the foliage was in perfect form, however i was not. i often suffer a solid day or two of being clobbered by allergies when i travel across the country to the shire. but this trip, for whatever reason i was basically sick with allergies for the entire two week visit. so i spent a lot of time trying to keep up with my mother the bibliophile. i did make an attempt at the pemi loop, but with a bridge out on the return it ended up being an out and back on the amazing franconia ridge.
my little nephew jackson is the toughest lil' dood i've ever seen. he and i climbed "jack's mountain", or mount whittier. it's called jack's mountain because jack or jackson hiked it without help as a 3 year old. he's now 7 years old and we hiked the 1,200 feet of uphill in 45 minutes. that's cool. then he ran the steep downhill road with his uncle.. even cooler.
the closest real mtn run to my mother's house is mount chocorua. on one of my better days i ran up to the top of this. pretending at times that i was being chased as chief chicocrua had some years before.
my franconia ridge run started out being an attempt at running a fast pemi loop. however within 30 seconds of starting off i ran into the sign that told me a bridge on the later part of the loop was out.
and the rest...
