7/14/07
North Twin Mountain 4761’ and South Twin Mountain 4902’

11.2 Miles 3700’ Elevation gain

Kevin, Judy and Emma

We have had an excellent run of luck on every trip we've made this summer. Early in the year we had some tough snow days on some of our hikes, but since then we have enjoyed near perfect weather. We arrived in Twin Mountain Friday night and set up camp at Sugarloaf 2 Campground on the Zealand Road. All set up, we decided to make the short hike up to one or both of the Sugarloafs to catch the sunset as we have often done while in this area. As we started out it looked as though some weather was rolling in, but we continued on hoping it would pass to our south. About halfway in there was a rumble of thunder, and looking around we could still see sunlight and blue sky to our north, so I foolishly kept on through a few sprinkles. Then we heard it. I stopped, and in an instant knew what the sound was. Before I could say "Here it comes." we were caught in the deluge, totally unprepared. This is like the stupidest thing I've done in the mountains in a long time. We were instantly soaked and neither of us had brought raingear. We booked it back to the huge boulders along the trail and we were able to get out of the rain, but now the wind was whipping through the rocks and Jude, soaking wet, was losing body heat fast. Fortunately, the rain let up enough that we were back on the trail in a few minutes and the movement built body heat and kept us warm. Luckily it's a very short hike and we only got about half way in, so the return trip was quick. Of course, now our boots and clothes were soaked, and the question was what would we wear on our feet for the real hike the next day. The solution was the small propane heater I had bought for the pop-up to warm it on those cold October mornings when we like to camp. It is woefully inadequate for warming a pop-up camper, but made a perfect boot drier in combination with the swivel cooking rack over the fire pit. I simply swivelled the rack around, set the lit propane heater under it and layed the boots upside down on the rack. Our boots were dry in about an hour. Of course, while I was doing this, the sky cleared, the sun came back out, and there was a decent sunset. I had to settle for a short hike to the nearby pond where we watched the beavers go about their evening chores. If we had just turned around and waited out the quick downpour, we would have got to see the sunset from up top where we wanted to be. Anyway, the next day dawned bright, and though everything was soaked it was beautiful out, so we got an early start and were at the North Twin Trailhead on Haystack Road around 8AM. There was a lot of people showing up, so we got ready as fast as we could and headed out. The rain from the previous week of storms had swollen the Little River to a point where we were uncomfortable trying to cross at the first crossing. As the book says, you can simply bushwhack along the east bank and avoid the first two crossings. We've done this on every trip we've made here so knew it was easy to follow. In fact, calling it a bushwhack is no longer apt because it is so well used you would think you were on a regular trail. Along here we met J & J, very nice people who I recognized from their avatar on VFTT. They were doing a "real" bushwhack up the Old Fire Warden's trail to the summit of Hale, then on to South Hale for their New Hampshire 100 Highest List. Nice folks. I read later that they made it and had an excellent hike. Further along the trail we met Big Earl and Blue Blazes. I recognized Big Earl from his avatar on VFTT. Warning: If you don't want to be recognized out there, don't use a picture of yourself as an avatar! I actually think this is great. I normally just exchange pleasantries, but this gave us a kinship to which we could converse. I met 4 great people out there that I probably would have just nodded at along the trail. We reached North Twin and enjoyed the summit view to ourselves. The sky was cooperative, with big billowing clouds floating around making for dramatic surroundings. The air was clear and visibility was good, so the mountains were vivid. The temperature was perfect, like a fine September day. The previous night's rain had soaked all the insects, so they were no problem at all. You really couldn't ask for more. We made the trek over to South Twin and had our lunch as several other hikers came along, including Big Earl and Blue Blazes. Earl showed me his way cool altimeter, and I snapped a couple shots of them on the summit. We probably engaged them in conversation longer than we should have, as their trek was only half over. They continued on down the Garfield Ridge Trail to Galehead Hut, up to Galehead, then along the GR Trail to Garfield and out the Garfield Trail. Hardcore! That must have been a tough hike. I'd have to have a few days off after that one! We returned to North Twin and again had it to ourselves for a few minutes before heading back down the trail. We met several more hikers coming up, but I didn't recognize any by their avatars. All in all another perfect day in the mountains, and I clicked off two more on my list. If I finish the 25 I hope to do this summer, I will have done them 3 times in 9 years. I don't think it's a big deal as I meet people like I met on this hike who are doing things that make the 4000 footers look like a minor accomplishment.