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!

Mt. Cardigan

I climbed Mt. Cardigan this morning in a little under 1.5 hours. It is a pretty simple hike which is one reason why i chose it. Another reason is that with little effort you have some pretty spectacular views (360 degree!). It was a little overcast and hazy this morning, but that didn't matter.

Now some of you might know that my Doctors have told me "No hiking." (mold remember?) Well this hike, is 1/2 in the woods and 1/2 on slabs of rock...so i figured i was pretty safe considering that mold (i don't think) resides on/in rocks.

McKinley was pretty psyched to be in the woods hiking too!

On our way to the top, we crossed a little stream, which McKinley cannot bear to pass by without tasting the water. He almost drank these little buggers! I think they are frog's eggs.

Here they are up close, and looking very "spacey!"

Getting lost in the woods.

Over the weekend, Mr. Incog Nito and i decided to hike to a lake in Lyme, NH. I had been there last year when i went x-country skiing with Gilly, Amanda and Gordie at Green Woodlands. We thought it would be good to get out and do a little training for our big trip to Utah (in June!), maybe do some "horn huntin'" (looking for deer/moose antlers...known also as "sheds"), and explore an area we've not been to before. Nothing too strenuous, or all that breath taking but getting out in an area where not many have explored before.

Anyhow, we were not sure exactly how to get there, as there are no maps of the area...so we sort of figured we might not make it to the lake. We packed a lunch and our fishing poles in our packs (along with a bunch of useless stuff to add weight to the pack....for training purposes), and set off on our little adventure. McKinley even wore his new pack! We saw tons of wildflowers, loads of moose poop, a snake, a grouse (or pheasent), numerous animal prints, an OLD cemetery, a gigantic beaver dam, trees where moose had rubbed their antlers on and no other people. It was fun trapsing around the woods and never really going anywhere. While we never made it to the lake, we came to a few conclusions on this trip:

First, Mr. Incog Nito has a better sense of direction then Brynne does (she has a very poor sense of direction).
Second, Brynne thinks she is right....all the time, even when she isn't.
Third, we need a compass and a map.

Mc With his new pack checking out the beaver dam

A bunch of trees where last year, moose had scraped the velvet off their antlers

Trout Lily (he leaves are supposed to resemble a brook trout)

The only wildlife i saw-

(Side Note: We walked on old logging roads the whole time.....i felt like that was better then walking on small trails. It was also wet out, so things were not all that able to fly around in the air (i.e. stuff like mold...))

Happy Birthday McKinley!!

McKinley turns three today!! Here he is enjoying his birthday ice cream in his birthday hat! haha

I'm not a very good patient.

So when i was discharged from the hospital, they gave me a huge long list of things i cannot partake in. One of these is being around mold/spores etc., so i am not allowed in basements, or garages. I am also not allowed to water plants, be around plans that have just been watered, or do yard work. The reason? Well it stirs up the mold and spores and i could breathe it in. Well, as some of you might now, i am starting a garden. Well, a week after i was discharged, there i was, raking out my garden. In my defense, I was wearing a mask and gloves!!

The following week however, i started feeling more tired, started to wheeze a bit, have coughing fits and be really short of breath. I had a bunch of tests done on Friday at Dana Farber and my doctors decided i needed to be admitted to Hotel Brigham (the hospital!). I was there all weekend, getting huge doses of antibiotics and steroids, eating crap food and watching a whole lotta' tv (With Mr. Incognito). I was released yesterday.

Now, we don't know for sure what i have, but my doctors think i have PCP Pneumonia, which affects people with suppressed immune systems. So i am now, from here on out, going to be the best patient in the world. I'm going to [try to :) ] follow all of the rules, because i do not want to waste another weekend in the hospital.

2 Little "Sickys"

McKinley, Mr Incog Nito and i went for a walk in the woods [in the rain] over the weekend.

Technically speaking, i should not have done so, since the mold in the woods right now is high and i am supposed to stay away from mold. My doctors told me that i could hike, but only if i wear a mask. Uhhhh, right. You try hiking with a fricken mask on. Not going to happen. I am so paranoid now about where i can and cannot go and what i can and cannot do. I feel great. Other then getting fatigued pretty quickly (i am sooo out of shape now), i don't feel any different then i did before the transplants. I don't feel like my immune system is infantile, or like i cannot fight off infections, thought i KNOW (from experience) that i cannot. I just use common sense and try and wash my hands as much as i can. Hopefully my white blood cells, drop just a little more, hit their low threshold and then start making white cells (white cells are my infection fighters).

So back to my story about my little puppy. As we were coming inside, we realized McKinley's paw was bleeding; the stairway was covered in blood. Mc sliced open one of his pads on his back right paw and has a "flapper" [for those of you who are not familiar with this term, it is when you skin or shave off some skin, but do not fully cut it off. What is left is a piece of skin "flapping" around]. He has been in a bandage since Saturday and hasn't really been able to walk comfortably on it.
So the two of us, are stuck, in Vermont, waiting until we are able to frolic in the mountains and play outdoors, free of bandages, masks and gloves.