Packing up

It’s pretty settled, I think. I’m declining the trip to Seattle this week, and instead, barring truly atrocious weather or another significant infelicity, will head north for the mountains. I’ll see some friends, have a breakfast at the nonpareil Polly’s Pancake Parlor, spend two days walking something close to the route I’ve written about, then wander home in time for the usual Friday evening pasta-fest.

This is shaping up as a solo, since H is eight months pregnant and in Minnesota, and nobody else I’ve approached has the time or inclination (what is with these people?). I’ll be on generally familiar ground, though, and anticipate a bit of what I’m sure will be good company near Guyot Shelter in the evening.

I mentioned in an earlier post the 48 New Hampshire 4,000-footers as rough equivalents of Scotland’s Munros. I’ve never made much of an effort to complete my list, but I feel a need to get something done to compensate for my Challenge disappointment. On this stroll I’ll cross the summits of four (or maybe five) I haven’t yet checked off, which I think would put me in the mid-30s. If I’m able to steal another few days later in the month or on into fall, I have the Kinsmans (from the Rt. 116 trail head to the west) in my sights. And three or four more that have always seemed to me to be great winter goals. So one obsession may be replacing another.