May 19th, 2006

The Troop: Jeremy Brodhead, Chris Lernihan, Oliver

I had planned to do a long weekend three day backpacking trip in the whites after I found out that my friend Francis was going to be doing the same. The plan was to hike in on Friday and meet his troop at the Franconia Brook tentsite. We started from Sawyer River Road and hiked up and over Mt. Carrigain via Signal Ridge Trail and Desolation Trail on the way. Bad idea.

NH had been slammed with rain for the past several days and the 19th was no exception. It started raining when we started hiking and it didn't let up until 5:30. All the streams were completely swollen, and long stretches of trail were miniature running streams. We had three stream crossings before we even started heading up Carrigan.

The backside of Carrigain had between 1 and 2 feet of slushy wet snow which eventually turned into sheets of ice. We were both scared of a slippery fall over logs and rocks that could have quickly turned into a bad emergency evacuation scenario. There were also huge amounts of downed pine trees over the trail resulting in a far less then a cheery sentiment. I remember asking myself why I thought this would be fun?

We were happy when the trail finally leveled out and we could start covering more ground on easy trails. At this point our boots were completely sopping wet with water. We crossed another 3 or 4 major creek crossings. We figured there was no point in trying to keep our boots dry so we just kept plunging into the streams which sometimes were as deep as my hip. Poor Oliver got dragged through each stream by his collar, paddling and scrapping away so he didn't get swept away. We were exhausted and soaked to the bone by the time we finally made it to the campsite. Amazingly we had packed well enough to have a dry change of clothes and sleeping bags, which we were fairly worried about. We were supposed to meet up with Francis at the campground but his troop wasn't there. I found out later that they had stopped short and set up camp on the backside of Carrigain in the hopes of catching us as we hiked past. They had been out for 2 more days than us and were so tired that they were sleeping away as we unknowingly hiked on by.

The plan had been to hike back to the car via another trail on Saturday, but from what we could tell from our water logged and disintegrating map, there were several large creek crossing along that route. We opted to hike out to route 112 instead and thumb our way back rather than risk crossing any more streams not to mention the prospect of being cold and wet for another day. This is how we met Jacob and France who were nice enough to stop and let us jump in the back of their pickup. They were on their way from Vermont to Maine when they saw us. These nice folks drove us all the way back to our car which must have been an hour and a half out of their way. What comes around, goes around, and they asked in return that we only help out others in need when the opportunity arises. The world would be a better place if more people were like them. We will remember our encounter for a long time to come.

© May 22, 2006