Date: 2016-07-30
From: NH 25

To: NH 112
Miles today: 9.5
Weather: broken clouds

(Back by elle's demand, Water Buffalo)After a night at home, I dropped elle on NH 25, where I met her yesterday, at the end of her hiking day. The plan was for me to drive around to the trailhead on High Street, while she did the short hike to meet me, and then hike together up Mount Moosilauke (pronounced Moose-ill-awk). People say the name is from the Algonquian words ¢moosi¢ (bald) and ¢auke¢ (place), since the summit is above the tree line.We Granite Staters get right to the point. Manners are optional, I guess.She zipped though the relatively flat 1.4 miles and almost beat me to the meeting point. I greased up with Deet (avoiding my eyes!), and we headed onward and upward. Naturally, elle gradually increased the distance between us. I thought the trail was pretty steep. I was wrong. Steep came later.elle, moving just a bit faster than Water Buffalo (not steep yet?)About a third of the way up the mountain, I heard elle say ¢Ow.¢ Then ¢OW!¢ Then ¢OW! OW! OW! #$^&%!!!¢ When I caught up to her, she said she thought a bee stung her foot. Due to my complete lack of medical training, I assumed she pulled a muscle, but it felt to her like a bee sting. We were at a small stream with a couple of pieces of lumber serving as a bridge. She sat down on the bridge and removed her shoe and sock. Yep, bee sting. Yep, directly on her Achilles tendon. We believe the bee's name was Paris.Paris (the bee) wounded (elle's) Achilles with a poisoned arrow, all for the beauty of Helen (me???).She soaked the spot on her Achilles in the cold stream for a few minutes. We looked in her sock to see if a stinger remained, but found nothing. I told her to put her foot back in the water for a few minutes, but she said, ¢No. Let¢s get going.¢ ¢Up?¢ I wondered. ¢Yes, Dad. Up.¢ she confirmed. ¢Yay,¢ I pretended.With elle hobbled by the vicious bee attack, and the steeper, rougher terrain, you¢d think I would have no problem keeping up with her, right? You¢d be wrong. She did stop every once in a while to make sure I hadn¢t rolled back down to the bottom.Hellllooooooo down there! (Note the "groomed" trail)I lost sight of her, but I did get a bit of a bonus when I got to the steepest and rockiest parts. With the beautiful weather, there were some pretty views toward the southeast. I managed to avoid falling off of a boulder while I snapped a few pictures.Starting to be worth the climb!When I hit the flat part before the true summit, I found elle taking a siesta, sunning herself like a lizard on a flat rock. She awoke and served me lunch; a weird tuna and something or other, wrapped in a soft taco, and a Clif bar. I mean it seemed weird, but tasted good. Hiker food. Who knew?I took so long to catch her, she fell asleep while waiting.At this point, we saw small children and somewhat less than hiking-fit individuals headed for the summit. We realized there is access to the peak on the gravel Carriage Road coming up from the Moosilauke Ravine Lodge. Maybe it should have made the climb up the mountain seem cheaper, but it didn¢t. It was, however a lot more populated than you might have expected.Decidedly NOT thru-hikers. They told me they are in jail.We finally got to the part of the trail where my true skills became paramount. That would be Dad skills. A sick, apparently somewhat demented adolescent moose was standing in the trail. Thru-hikers had been hearing about this ¢obstacle¢ for about two weeks, and elle had great trepidation regarding seeing this poor suffering creature. She got behind me, closed her eyes and held my hand before we got to the moose. The sides of the trail were lined with thick alpine brush, so bushwacking was not high on the list of options. When we got to it, the moose helpfully moved to the left side of the narrow trail, so we walked by, close enough to touch it. When elle was about at the moose¢s head, it let out a mild moose-grunt. When she asked me later why the moose grunted, I speculated the moose was saying, ¢elle! I read your journal. How¢s your face? Say hi to your mother for me.¢ That elicited a slight smile.Moose update: Sadly, but mercifully, wildlife officers euthanized the poor moose two days after we passed by.elle, parting the Green Sea as we wandered up to the north summitPost-moose, the path to the north summit was a nice walk. The weather was perfect, if slightly windy. There were dozens of sight-seers of all ages enjoying the wonderful vistas at the summit. We were happy to rejoin elle¢s thru-hiking friends, Mishap and Blacksmith, and we met thru-hiker Flash52. Mishap, Blacksmith, and elle intended to continue north, down a treacherous descent, while Flash52, like many other NOBOs was doing Moosilauke in reverse.elle, Blacksmith, Mishap, and Flash52At the summit signI think I can see my house from here!At this point, I departed from elle and her friends. I descended to the car the way I came up, while they continued northeast. On the steep, rock-strewn descent, I felt I was making excellent time, until a young man literally sprinted past me, flying down the mountain as if he had rockets strapped to his feet! I couldn¢t have done anything like that 40 years ago, let alone today.The tale of elle¢s descent will come from her, when she gets a chance.