MountainDad
New member
To follow up with the RFI I posted last week on the forum, we completed our trip! The group included me, MountainDad, and my sons ScreechOwl (9) and BaldEagle (11) and dog Mia.
We left home mid morning on Thursday 9/10/06 and arrived at the Rocky Branch trailhead off Rt. 16. We hit the trail at 10:37 am to head up to find a campsite. The weather was great, coolish (75 degrees) and dry and sunny. Shortly after starting, ScreechOwl saw a small toad - which led to all of us counting toads on the hike up.
At about the 1 mile mark, the boys spotted a bull moose 20 yds off the trail. In their excitement, they yelled (softly) for me to take a picture. Of course the moose heard it too! No photo. We took several breaks but basically just plodded along. The trail was dry at the beginning but gets wet and a bit muddy as it nears the Isolation Trail.
Where the trail approaches Rocky Branch there is a marked campsite off to the left maybe 10 yards before the stream crossing. The plan was to continue to 1 of the other 3 campsites further up Isolation Trail that have been reported. After crossing the stream, we reached the intersection with Isolation Trail at 2 pm and took a rest and late lunch break at Isolation Shelter.
We hit the trail at 2:45 and continued north along Isolation Trail. This section crosses Rocky Branch several times and is mostly wet and muddy. Another marked campsite is on the left right before a stream crossing. This campsite is up a narrow path that opens in to a small clearing with enough room for 2 tents. The stream provides a supply of clear water that pumped easily. It was a great site, clean and out of the way and made a perfect basecamp. We set up camp at about 4 pm and just as soon as I got the tent and a tarp pitched, the sky opened up! We were all tired from the trek up and crawled in to our warm sleeping bags and listened to the rain and chatted about moose and other interesting things we saw along the trail. The toad tally for the day was 13!
At around 6, the boys were getting grumpy and hungry but the rain was coming down hard. I convinced them to wait another 1/2 hr and I would go out and cook. Lucky for me, the rain stopped right at 6:30! Dinner consisted of "Hunter's Stew" - which is normally cooked over campfire coals. I had pre cooked the vegies (potatos, carrots, onions and parsnips) so I decided to cook over our JetBoil using an aluminum frying plan. I simply unwrapped the aluminum foil the stew was packaged in, and heated it in the frying pan over the JetBoil. Worked fine, the beef tips seared nicely! After cleanup and hanging the bear bag, we all turned in for the night. The temp was cold and a good breeze was blowing.
On rising, we were treated to a brisk but beautiful sunny moning. We had breakfast (Mt House freeze dried scrambled eggs and bacon for ScreechOwl and "real" oatmeal with dried bluberries and blackberries for BaldEagle and me. We packed the boys backpacks with clothes, raingear, food and water for our Mt Washington ascent. BaldEagle and I carried the packs so ScreechOwl got a little break for the day.
We left camp at about 10 am. After hiking for about an hour, we came to 2 more marked campsites. A wooden sign pointed to a site off to the left and 1 off to right. This area was very wet and muddy and not near a visible source of good water. I'm glad we stopped at the earlier site. We reached the Davis Path at 11 am. We continued along Davis Path on our approach to Mt Washington.
Up to this point, we had seen no one along the trail since leaving the parking lot. As we reached timber line, we met several other parties coming up various side trials. We reached the summit at 2:30 and a total of 5 miles. The sky was clear and it was very cold and windy - a beautiful Mt Washington day! Since Mia was not allowed in the summit buildings, I let the boys go in and have hot chocolate and chili dogs. Mia and I tried to stay out of the wind. One of the cog railway workers came out and gave Mia some dog treats for her achievement! When the boys were finished, they came out and I ran in to grab a hot chocolate and chili dog to eat outside with them. I wolfed it down in a few minutes as I watched clouds quickly approach.
We left the summit at 3:30 and after walking for 15 minutes, a cloud had completly enveloped the summit. We continued our descent and just as we aproached timber line it started to sleet. We could see the valley towwards Mt Isolation where we were camped was sunny. We quickly reached the trees to take a short break to get on our raingear. I explained to the boys that we needed to be careful but to keep moving to get well in to the trees in case of lightening or more sever sleet/hail/rain. They were great and we continued down. The sleet quickly turned to light rain which stopped after about 30 minutes. We made good time back and reached camp in 3 hours. We were all exhausted but felt great about having completed a 10 mile day and ascent of Mt Washington! While the boys crawled in their bags to warm up, I cooked up the Mt. House Chili Mac with Beef. It is always tricky pleasing the pallets of kids - especially with light weight fare - but this one was a hit! I served them dinner in the tent under strict orders that they be careful not to spill food. Mia and I ate our dinners outside under a beautiful clear sky and colorful sunset. We all turned in and went right to sleep.
Saturday morning we got up at 7:30 with a goal of breaking camp at 8:30. We had poptarts for breakfast with hot chocolate. It was cold and windy but sunny. We packed the packs and redistributed the leftover food and headed out at 8:35.
The trip down was uneventful with relatively infrequent breaks. It took us 4 hours to hike the 5 miles out to the parking lot. We passed a few parties coming up for the weekend.
We all had a great time. We had hiked 20 miles in 3 days, did a 10 mile day with an ascent of Mt. Washington, got rained on, sleeted on and saw a moose! All in all, a great trip!
Cheers,
MountainDad
We left home mid morning on Thursday 9/10/06 and arrived at the Rocky Branch trailhead off Rt. 16. We hit the trail at 10:37 am to head up to find a campsite. The weather was great, coolish (75 degrees) and dry and sunny. Shortly after starting, ScreechOwl saw a small toad - which led to all of us counting toads on the hike up.
At about the 1 mile mark, the boys spotted a bull moose 20 yds off the trail. In their excitement, they yelled (softly) for me to take a picture. Of course the moose heard it too! No photo. We took several breaks but basically just plodded along. The trail was dry at the beginning but gets wet and a bit muddy as it nears the Isolation Trail.
Where the trail approaches Rocky Branch there is a marked campsite off to the left maybe 10 yards before the stream crossing. The plan was to continue to 1 of the other 3 campsites further up Isolation Trail that have been reported. After crossing the stream, we reached the intersection with Isolation Trail at 2 pm and took a rest and late lunch break at Isolation Shelter.
We hit the trail at 2:45 and continued north along Isolation Trail. This section crosses Rocky Branch several times and is mostly wet and muddy. Another marked campsite is on the left right before a stream crossing. This campsite is up a narrow path that opens in to a small clearing with enough room for 2 tents. The stream provides a supply of clear water that pumped easily. It was a great site, clean and out of the way and made a perfect basecamp. We set up camp at about 4 pm and just as soon as I got the tent and a tarp pitched, the sky opened up! We were all tired from the trek up and crawled in to our warm sleeping bags and listened to the rain and chatted about moose and other interesting things we saw along the trail. The toad tally for the day was 13!
At around 6, the boys were getting grumpy and hungry but the rain was coming down hard. I convinced them to wait another 1/2 hr and I would go out and cook. Lucky for me, the rain stopped right at 6:30! Dinner consisted of "Hunter's Stew" - which is normally cooked over campfire coals. I had pre cooked the vegies (potatos, carrots, onions and parsnips) so I decided to cook over our JetBoil using an aluminum frying plan. I simply unwrapped the aluminum foil the stew was packaged in, and heated it in the frying pan over the JetBoil. Worked fine, the beef tips seared nicely! After cleanup and hanging the bear bag, we all turned in for the night. The temp was cold and a good breeze was blowing.
On rising, we were treated to a brisk but beautiful sunny moning. We had breakfast (Mt House freeze dried scrambled eggs and bacon for ScreechOwl and "real" oatmeal with dried bluberries and blackberries for BaldEagle and me. We packed the boys backpacks with clothes, raingear, food and water for our Mt Washington ascent. BaldEagle and I carried the packs so ScreechOwl got a little break for the day.
We left camp at about 10 am. After hiking for about an hour, we came to 2 more marked campsites. A wooden sign pointed to a site off to the left and 1 off to right. This area was very wet and muddy and not near a visible source of good water. I'm glad we stopped at the earlier site. We reached the Davis Path at 11 am. We continued along Davis Path on our approach to Mt Washington.
Up to this point, we had seen no one along the trail since leaving the parking lot. As we reached timber line, we met several other parties coming up various side trials. We reached the summit at 2:30 and a total of 5 miles. The sky was clear and it was very cold and windy - a beautiful Mt Washington day! Since Mia was not allowed in the summit buildings, I let the boys go in and have hot chocolate and chili dogs. Mia and I tried to stay out of the wind. One of the cog railway workers came out and gave Mia some dog treats for her achievement! When the boys were finished, they came out and I ran in to grab a hot chocolate and chili dog to eat outside with them. I wolfed it down in a few minutes as I watched clouds quickly approach.
We left the summit at 3:30 and after walking for 15 minutes, a cloud had completly enveloped the summit. We continued our descent and just as we aproached timber line it started to sleet. We could see the valley towwards Mt Isolation where we were camped was sunny. We quickly reached the trees to take a short break to get on our raingear. I explained to the boys that we needed to be careful but to keep moving to get well in to the trees in case of lightening or more sever sleet/hail/rain. They were great and we continued down. The sleet quickly turned to light rain which stopped after about 30 minutes. We made good time back and reached camp in 3 hours. We were all exhausted but felt great about having completed a 10 mile day and ascent of Mt Washington! While the boys crawled in their bags to warm up, I cooked up the Mt. House Chili Mac with Beef. It is always tricky pleasing the pallets of kids - especially with light weight fare - but this one was a hit! I served them dinner in the tent under strict orders that they be careful not to spill food. Mia and I ate our dinners outside under a beautiful clear sky and colorful sunset. We all turned in and went right to sleep.
Saturday morning we got up at 7:30 with a goal of breaking camp at 8:30. We had poptarts for breakfast with hot chocolate. It was cold and windy but sunny. We packed the packs and redistributed the leftover food and headed out at 8:35.
The trip down was uneventful with relatively infrequent breaks. It took us 4 hours to hike the 5 miles out to the parking lot. We passed a few parties coming up for the weekend.
We all had a great time. We had hiked 20 miles in 3 days, did a 10 mile day with an ascent of Mt. Washington, got rained on, sleeted on and saw a moose! All in all, a great trip!
Cheers,
MountainDad
