In the spirit of ultra-endurance events undertaken by the guys team lately, I guess there needs to be an update on the 2010 edition of the SLUSKI Presidential Traverse. While it seems like the Williams ski team guys have been doing some presidential exploring of their own, I'd like to think we started the recent trend of ski-team assaults on the White Mountains. This year the crew for the 23-mile journey was small; Kyle, Zach and myself. After parking the end-car and returning in a small thunderstorm to soggy gear and tents, we checked all our stuff over. Following former SLUSKIer Jake Birchard's method last year I had decided to bring a big fannypack instead of a backpack this time. While stuffing it with Snickers bars I remarked on a famous old saying passed down about fannypacks. "Sometimes useful, always stupid-looking" or something like that. But Zach actually remarked "I've used them a lot hunting, I've even killed a deer with one before". It came out weird. After suiting up the next morning in damp clothes and soggy trail running shoes, we set off. It was cold and windy (32 on top of Washington with the wind chill) but soon the clouds broke and the views were great. We even jogged some flattish parts, which we would soon regret on the steep downhill portion. We made it safe and sound, 9 and a half hours of hiking later. I even picked up my first hitchhiker at the bottom of the notch. Just when we were complaining about how tired we were from our long day hike, we pick up a dude who was hiking the entire AT from Maine to his home in Tennessee. Normally it's not my thing to pick up strangers, but this guy was clearly tired and hungry and I was confident that Zach could easily take him on if it came down to fists. We spent the night in more wet clothes, and woke up early enough to cheer on Teo and local pro biker/pro skier/pro Skirack man Jake Hollenbach in the Mt. Washington hill climb bike race (Jake took a great 4th place). As a bonus attraction, as we were driving back Kyle and I ran into a bear on the side of the road next to the campground. When the bear tried to attack an old lady taking pictures I ran out of my car, grabbed my fannypack and beat the crap out of it. All said and done it was just another epic SLUSKI adventure, with plenty more to come this fall I'm sure. Can't wait to get back to school tomorrow to see how much Ctown has grown, if the sauna is still kickin' and if the new Price Chopper still has bottle-and-can-returning machines. If anyone wants to come say hi I'm in Sykes this year. 2nd floor, look for the room with the brand new bearskin rug.
Kyle on the trail
I found a flag in a free pile (of course) on the side of the road. Decided to give it new life. Apparently an older couple had enjoyed watching me run around like an idiot from the next peak over while they ate their lunch.
The camera missed him going by, but Teo is on the far left in blue.
At the start of the men's pro race. Jake is in 3rd position here.
Bro's, anyone care to lax??
1 comment:
Sounds like a great traverse! A couple of us Williams sophomores just did the Pemigewasset loop as well. It turned out to be a great 12 hour day, but the terrain was pretty tough at times and we didn't want to risk running where we could hurt ourselves. Maybe we could collaborate next summer and do a traverse in the 'Dacks?
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