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.

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

The White Mountain Chronicles

'The White Mountain Chronicles' is now available for download at Smashwords and Amazon. These 22 stories celebrate the author’s two decades of adventure in the mountains of New Hampshire. From Monadnock in the south to the White Mountains in the north, these memoirs and stories capture the fleeting moments of a New Hampshire life: from friendships forged on the trail to nights of revelry, from dangerous water crossings to winter storms, and all the strange memories and events that make the experience whole.

The volume begins with 'My AMC White Mountain Guides', the author's homage to the White Mountains of New Hampshire, a story that ends with a poignant bit of graffiti found by the author years earlier.

That story is followed by 'May Camp', an appreciation of setting up camp in a driving rain, a task made joyous so long as it means being back in the White Mountains.

Many adventures follow: from wild nights on the trail to hot summer treks, from the humor of the 'Golden Girls' to the discovery of red flannel hash, from frigid winter outings to the camaraderie of the High Huts, from the last motorcycle ride to the shadow of Monadnock.

In 'Mt Garfield Dream', the author and a companion ascend the Garfield Ridge in a May rainstorm, enduring a frigid and dangerous water crossing on the way. After reaching the ridge, they continue their ascent toward Garfield Shelter, negotiating the steep climb up the rocky cone of Mt Garfield as the freezing runoff from the rain cascades down the trail like an icy waterfall. As they climb wet and frozen, the rain turns to a blinding driven snow, yet more wonder awaits them higher up the mountain.

'Out of the Fog' is a collection of strange happenings compiled over eighteen years on the trail in New Hampshire.

In 'The 48 Summits', the author describes the haphazard way in which he came to climb all of the 4000' peaks in New Hampshire, and gives special mention to those awe-inspiring places he visited numerous times over the years, such as Mt Moosilauke, a peak he climbed twenty times.

These unique stories are filled with the author's love and respect for New Hampshire; this collection is unlike anything available on the market today.

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

Laudizen King

Interlude

Interlude - Winter in New Hampshire

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

Interlude

Laudizen

2 downloads

'Mosaics' and 'The White Mountain Chronicles' are the titles of two Ebooks by Laudizen King and are published by Smashwords. Sales coupons good for a discount on the price of each download are available on the Laudizen website.


'Mosaics' is a collection of 41 stories, essays, travels, and memoirs that span the decades of a life. Because this book is so hard to encapsulate in the 400 characters (including spaces) that appear with the publisher, Laudizen has published a description of 'Mosaics' on his website.

Find it at the link below.

Mosaics

'The White Mountain Chronicles' celebrate the eighteen years the author spent traveling and hiking in the Granite State of New Hampshire. Discover 'The White Mountain Chronicles' at the link below.

The White Mountain Chronicles

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

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

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

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

Spring, and the White Mountains of New Hampshire

Spring is here in Los Angeles, but I am thinking back to those years in New Hampshire when spring came late to the White Mountains. I'm haunted by the names still: the AMC, Crawford Notch, Franconia Notch, Franconia Ridge, Mt Bond, Mt Washington, New Hampshire, North Twin, South Twin, Pinkham Notch, Presidential Range, White Mountains, and all the other places I visited and the ghosts I traveled with. For eighteen years I plied the trails of New Hampshire, and I cherish the memories of it all.

The link below takes you to a story describing those years.

AMC White Mountain Guide

Laudizen King

Closing Galehead Hut, 1986

In 1986, I was at Galehead Hut on the Appalachian Trail in the White Mountains of New Hampshire when it closed for the season. That year Columbus Day fell on Monday, October 13, and the hut was scheduled to close that day, weather permitting. I made that outing into a three-day adventure, staying at the hut for the last two nights it was open. Late in the afternoon of Sunday, October 12, I returned from a memorable day of hiking up on North Twin and South Twin Mountains to find a group of people, along with the hut master, listening to a baseball game on a small radio that was set by a window in the kitchen of the hut, the only place where the radio could receive that channel. It was the Red Sox and Angels as they met in Game 5 of the ALCS playoffs. Losing to the Angels, and down to their final strike, the Red Sox rallied as Dave Henderson hit a dramatic home run to put the Bosox ahead in the top of the ninth. In a flash, a variety of liquors and wines, cheeses and appetizers appeared on the kitchen counter, a veritable bounty pulled from the backpacks of the assembled guests. Incredibly, the Angels tied it in the bottom of the ninth, and the game went into extra innings. There were no scout groups with kids present, no families with fussy children to contend with or cater to, just the right group of adults thrown together at the right time. Although we were in a high hut in the White Mountains, for a brief while, we were as loud and raucous (men and women alike) as any sports bar in the city of Boston, and that mood continued into the night after Boston finally sealed the victory.

This story appears at:


Link to Closing Galehead

Laudizen

Red Flannel Hash

Red flannel hash, I made it for dinner tonight in Los Angeles. It was a cold and damp night in Southern California, and I was searching the cupboards for dinner fixings, something to make that was easy and hot, and perhaps a meal a little out of the ordinary that might surprise Shirley. When the idea came, the memories came as well, and I was transported back across the years to those times spent in New Hampshire.

I remember camping on the the Kancamaugus Highway in the White Mountains of New Hampshire, having corned beef hash for breakfast, and driving to Conway for Red Flannel Hash, or corned beef hash with sweet beets. And I remember Jim Olkovikas making Red Flannel Hash from scratch one night in the late 1980s.

Read the story by following the link below.

Red Flannel Hash

Laudizen