Mt. Monadnock

We left Fairwood, walked there (about a mile) and started to climb the mountain around 9pm. It was understandably slow going, but that was fine because we had no pressing appointments other than finding our beds again sometime before the sun started to rise.

It was really dark. When Vanlora turned off her head lamp and I my flashlight, all objects instantly vanished from sight. However, we only did that when we stopped to take a breather. It was for the conservation of battery power, you know. I think I might have been permanently damaged if our batteries HAD died and we were stuck out there, deep in the woods on the side of the mountain. The night was moonless, so keeping to the trail would have been more than difficult. "Nearly impossible" sounds about right.

We kept up a pretty steady stream of conversation which served us well when it came to encouraging all the large, hairy, long-clawed, and big-toothed animals to keep their distance. What could be more terrifying than a couple girls talkingandtalkingandtalking? I don't know about you, but it sure scares me at times. Thankfully I'm not large, hairy, long-clawed and big-toothed (no smart comments here :), so I stuck around to keep Vanlora company.

We had agreed together if one of us broke a leg or something that: 1) "If you do, I'm not going to carry you" and 2) that we wouldn't leave one of us behind to go get help. The first was sure to result in the uninjured one getting injured and the second would have put whoever was left behind through a long and terrifying wait. Just imagine being deep in the pitch dark woods all alone, listening to every tiny sound and hoping it wasn't a hungry bear or a huge angry bull moose about to find you. In any case, we had brought a cell phone with us, so it was all good.

Actually, I wasn't afraid at all. Ok, maybe a couple times near then end of the hike when I was getting tired and the crunching sounds from the woods got a little too loud... but other than that, I was fine.

The only wildlife we saw in the beam of our lights was one fuzzy bunnie rabbit and one very small and swift rodent. The view from the top was fabulous; for living out in the boonies, there still manages to be a lot of lights trailing to the horizon. I would have brought my camera to prove that we'd done this, but it's not at it's best in the dark, so I left it behind. Too bad.

Vanlora and I made it back to the bottom of the mountain around 12am and walked the mile back, arriving at Fairwood a bit before 1am. We'd been meandering, that's why it took so long. I wouldn't want you all to think we were so terribly out of shape that it took us 3 hours to climb a mountain that should only take around 2, or anything. :-D

It was fun, you guys should do it sometime!