Willey Pond

On July 12^th, half of our party was returning home, but they stayed long enough for a morning hike and lunch. All the family members that were present that weekend were much more experienced hikers than me, so I thought it was sweet that they left the trail location up to me. I thought that the loop on one side of Willey Pond would be manageable, starting with the Sam Willey Trail along the Saco River.

When we arrived at our destination, our first distraction was the bridge and dam at one end of the pond. While the men studied the dam, the women took pictures of the structure. As we approached the bridge, we spotted a family of ducks resting on a log. I had seen turtles resting on logs many times, but never ducks. I didn’t know if that was unusual, so I recorded it in order to have proof when I relayed the story to others later.

Once over the bridge, we turned left on to the Sam Willey Trail. Almost immediately, we crossed a section of loose rock and gravel. The area to our left did seem to ascend pretty quickly, so perhaps the roughness of the ground was due to a washout at some point in time. After this, the path did seem to smooth out a bit.

The trail followed the Saco River, providing us with plenty of views of the water through the trees. It must have been a dry year in this location, since every glimpse we had of the river (even while driving), the water level seemed low and the rocky riverbed was exposed. Still, I had to stop occasionally and admire the water views.

There were a few rocky areas. As you can see in one of the photos it didn’t look bad at all, but still it was enough for my fears about falling to kick in. (They should never had told me that one of my restrictions was “no falling”, for now I worried constantly that if I fell, I would suffer permanent injury to my shoulder). At one point when I was maneuvering a slight descent, I told my husband that I must be getting hungry because I felt shaky. He sarcastically replied that “it couldn’t be the anxiety”! Wow! Can’t you just feel the love!

We turned around when we started to pass a boggy area and the bugs arrived for lunch. When we reached the beginning of the Sam Willey Trail, we continued on the Willey Lake Loop. The trail followed one side on the pond, then looped back into the woods. Along the way, we had great views of the mountains, and I found some Swamp Candles in bloom. It was a perfect ending to the morning.

We went back to our condo for lunch, then followed the other members of of the family back to Intervale for ice cream. This time we thought we were smart and ordered one scoop of ice cream. It was still too much! After we gorged ourselves on ice cream, half the group headed home and we found an REI to get my husband a new pair of boots.

Mount Washington Cog Railway

Since we had all finished our respective hikes or walks in the morning of July 11, the afternoon was open to different possibilities. Someone threw out the idea of taking the Cog Railway up Mount Washington. With everyone in agreement, reservations were made for the 12:30 train.

Once we picked up our tickets, we took a quick peek around the store before heading out to the platform. I walked over to a large boulder that informed me that we were standing at an elevation of 2700 feet. I realized that coming from a place where I essentially lived at sea level, all the hills in my hometown had elevations below 2000 feet. I was already standing higher than any “mountain” I had climbed at home.

The first train to come into the station was a steam engine, which was followed by 3 diesel engines. Each engine carried one passenger car. My husband had a field day, studying the trains until we were ready to board. Once we were on the train, I had fun trying to identify flowers on the way up and watching the change towards alpine flora as we went higher up the mountain.

As the train made its way up the mountain, there was a narrator who told us about the history of the cog railway. It was quite fascinating and kept our attention for the almost hour long ride to the summit. I still kept an eye on the vegetation outside my window until most of it was replace by grass and rocks. Looking at all those rocks, I was glad that I wasn’t out there trying to maneuver around all those obstacles.

We were given an hour to explore the summit before the next train would return to take us down the mountain. It was probably about 50 degrees at the summit, with 25 to 30 mph winds. The winds certainly didn’t reach the record-breaking gust of 231 mph winds in 1934. We wandered around the crowded summit and watched a long line of people trying to get their picture taken at the summit sign. I had no desire to stand in line, so I waited for a gap when one party left and the next party was not it place, before taking a photo as proof we were there.

Soon the trains returned and we made our way back down the mountain. We had a different narrator who relayed more entertaining stories about the railway workers. We returned home for a brief respite before dinner.

Upper Ammonoosuc Falls

Two other members of our family joined us during our New Hampshire trip on the evening of July 10. There were no definite or organized plans for the group, so people could do their own thing if they wished. We did hear someone leave the house around 6:30 the next morning for a more serious hike. The rest of us slept in a bit, and after breakfast decided to investigate the Upper Falls of the Ammonoosuc River.

The Upper Falls were just a few steps from a pullout up the road from where we were staying. The day before, my husband and I had made a stop at the Bretton Woods hotel in order to obtain a trail map of the grounds. We studied the map, which included the Upper Falls and decided we would start at the falls and create a loop from there.

After getting a few obligatory photos of the falls, we crossed the bridge and headed into the woods. We did have to consult the map a few times since the intersections were questionable. The trails were definitely less stressful than the Around the Lake Trail but still, I moved slowly as a precaution.

The first section was essentially a grassy lane. I stopped for a minute in order to turn around and view the mountain behind us. Shortly after this, we reached the first intersection. We took one look down the overgrown path and decided this was not the turn we were looking for. We had better luck at the next intersection.

Most of our walk was through a moss filled forest. The trails were essentially flat and covered in pine needles. Along the way, I stopped a few times to admire a mushroom, or some flower nearby. I also attempted an artistic black and white shot of some grass.

It wasn’t long before we Had completed the loop we created and were back at the falls. It had been a very pleasant morning, but now it was time to head back to our lodging for lunch.

Regression

I decided to interrupt my New Hampshire walking posts with an update, hoping that I will have better news when we are finished with those posts in 6 weeks’ time.

I had been released from physical therapy at the end of May, 6 months after my reverse shoulder replacement. In those last two weeks of therapy, I had been giving some weightlifting exercises with 2-pound weights, handed some resistance band exercises, told to get on with active daily living and sent on my way.

I went home and performed these home exercises religiously. My daily living movements included lifting coffee mugs and glasses of water, sewing, playing scales on the piano, and some household chores. The internal rotation exercises were still causing the sharp pain that I had been complaining about since February. Everything else was causing pain across the front and top of the shoulder. Still, I tried to work through the pain. Why? Because, after 6 months I felt that those around me were beginning to think I was a drama queen and were tired of listening to it.

The outcome? I was regressing in my recovery. I very quickly dropped from using 2-pound weights to 1-pound weights. I was still trying to work through the resistance bands but that got worse as well. Since the surgery, I had never been able to take something down from the kitchen cabinet without an assist from my good arm, but now, I could barely lift my coffee mug or water glass to drink. I always had some pain doing these things, but it was becoming unbearable.

Finally, near the end of July, now 8 months post surgery, I sent a message to the surgeon outlining everything and asking if this was normal or should we re-evaluate. Of course this was at the end of the week, but his medical assistant responded right away, informing me he was on vacation but she would forward the message to him.

I was surprised when he left a message on a Sunday. The upshot was that it was not completely uncommon, and there was a subset of patients who continued to experience pain in the deltoid and bicep muscle. He did not think I needed to come into the office since all my x-rays had looked fine in the past. However, he did advise that I stop all of my Physical Therapy exercises since that might be overdoing it and just go about my daily living routine.

One week out, after stopping the exercises, I think I am feeling better. I joke with my husband that I start the day with 15 repetitions of cup lifting. Things are still very weak and there is still pain, but the pain has dropped significantly. Here’s hoping it lasts.

Next week, we will return to our regular scheduled program.

Around the Lake

During the first full day of our stay in New Hampshire, we decided to hike the Around the Lake Trail located behind the AMC Highland Center in Crawford Notch. As we approached the Highland Center, we noticed plenty of cars parked on both sides of the highway and in front of the Crawford Depot. We were lucky to find a parking spot right in front of the train platform. Once parked, we found a path at the far end of the depot parking lot that took us to the Highland Center. From there we walked behind the buildings and located the trail near the parking area for the center.

The Around the Lake Trail was supposedly an easy 1-mile hike that looped around the Ammonoosuc Lake. The first portion of the trail was a well-maintained gravel road. When we reached the actual loop, we decided to bear left. Along this section of the preserve, I managed to cross a wet bridge without too much difficulty. We occasionally stopped to admire views of the lake and mountains through the trees, mushrooms on wet logs, yellow and orange Hawkweeds, and a structure in the path which a sign told us was Merrill Spring.

Soon the path took an uphill direction, and I had to contend with roots and where to step to make the climb. It was then that I realized that it wasn’t just the shoulder I had to worry about. Apparently, the fall and resulting concussion I had while hiking prior to my surgery had given me a great fear of falling. It really took me a few moments to make that climb up that small incline. Once I reached my husband, we continued our journey around the lake, but I experienced this fear a few more times during our hike.

When we reached the top of the loop, we found a spur called Red Bench Lookout. We decided to explore this detour before finishing our loop. This path had a few more inclines that I had to maneuver with much trepidation. After surmounting these obstacles, we came to a stream crossing with no bog bridging. Somehow, I successfully crossed that stream by just forging through the water instead of using rocks to step across. At this point, falling was more of an issue than getting wet.

Once across the stream, we continued to hunt for the Red Bench. I swore that 3 tenths of a mile was getting longer! Soon the trail seemed to end at some train tracks. It took us a few moments before we found the path diagonally across from us. Until my surgery I never realized how difficult it was to walk on the large gravel one finds around train tracks! Yes, I was nervous here as well. I made it safely across and we entered the woods once more, only to be confronted by a wet bridge over a a small falls. I put one foot on the bridge and told my husband it was too slippery to cross. By now, he was probably irritated by my anxiety and to prove me wrong put one foot on that bridge. I felt vindicated when he told me I was right and we needed to turn around.

We crossed back over the tracks and the stream on our way back to the lake loop. We continued our journey around the lake until we reached a sign that told us this was not a loop and the dam was out. We had traveled about three quarters of the way around the lake. The dam was indeed broken and we had no choice but to turn around. We did think that it would have been nice, if that sign had been posted at the beginning off the loop.