btowne33

Hale

Birthday Gift for Myself

Top of Mt. Hale standing on the large cairn

I hemmed and hawed over this hike for a while before committing. I had to shut out all the excuses of body aches, weather conflicts, and good ole fashion idleness. It was my birthday, and my main sentiment was asking why I am doing this journey. Both the day with the journey concluded with the reason. It was me putting up blockers and ultimately it would be me to tear them down and reward myself with a reward. Doubt is a crazy influencer, and it seems that the solution is to get up and crawl, walk, run past it.

Towards the beginning of the trail on the gorge looking up towards the top

The weather report called for snow starting around 1 or 2 pm so I planned to be at the trail early and be down by the time it started. I plan and over plan sometimes for these hikes, maybe because I have been reading too much of the misadventures of hikers in the White Mountains. My inexperience tells me I am right about the planning, however once I am on the trail that my common response is that it was all for nothing. It was Mount Hale and not Washington, the weather was cold around 16 degrees and no wind, so the planning is just that, while good, it tends to push towards the doubt compartment. I was down to a base layer and mid layer as soon as the hike was gaining elevation so all the layers, I brought with me were not used. Although, the experience told me well though as the last hike I was sweating so much that I needed to take the base layer off and add just a new mid layer which was not optimal. This time I brought a whole new base + mid and changed them out on the top and boy was that a nice feeling to have warm and dry clothes for the hike down. I tell you though, to be shirtless and wet for 10 seconds on the top of a mountain will wake you up and spouting "Oh My Gods" over and over again.

Some of the trails to the White Mountains have roads that are closed for the winter so it will include a road walk. Hale had a 2.5 mile walk just to get to the trailhead adding a total of 5 miles to this hike. Hale Brook trail is 2.2 up to the top with a steady incline and was huffing and puffing up most of it. My breaks are brief and give me a chance to look around and soak in the wilderness which is nice as between the trees I could see a sunny Mt. Washington which looked so cool and daunting. I was the first car in the parking lot so up the trail I was the only soul in this great wilderness and the snow provides a barrier for sounds which I must control my breathing just to listen. I don’t like to stop and tell myself to push myself so breaks for me are only when I must stop. I sweat when I stop, and I don’t like being cold so up I go for as much as I can.

The trail was awesome with all filled in with snow and some switchbacks. The amount of snow towards the top just looked like melted marshmallows. Hale has a large cairn on it which I went on top of it and exclaimed my king of the world proclamation and Facetimed Stephanie to show it (haha). It doesn’t have any views but has a cool rounded opening like an Orpheum of nature. I got out of my snowshoes and into microspikes and slid down the trail at a double-time speed - I can say this about winter hiking is that the downhill part can go much faster as it doesn't matter as much to where you put your feet as the rocks and roots are covered.

Its a winter wonderland towards the top

I saw only eight other people today and only one conversation with one of them. It was a solo hiker of course - strange breeds we are, introverted by nature up until it’s something that interests you and then it is rapid fire nerd-like conversations. I regret the limited conversations I had with Hiker Ed and the one-armed thru-hiker on this way to finish the Appalachian Trail as with hindsight I would have asked a lot more questions. It’s hard on the trail mid-hike as though you don’t know what level of engagement is appropriate. It’s interesting as these people literally walk past you in life and the experience is the same, fleeting, but potential impactful. At the bottom of the trail, I drank a bunch of hot cocoa I prepared in the morning, put on some Mumford & Sons music, and set out to walk the 2.5 miles on the road back to the car.

The road walk at the end provides some reflective thoughts as it's not consumed with technical hiking so, even though my legs were tired, I thoroughly enjoyed it. I thought about the people in my life and the physical long road behind me and in front of me. 47 years old today and this was my birthday gift to myself.