Meeting the Gang

After a restful night sleep we were excited to have the morning to explore the area with no specific schedule until the hike introductory meeting that afternoon.  We ate breakfast the the visitor center dinning room.  We then packed our packs again and set off to do some of the short, easy hikes around the lodge.  It was a beautiful Saturday and everyone and their dog must have decided to come out for a weekend in the Whites.

 The parking lot was full and people were parked along the edge of the highway.  We headed up to Crystal Cascades, some waterfall just up the trail.  In some ways a good name just adds to the mystic of natural areas such as Crystal Cascades, Falling Waters Trail, Lost Pond, or Lake of the Clouds.  These were much more descriptive than A-Z trail or Gibbs' Fall.  Back at the visitors center the astronomers were out with telescopes so we listened to their spiel and looked at the sun and Venus through their telescope.  We then hiked across the highway and took our first steps following the white blazes of the Appalachian Trail (AT).  The trail is marked throughout its entirety with white blazes painted on trees and rocks to point hikers in the right direction.  We crossed a boggy area on plank bridges that looked like a perfect spot for a moose to hang out.  Eventually, after several beaver dams we came to the edge of Lost Pond which was as still as glass.  We decided to pull up a chair on a nice rock along the edge to just enjoy the day.  We listened to the birds and bull frogs and the wind blowing through the trees.

Meandering back, we found a trail up to Square Ledge with a few overlooks on the way.  This trail got rockier and we were trying to decide how it would compare to what the rest of our week would be like.  As we neared Square Ledge the trail got steeper and we saw a group rock climbing up the side of the Square Ledge Cliff.  The trail wrapped around the back of the rock formation like a stair case.  The view from the top of the ledge was impressive.  We looked down over Pinkham Notch and then up to Mount

Washington and the Presidentials in the background.  After marveling at the view for awhile and running into the gals in our group we met the previous night we decided that was enough "elevation" training for us flatlanders and headed back to the visitor center for lunch of soup and sandwiches at the Black Moose Deli.
We had time to kill before the orientation meeting so we found two comfy armchairs in the living room area and settled in with good books and a nice breeze from the window behind us.  After a while others in our group started wandering in so there were introductions and the exchange of small talk.  People shared about what they do for work, but more importantly their best backpacking stories.  We didn't have any stories to trade but it was fun listening to people from the backpacking world interact-- this is a social group we don't see a lot of in Kansas.  They discussed water purification systems, how much their equipment weighs to the ounce, sections of famous trails they had hiked, etc.
Finally it was time for the meeting in the conference rooms.  We hauled our packs in and had our gear checked out.  We listened to advice on safety, making sure to eat and drink regularly, and the importance of preventing blisters.  We picked up our bags of snacks and lunches for the trail.  Finally we had the moment of truth--pack weigh-in.  Women's packs had to be 25 pounds and men were allowed up to 30.  When we left home our packs were between 16-18 pounds which felt relatively light.  But when 4 days of snacks and 3 liters of water is added, the weight jumps significantly.  I got rid of a few items that we had two of and figured I could just share with Arthur.  Mine weighed in at about 26 pounds but since I was young they let it slide.  Arthur's pack was right on.  Following dinner with the group we found some reading material in the library.
That evening the educational presentation was on moose.  I naturally insisted that we go since 1. it was educational, and 2. it was about moose.  Moose are my favorite animal.  On one of our early dates Arthur asked me to describe my favorite animal--the moose.  It turns out it was a personality test and the attributes a person uses to describe his or her favorite animal is the same attributes they are looking for in a spouse.  It was almost scary how similar Arthur is to a moose.  Here are some interesting facts we learned during the moose presentation.  Moose can eat 40-60 pounds of food each day.  (Quite the appetite just like my husband.)  Most of what they eat is stick and twigs..  Moose scat has the consistency of plywood because of their diets.  Now there is a market for moose poop that is coated in lacquer and sold as earrings or tie tacks.  The largest moose recorded was 7'7" at the shoulder. (Arthur is tall, head and shoulders above most, literally.)  They have also been known to weigh 1800 pounds. They also have huge hearts (another share characteristic with my husband) and long noses so they can reach further underwater.  Their antlers alone can weigh 80 pounds.  From a physical therapy stand point that much weight at the head could cause some significant neck problems and spinal alignment issues.  Maybe this is why they have huge shoulders.  They lose the antlers each year after mating and regrow a new set each year.  Moose/vehicle accidents are an issue in New Hampshire.  After the presentation I picked up a free "Brake for Moose" bumper sticker- one of the only souvenirs from this trip.  While vehicles can be dangerous for moose their populations are being decimated by winter ticks.  The ticks infest the moose by the tens of thousands, eventually killing them.  The Swedish army tried to develop a cavalry division using moose instead of horses since they were more suited to a Northern climate.  They were intelligent and easily trained to be ridden.  However at the first sounds of gunfire they took off for the woods and the project was finished.
That night we curled up in our bunk beds.  I could hardly sleep since I was so excited about moose and the prospect of finally starting the hike.  Omnia Vincit Amor.