Raam Dev’s Weblog

Mount Osceola (4,340′), named after an Indian war chief of the Seminole Indians in Florida (misappropriation of Native American names was not unusual in the 19th Century), was an excellent half-day hike. The Mount Osceola Trail branches off the Greely Ponds Trail and is accessible from the Greely Ponds trailhead.

The trail quickly started its ascent, becoming quite steep at times, with the East peak looming overhead. When I did finally reach the East peak at 4,156′, the in-your-face panoramic view was both incredible and dizzying. The East peak view point is extremely steep; a huge jagged clump of rocks angled in such a way they seemed to shout “don’t trip here, or it will be a painful slide down!”. Upper Greely pond is also visible from here and having visited it only an hour earlier made me appreciate the distance that much more.

After another short burst of unforgiving, steep trail, I reached the summit-with-views. I call it that because the true summit, which can be seen from here and is a relatively short and easy hike, has very limited panoramic views.

I didn’t stay at the summit long and decided to take a break at the summit-with-views instead. Amazingly, the Northwest side of Mount Washington, the highest peak in the American Northeast, can just barely be seen from here (center of picture, behind the foreground peak, just barely visible).

Also visible from here, and probably more incredible for me, is Mount Hancock, which I climbed the previous day. It has a distinguishable “V” rock slide, which can be seen in several of the pictures I took from Mount Osceola. The V can be seen in the center of this picture and here is a closeup of the rock slide I took the previous day.

Date of Hike
2007/09/03

Hiking Time
Parking Lot to East peak: 50 minutes
East peak to Summit: 30 minutes
Total Time: 2 hours 40 minutes
Book Time: 4 hours

Hiking Distance
Round Trip: 5.6 miles

Total Climb
2,250′

This hike was part of the three days of hiking I completed this past Labor Day weekend. I wasn’t actually planning to visit Greely Pond. In fact, I was on the trail to hike Mount Osceola (I’ll post that next). However it was only a short, 0.3 mile detour to Upper Greely Pond, so I decided to go for it.

The trail leading to Upper Greely Pond was simple enough, though it did require walking over log bridges and crossing streams along the way. Mount Osceola’s East peak soars above the pond and is where I was headed next.

The two ponds, Upper and Lower Greely Pond (I only visited the Upper pond) are nestled inside Mad River Notch. The Greely Pond Trail actually leads all the way across to Waterville Valley, about 3 miles away.

Mount Hancock (4,420′) was once one of the most inaccessible mountains in the White Mountains. It was remote, void of any trails, and was devastated by logging. It’s now full of life and is one incredible hike! I hiked this mountain as part of my Labor Day hiking marathon. The trail head is located off the Kancamangus Highway, just past the Greely Ponds trail, labeled the Hancock Notch Trail.

The first part of the hike, crossing mostly flat ground, was as easy as the hike up the North peak was difficult. The sound of cars along the Kancamangus Highway disappeared more quickly than I imagined they would. After 1.7 miles, I reached the trail junction of the Hancock Notch Trail and the Cedar Brook Trail. From there I traveled along the Cedar Brook Trail for 0.7 miles over slightly more rugged terrain to the junction where the Hancock Loop Trail branches off to the right. Another 1.1 miles and I reached the Hancock Loop Junction. From here on, the trails were nothing short of difficult. Just before reaching the loop junction, I passed a group of hikers on their way back who told me I should take the North peak up and the South peak down, because the rock was a lot more loose on the South peak. I had planned to take the North peak anyway, but it was nice to know a group of people survived the same route I planned on taking.

As I headed towards the North peak, I noticed in the distance a huge rock slide in the shape of a V on the mountain in front of me. I later learned (on my hike up Mount Osceola) that this was a distinguishable feature of Mount Hancock that made it easy to identify from a distance. In the back of my mind, I hoped that wasn’t the trail up the mountain.

After crossing a dry river bed, the trail became more and more difficult. The most difficult and steep part was a 1/2 mile section of the hike which climbs over 1,000 ft in elevation. There are several sections of the trail that have enough trees cut to give you a taste of the view at the top. And the view at the top of North peak was incredible. Mount Osceola and Carrigain are clearly visible from here. I didn’t know it at the time, but I would be climbing Mount Osceola the following day!

After a short 20 minute break, I traveled across the mountain to the South peak (4,274′), 1.4 miles away, over very easy ground (a relief after hiking North peak!). It was quite amazing how clean and untouched everything was along the trail at the top of the mountain — it was almost fairy-tale like. When I arrived at South peak, there were nice views to the East and North, though nothing quite as panoramic as the outlook on North peak. As I descended back down to the loop junction, I could see the side of Hancock I climbed earlier, as well as the distinguishable “V” rock slide. Maybe it was just my imagination, but the decent down South peak seemed very short and not nearly as difficult as ascent up North peak. From here, I hiked back to the parking lot the way I came.

Date of Hike
2007/09/02

Hiking Time (including breaks)
Parking Lot to North peak: 2 hours
North peak to South peak: 40 minutes
South peak to Parking Lot: 1 hour 40 minutes

Hiking Distance
Round Trip: 9.4 miles

Little Haystack (4,840′) is a part of the Franconia Range in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. I hiked to this peak with my sister Meera and my brother-in-law Thea.

We started the hike from the Old Bridle Path parking lot, which is located off I-93N. The exit is marked “Trail Head - Old Bridle Path”. From there, we took the Falling Waters Trail to the peak of Little Haystack. The trail varied between being easy and difficult and we passed several waterfalls along the way. I was disgusted by how inconsiderate some people are, leaving a bag of trash under a rock along the trail. I later regretted not taking the bag back to the parking lot with me when I realized I could have done something to help protect the environment.

Since I am someone who is often bothered by the knowledge of germs, I was taken aback when I noticed how every tree that was positioned in the right place to assist people along the trail, was soaked with oil from the many hands that had come in contact with it. I avoided these trees at all cost for the rest of the hike, as well as on my other hikes.

When we arrived at the top of Little Haystack, above the alpine zone and above the tree line, the temperature dropped dramatically. It was about 85 degrees when we started the hike and at the top, with the fierce wind, it was around 30 degrees! Everyone was wearing winter hats and winter clothes. I was freezing, but I was happy I remembered to bring a sweatshirt! The other two peaks, Mount Lincoln and Mount Lafayette, are both visible from the top of Little Haystack. You could even see the parking lot where we started. Due to the cold weather, we decided not to hike any further and went back down the Falling Waters Trail the way we came.

Date of Hike
2007/09/01

Hiking Time (including breaks)
Ascend time: 2.5 hours
Descend time: 1.5 hours

Hiking Distance
Round Trip: 7 miles

I had a good Labor Day Weekend. I went up North to the White Mountains with the intention of camping and just relaxing. I ended up hiking three mountains and making myself as physically exhausted as I’ve ever been. It was incredible. I had never hiked to the summit of any mountain in NH until this weekend (the only other summit I have reached was in Utah, Frary Peak on Antelope Island (6,596′)).

My sister Meera, and my brother-in-law Thea, drove North on Saturday morning to hike the Falling Waters Trail in Franconia Notch with me, which Thea and his friends had started, but not finished, a few weeks earlier. The trail leads up and crosses two peaks above the alpine zone before finally reaching the summit of Mt. Lafayette (5,260′). We only got as high as the first peak, Little Haystack (4,760′). Meera and Thea returned home, but I was already feeling a calling to go back to the mountains.

On Sunday I decided to hike another trail, this time along the Kancamangus Highway. I bought a small book of 200 hiking trails in the White Mountains at a local shop. After glancing at a few trails I decided to hike to Mt. Hancock’s North (4,400′) and South (4,274′) Peaks. This hike was definitely a step up from the hike to Little Haystack. I don’t like taking my time and enjoying the sights; I like to make it physical. I walked as fast as I could and kept my pace as steady as possible. My heart rate must have stayed at 120+ BPM the whole time. I was sweating non-stop for over 6 hours. My feet were so incredibly sore by the time I got back down that I could barely feel them touching the ground. I loved it and I was hooked. That night, I fell asleep at 8pm.

On Monday (Labor Day), I woke up at 7am and decided to ignore the pain and fatigue I was feeling and hike another mountain. From the trail book I choose Mt. Osceola (4,340′). The book only talked about the East Peak of Mt. Osceola (4,156′) but I told myself I would push the extra 1.5 miles and go all the way to the top. This time, I made sure I packed enough water, and enough food. Hiking at such a fast pace burns an enormous amount of calories. I had about 800 calories for breakfast and 1 hour into the hike I was already hungry. Even though I consumed over 4,500 calories that day, I was probably still running a deficit. If anything, the hike to the top of Mt. Osceloa was more a test of my metal endurance than my physical endurance. This hike had the most dangerous, and challenging, climbs of all three mountains. There were a couple of places where if I slipped, I would plunge a few hundred feet to the rocks below. Definitely not for those afraid of heights!

I took plenty of pictures and I’m sure you’d like to see them, but you’ll have to be patient. I’ve decided that I will post a new post each day for the rest of this week detailing each of the hikes. I took close to 200 pictures total and since I can see hiking becoming a big part of what I do in my free time, I’d really like to document each hike as best I can.

On Sunday morning, before my hike up Mt. Hancock, I passed a truck with a giant 350LB black bear in the bed. I stopped and talked to the people around the truck and they said they killed him last night, in Bethlehem, NH, which is only a few minutes away from were I was camping. What a waste of a beautiful animal.

Another major thing that happened early this past weekend was my firm decision about what I’m going to do with my properties. I’ve decided I will get rid of all of my properties, even if that means going bankrupt. I simply feel the time and energy I will spend maintaining even one property is not worth it. I would much rather have the freedom and clarity of mind that goes with knowing I don’t owe hundreds of thousands of dollars on a property while still being responsible for maintaining it. Owning a property will greatly restrict my options for travel and the financial freedom to do what I want with my life. Even if it means going bankrupt, I believe I’m making the right decision. At least I’ll have a clean slate to start with (excluding the fact that my credit will be screwed for the next 7 years due to the bankruptcy).

I’m glad I made this decision early in the week because the experiences I had during each of the hikes seemed to reaffirmed my decision. I’ll be listing all three of my properties with a Realtor later this week for a price lower than what I owe the banks. When I have a buyer, I’ll submit the offer to the bank and if they reject it, or if they accept it with the stipulation that I will still owe them the remainder, then I will tell them to foreclose on the properties and then I’ll file for bankruptcy. Hopefully the banks will work with me and I won’t have to go the bankruptcy route.