen Prong trail is spectacular. I highly recommend it if you're looking for a true hiking challenge (thousands of feet of elevation change in just 2 miles) and old growth forest that is like some sort of Hollywood fantasy forest. I'm glad I did this modestly ambitious first solo hike and had some stuff go wrong to learn from. It gives me a lot of confidence to go out and try something bigger next year. THIS IS AWESOME! Congratulations to you, my friend, on the accomplishment, on having such ambition...and seeing it through! Knock off that ‘modestly’ talk - you just went from zero to “I’m on the Appalachian frikkin Trail, solo” and that is definitely something to write home about (or to those of us on the forum ha). I saw you mentioned Cincinnati; have you ever been to East Fork State Park? It’s about a 30min drive East from the Columbia-Tusculum neighborhood and has some great local hiking...as well as a backpacking trail/backpacking sites. It might be something worth looking into as a quick trip (if you reside in the Cinci area). The California Woods trails are also clutch (my brother Just showed me the Cali Woods a week ago). At any rate, thanks for the exciting post! Rock n Roll.
September 30, 20204 yr Author On 11/27/2019 at 2:49 PM, jmecklenborg said: No: And my mans is in tennis shoes!
September 30, 20204 yr 4 hours ago, StormyPeanut said: Congratulations to you, my friend, on the accomplishment, on having such ambition...and seeing it through! What's funny is that I didn't anticipate how different it would be from hiking in a group. I found that my mind was going into truly primitive "survival" mode all of the time - thinking really deliberately about each step, the time of day, every noise in the forest, every thing I ate, navigation, etc. You experience how the human mind evolved for this exact situation and how we never really tap into these parts of the brain in our daily lives or even when doing the same task but with a group. 4 hours ago, StormyPeanut said: I saw you mentioned Cincinnati; have you ever been to East Fork State Park? Yes I have hiked there a few times and ridden the mountain bike trail as well but I've never backpacked there. I have checked out the shelters they have - they're pretty similar to the 3-sided AT shelters but made of wood. I got the sense that the insects might be *really* bad there at certain times of the year. They have a 30~ mile trail that circles the lake but from what I've seen and heard it's really poorly marked and it's easy to get lost. Obviously, you're still in civilization so you can't really get into too bad of a situation but a wrong turn means you might be setting up camp in the dark. I last hiked in California Woods about 10 years ago. It is an old-growth forest because it was purchased by the Cincinnati Waterworks in the early 1800s but never logged. My favorite patch of old-growth in Hamilton County is Caldwell Park. Somehow in the middle of an industrial area there is a maybe 2,000x2,000 patch of giant beech trees.
October 25, 20204 yr Author So my wife and I were planning on going to Anguilla in November - but since Americans have to quarantine 14 days upon arrival, we canceled. Instead, we got an off the grid cabin in Hocking Hills. Plumbing and running water were just about the only modern conveniences - no wifi and we had to drive 6 miles up the road to a church perched on a hill to get cell signal and tell our families we arrived safely. It ended up being pretty cathartic, actually. Nonetheless, we spent all day Saturday exploring Southeastern Ohio and can say with confidence that Appalachian Ohio in Autumn is absolutely stunning. We tried going to a brewery and winery to sit outside, but social distancing and mask wearing are pretty much non-existent down there, so we decided to buy some groceries and cook in the cabin. Nonetheless, here are some pics - I think all in all we hiked around 9.5 miles. The cabin was immaculately cleaned and a great place to get away, if you so choose. About 3 hours and 20 minutes in total from Ohio City. Parts of the trail were crowded, other parts in the more dense forest were empty. It was funny, my wife commented that you could tell who was local and who was from the three C's by who had gaiters and masks ready for when the trails got crowded. (FWIW - the lake shot is a panorama, my dog does not, in fact, have two heads and five ears.)
October 25, 20204 yr 9 minutes ago, YABO713 said: So my wife and I were planning on going to Anguilla in November - but since Americans have to quarantine 14 days upon arrival, we canceled. Instead, we got an off the grid cabin in Hocking Hills. Plumbing and running water were just about the only modern conveniences - no wifi and we had to drive 6 miles up the road to a church perched on a hill to get cell signal and tell our families we arrived safely. It ended up being pretty cathartic, actually. Nonetheless, we spent all day Saturday exploring Southeastern Ohio and can say with confidence that Appalachian Ohio in Autumn is absolutely stunning. We tried going to a brewery and winery to sit outside, but social distancing and mask wearing are pretty much non-existent down there, so we decided to buy some groceries and cook in the cabin. Nonetheless, here are some pics - I think all in all we hiked around 9.5 miles. The cabin was immaculately cleaned and a great place to get away, if you so choose. About 3 hours and 20 minutes in total from Ohio City. Parts of the trail were crowded, other parts in the more dense forest were empty. It was funny, my wife commented that you could tell who was local and who was from the three C's by who had gaiters and masks ready for when the trails got crowded. (FWIW - the lake shot is a panorama, my dog does not, in fact, have two heads and five ears.) Those pictures are gorgeous!
October 25, 20204 yr Author 14 minutes ago, freefourur said: Nice dog. GSD's are my favorite. I use to have one too. He was a good buddy. he’s the absolute best boy
October 26, 20204 yr what a great cabin and setting. good choice. if you want an interesting half day's worth of hike sometime i recommend crane creek and the marshes just past port clinton along lake erie. its something very different from where you just visited and if you like birds you will see quite a variety.
October 27, 20204 yr On 10/25/2020 at 12:32 PM, YABO713 said: So my wife and I were planning on going to Anguilla in November - but since Americans have to quarantine 14 days upon arrival, we canceled. Instead, we got an off the grid cabin in Hocking Hills. Plumbing and running water were just about the only modern conveniences - no wifi and we had to drive 6 miles up the road to a church perched on a hill to get cell signal and tell our families we arrived safely. It ended up being pretty cathartic, actually. Nonetheless, we spent all day Saturday exploring Southeastern Ohio and can say with confidence that Appalachian Ohio in Autumn is absolutely stunning. We tried going to a brewery and winery to sit outside, but social distancing and mask wearing are pretty much non-existent down there, so we decided to buy some groceries and cook in the cabin. Nonetheless, here are some pics - I think all in all we hiked around 9.5 miles. The cabin was immaculately cleaned and a great place to get away, if you so choose. About 3 hours and 20 minutes in total from Ohio City. Parts of the trail were crowded, other parts in the more dense forest were empty. It was funny, my wife commented that you could tell who was local and who was from the three C's by who had gaiters and masks ready for when the trails got crowded. (FWIW - the lake shot is a panorama, my dog does not, in fact, have two heads and five ears.) We are looking to get down there for a few nights in November. What rental site did you use?
October 27, 20204 yr Author 10 minutes ago, BelievelandD1 said: We are looking to get down there for a few nights in November. What rental site did you use? https://www.cabinsbythecaves.com/ Our cabin was immaculate - highly recommend. But many of these are off grid. Ours was a mile off the road into the forest, and I had to drive about 6 miles to get a cell signal
October 30, 20204 yr On 10/26/2020 at 8:31 PM, BelievelandD1 said: We are looking to get down there for a few nights in November. What rental site did you use? A ton of good cabins are on VRBO in addition to their "regular" or official company sites. We rented this place earlier this summer for my best friend's bachelor party: https://hilllodgingcompany.com/roseRidge.asp. Needless to say, it's intended for large groups (we had 9 and we could have done more sleeping 2+ to a room but we're a bunch of mid-30s professionals and we'd want our own rooms even without social distancing being a thing). ================================================================= And now for something completely different: For those who don't have 161 days or the energy to take their entire family the 2,190 miles of the Appalachian Trail, there's the Fall Hiking Spree with Summit County MetroParks. My kids flipped a switch about a week ago and suddenly decided they were into hiking (how the heck do kids' brains even work, anyway?!?! ... never mind, off topic), so now we've done two MetroParks hikes in a week after ignoring the Fall Hiking Spree for basically the first two months it was open. https://www.summitmetroparks.org/hiking-spree.aspx https://www.summitmetroparks.org/summit-metro-parks-sprees.aspx Current impressions of the two parks and trails we've done so far: F.A. Seiberling Nature Realm: Even with the Nature Center closed, this is a real gem of Summit County, and I'm looking forward to when the kids are a little bigger and we can plan a route through both here and Sand Run Metro Park via Mingo Trail (which connects the two, but it's a difficult, "level 3" trail and I had a bad experience taking my middle daughter on the only level 3 trail she's tried so far, which is the Gorge between Akron and Cuyahoga Falls). The suspension bridge, the ponds and their overlooks, the arbor features near the entrance, and just the great combination of hills and Ohio forestry in all its fall glory. Springfield Bog: Erm, it's a park, I guess?
January 2, 20241 yr Ohio Buckeye Trail seeks National Scenic Trail designation: https://www.wvxu.org/environment/2023-12-28/national-park-service-ohio-buckeye-trail
May 11, 20241 yr So..."influencers" are starting to take over the long-distance trail hikes. Today I watched one of their videos and...somebody was watching another hiker's videos in the background on a flat screen in a hostel. It's shocking to me not only that there is such good cell phone reception in remote areas, but the willingness of people to saturate nature hikes with non-stop phone usage. The whole point of hiking, I thought, was to get away from that stuff, not exploit it, plus experience random stuff. It used to be the case that you hiked the Appalachian Trail, etc., with a guide book. You had to hitchhike into town at points where the trail crosses country roads to use a pay phone. Now people are on their phones throughout the whole course of the hike, except for those truly remote stretches like the Maine 100-mile wilderness.
May 11, 20241 yr Also, I recall that there were a handful of hostels along the AT in the 90s and 2000s, but now these "influencers" are stopping at each and every hostel in order to review them. They're probably getting free lodging and meals from the businesses in exchange for their promotion. I don't see almost any of these "hikers" actually staying out on trail for more than two nights in a row. It used to be the case that leaving the trail to stay at a hotel or hostel more than once per week was frowned upon.
May 11, 20241 yr I am happy to report that on a weekend backpacker on the North Country Trail through NY and PA recently I didn't see a single other hiker. Trail was well marked. (And muddy as hell in the rain! (I do my best to follow Leave No Trace -- I went straight through the mud rather than widen the trail, didn't sink even to the top of my foot, no problem)
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