Mt. Moosilauke 2/18

What: Mt. Moosilauke via Glencliff Trail
When: 2/18/07
Who: Beck and LaSpina
Type: Foot


Well hello there, friends. I'm sorry it's been so long since I last posted, but I assure that I have been adventuring on foot and wheel. Actually Boston finally got some snow which made for some interesting commuting on my 1968 Robin Hood three speed bike. Deciding not to bike home in the storm turned out to be a terrible idea because the next day my bike was completely snowed in and frozen to the sidewalk. But we're not here to talk about wheels, now are we?

Mt. Moosilauke is one of the most famous of the white mountains outside of the presidentials mostly I think because of its unique name. Also the fact that it's 4800 foot summit is bald and therefore affords very nice panoramic views. That is of course if you don't hike it in the winter while it's snowing. Which, of course, we did.

My alarm went off at 5:00AM and then again at 5:09 and then again at 5:18. See I'm not usually a person who uses the snooze button, but I'm also not usually a person who gets his ass out of bed before 8AM. I got up and pulled my shit together in time to be in my car and on the road by 5:55 AM - perfect timing since I was to meet Andy LaSpina at the trailhead at 8:30 and Moosilauke is at 2.5 hour drive from Boston.

I was running at bit late and got to the trailhead at 9. Andy arrived at 9:30. We started off on the trail at 10 after accidentally going in the wrong direction and ending up in snow up to our hips. Oops. The actual Glenclif trail was pretty well broken out thanks to the Dartmouth Outing Club. We decided not to bring our snowshoes.

The trail starts off going through some open fields and then cuts off into the woods. The grade was pretty consistent which made it seem like we weren't really getting anywhere. With most hikes you encounter long stretches of flat followed by stretches of very steep grades, but once you make it to the top of those scrambles (just when you start thinking that you really need to stop and take a break) you get to a nice level surface and are able to catch your breath while hiking on flat terrain. Not so on the glenclif trail. The glenclif just continued climbing up up up, never really getting steep, and never really getting flat.

Starting about halfway up the mountain the trail started getting much thinner and the snow much deeper. Now if you accidentally stepped too far to the right you would be up to your hip in snow and have to drag yourself out. It was around this time that we realized that snowshoes probably would have been pretty helpful. Thankfully it was cold enough that my bareboots were able to stay dry. That's when I realized tip #1 for winter hiking:

DO NOT BRING CLIF BARS!

See Clif bars are so solid they are hard enough to eat when it's warm outside. Throw some clif bars out in 0 degree weather and they are solid bricks of inedible protein in no time.

Andy's frozen nalgene was getting pretty hard to open when we made it to the "top" of the mountain. See I call it the top because it was so cloudy and snowy it was pretty tough to see the trail never mind where the actual summit was. But I know that we made it pretty close to the summit if not actually there. Regardless both of us had summitted Moosilauke before so it wasn't really of concern. We were enjoying ourselves.

Top Ten Rules of the Road I See Cyclists Breaking Everyday

In No Particular Order
Type: Wheel


1) Not Stopping at red lights or stop signs
This has to be the #1 complaint that I hear about cyclists and I completely understand why. I don't care so much that it's against the law to run a red light, or that people in cars think it's unfair that they get away with running a red light. Who cares that cars are jealous that bikes get away with running a red light? What I care about is that fact that it's incredibly dangerous and inconsiderate. Everyone understands why it's dangerous for the person doing it, but it also makes cycling more dangerous for the rest of us who are following the rules because of cars who are pissed off at cyclists breaking the rules.

It's inconsiderate because usually pedestrians crossing the street get a walk signal when the corresponding traffic has a red light. I see bikes go through red lights all the time only to make the pedestrians crossing the street get out of their way. It's ridiculous and it's against the law. We all get our green light when it's our turn, just fucking wait for it.


2) Riding on the Sidewalk
This is an interesting one because I've heard so many uninformed motorists tell me that bikes should get out of the road and onto the sidewalk. I have three things to say about that:

a) It is unlawful to ride your bike on the sidewalk in any downtown area. You are allowed to ride your bike on the sidewalk of a suburban area as long as you are riding at a very slow speed

b) It is so much more dangerous to ride your bike on the sidewalk than the street. Cars coming from side streets are looking to their left for approachin vehicles and even if they are paying attention to pedestrians, they do not expect a bike to come quickly out of nowhere.

c) You run a risk of hitting a pedestrian and doing harm to either yourself or them. Remember: It's called a sidewalk, not a sidebike.

3) Riding the wrong way down a one way street

This absolutely has to be the single most dangerous thing you can do on a bicycle. It's unbelievably dangerous for so many reasons, but the biggest danger is from cars pulling out onto the street from a side street. If a car approaches a one way street, they are only looking in one direction for oncoming traffic, if you happen to be coming from the other direction you are in for a battle you are going to lose everytime.

4) Not stopping for pedestrians in crosswalks

I see this every single morning in front of the Marriot in Cambridge. There are one or two pedestrians waiting patiently in the crosswalk while cars speed by without letting them go. Finally a car in the left lane stops and allows the people to cross, but just when they step out into the cross walk a cyclist whizzes right by them nearly colliding with them. We have a responsibility to stop for pedestrians in crosswalks just like cars do.

5) Not having lights and reflectors on your bike

Idiotic and against the law

6) Not signalling turns

More annoying than anything else, but also potentially very dangerous.

7) Riding with headphones on

Unbelievable.

8) Not having brakes on your bike

I don't mind this one that much because most of the folks riding fixies without brakes can control their bikes better than anyone else on the road, but I just don't see why throwing an emergency brake on the front wheel is so terrible. Also, it's against the law to not have brakes on your bike.

9) Stopping at red lights only long enough to look both before running the light

See running red lights.

10) Swerving in and out of traffic and lanes recklessly

If everyone else in traffic with you cannot predict your movements, the streets become much more dangerous for everyone.


Everytime I get on my bicycle I know that I am really vulnerable out there and I don't take it lightly. If someone does something that puts me in a situation where I could be injured or killed, it's way past just a simple annoyance. Next time I'll post the top ten things that motorists do that piss me off. Then maybe I'll get to a pedestrian one too. When I'm on my bicycle I basically hate everyone that isn't me.

Winter Commuting By Bicycle

Commuting to work in January by bicycle

Type: Wheel
Date: 1/18/07
Temperature: 8 degrees F

The last few mornings have been the coldest of the year with the morning temps in the single digits or teens and I must say that I've been pleasantly surprised at how many cyclists are still on the road. I've also seen cyclists wearing such a broad array of clothing that I thought I'd spend some time discussing what works for me. Tomorrow I'm going to try to bring a camera so that I can document what people wear while cycling to and from work. Here's what I wear:

Duofold long underwear
pants I'm wearing to work that day
shirt I'm wearing to work
Shell of my columbia jacket (even in 8 degree weather the lining wasn't needed)
gloves - I wear specialized sub zero riding gloves (I had cheaper gloves but my fingers were really hurting)
balaclava
helmet
thick wool socks

My balaclava is the most important piece of gear I wear for commuting. I really can't say enough about how important face and head coverings are when you're cruising along at 15-20 miles per hour in 15 degree weather. I personally like the balaclava best because of its ability to warm your head, neck, nose, and face all at the same time. The only problem I've run into is when I wear glasses instead of contact lenses my glasses fog up really badly and I can't see anything when I have the balaclava pulled over my nose. I could also solve this by getting something more like this clava.

I have two issues that still need to be resolved before I would be completely comfortable riding in this weather (are you really supposed to be completely comfortable? Wouldn't that take some of the excitement out of it?) Those are my toes and my eyes. My eyes are the only things exposed from my balaclava, and they tend to get assaulted by the wind, sun, snow, and rain. I'm debating between picking up just normal sunglasses or goggles that I could also wear on winter hikes. But I've already mentioned the problems with glasses and my balaclava so i assume the same thing would happen with sunglasses, right? Maybe goggles are the way to go. I do want something that I could wear at night (tonight biking home I was pelted by cold driving snow. It was have been really nice to throw on some goggles).

My toes really aren't that much of an issue for commuting, of course my commute is only 2.5 miles long so just when my toes are starting to freeze I'm walking into my office. I tried to go for a bike ride for leisure on Saturday and by 10 miles my toes were ready to fall off so I think if you're doing anything over 5 miles you really need to be wearing some sort of footwear that will protect you from the wind and bitter cold. There are a few options for those of us who don't have cycling shoes and perhaps I will try some. Here's what I've seen people doing on my commute.

1) Wear boots - Why not? Loosen up your toe clips and hit the pavement with some heavy duty winter boots and wool socks. There's no rule that says you can't bike in boots and I guarantee your feet will be nice and toasty.

2) Try some of the shoe covers out there - There are plenty of neoprene or plastic shoe covers that supposedly block the wind and help hold in the heat, I haven't tried any so i can't vouch for which brands work and which don't, but it seems like a good idea.

I've run out of steam tonight I'll finish up more tomorrow

Old Speck Mountain - 1/14/07

Type: Foot
Date: Sunday, January 14
With: Andrew LaSpina
Wore: Boots, duofold long underwear, rei rain pants, long sleeve duofold shirt, Columbia shell, balaclava, gloves
Brought: extra socks, emergency blanket, fire starter and matches, headlamp, Columbia lining, food. Andy brought full pack with bag.


We had been staying at The Enchanted Dome for a few nights eating, drinking, and sweating and decided to finally get out of the dome and do some winter hiking. We woke up at around 9, grabbed some breakfast and headed out to the mountain despite the rapidly falling snow at 9:30.















The parking area for the trailhead at 1500' had quite a few cars in it despite the ominous weather. We started out via the Old Speck Mountain Trail (AT) at 10:15 with the snow beginning to fall even heavier. This being my first winter hike I was really excited and nervous. I wasn't sure if I had dressed properly for the hike, and with the snow falling I couldn't help but think about how dangerous winter hiking can actually be. The temperature was about 25 degrees when we started the hike - but you lose about 3.5 degrees for ever 1000 feet of elevation gain and we were going to be heading up to a 4180' summit. After less than 1/4 of a mile we were slipping on ice and decided to strap on our crampons.




After putting on our crampons we continued to climb the Old Speck Mountain Trail (we opted for this instead of the more strenuous Eyebrow Trail simply because we didn't do enough research before heading out. I'm sure if Andy had known that the Eyebrow was more difficult we would have chosen that trail).
Though it's only 3.5 miles to the summit, the 2700' of elevation gain and the snowy conditions made for pretty slow going.
We arrived at the summit at exactly 1:00PM (which was our turnback time in order to guarantee that we made it back to the Dome in time for the Patriots playoff game against the San Diego Chargers).







The summit was wooded and would not have afforded views even if there hadn't been complete cloud cover on that day.


After stopping briefly at the summit it began to feel like the 17 degrees that it was, and we had to move on and begin our descent, but not before Andy attempted to climb the tower. Attempted.







The descent was, as usual, much longer than it felt like it should have been. We were cruising the entre time and yet it still took us 2:15 to get back to the parking lot. Just after spotting the parking lot from the trail my feet decided to stop working correctly, and my crampons got caught together and I took a small dive (snow nap) which was exactly what I needed.



We got back to the car at 3:04 coming in just under the book time of 5 hours for the trip. Not bad considering the weather.