"Fall break is coming up, anybody interested in going backpacking?" With a beginning as familiarly informal as this summer's trip to the White Mountains, a new adventure began.

A dozen members of the Lafayette Outdoors Club met for the expedition at 7:00 AM on Saturday morning to start October in the hills. We started off on what we thought would be a three and a half an hour drive to the trailhead, but a few wrong turns down longer roads added a couple hours to the driving part of the trip. We made it to the World's End* and back, literally, and the long time and distance on unpaved state routes ensured that we would not make the 10 mile site that night.At some points in our drive, we had to get out of the car and walk so that the car had a better chance of making the low clearance. Parts were hanging off of low-riding cars and things didn't look as good as planned. We made pretty slow progress for a while, and then ahead spotted a barricade on the road- signs we were getting close to the end! A few of us ran up to read the sign in order to find out where we were, and read "Road Closed to All Vehicles- Do Not Enter." It didn't say that on the other end!

Thankfully, this did put an end to our hours of driving around, as this misadventure dumped us in the ghost town of Masten, where the trailhead was loacated. We began our hike, setting off on the 27.1 mile loop trail with plans to make 6 miles by nightfall and stay at the Rock Run campsite.

We succeeded in this goal and arrived shortly before nightfall. Rock Run was a nice campsite, with a brook for water and some nice swimming holes. Because of the hour and season, we decided not to go swimming. In Wanakee tradition and as is now my standard for short backpacking trips, dinner the first night was spaghetti. Like this summer's trip, I learned that my hiking partner did not bring any eating utensils or a dish to eat with, so I shared again. I am quickly learning the shortcuts to turning a one-person mess kit into enough for two! The dinner sauce was rather spicy, a note to check the label more clearly before purchasing food on the next trip.

One key difference between backpacking in New Hampshire and backpacking in Pennsylvania is the fact that campfires are allowed. We had nice campfires both nights in the wilderness, and fellowship around the fire later into the evening than a "normal" backpacking trip in the Whites would allow due to lack of heat and/or light. Campfires are nice, for reasons that seem beyond explanation except to anyone who has stared into the glowing coals of a warm fire, surrounded by friends in a safe place, and communicated with the fire, with God, with oneself, in a way not otherwise usually found. I opened my writer's notebook on the first night to try writing something, and found the last entry there to be one that I wrote in very much the same type of environment alone next to a campfire at Wanakee near the end of this summer. Even the fire structure we had was similar to the one I had last written by.

Another key difference between camping in the two states is the presence of wild animals. Bears in the Whites are only an occasional problem in the Pemi wilderness; squirrels and other small members of the rodent family are the biggest worry to one's food and equipment up there. Here, bears are a real presence as are humans, porcupines, coyotes, and various other animals. My life staff proved rather useful as a pre-loaded javelin spear for hanging the bear bag, we just unraveled enough string to make the distance to the ground and used the staff as a counterweight to pass the string through the "Y" in the tree or over the branch. Those who had experience camping in the area gave instructions as to how best scare the bears away: Put your pots under the bear bag, and if you hear them clanging in the night, blow a whistle or toss rocks in that general direction. On the second night, this advice came in useful when I had to scare an animal away from near the fire ring by sound with my makeshift pillow. I must confess that I was too tired and didn't care enough to open the tent flap and see what kind of animal it actually was.

Because we covered limited mileage the first day, we needed to extend both the second and third days' trips. This meant getting up early- extra early. Breaking camp and cooking breakfast took place in darkness both days, and made me especially glad that Alison and I decided against trying for the hiker shuttle when we left Thirteen Falls this summer. On the first morning, we hiked and found our first vista, where we could watch the shadow of the mountain and the cutting edge of the sun passing through the valley, under a clear sky. It was similar to a sunrise at Lookout Point, but more dramatic in color, angle, lighting, and position.

The weather seemed to be under somebody else's control, as it was beautiful for the entire trip. We chose dates well, as the following weekend dumped enough rain to cause some small flooding and make the entire weekend an extended shower. The trip took place under sunny skies and nights that were not cold as one might expect in October. You can see that my shadow also came on the trip- he made it the whole way this time! It did get a bit hot at times. In fact, the weather was so hot the second day that we didn't even have to light the campfire- just build it.** The vistas were impressive, and rewarding for the hike.

On the second morning, we got up exceptionally early and a small group of us pressed through and left camp early, before breakfast. We put in a mile and a half quickly in the morning in order to catch sunrise at Sprout Point Vista. This is where we had breakfast, and enjoyed the sunrise. We stood at Sprout Point and overlooked a sea of fog, with islands rising up out of the mist, much the same view as you would picture in a movie filmed from a rocky shore on the morning after a storm.

After arriving at the trailhead again to close the loop, we relaxed for a bit and enjoyed the cool brook under the bridge near where we were parked.

The first aid kit did turn out to be useful on this trip, and would have been more useful if those in need of it had accepted its help. If any hiker is reading this, take a lesson and apply moleskin to hotspots and any blisters as soon as you notice them. Don't wait it out or try to hold on for the rest of the day or hike, they will just continue to grow. If you address the issue instead of claiming the title "blister king," like the pictured hiker did, things will work out much better for you. You've got no chance to win the title with his competition anyway.

It was an interesting coincidence that all four major groups in my life related to camping had trips on this weekend. My Venture Crew from the high school I attended went up Mt. Washington, learning about the second stage of group process and much more; Wanakee held its fall youth retreat, examining Christian themes in three well-known film trilogies; my Scout Troop hosted the district Fall Camporee, putting on a great program and an excellent tribute to those sacrificing in service as well; and the Lafayette group went backpacking just to enjoy the wilderness and spend Fall Break well. I think all four groups accomplished their objectives.

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