A Late Winter's Day

Yesterday, in central California, I felt a flash of déjà vu. It had rained in the early hours of the morning and the coming dawn showed that a dreary overcast had given way to blue sky filled with intermittent puffy white clouds that stretched from horizon to horizon. A breeze blew out of the northwest and the air was sweet and clean. Off to the east, the Sierra Nevada stood in sharp profile with snow-covered mountains rising above the darker jumble of foothills below. The temperature in Modesto rose above 70 degrees and the day was nothing short of spectacular. As if in a dream, I felt transported back in time and place to those late spring or early summer days camping in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. Occasionally, the rain would give way to a day so perfect and fine that the senses stood in awe before the beauty of the mountains. The wind brought fresh clean air and even peaks far removed towered in sharp detail on the distant skyline. On such a day, the spirit rose with each step on the trail as I made my way up towards the treeline in search of the wonder and magic that awaited me on unseen summits.

Oh, it was such a joy to be alive, and I cherish that time of discovery and adventure in the days of my youth back in the East. Yesterday, on a sunlit winter’s day in late March, an old man in Modesto remembered the greatness and grandeur of all those perfect days in New Hampshire so many years ago.

Personal Bestseller of 2011

The White Mountain Chronicles

As 2011 draws to a close, I look back on the year and am thankful for the thousands of people who visited my website and to the many readers that purchased one of my eBooks. I am especially indebted to those readers who purchased a copy of, ”The White Mountain Chronicles", making that collection of stories from the mountains of New Hampshire my personal bestseller for 2011.

I am gratified that this unique volume of creative nonfiction, a simple compilation of travel, memoir and adventure from the Granite State, and the White Mountains in particular, is embraced by readers throughout New England and beyond.

I possess a lifelong passion and partiality for the White Mountains of New Hampshire including the Appalachian Trail, the mountains, the people, the forest and its roads. I look back on those years with an oleo of emotions, but primarily with love, gratitude, and longing for those times gone by. Because of that love and gratitude, I present the stories honestly, leaving the flaws and blemishes intact; the readers can make their own judgments. I also enjoy a great feeling of self-satisfaction over the challenges and obstacles I faced and overcame during my 18 years of adventures in the long shadows of the mountains of New Hampshire.

I appreciate your support and hope you will tell your friends about this unique collection of stories and adventures.

Thank you, and may 2012 be a great year for you! Laudizen King

The White Mountain Chronicles

The eBook is available for only $3.99, and may be purchased and downloaded to your Kindle or Android from Amazon, to your Apple device from the Apple bookstore, or downloaded to the eReader of your choice from Smashwords, Sony, Barnes & Noble or other eBook retailers.


"The White Mountain Chronicles" at Amazon

"The White Mountain Chronicles" at Smashwords

For more information about "The White Mountain Chronicles" eBook, click here

Link to the Laudizen King website

(approx 53,900 words)

'The White Mountain Chronicles', a collection of 22 travels, memoirs, and adventures from New Hampshire, the Granite State.

Chapters
My AMC White Mountain Guides
May Camp
Red Flannel Hash
In the Shadow of Monadnock
Carter Notch in Winter, the First Trip
Through the Past Darkly with Sven Saws and Candle Lanterns
Winter Night at Hermit Lake
How Things Come to Pass
Second Sojourn
Camp 16
Ghosts and Summits
Golden Girls
Pilgrimage
Mt Garfield Dream
Closing Galehead
Remembering Ray Evans, 1909-2001
Mountain Pond and Carter Dome
Riddle of New Hampshire
Mt Carrigain Trilogy
On the Garfield Ridge with Jack Kerouac
Out of the Fog
The 48 Summits

Saco River Idylls

Remembering those hot days after a hike in the White Mountains, swimming in the Saco River near North Conway, New Hampshire.

You can read the story at the link below.

Saco River Idylls

Laudizen

The Franconia Range

I made my first traverse of the Franconia Ridge Trail in the White Mountains of New Hampshire in 1976, standing on the summits of Mt Lafayette, Mt Lincoln, and Mt Liberty. On that hike, we climbed the Greenleaf Trail to the summit of Mt Lafayette and descended the Liberty Springs Trail after summiting Mt Liberty.

You can read the story at the link below.

Franconia One

Laudizen

The 48 Summits

When it comes to climbing all 48 4000' peaks in the White Mountains, the hiker faces a myriad of ways and styles, and all choices will accomplish the goal, whatever that goal might be.

The 48 Summits

This story is available only in 'The White Mountain Chronicles', a collection of 22 travels, memoirs, and adventures from New Hampshire, the Granite State. The eBook may be purchased and downloaded from Smashwords or Amazon, and at other premium digital stores as well.

Enjoy!

Two hyperlinks appear below; visit Smaswords to download the eBook in any format or visit Amazon to download the eBook to your Kindle.

'The White Mountain Chronicles' at Smashwords

'The White Mountain Chronicles' at Amazon

(approx 53,900 words)

Chapters
My AMC White Mountain Guides
May Camp
Red Flannel Hash
In the Shadow of Monadnock
Carter Notch in Winter, the First Trip
Through the Past Darkly with Sven Saws and Candle Lanterns
Winter Night at Hermit Lake
How Things Come to Pass
Second Sojourn
Camp 16
Ghosts and Summits
Golden Girls
Pilgrimage
Mt Garfield Dream
Closing Galehead
Remembering Ray Evans, 1909-2001
Mountain Pond and Carter Dome
Riddle of New Hampshire
Mt Carrigain Trilogy
On the Garfield Ridge with Jack Kerouac
Out of the Fog
The 48 Summits

Through the Past Darkly

Divorce, Martinis, and out on the trail at 1:00am with a candle for a light; what could go wrong?

Through the Past Darkly with Sven Saws and Candle Lanterns

The entire story is available only in 'The White Mountain Chronicles', a collection of 22 travels, memoirs, and adventures from New Hampshire, the Granite State. The eBook may be purchased and downloaded from Smashwords or Amazon, and at other premium digital stores as well.

Enjoy!

Two hyperlinks appear below; visit Smaswords to download the eBook in any format or visit Amazon to download the eBook to your Kindle.

'The White Mountain Chronicles' at Smashwords

'The White Mountain Chronicles' at Amazon

(approx 53,900 words)

Chapters
My AMC White Mountain Guides
May Camp
Red Flannel Hash
In the Shadow of Monadnock
Carter Notch in Winter, the First Trip
Through the Past Darkly with Sven Saws and Candle Lanterns
Winter Night at Hermit Lake
How Things Come to Pass
Second Sojourn
Camp 16
Ghosts and Summits
Golden Girls
Pilgrimage
Mt Garfield Dream
Closing Galehead
Remembering Ray Evans, 1909-2001
Mountain Pond and Carter Dome
Riddle of New Hampshire
Mt Carrigain Trilogy
On the Garfield Ridge with Jack Kerouac
Out of the Fog
The 48 Summits

Spring Fever in New Hampshire

It has been a long tough winter and its time to generate a serious case of spring fever. Fire up some excitement with "The White Mountain Chronicles" by Laudizen King, an eBook celebrating 18 years of exploration and adventure in the mountains of New Hampshire. From the Presidential Range to Monadnock, this book embraces the Granite State, from nights of revelry to the hard challenge of the trail.

Priced at just 3.99, the ebook is available in all the popular download formats at Smashwords, just follow the link below.

The White Mountain Chronicles at Smashwords

For those with other eReader accounts, "The White Mountain Chronicles" is also available for purchase at the following eBook stores: Kobo, Diesel, Barnes and Noble, Sony, and Apple.

Laudizen

Interlude

Interlude - Winter in New Hampshire

Favorite places and hikes in the Granite State and the White Mountains: New Hampshire during winter.

Interlude

Laudizen

My AMC White Mountain Guides - Corrected

Dear friends,

I recently discovered that the New Hampshire story posted on my website, "My AMC White Mountain Guides", was corrupt and only 20 percent of the story was visible, probably from a bad upload. I consider this story one of my favorites and it is the lead offering in my ebook, "The White Mountain Chronicles". This error did not occur in the ebook, only on the website. I have corrected the error and the story is now complete and reposted on the website. I apologize to those readers who encountered the partial file.

Follow the link below to read the story.

If you do not see the above message displayed before the story, please refresh or reload the page.

My AMC White Mountain Guides

Laudizen

Northern Presidential Traverse

Follow the link below to enjoy a visual journey: a hiking traverse of the northern peaks of the Presidential Range in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. Enjoy the rugged beauty of New Hampshire's high country as the author travels from Lakes of the Clouds Hut to Madison Spring Hut. Along the way are numerous views of the southern peaks, Mt Washington, Mt Clay, Mt Jefferson, Mt Adams, Thunderstorm Junction, and Mt Madison.

Northern Presidential Traverse

Laudizen

The 48 peaks over 4000' in New Hampshire

We seem to be a country of ‘lists’ and that trend made its way to the hiking community of the northeast as well. The White Mountains of New Hampshire have 48 peaks above 4000’ of elevation as compiled by the Appalachian Mountain Club’s Four Thousand Footer Committee (FTFC), a group formed in 1957 to establish the official criteria and maintain the list of peaks. In addition to the 4000’ of elevation requirement, each official peak must be at least 200’ above the low point of a connecting ridge leading to a higher neighbor. A hiker must climb all the peaks on the official list to request membership in the ‘club’. There are many other lists and clubs associated with the mountains of the northeast: the New England 4000 footers and the Northeast 111 to name two. The Northeast 111 includes the 4000 foot peaks of New Hampshire, Maine and Vermont, as well as the 46 peaks over 4000’ in the Adirondacks and the 2 peaks over 4000’ in the Catskills (there are 115 peaks in this list but they have kept the original name). There are also those clubs that, by the very nature of their lists, will always have just a few select members. There is the 4000 footer grid club, whose members have climbed all 48 four thousand foot peaks once in each month of the year (a total of 576 climbs), and there is the 48 in 1 winter club, where membership is gained by climbing all 48 four thousand foot peaks in one winter season.

My personal history of hiking in New Hampshire covered eighteen years, from 1972 through 1990, and it took me the first fifteen of those years to climb all of the 48 peaks over 4000’ in the White Mountains. The summits vary greatly both in elevation and terrain; the lowest peak is the wooded summit of Mt Tecumseh at 4002' and the highest point is the rocky summit cone of Mt Washington at 6288', a place famous for the highest wind ever recorded and home to the world's worst weather. When my days of hiking in the White Mountains were over, Mt Moosilauke stood as the one 4000’ summit most visited by me, having climbed that peak 20 times.

So begins my personal history with the 48 peaks over 4000'in New Hampshire. To read the complete story, follow the link below.

The 48 Summits

Laudizen

Signposts to Afghanistan, two years on....

Today, December 31 of 2008, is the second anniversary of the genesis of my story, 'Signposts to Afghanistan', written in early 2007. That story meant a lot to me at the time, and it still does today. It was the first time I had put down into words my motivations for joining the Army in the time of the Vietnam War, how I recalled my experiences gained during those service years, and how I came to follow the path I did after I was discharged from the Army.

Today, one year after writing that story, I am every bit as distressed over our presence in Iraq, and at the horror we have allowed to continue in Afghanistan, as I was then. After having served a year in Vietnam, I was an Afghanistan Analyst for Military Intelligence at Fort Bragg in North Carolina. I fell in love with the country of Afghanistan, and I dreamed of visiting it one day. But life didn't work out that way.

What is going to happen to the current war veterans and their families of today, what with the stresses of multiple deployments and separation, the interruption of careers. I fear that America is going to pay a fierce price for this war and their service. In this day of the assault on the middle class, and CEOs making billions in bonuses by shipping work off to foreign shores, what opportunities await the foot soldier here in America after three tours in Iraq?

To read the entire story follow the link below.

Signposts to Afghanistan

Laudizen King

Thinking of Spring - May Camp

Winter has just started in the White Mountains of New Hampshire, but here is a story about setting up camp at Dolly Copp in a driving May rainstorm. This should stir your appetite for the spring.

May Camp

Laudizen

From Across the Pond

"Thanksgiving ??? Is that some sort of pagan ritual practiced in the colonies ?"

I received the above message this morning in an email from Chris Ellison, a Scottish friend living near Manchester, England. He sent it in reply to a story and message I had emailed to a group of friends earlier.

I first met Chris in New Hampshire in 1985, and we became friends at a Guy Fawkes Day party that November, an English holiday celebrating the discovery and prevention of a plot to blow up Parliament in 1605. During that period, I became friends with many of the British consultants employed at the company I worked for, AIG.

Those were good a fruitful years.

The link below takes you to a story that celebrates those people and that time in my life.

Cheers and Slainte

Laudizen

Baseball on my Mind

Now that the Angels are facing the Red Sox in the 2008 ALDS, I remember two stories from my past that center on the Angels and Red Sox. One story centers on Galehead Hut, one of the High Huts of the White Mountains of New Hampshire, and the classic baseball battle of the 1986 ALCS.

The other story describes an Angels game in Anaheim in the 1990s when I almost got a foul ball.

Follow the links below to read these stories.


Closing Galehead

Baseball and Coffee

Laudizen

Mt Carrigain Trilogy

Looking back on my hiking trips in the White Mountains of New Hampshire, I stood upon the summit of Mt Carrigain six times. Three were solo day hikes, and three hikes were with a companion and involved camping at the summit. The 4680' summit of Mt Carrigain is considered by many to have one of the finest views in all the White Mountains.

To read the story of three ascents of Mt Carrigain by the Signal Ridge Trail, and what camping on the summit was like, follow the link below.


Mt Carrigain Trilogy

Laudizen King

On the Garfield Ridge with Jack Kerouac

A recent phone call from Sam Greene in New Hampshire came as a welcome surprise. In discussing the current state of affairs, we rehashed some old trips to the White Mountains of New Hampshire, especially one hiking adventure that involved hiking the Franconia Ridge Trail and the Garfield Ridge Trail. On that trip, we spent one night at Greenleaf Hut on the shoulder of Mt Lafayette, and hiked to Galehead Hut the next day.

We also discussed an old photograph taken in the 1980s by a friend in Jaffrey Center, and that is the connection to Jack Kerouac.

To read the story follow the link below.

On the Garfield Ridge with Jack Kerouac


Laudizen

Mt Garfield Dream

In the mid-1980s, Bob and I were once again off on a May adventure. In a solid rain, we hiked in on the Wilderness Trail, located off the Kancamaugus Highway in the White Mountains of New Hampshire, until we reached the Franconia Brook Trail, and then continued north to the 13 Falls Campsite. We made camp and hoped for good weather to ascend to the Garfield Ridge Trail, and later climb the cone of Mt Garfield until we reached the shelter at Garfield Spring. The weather did not cooperate; instead, it got worse. After two days at 13 Falls, we climbed Mt Garfield in a blizzard, a hike that had its own challenges. Read the story at the link below.


Mt Garfield Dream

Laudizen

The Riddle of New Hampshire

New Hampshire's own Sphinx, the great stone face of The Old Man of the Mountain, once gazed out at the state from his perch on the side of Cannon Mountain, high above the floor of Franconia Notch.

For years, I struggled to answer the riddle posed by the granite face of the Old Man and hidden in the 1972 AMC White Mountain Guide, but to no avail. The riddle, as originally posed, involved Mt Moosilauke and Mt Carrigain.

If you are an experienced hiker, and familiar with the many summits of the White Mountains of New Hampshire, you may have your own answer to this vexing conundrum; yet this is a riddle for a very few.

Follow this link: Riddle of New Hampshire

Laudizen King

Franconia Ridge

Here is an image gallery comprised of some old pictures that I recently scanned at home here in California. These photos were taken back in the years when I enjoyed the trails of the White Mountains of New Hampshire.

This trip covers a traverse of the Franconia Ridge, high above Cannon Mountain and Franconia Notch. We ascended the Falling Waters Trail to the ridge; to the south rose Mt Liberty and Mt Flume. We went across the ridge from Little Haystack to Mt Lincoln, and then to Mt Lafayette. We then descended the Greenleaf Trail to Greenleaf Hut; from there we finished the trip on the Old Bridle Path.

The photos are old, but you can understand why this is considered one of the best loop hikes in the White Mountains.

Franconia Ridge

Laudizen King