Hop in the Saddle Kickstarter

ummmm....yes...great kickstarter! Makes me want to visit Portland!

Rocks in the Water

Stumbled across this in a recent hike to Mount Whiteface...

Any thoughts on what it means? It actually is not facing southwest (my first thought)...

Hiking the 4,000 Footers: North and South Kinsman 8.4.2012

North and South Kinsman Out and Back

10 mi round trip, 3550 ft elevation gain

Lonesome Lake Trail, Cascade Brook Trail, Fishin Jimmy Trail, Kinsman Ridge Trail

I have soooo much to catch you'all up on. We are all the way up to number 26 on our list. We did some amazing, amazing peaks and some seriously long hikes. So I plan to be posting away the next week in an effort to get you caught up with us on our list.

Lonesome Lake

We hiked on a super hot and humid day. Basically everyday we have hiked this summer has been upper 90s and humid. It's tough being primarily a weekend warrior. The weather you have on Saturdays and Sundays is basically the weather you have. You just have to deal.

Lonesome Lake

One plus of being a weekend warrior is that is makes your work week fly by. All I think about all week is hiking. I start checking the weather the weekend before and watch it carefully all week. 

Lonesome Lake

The trails were all in good condition. Crowded with weekenders hitting the Lonesome Lake Hut run by the AMC. It is an easy couple of miles to get up and around the Hut so many families make it a destination. The mountains were also pretty busy. Lots of couples filling their stay at the hut with day trips to the summits.

Lonesome Lake Hut

Both mountains are fairly steep with rocky sections. Nothing too serious. The summits are pretty with good views in many directions.

Our conversation was primarily consumed with our plans to hike Owl's Head soon. Owl's Head is often deemed a "death march" by fellow peak baggers. The mountain itself doesn't have any "officially maintained trails" meaning the little worn path is tough to find. Oh yeah did I mention it's 18 miles round trip and that it takes- around 8 miles just to get to the mountain? It's very isolated deep in the Pemigewasset Wilderness and it sounded fabulous we could not wait to get this climb in....

Ambler Hats

When I was contacted to try out an Ambler hat from the unique, Canadian Rockies based company Ambler- I jumped on the opportunity. I'm totally a hat girl both on my outdoor adventures (still working on the list) and in my everyday farmer market stoppin', dog walkin', Friday night drive-in movie lovin' life.

Ambler hats fit that lifestyle to a T. Super cute. Simple. Yet fun and easy fitting. 

Plus, I've got a whole lot of really thick hair that sometimes makes wearing hats a little too snug. The hat I tried out (Valencia- part of the new spring/summer line that will be available online and in stores starting March 2013) was made out of super comfy organic cotton and had just the right amount of stretch in the back to fit over a low pony or my hair down.

Ambler's profile line under twitter says it all "there's only one person like the person under your hat" Love it!! 

Follow them on twitter. Visit their site for hats, stores, and more info. Friend 'em on Facebook.

They have a great story behind their creation/production of their hats as well here.

Disclaimer: Product Reviews are based on opinion only and are not intended to condone, encourage, or promote a product. Some products are sent to me by the manufacturer or affiliates and are mine to keep. I mention this specifically on products sent to me. Compensation and/or product and/or services never interfere with the review of the product. Otherwise, products and services are purchased by me for personal use. The hat was sent to me for review.

Camper of the Week

photo credit

Still bitten by the camper fever bug.

Upcoming

We have had a busy couple of days and weeks! I have so much to catch y'all up on. Here's the list of upcoming posts:

• A super fun line of hats by Ambler
• A product review of our new lighter packs (sick of slugging around those huge packs)
• A failed attempt at Mount Whiteface and Passaconway via the Bowl
• A successful, but adventurous hike of the dreaded Owl's Head
• Our upcoming vacation week which includes multi-day trips!!

Hiking the 4,000 Footers: Liberty and Flume 7.21.2012

Via an out and back on Whitehouse Trail, Liberty Spring Trail, Franconia Ridge; 10.2 miles round trip; 4250 feet in elevation gain

Originally we had intended to hike Mount Liberty on July 4th as a celebration of both my birthday and the Nation's birthday, but thunderstorms, injured backs (mine), and only having two possible days per week to hike set us back a few weeks. 

The day we set out to hike Liberty and Flume it was very hot in the 90s with high humidity, because essentially that is the only weather we hike in these days. Despite the heat- being more north certainly cut down on the oppressiveness of the weather. 

The trail is a little confusing in the initial stages because you have to follow a bike path and several signs to just get onto the Whitehouse Trail. We decided to do an out-and-back because we had heard the Flume Trail is pretty gnarly and shouldn't be attempted in wet conditions. Since it had been raining off and on all week- we weren't sure how this would effect the trail conditions and didn't want to risk turning back.

For the most part the Whitehouse trail is a moderately steep trail. One river crossing that could be trickier if the water was higher, but for our hike the water was very low.

Mount Liberty was amazing, amazing, amazing. Incredible views in all directions.

Like all out and back hikes- when you look across to the next mountain you need to reach it seems completely impossible. It always looks ridiculously far away, but somehow it doesn't take nearly as long as your brain thinks. 

Flume was amazing too. Great views, interesting trail. Amazing hike overall.

Hiking up Liberty again (it was an out and back after all) was not fun. By the time we reached our car we were pretty spent. 

Liberty and Flume were numbers 10 and 11 for our List

Pedal Pushers

Pedal Pushers is a small independent company out of Maryland that sells clothing for people who love bikes.  They're designs are super clean and simple. How did I find out about them? Well gosh, you know I am addicted to kickstarter right now and they happen to have a project going.

Revolights

Revolights. Join the revolution. from revolights on Vimeo.

If you haven't noticed yet I am on a kickstarter (albeit former kickstarter here) project kick. Kickstarter is a site that help budding entrepreneurs, inventors and other creatives get the word out about their project. Revolights is a project that has already been funded, but looks fabulous all the same. They still aren't for sale yet but expected soon for a price of around $220.

Looking for a new kickstarter to follow or support? What about Alpine Hammocks from some fellow New Englanders...