Now that I'm married with two little children I have the responsibility of staying safe on the trail. This means no more solo hikes in the Whites. This winter I signed up to Meetup.com. Meetup.com has a group for anyone with any kind of interest. I signed up to hike Mt. Osceola (4,340) and East Osceola (4,156) with the Random Group of Hikers. I believe this would be my fifth time on Osceola and second time on the East peak.
As the day of the hike came closer one of the participants or "randomites" named Sandy emailed me asking if I wanted to carpool. The request was rather peculiar to me and the first thing that came to mind was the Craigslist Killer. This person had no idea who I was nor did I know her. I agreed to carpool with her thinking that if I said no, it could be a little awkward situation when we met at the trail head. So I agreed to meet her at the Park and Ride in Berlin, MA at 6:00 to be at the trail head when the hike was proposed to start at 9:00. I misjudged the time a bit and got to the park and ride around 6:10. Sandy had tried to call me to see if I was coming and I passed on my incorrect cell phone number to her by email. I did this during work and must have been distracted because work has been ridiculously hectic lately. Anyway, the ride up wasn't so bad as we talked about hiking, the meetup group phenomenon and carpooling with complete strangers. Leah called to check in during the ride to see if my passenger was "CooCoo na Cabeca?" and I told her all was well.
There were only a couple of spots left when we got to the trail head parking lot at about 8:45. A little after 9:00 the trip organizers (Monica and Michael ) pulled into the lot and our group of 10 pulled together for greetings and to sign an AMC liability waiver. At 9:15 we hit the trail. The trail was in great condition but the initial pace was a little slow and we took a couple of long breaks early. We must have been about 45 minutes into the hike when one of the group members started feeling ill and had to stop. Monica held back with her and we continued on to the top via several switchbacks.
At about 11:30 we reached the top and I instantly remembered why this was one of my favorite mountains to hike. The views are phenomenal and the rock ledge of Osceola is a great place to relax, take in the views and eat some lunch as many other hikers were already doing. The group stopped to take pictures and I took the opportunity to call Leah to let her know that I made it to the trail because there was no service at the parking lot. I saw one of the hikers I met two weeks ago on Tecumseh (Mike) who had done his first 4,000 peak and stopped to chat with him a bit.
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| Me with a portion of the group |
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| Hikers hanging on the peak of Lafayette. I was pointing out some peaks to Sandy and Gene |
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| Mt. Washington from the Osceola summit |
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| The ridge line to East Osceola |
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| Mt. Tripyramid and the North Slide |
We left Osceola Peak at about 12:00 and headed 1 mile towards the wooded East Osceola peak. The pace on this portion of the hike was a lot faster and the trail was a little more rugged. About 1/3 of the way towards the East peak we hit a steep chimney which probably dropped down about 100 feet. This portion of the trail required very careful with footing and the use my arms to drop myself down to the next foothold. It was fun and I looked forward to climbing it on the way back. There were some pretty long steep climbs that finally led to the top of East Osceola.
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| Looking down the Chimney |
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| The group making it's way down the chimney |
When we got to the wooded East peak there was a large cairn and no views. I heard "This is it?" from some group members as well as hikers walking by as we hung out to take a break. On the way back to Mt. Osceola, Ihad a chance to stay in between the fast group and the slow group to get some quiet time to myself. The climb up the chimney required good handholds and footing and I tried to use some upper body strength to pull myself up in spots as if I was free climbing. When we reached the summit of Osceola again, I saw Tecumseh Mike and he wasn't feeling well and ended up laying down just after I spoke to him. Hopefully he made it down OK.
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| Michael and Gene talking near the cairn on the top of East Osceola |
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| The group heading up the chimney |
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| Chimney bailout trail |
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Looking down at the group coming up
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| Lafayette, Owls Head and Garfield from a vista by the Oseola summit |
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| Lafayette, Cannon and the cannonballs and North and South Kinsman from the vista |
The way down was pretty easy and fast. For while I was walking behind Michael and listened while he told stories to another group member about some of his hikes and future hiking aspirations. As usual the end of the trail never seemed to come. I had predicted at the beginning of the hike that we would finish at about 4:00 and we reached our cars just after that. On the way home we stopped for Ice Cream served at a little shed off the road near Woodpeckers Pub & Tavern. When we finished the group headed their separate ways.
It was a great hike. I had my doubts about hiking with such a large group and at the beginning of the hike I wondered what I got myself into. There was a slow pace and lots breaks at the beginning. After summiting Osceola the group broke up into segments and we all had a chance to hike at our own pace while staying together as a group. We hiked 8.4 miles in 7 hours which was over an hour more than book time but that extra hour was welcomed with the views on what is still one of my favorite mountains in the Whites.
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