Tuesday Trip Report: Highpoint: Utah. Kings Peak, 13,528 feet. August 3-5, 2013

Our highpointing trip of 2013!

This is the first year we didn't ascend more than one highpoint.  We're running out of peaks...after Utah, all that's left of the "walk-ups" are Idaho's Borah and California's Whitney.  I'm confident about getting those two...after that, it will all depend on whether or not Alex and Sage want to take the next steps in mountaineering.  They already know that I'm fine with continuing on and I'm fine with finishing after highpoint number 45.  If we don't highpoint the "Final Five" (the five that require self-arrest proficiency and glacier travel), then we'll probably hike significant trails in the appropriate states instead.  Wonderland Trail in lieu of Rainier, for example.  We'll see, time will tell.

For now, however...here's our trip report of Utah's Kings Peak.

Part One: Acclimatization

We began in Colorado...Rocky Mountain National Park is a fine place to acclimate.  One can camp at 9400 feet (Longs Peak Campground) and drive higher and higher each day.  For the second year in a row, we acclimated like this:

Day One -- hang out at camp all day (9400 feet)
Day Two -- drive Trail Ridge Road to 10,500 feet, hang out by the side of the road, play cards all day
Day Three -- drive to the Visitors Center (11,400 feet)...stay at that elevation all day
Day Four -- walk up the Tundra World Nature Trail at Rock Cut (12,350 feet), stare at the marmots all day.
By Day Five, we're ready to hike at  high altitude (9000-14,000 feet).

Here are a few photos from our RMNP acclimating days...

Alex makes a seesaw out of rocks and twigs.

Sage plays in the dirt.

At 10,500 feet

Sage makes a friend.

Our campsite at Longs Peak Campground

By the Visitor's Center

12,000+ feet

Elk!

Bighorn sheep!

Part Two: Highpoint: Utah.  Kings Peak, 13,528 feet.

Day One: Hike to junction just south of Dollar Lake.  8.3 miles.

A quick plug for Country Cabins in Mountain View, Wyoming.  If you don't feel like camping at Henry Fork Campground, then stay here -- this is about 30-40 minutes from the trailhead.  Look for this building as you drive into Mountain View...

Here's one of the cabins...

Now, on with our hike -- we left the trailhead around 8am.

The first 8-ish miles to the camping areas by the lakes are relatively flat and fairly scenic.

I had read that this was the local "Boy Scout mountain."  Meaning, tons of troops come here to fish, camp, etc.  Still...it was extremely odd to run into group after group of boys and men as we headed up.  There must have been well over a hundred males....and ONE female coming off that mountain.  One fellow even stopped and said, "Well, you don't see this every day!"  The girls and I had gone ahead of Hugh, who had stopped for a break and was a few tenths of a mile behind us.  I said, as kindly as I could but feeling a bit exasperated, "Don't women and girls hike out here in the West?"  He said yes, but he's not used to seeing women without at least one man, and he had never seen a mother hiking with girls before.  He wasn't trying to be sexist, he was just stating the situation as it was.  Well, I guess this is why I keep publishing our trip reports -- Ladies, take your girls and get on out there!!!

As we exchanged pleasant goodbyes, I couldn't resist...as he left, I told him if he thought WE were something he didn't see every day, then just wait until he hiked down the trail a bit.  He looked at me with a befuddled expression, but I just told him he'd understand when the time came.  I wonder how much time went by before he crossed paths with Hugh...who was hiking on his fully exposed Cheetahs and carrying a huge pack.  :)

Not long after that encounter, the girls and I reached the first intersection.  We went left for Dollar Lake.  Also saw a group of guys with three goats...the goats were being used as pack animals.  The girls and I agreed we should have thought of that...how cool would it be to have a goat along on your highpointing trip?  One of the guys said they were only $25 a day.



We crossed the shaky bridge, then sat and waited for Hugh.  He was only five minutes behind us.

Onward, up into the massive meadows...the sun was out bigtime, and though the day felt cool, that high-altitude sun completely fried our skin.  Must use sunblock with a rating of 70+ up here!

Kings Peak is that pointed middle one in the background...

We had hoped to camp by Dollar Lake, but somehow we managed to walk right by it.  It was to our left somewhere, but we didn't see the herd path that leads to it.  We reached the second intersection and decided we'd camp in the nearby meadow instead of backtracking.  Camping is allowed wherever up here...we'd seen at least a dozen tents scattered here and there before we reached this spot.

A picture from our camping spot, looking back the way we'd hiked (from the north)

Hugh's tent...

We spent the afternoon lounging about and eating.  Unfortunately, my new bear canister didn't arrive before we left for this trip, so we attempted to hang bear bags.  Note that there are precious few places to properly hang a bear bag up in that meadow...if you have a canister, bring it.  Thankfully, no bears got into our food....but a pesky squirrel did.  It tore a big hole in one of my bags and stole some granola.

Day Two: Summit!

Hugh hadn't planned on hiking to the summit...he told me he was going to hang about at the campsite while we ascended the peak.  Therefore, it was just me, Alex, and Sage heading out the next morning at 3:30.  It was a 16 mile roundtrip hike from our camping spot and I wanted to be up and down before any chance of afternoon thunderstorms.  I must say, the girls were fantastic with the early wake-up.  Neither of them had ever began a hike this early before.  Both were in good spirits...and both were very brave about hiking in the dark.

Though there haven't been any recent sightings or issues with mountain lions, we hiked with Sage (the shortest) in the middle, me in the back (mountain lions apparently like to sneak up behind folks), and Alex in the front. I was so proud of Alex -- she led us well through the darkness...no one else began as early as we did...she navigated the trail and the landscape perfectly.  All Sage and I did was follow her.

We hiked up and over Gunsight Pass and all the way through Painters Basin using headlamps.  The sun came up after we took the right toward Anderson Pass...we'd gone about 4 miles in total darkness.

Headlamps off, almost sunrise...

We took a break after the sun fully rose.  We ate breakfast, applied sunblock, and chugged some liquids.  The girls were proud of themselves for having made it all that way in darkness, and they both said they enjoyed watching the sun rise as they hiked.

Time for sunblock

Almost at Anderson Pass...

At Anderson Pass, looking east...

At Anderson Pass, looking down into the meadows where we'd camped...from here, I can finally find Dollar Lake...

We reached Anderson Pass at 7:30, four hours after leaving our campsite.  Seven miles in four hours at high altitude...and most of those miles in the dark...not bad.  The girls were surprised at our time.  They thought we had been moving slowly.

I looked up at our remaining mile and told them it would probably take us about two hours to reach the summit.  From here, it's a total rock hop.  It is NOT a rock "climb," as some guidebooks would lead you to believe.  New Hampshire hikers, think northern Presidentials.  Lots of loose boulders to step on, and sometimes you need to use your hands (but not often).  The terrain felt familiar to us and the girls didn't have any trouble maneuvering.  Still, a mile of loose boulders plus an altitude of 13,000 + feet = slow moving.

On the way up, looking down toward Anderson Pass...

On the way up, looking down at Painters Basin...

Going Up....

Good times!  We found some cairns here and there, but there really isn't a trail on this part.  Just pick your line and hike on.

The almost-summit is in the middle of the photo below...this picture is take from the side of the main false summit.

Summit!  9:30am.  We were first on the mountain that morning.

After eating our traditional summit chocolate and lounging about for an extraordinary length of time, we started heading down.  We'd had the summit completely to ourselves and we couldn't even see anyone coming up yet.

On the way down the rock-hop, we looked down into Painters Basin and decided to "rock-whack" straight down instead of going back to Anderson Pass before descending the trail.  We're used to rock-hopping and though the angle looked steep, it didn't look too steep.  there were no cliffs to navigate and I didn't think we'd be in danger of starting (and getting caught up in) a rock slide.  The girls thought this was a good idea, so we headed straight down...and about 2/3 down this huge section, something horrible happened.  Sage lost her iPod.

Sage's iPod is her camera -- it contains over a thousand photos, including those she took on the Camino de Santiago.  At some point during our descent, it had slipped out of its holder and fallen.

We climbed back up and searched for about an hour, but we didn't find it.  She'd had it when we'd left the normal route, which meant it was now lost among a mile-high stretch of loose boulders that wasn't part of any particular trail.  We looked and looked, but we didn't find it.  I had to tell Sage that she needed to let it go.

Sage's iPod fell out somewhere among all those loose boulders and rocks,
on the side of Kings Peak summit.

Poor Sage was heartbroken.  She was so upset that I worried she couldn't be careful with her footing.  I felt awful, but I did not think we were going to be able to find it, and we had given the search a real and valiant effort.

Since Sage could no longer take photos, I didn't take any more pictures that day.  I didn't want to remind Sage that Alex and I still had our cameras but she didn't.  Therefore, I don't have any more photos of Kings Peak to share.

Hugh wasn't there when we returned.  Turns out he had woken at 9am and decided to hike toward the summit to see if he could find us on the way down.  We must have passed each other in Painters Basin at some point...have no idea how we missed seeing him.  He went all the way to Anderson Pass, waited, then gave up and headed back down.  He took the "chute," which is a straight-down rockslide that leads right from Anderson Pass to the meadow...quite dangerous and there's no way I'd take the girls on something like that.  He hiked down with two guys from Bosnia he'd met at the Pass.  He said the descent was crazy-fast-and-furious, and he was glad I hadn't gone that way with the girls. 

Day Three -- Hiking Out

Our hike out was uneventful, though Sage was understandably sad for most of the way back.  A tremendous thunderstorm unleashed its fury just as we returned to our rental car, and as the rain fell I thought of Sage's exposed iPod and gave up all hope of ever getting it back.

And then...the unthinkable happened.  A week after our hike, while we were in Telluride attending Hugh's No Barriers conference, I received an email from someone I'll call "Mr. H."  Mr. H had miraculously found Sage's iPod while descending straight down the summit (as we did).  He refused to take any payment for mailing it to us -- it arrived at our house one day after we returned from our trip.  It works perfectly.   I don't know how Mr. H managed to find the iPod...that was like finding a needle in a haystack...and I don't know why it still works just fine after having been rained on for at least a day, but it's here, it works, and Sage is thrilled to have it back.

Thank you, Mr. H.  We are more grateful than we can properly express.

So...number 43 is in the bag.  Two more walk-up highpoints to go, then...maybe we'll go for the final five and maybe we won't.  Can't predict how the girls will feel two years from now.

Just Making Cookies

There are a few people in my life who have recently become mothers or who want to become mothers.  They're unsure of how to move forward...they're either completely overwhelmed with the nonstop and insanely difficult demands of their infants/toddlers or they're trying to figure out how they'll be able to keep/return to their pre-child lifestyles.

This post is for them.

Note that the following applies to those who are fortunate enough to have the choice of whether or not to stay home with their children.  I understand many women don't have that choice...to those single moms out there -- you have my utmost respect...I can't fathom how you do what you do.  Kudos.

*****

I've always considered myself a feminist.  Women should have choices, yes, of course, and women should be able to have any job a man can have.  However.

We are the ones who, if we choose to have children, grow the zygotes/fetuses inside our own bodies.  We produce the milk and feed our babies from our own breasts.  There are biological, endocrinological bonds between mothers and their babies that do not exist between babies and their fathers, or babies and their nannies/daycare providers/au pairs.  Sure, many adults can love and care for a child.  However, speaking from an evolutionary point of view, the baby is biologically primed to need its mother...and new mothers are endowed with ferocious instincts to stay with and care for their infants.

Here's the thing that most folks don't realize, though.  For at least 90% of our time on this planet, homo sapiens were hunter-gatherers.  Generally speaking, women did the gathering while taking care of their children, thus providing the daily calories for themselves and others within their population.  In other words, women worked out of the home AND took care of their own children.  They did all this surrounded by other women and children.  They were not isolated and they were not forced to make the completely insane choice between providing for their families and taking care of their infants.  Today, in America, new moms have to make decisions they should not have to make...they're going to feel guilty no matter which way they turn...it simply is not in our nature to have to choose between taking care of our children and bringing home the bacon (or, more aptly, the berries/tubers/etc.).  For most of our biological history, we did both....and we didn't do it in isolation.

Of course, maternal instinct is strong.  Incredibly strong.  It is so seriously strong...I cannot describe it and you will honestly not fully understand it unless/until you have children of your own.  There is nothing so strong as the love a mother feels for her child.

Therefore, almost all modern-day new mothers decide they're going to personally take care of their babies for as long as they can.  For some, that might mean the duration of their pathetically short maternity leave (anything less than a year is ridiculous...seriously, American employers, get your act together!).  For others, it might mean leaving the paid workforce until the child is of preschool or Kindergarten age.  For folks like me, it means being a hands-on caretaker and homeschooler from the moment of birth all the way until the kids go to college.

So...we obey our instincts, do the best we can, and take care of our babies for as long as we're able...and we very, very quickly realize how insanely difficult this motherhood job is.  It's so difficult, in fact, that those of us without emotional support or some kind of contact with other adults can quickly be driven to near-insanity.  We weren't supposed to do this alone, remember -- for 90,000+ years, the females of our species were surrounded by other women and kids, all gathering the daily calories.  So though staying with our babies and small children is completely in line with our instincts, doing all this work in relative isolation is NOT how it's supposed to be.  It takes a village, yes indeed -- it takes a village to surround and support the mother as she raises her children.

If you're thinking of having kids, or if you already have them but feel completely frazzled, google "sometimes I hate being a mother."  Read through some of the links and responses.  Prospective parents, know ahead of time that what you find might be shocking.  Frazzled moms, what you find might be a temporary balm that carries you through the day...you'll discover you are not alone and you'll relate to some of the stories.  Know that I have felt the same way as some of those women, especially during my early years of parenthood.  Also know that I love my children fiercely and don't regret a single one of my choices.  But still.  I have well-behaved, intelligent, bright, loving children, but motherhood can be damn difficult and there have been moments when I've wanted to walk out of the house and never come back. 

Staying at home with your children is hard, hard work, and no one can prepare you for it.  Please, for the love of God, ignore anyone who describes stay-at-home-motherhood as "just baking cookies," "just staying home," or "just" anything else.  There is no "just."  The idiots who say such things usually don't have children of their own, and they always want to make you fit their own definition of feminism.  "Just" remember that any woman who trivializes stay-at-home-motherhood or thinks childrearing isn't difficult and valuable work has absolutely no clue and is not a feminist.  Feminism is about choice and leadership.  A woman raising her own children is a valuable leader of the family and society.  Yes, a female lawyer/doctor/corporate executive is also a valuable leader....but she's no more important than the stay-at-home mom.  Neither woman is better than the other.  Seriously.  The choice on whether to stay with your child or find alternate care is a personal one based on what you personally feel is in the best interest of your child and your family -- and if some other woman doesn't agree with your choice then she can go suck it.  It's not her kid, it's not her family, it's not her life, it's not her business.

I was at Harvard when I had Alex.  I planned on putting her in daycare so I could continue my Ph.D. studies, but those maternal instincts kicked in like mad as soon as she was born and my plans went right out the window.  My professors were great -- I brought my infant to classes, I traveled with toddler Alex to northwest Argentina and did fieldwork among the Toba population of the remote Chaco region, I took my qualifying exams and earned my Masters, etc. etc.  However, there came a time when I realized I could no longer care for my child while pursuing a degree fulltime.   I took a leave of absence to figure out what I wanted...and I never looked back.  A year later, I was pregnant with Sage...a year after that, I realized I was going to homeschool.

Those first few years were the most difficult of my life.  Alex woke up every hour and a half until she was 18 months old (thankfully, Sage slept 6 hours at a time from birth onward).  Alex was a high strung, highly intelligent kid who started reading on her own at two but could not sit still for more than five seconds.  She was extremely emotional and she saw the world in strict black-and-white terms.  She had questions for me every ten seconds.  She was a beautiful, sweet, sensitive child and I loved her, and then her sister, far more than I could ever possibly love spending time at any job, no matter how prestigious the position.  Still -- I was exhausted and completely overwhelmed 100% of the time.  Outside of finances, I had little help from Hugh.  He was on the tenure track at MIT and often went on business trips for days/weeks at a time.  He also started a company, and that work also kept him away from home.  I was the sole hands-on provider for my kids.  I was the only one getting up at night, I was the only one constantly handling and caring for my baby/toddler, I was the sole person who did all the house repairs (painting, carpentry, gardening, etc.), and I was the only one doing the errands (shopping, laundry, etc).  In addition, during Alex's first year of life, I had to deal with an extensive blood clot that put me in great pain and almost killed me twice.

Looking back, I don't know how I did it.  I loved my children ferociously -- I still do -- but for three years of my life I operated at baseline survival mode.  The only thing that drove me forward was the overwhelming love I felt for my children.

Women are not supposed to be isolated and on their own after they have babies.  If they do become isolated and emotionally/physically unsupported, then they're going to start sounding like the women who write those "sometimes I hate being a mother" posts.

Eventually, things got much easier.  The kids grew, I found other moms to hang out with, Alex started hiking mountains and her emotional nature calmed considerably (my kid got ME into hiking...not the other way around!), Sage was and continues to be a fairly mellow child, Hugh is now able to spend more time with the girls, the damaged veins from my clot are best helped by consistent hiking (awesome!), and we're all generally healthy and happy.  I still have times when I feel overwhelmed and in desperate need of a break.  Now, however, I can tell the girls to go play elsewhere, or to do their schoolwork quietly, or to give me a half hour to myself.  My love for them is as ferocious as ever, and the workload is still heavy (my workday begins from the moment the kids wake up until the time they go to sleep), but I feel good and productive, and I'm getting a proper amount of sleep.

Do I regret not getting my Ph.D.?  Absolutely not.  Do I regret not pursuing a tenure-track position?  Absolutely not.  If I had continued on that path, then I would have barely seen my kids.  I've been there for every first.  First smile, first crawl, first step, first word, first solid food, first everything -- I've witnessed it, I've supported it.  If I died tomorrow, I would die at peace knowing I did everything I felt was best for my kids.

I made the right choice for me and mine.  Motherhood can be insanely difficult, especially if you have a partner who is gone 11+ hours a day or frequently away on business trips.  It's even more difficult if you don't have loving relatives nearby to regularly help out and you can't afford a babysitter to give you a break for a few hours each week.  Don't go into this line of work thinking it will all be peaches and cream.  If you're in this line of work already, then don't allow anyone to pressure you to go back into the paying workforce.  You know you're already working crazy hard, and you know that what you're doing is far more important than any 9-5 job. 

If you WANT to go back into the paid workforce because you cannot stand being a stay-at-home mother for one more second, then of course that's your personal decision and you should take the appropriate steps to get to where you want to go.  You can't be a good mother if you ALWAYS hate being home.  Most of us hate being home with our kids sometimes.  That's normal.  Needing to vent and feeling like you're going insane and desperately wanting help is all completely normal.  If those feelings don't ever lift, however, and you're sinking into a deep depression and you have no help whatsoever and you CANNOT STAND being at home with your kids and you dream of getting back into the workforce....then obviously staying at home with your kids is not the right choice for you and yours.  Don't let anyone try to guilt-trip you into staying home with your kids if you absolutely do not want to do so.  It's not their kid, it's not their family, it's not their life, it's not their business.  

We all love our children, and we all want to do what's right.  What's right is going to come down to what you ultimately feel is best for your own child, your own sanity, and your own family.  Neither choice you make is going to be easy.  It will be hard work, whichever way you go.  Ignore the critics (for there will always be critics) and focus on what you honestly feel is the best decision for you and yours.

Alex, Sage, and I have a good life.  I don't regret any of my choices, and I love being with my children.  We have our moments when we all get on each other's nerves, but that's normal.  I can honestly tell you that my early years of parenting were awfully, insanely, incredibly difficult, though.  For those of you with newborns who have made a firm decision to stay-at-home but feel overwhelmed -- I'll tell you right now that it does eventually get easier.  In the immediate months and years to come, however, do whatever you need to do in terms of finding emotional and physical support for yourself.

I'll close for now...I've gone on long enough this morning.  Perhaps I'll touch more on this issue in later posts.

Up next -- our trip report of Utah's highpoint.  Our ascent of Kings Peak was one of our more memorable hiking trips for various reasons...stay tuned...the post will go live by Tuesday.

Peaks Foundation's WLAS 2013

I recently attended and spoke at Peaks Foundation's Women's Leadership and Adventure Summit in Golden, Colorado.  Hanging out with trailbreaking female adventurers was enjoying and educational.  Highlights of the weekend included hearing about the recent excursions of professional climber and fellow New Hampshire-ite Janet Bergman Wilkinson, listening to the inspirational founder of Women's Adventure Magazine, Michelle Theall, and learning how single mom Jennifer Miller was able to follow her passion and create her own outdoor adventure business, Paddle-N-More.

My two favorite presentations were the screening of Peaks Foundation's Mountains Will Move and Cathy O'Dowd's video-talk, Leadership and Teamwork on the Summit.

Mountains Will Move is a perfect example of what Peaks Foundation is all about.  A group of Canadian girls team with a group of Tanzanian girls to climb a local African peak.  Here's the trailer -- the full movie can be purchased here.

In Leadership and Teamwork on the Summit, Cathy O'Dowd, the first woman to climb Everest from both the north and south sides, speaks about her first ascent of the tallest mountain in the world.  She climbed on a team rife with personality problems and sexism during 1996, the year of the infamous storm.  Her presentation is one of the best I've ever seen -- I highly encourage you to watch the full 16 1/2 minutes.

In sum, this was a fun and inspiring weekend filled with strong women and good personalities. 

Highpoint #43 and Two Incredible Conferences

We just returned from Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming.  During the past two and a half weeks, I spoke at Peaks Foundation's Women's Leadership and Adventure Summit, the girls and I hiked up Utah's Kings Peak (13,528 feet), and Hugh spoke at No Barriers Summit 2013 (Hugh also won the No Barriers Lifetime Achievement Award!).

During the next week and a half, I will post thoughts on both conferences and give a full Kings Peak trip report (with a ton of photos).

We had a stellar time out west and I've a lot of important things to relate.  The first post will be on Peaks Foundation's WLAS -- that post will go live by tomorrow evening.

In the meantime, here's one of my favorite photos from our Kings Peak hike.

Ascending Kings Peak, August 4, 2013

Peaks Foundation, RMNP, and Kings Peak (Utah)

Greetings from Golden, Colorado!

We're currently at Peaks Foundation's Women's Leadership and Adventure Summit.  I'm having a blast - what a wonderful group of inspiring and strong climbers & trekkers!

Next week we'll acclimatize to 12,500 feet in Rocky Mountain National Park, then we'll head to Utah and attempt Kings Peak.

I'll post more about the Summit, our time in RMNP, and our ascent of Kings Peak when we return to NH in mid-August.  In the meantime, I'll post regular updates from our travels on our Facebook Page.

Good times!

Tuesday Trip Report and BlenderBottle GoStak Review. Mt. Washington, up Nelson Crag Trail and down Lion's Head. July 21, 2013

A couple of quick announcements before this week's trip report --

The Women's Leadership & Adventure Summit is this weekend!  Hope to see some of you in Golden, Colorado!

After the Summit, the girls and I will mosey on over to Utah and attempt King's Peak.  We'll keep you posted on our progress.

*****  

Mt. Washington, up Nelson Crag Trail and down Lion's Head Trail.  

Roundtrip mileage: about 9.5.

Elevation gain: 4500 feet.

The good folks at BlenderBottle recently sent me a GoStak.  I took it on this hike and was pleased with its performance.  Before we headed out, I loaded up the various compartments with different goodies.  The stackable containers are easy to open and air/watertight when shut.

BlenderBottle GoStak filled with various goodies

The girls and I arrived at Pinkham Notch at 7:15.  The parking lot was almost full -- it was Sunday and the forecast was perfect, so this didn't surprise us.  Later, when we returned from our hike, cars were parked up and down Route 2 for about a mile on either side of the lot.

We've been up Washington many times, each time using a different trail.  For this ascent, we figured we'd introduce ourselves to Nelson Crag Trail, which has a reputation for being "stairmaster-ish."  That reputation is well-deserved, as you'll see in the pictures later.

Starting out...one has to take Old Jackson Road from Pinkham Notch to get to Nelson Crag Trail...

Old Jackson Road alternates between flat and moderately steep...

The intersection with Nelson Crag Trail...

Nelson Crag Trail alternates between moderately steep and very steep all the way to the Washington's summit.

We popped out above treeline a few tenths of a mile beneath the Auto Road's 5-mile mark.

Continuing up...

Wildcat's ski area in the background...

Sage pretending to ward off an attacking cloud...

Looking ahead toward Nelson Crag...

Alex takes a snack from the GoStak...

Reaching the Auto Road's 5-mile mark.

Continuing up...

The top of Nelson Crag...

Snack break!

Onward, up Ball Crag (and past an Auto Road parking lot)...

Alex is wiggling her loose molar in the photo below...

Halfway between the little parking area (6 mile mark) and the top of Ball Crag, Alex's tooth came out!

Unfortunately, she soon dropped it...

Sage spotted it just as we were about to give up.

We put the tooth in a safe place, where it couldn't get lost...

...and continued upward.

At the the top of Ball Crag...

Continuing the short distance to Washington's summit...

Across the railroad tracks...

Toward the summit cafe and museum...

Finishing the Nelson Crag Trail...

We got in the long line to have our photo taken at the summit sign (and I did the traditional grumbling of having to wait behind the folks who drove/rode up...I think there should be an express line for hikers, as elitist as that sounds...)...

Summit!

The cafe area was crowded!!!  Felt like Times Square in there.  I bought a few whoopie pies and drinks and headed back outside.  The girls and I ate on a rock by the picnic tables (which were also swarming with people).  The crowds were understandable -- this was Seek the Peak weekend, it was a nice day, and it was Sunday.  Put those three factors together and you can expect roughly 8 billion people on the summit.

By the way, I want to give a shout-out to Heather, who kindly introduced herself while we were in line for the bathroom.  She complimented me on my memoir, Up: A Mother and Daughter's Peakbagging Adventure.  Thanks, Heather!  It was nice to meet you.  I'm glad you enjoyed the book.

It had been a few years since we'd checked out the Tip-Top House, so we spent a few minutes in the old hotel before heading back down toward the valley.

Since it was a gorgeous day and we had plenty of time (and headlamps, in case we ran out of daylight), I gave the girls four options for our descent --  1) Lion's Head Trail, 2) Tuckerman Ravine Trail, 3) Boott Spur Trail, or 4) Glen Boulder Trail.  Sage chose Lion's Head, so we hung a sharp left at the first intersection on the descent from Washington via Tuckerman.

Starting on Tuckerman...

Heading down...

Sage and I felt tired, but Alex zoomed along like she could have done a Presi Traverse.  I told her to go ahead of us but wait every eight cairns or so.  She'd fly ahead, then lay down and wait for us to catch up.  Here she is, lounging at an intersection as Sage and I arrive.

Heading toward the "Lion's Head" outcropping...

Looking into Tuckerman Ravine...

Looking at Lion's Head from down the trail a bit.  The girls and I can't see the Lion's Head in the formation, though Alex thinks she can see Dumbledore on the left.

A close-up of Dumbledore...

The rest of our descent was long...the last bit of Lion's Head Trail went by quickly and we were soon at the lower intersection with Tuckerman Ravine Trail...but that below-treeline portion of Tuckerman dragged on and on and on.  Sage and I were ready to be at the car about a mile before the trail ended.  Alex, on the other hand, bopped and skipped like she could have ascended another 4500 feet.  She went ahead of us for a while until Sage asked for her company, then she patiently slowed her pace and finished her descent with me and Sage.

I feel good about our upcoming attempt of King's Peak (the highpoint of Utah).  Kings Peak has 4100 feet of elevation gain over 16 miles (one-way).  Mt Washington via Nelson Crag Trail has 4500 feet of elevation gain over 5 miles (one-way).  Kings Peak has a mile of talus...Mt. Washington has about the same.  All that's missing is the altitude, and we're going to spend almost a week acclimating before we attempt the climb.  Also, we did Washington in one day and we're planning on doing Kings Peak in three...so, if the weather is good, then we shouldn't have too much trouble bagging Utah's highpoint.  Here's hoping, anyway.

Thanks to BlenderBottle for the cool food container.  I can see myself buying more stackables and using them in all kinds of ways; GoStak isn't just for hiking....as I type, part of it is with Sage at her summer camp, holding her midday snacks.

Signing off for now...the next post will be from Peaks Foundation's Women's Leadership & Adventure Summit in Golden, Colorado.