As I write this entry, I have climbed 47 of the 48 4,000′ers in New Hampshire. (To make the list, a mountain has to be over 4,000′ tall, and the col – the lowest point – between it and each of its neighbors must be at least 200′ deep.) Sometime soon, I’ll climb Mt. Garfield and “complete the list”. But why did I start?
My father started me on hiking, when I was young, and I hiked with an elementary school teacher and at summer camp. But life got busier and it wasn’t something I kept up with. In my 30s I meant to find a hiking buddy and start hiking again, but somehow it never happened. Then I bought Mike Dickerman’s book, Why I’ll Never Hike the Appalachian Trail, and that reminded me again how much I loved the outdoors. (Oddly, Bill Bryson’s A Walk In The Woods was a fun read but didn’t get me outside.)
I finally realized that if I kept waiting for someone else to start me hiking, it would never happen. I decided to do a trial hike on Stratton Mt in Vermont, and see whether I still liked it. (Stratton is where both the Long Trail and Appalachian Trail were conceived.) And I decided that if it went well, I would get back into hiking – by section-hiking the Long Trail.
The day I climbed Stratton was cloudy, and I got no views. But it was great to be out in the woods again, and out-of-shape though I was I made the longer loop off the far side of Stratton and then back to the road. While I was up on the peak – after chatting with the GMC caretaker – I ran into another hiker. We got chatting and he told me that if I wanted hiking companions, I should check out this web site “Views From the Top”. I never got his name.
On Views From the Top (VFTT), I found an enthusiastic community of peakbaggers, mostly NH-based (although there’s a vocal NY contingent). And from them I learned about the 4,000′ers, and saw pictures they shared of their hikes. And I found my target shifting: when spring rolled around I went off to hike Mt Hale, one of the easiest 4,000′ers, on a soggy grey day with almost no views – and I got hooked. Since then, over about 4 years, I have climbed 46 more NH 4K peaks. I’m not exclusive – I’ve climbed in the Wapacks nearer home, and various smaller peaks, and even once or twice gone out hiking with no peaks at all. But I’ve organized around the NH 4Ks because it’s good to have a goal, and it’s mostly because of a hiker I bumped into on Stratton, and the enthusiasts on VFTT.
And the Long Trail? It’s still waiting for me.