Pemi Loop Challenge
The Pemigewasset Wilderness is a vast forested area surrounded by the white mountains of New Hampshire and drained by the beautifully clear waters of the Pemigewasset River. The Franconia Range and the Twin Range are the two high ridges that form the great horseshoe or heart of the Pemi. There are a thousand hikes you can do along these ridges and mountains of the Pemi but there’s nothing like the challenge of completing the entire loop in one day. Sherpa John recently posted the 2007 Pemi Loop Challenge info on the Rocks on Top website and I’m going all in with this one, especially since it will be great training for Vermont. John and a few folks ran the Pemi Loop in 2006 and after reading John’s trail report I was hooked on the idea. Back in 2005 Backpacker Magazine gave the Pemi Loop a score of 92 and made it into the #2 slot for America's Hardest Dayhikes, this is a great quick and dirty description.....I like the X factor. I have no doubt this will be a grueling challenge especially when all is said and done the elevation change over the 32 mile loop is 18,000 feet, that’s a dozy! To put it into perspective when I told my dad about the idea to run the Vermont 100 he said “sounds good, I’ll be there to support you”, when I told him about the Pemi Loop Challenge he just looked at me like I was losing my mind. My dad is an avid hiker and we’ve been on many hikes along the Presidential Range and all over the Appalachian Trail so this look did concern me. Of course I had to defend my mental state and after discussing my game plan he shortly came around and plans to do some hiking of his own that weekend. It’s always nice to have you there dad. I’m looking forward to getting wild in the whites!!
Blue Hills Run
This weekend myself, Sherpa John and a few other local runners are getting together for a romp around Blue Hills, the plan is to meet up Saturday morning and run the 9 mile rocky and rooty Skyline Trail out and back averaging about 18 miles with some nice elevation gains/losses for the day. The weather forecast showers but highs in the 50's, hopefully the rain will hold out and with the warm weather and company it will make for a fun run.
In other news I’ve been tagged by Steph of steph runs and Eric of Journey to a Centum, so I’ll do two readings for ya’ll!
1) Find nearest book
2) Name book and author
3) Turn to page 123
4) Go to 5th sentence and copy the next three to blog
5) tag 3 others
1) Funny I was just checking out the maps in the White Mountain Guide book and since it’s open let’s see what I find
2) White Mountain Guide 26th Edition Compiled and edited by Gene Daniell and Jon Burroughs
3) Ok page 123
4) 5th sentence down:
The Gray Knob Trail continues to climb moderately up the slop, then levels off and runs nearly on contour to the Randolph Path just before its junction with the Israel Bridge Path.
Gray Knob Trail (map1:F9)
Distances from Spur Trail (4250’)
to Lowe’s Path (4400’): 0.5 mi., 150 ft., 20 min
to Randolph Path (4825’): 1.7mi. (2.7 km.), 600 ft., 1hr. 10 min.
Book # 2
1) I have this book sitting here because I was looking one of the Authors up on the internet
2) Rough Places Plain Poems of the Mountains Author’s are various
3) Turn to page 123, yup
4) By Grey Held Skywriting
5th sentence of poem:
All morning driving the mountain road, I watched clouds. Now they mask the sky except for the one pinprick through which a sudden silver shaft descends in a bright diagonal from heaven to earth. In the presence of that unexpected radiance, I think of glory, covenant, and holy of holies. On his deathbed Jacob blessing the sons of Joseph must have seen such light, though he was blind.
5) Okay no pressure but if you feel like joining in I will volunteer
Sherpa John
Lora are you up for another one?
And Travis how about it?
