New Home

Mr. Incognito and I were busy this past summer and fall looking for our new home. We finally found the PERFECT house in September and closed the first week of December...the perfect Christmas present. We are glad it is over and we have a gorgeous home to call our own. Check it out:

Living Room

Living Room

Dining Room

Bathroom

Guest Room

Living Room

Our X-mas Tree that we cut down from out back yard!

Big Lake 2009

If you have never heard of Big Lake in NE Maine (10 miles from the Canadian border), i suggest you look it up on the internet and find someone renting their camp on the water and go. Go for two weeks or more if you can. You'll love it. I promise.

I was lucky to have the opportunity to go because Ryan's family has a 3-season camp right on the lake. Unfortunately i did not take any pictures of the inside, but what a great little place it was, chocked full of family history documented in paintings (done by artists in the family), photographs and stories told from one generation to the next. I got the grand tour of the lake on the Pontoon boat and a Grand Laker (a canoe with a moter on it!), and even got a taste of what it is like to be on the lake during a storm (Exciting!) The sunsets were gorgeous, the fishing pretty good, but the best part was the company.

The Grand Laker
Sunset-Just gorgeous!

The beginning of sunset...looks a bit tropical, huh?

Looking out at the lake.

McKinley relaxing in the sun.

Ryan caught an eel. It was pretty gross.

Mt. Washington Via the Ammonoosuc Ravine Trail

Steep. That is all i have to say about this trail. What a great feeling it was to get to the top...well once you got past the hordes of people who drove to the top. No summit picture of me, Ryan and McKinley because we couldn't bear to be around the masses long enough to take it.

Mr. Incog Nito revealed.

The following information has been provided to help you, the loyal reader, from becoming confused by my most recent post. You may or may not have noticed that Mr. Incog Nito is no longer a character within my blog, that is because he was never real. I paid him to pretend to be my boyfriend because I didnt want people to think I was an old maid. Anyways these are pictures of my new boyfriend Ryan. Ryan is totally manly in every way. He has ninja like relflexes and the stealth of a deadly panther. One time he caught a turkey with his bare hands (see picture above)...I watched it happen. He also dug the Panama Canal with an old ladel and orbited the moon in a space ship he fashioned out of an old garbage can and some duct tape. Another time he rode a dolphin across the Pacific Ocean and invented pleated pants. We were on our way home one night and we got a flat tire, sure enough, Ryan got out of the car and changed it!! We made it home that night. Anyways I could sit and talk about Ryan all day due to the greatness that he radiates but I think that is enough for now. Thanks for reading, sorry about any confusion I may have caused with my prior lies.

A Present to Myself

While i was in the hospital )March) i decided to occupy my time by researching a vacation. I had seen on the Today Show (gotta love watching TV!) that there were a lot of travel deals, so Mr. Incog Nito and i made a list of places we wanted to see/visit and i would do the leg work to see if we could make it happen. One of the first places we both decided on was Tahiti. But.....let's just say that while there WERE great deals of places, there were not so great deals on airfare....Yeah--we could not even afford to fly there.

Around the time i was doing this research, an old friend of mine came to visit me and we had talked about his trip to UT with his girlfriend and how AWESOME and beautiful it was. In all the time i spent out west, i never made it to Colorado and Utah or the Southwest. So i looked up airfare and rental cars and planned a week long trip visiting all the national parks from Las Vegas to Denver, Colorado. A week sounds like such a short time, esp. when you factor in all the driving, but in actuality it was a good amount of time, and we often found ourselves with more time then we had expected.

We flew into Las Vegas on Sunday and rented a car. Now, this was our first time renting a car and we got sucked into getting the insurance, which cost us another $130 making the cost of the car rental MORE then our airfare! Wozah! "Oh well!" we said, "Better safe then sorry." We got a little PT Cruiser which was actually fun to drive.

We then drove 6hr to AZ to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. We talked about not going, but agreed that we were so close that it would be stupid not to. When we pulled into camp it was 10pm..we pitched the tent and went to sleep. We awoke early, had some coffee and drove to the N. Rim, where we were blessed by some amazing views of the canyon. The sun was still rising and made for a really dramatic experience, as we watched the canyon become more and more in view as it filled with sun. There were hardly any people on the little hike we did to a look out...so calm and peaceful; a great place to wake up to.
We then hopped into the Cruiser and drove the 2 hrs to Zion. We camped in South Campground in a sweet shady site next to the river. We took a breather and then walked to the visitor center to take the shuttle (no cars are allowed in the park in the summer) into the park to hike the Virgin Narrows; a "trail" in and next to the Virgin River canyon. The Moon Guide describes this as the most popular hiking trail in the park..and that it was. Mr. Incog Nito and I were not expecting the throngs of screaming children and slow-walking-families that were present. Wow. We both got a little fed up with it, but if you keep going, the crowds subside. The plus side was that this was a great way to cool off in the 90 degree heat, and it is totally gorgeous (not to mention fun).
The next day (Tuesday) we got up super early, packed up camp, picked up the shuttle and went to hike Angel's Landing; one of the coolest hikes to do in the park, as you get 360 degree views of Zion, and the feeling that you are climbing something pretty impressive. While only at about 7500ft, the last 500 feet are pretty much on a knife edge ridge, where you have to scramble up these pretty airy ridges (a 1100ft drop on one side and an 800ft drop on the other!) while holding on to a chain. Mr. Incog Nito was a bit nerved out when i showed him were we were going, but once he started going, he said it wasn't too bad. We both felt as if we had accomplished something big. For Mr. Incog Noto, this was the highest he had ever climbed, and for me, this was the first time, since my transplant that i had been able to hike something at elevation. When at the top, besides the stunning views and lack of people (a rarity in Zion) we also battled a bit with the most aggressive chipmunks in the world (but more on aggressive chipmunks later!).





We drove to Bryce in the afternoon, about 2 hours, stopping in the Dixie Forest where we found a FREE campsite along the East Fork of the Virgin River. We did a longer hike among the fascinating Hoodoos that make up Bryce in the afternoon/evening. We hiked down the Navajo Trail and connected to the Queen's Garden Trail. This was the one park i would have liked to spend more time at. The once crazy thing we both noticed was the hordes of people that come to look at the canyon, but never venture into the depths of it.....It was an easy hike down and a pretty easy hike back up and being down with these huge, multi-coloured rock spires towering over you and all that you can see really, for miles and miles....We both commented on how we felt like we were on the moon.




Wednesday we drove to Grand Staircase Escalante to check in with the Kiva Kottage (right on HWY 12), where we had reservations for the night. Basically it is a coffeehouse that has a two room little kottage that they rent out...we had the sunset room, so we had amazing views in the evening. Besides the views (and the king sized bed) the bathtub was the highlight of this place (ok the freshly ground coffee for your room coffee maker was too!). A HUGE jetted tub. Let's just say that after a few days of hiking in the hot weather, a bath with bubbles and jets was enthusiastically welcomed!

(How i made dinner in our room!)

We got the whole room thing figured out and then headed down "Hold in the Rock Road" for 26 miles......................................................................................................................................Folks, this is not a road you want to take a cruiser down. Huge pot holes, washboard surfaces the whole way, and if it rains, the road basically becomes impassible to all but four wheeled cars. Did i mention that there was a 20% chance of rain? Did i also mention the huge thunderheads that were lurking along the horizon and getting bigger each hour? Mr. Incog Nito and i were a bit nervous as we drove thinking about how we could get stuck on this road for a few days should it rain...but we kept going. Our plan was to hike three different Slot Canyons, Spooky, Peek-a-Boo and Coyote Gulch. Unfortunately our nerves got the best of us, so we only hiked one of the canyons before we ran back to the car and drove the 26 miles back to a main road. In the end it did not rain...

We headed back to the Inn to relax a little before heading out around 5 to hike to the Calf Creek Waterfall. This was NOT on the itinerary, but came highly recommended by the Kiva staff and the Moon Guide. What we liked about this hike (besides the views) were the little self-guided tour you could give yourself. You took a brochure with little numbered paragraphs with facts about things encountered along the hike, such as petroglyphs. There are numbered posts along the hike that you stop and match up with the paragraph. We saw our first petroglyphs, and learned a bout some of the wild life as well as how the land formed. The water fall was GORGEOUS. I mean who would have thought that a huge waterfall would be in the middle of the desert..?

The next day we drove to Arches National Park. We drove through Capital Reef National Park and did a drive by tour of it....stopping at more petroglyphs . Arches was pretty cool though. We hiked to Delicate Arch, Landscape Arch, Pine Tree Arch, and Tunnel Arch, as well as drove by Balancing Rock...all in under 4 hours i think. Mr. Incog Nito and i were pining for the mountains...so we did a quick stop in Arches before heading into Colorado. Not much to report at Arches, other then we saw some petrified sand dunes ( even have a piece), some pretty massive monoliths, and some highly coloured landscape (we are not sure why it is so coloured but hypothesize that it is due to the all the salt and iron and other minerals in the ground there). Oh yeah, and this freaky little kid who we saw a few times on our Delicate Arch hike a few times along the trail, but he never once passed us (that we noticed)....

Petroglyphs at Arches

After Arches we drove into Colorado...taking route 128N, thinking it would be quicker. We were stunned. We did not expect the beauty that we saw.....we traveled along the river for about a hour, encountering some of the most beautiful landscapes that we had seen all trip. We even saw Antelope.
After almost running out of gas, we found a [pretty lame state run] campground that we spent the night at right off the highway (you could hear the highway from the campground) outside of Grand Junction. We got up super early and drove the rest of the way to Rocky Mtn National Park. We stopped in Granby at a thrift store to stock up on warmer clothes, as we hadn't really planned to go to the mtns. (i found a pair of Prana pants for only a dollar!!!). We spent the rest of the day driving through the park....the weather was ok on one side and horrible (rainy) on the other side. We had a horrible time trying to find a campsite so we decided because of the downpours and because we were not going to find a place inside the park to camp, that we would find a cheap hotel in Estes Park to stay in. We hung out in Estes Park for the rest of the afternoon, where the sun was shining, blending in with the tourists. Now, let me pause here and say that all trip, Mr. Incog Nito, the all mighty hunter kept saying, "All i want to see is an Elk. If i see an elk i will be totally happy." Well he saw one alright. In fact he saw so many Elk that he stopped pointing them out. They became like robins in NH. A whole herd could be seen on the golf course every afternoon around 3-4pm.

In the morning (Sat) we woke up early, and went to get Mr. Incog Nito up at some elevation. We chose Deer Mountain, which was about 10,2000ft. While not a huge peak, a good one to hike to help acclimatize to the elevation (which both of us were feeling just walking up stairs). We saw a bunch of wild life on the way up and even had another run in with some more funny, but aggressive chipmunks...these even climbed into Mr. Incog Nito's lap, and tried to steal his food and get into my backpack!! We then drove back through the park, stopping at a few places to do some short walks, to see the views we missed in yesterdays messy weather. It is a spectacular place that we will be going back to spend more time in. We would like to hike up to Flatttop Mtn, and Hallett Peak and Longs Peak.


Then on Sunday (my day 100!) we drove to Denver and flew home. It was a busy week....but a great vacation. And more then anything was one of the things that gave me hope and kept me positive when i was in the hospital after my second stem cell transplant.

Mt Moosilauke

I have climbed Moosilauke now, three times, all via different routes. This time Mr. Incog Nito and i went up the Snapper Trail and descended via the Gorge Trail. This was Mr. Incog Nito's fourth 4000ft peak.

5 Mountains, in 2 days

I went for a hike on Friday because it was so gorgeous. Mc and i went to Welsh and Dickey, which we have climbed a bazillion times...but it never gets old, as it is so gorgeous. We saw a ton of wildflowers and lots of great views and hiked the 4.4 mi loop in only 2.5 hours!

A nice ending to a great hike!

On Saturday, Mc and I took Mr. Incog Nito up to Franconia Ridge to do the Traverse of Little Haystack, Lincoln and Lafayette (A 9 mi round trip). It was a long day, made especially longer with the blowing rain and lack of views. But we made it. It was good training for our Utah trip (though i have a feeling that nothing we hike there will be as burly). This was Mr. Incog Nito's first 4000+ft mountain, so he was pretty proud of himself. I was too...

On our way down this was the view. IF we had only waited a few hours to start the hike we would not have hiked in the cold, blowing rain. Oh well.
[CLICK PICTURE TO ENLARGE]

On the top of Mt. Lafayette

We also decided to go for a short bike ride this weekend..luckily it turned out disastrous. We reminisced that when we were kids, bike riding in the woods was easy....I think getting older makes bike riding a lot harder!

What i think of riding bikes!

Haha!