NH fire towers

I've been to all of the active standing fire towers in New Hampshire.  Now I'm working on the entire list of all peaks where a tower stands or has stood.  Only 32 to go!

Town - Location	Climbed	Map Location	Elevation	Status
Piermont Mountain - Piermont		38-a4	2717	No Longer Standing / Artifacts
Moose Mountain - Lyme		38-i1	1850	No Longer Standing / Highest Point
Carr Mountain - Wentworth		39-d8	3470	No Longer Standing / Artifacts
Middle Sister - Albany		40-a7	3330	No Longer Standing / Artifacts
Mount Chocorua - Albany		40-a7	3475	No Longer Standing / Artifacts
Gardner Ridge - Monroe		42-a5	2220	No Longer Standing / Highest Point
Mount Moosilauke - Benton		43-j8	4810	No Longer Standing / Artifacts
Grandview (East Peak) - Woodstock		43-k11	2000	No Longer Standing / Artifacts
West Russell Mt (Drakes Lookout) - Woodstock		43-k12	2424	No Longer Standing / Artifacts
Mount Hale - Bethlehem		44-c1	4077	No Longer Standing / Artifacts
Mount Bemis - Lincoln		44-f4	3706	No Longer Standing / Artifacts
Iron Mountain - Bartlett		44-f7	2716	No Longer Standing / Artifacts
Attitash Bear Peak - Bartlett		44-i9	2504	No Longer Standing / Highest Point
Carter Dome - Bean's Purchase		45-b8	4843	No Longer Standing / Artifacts
Wildcat "A" - Bean's Purchase		45-b8	4422	No Longer Standing / Highest Point
Black Mountain (South Peak) - Jackson		45-c10	2757	No Longer Standing / Artifacts
Mill Mountain - Stark		48-a4	2500	No Longer Standing / Artifacts
Mount Cabot - Kilkenny		48-d3	4080	No Longer Standing / Artifacts
Deer Mountain - Berlin/Milan		48-d6	2770	No Longer Standing / Artifacts
Lonesome Ridge - Berline		48-e6	1695	No Longer Standing / Artifacts
Cherry Mountain (Mt. Martha) - Carroll		48-j1	3554	No Longer Standing / Artifacts
Mount Madison - Low & Burbank's Grant		48-j7	5363	No Longer Standing / Highest Point
Currier Mt (Pine) - Low & Burbank's Grant		48-k4	2790	No Longer Standing / Artifacts
Pine Mountain - Gorham		49-i8	2440	No Longer Standing / Artifacts
W. Royce (Drakes Lk) - Bean's Purchase		49-k12	3210	No Longer Standing / Artifacts
Sugar Hill (Rice Mt) - Stewartstown		50-a6	2985	No Longer Standing / Proposed
Sugarloaf Mountain - Stratford		50-g2	3701	No Longer Standing / Artifacts
East Whitcomb Mountain - Odell		50-h4	2515	Standing
Diamond Peaks - 2nd College Grnt		51-b11	2071	No Longer Standing / Proposed
Mount Dustan - College Grant		51-c11	2878	No Longer Standing / Highest Point
Cambridge Black - Cambridge		51-k11	2711	No Longer Standing /Artifacts
Deer Mountain - Pittsburg		53-b8	3005	Standing
West Magalloway - Pittsburg		53-g9	2946	No Longer Standing / Highest Point

 

Final town bags in NH (caution - some nudity)

I decided to use the long Columbus Day weekend as my opportunity to finish my town bagging in New Hampshire.  I had eight of the 259 towns left in my goal to run in every town in NH.

My first stop of the day was Woodstock/Warren where I parked at a turnout on the Sawyer highway that promised a “scenic view”.  It was pouring rain and 43 degrees an auspicious start to

Granite State Snowshoe championships

Granite State Snowshoe championships – I’ve enjoyed doing this race over the last few years, and especially like the new location at Bear Brook in Allenstown NH.  I was not feeling great heading into this.  The National championships the previous weekend took a lot of the wind out of my sails.  Basically I was ready for snowshoe season to end.  I could not dog this race as I was in a virtual tie with Ryan Welts for second place overall in the GSS series.

 

I showed up fairly early and met up with teammates Jim Pawlicki and Jim Johnson.  While Jim was figuring out how to retrieve his keys from inside his locked car I headed out on my warm-up.  The schedule waits for no man.  I checked out some of the course, running out to nearly the top of Catamount hill and adding some more on the beginning of the course.  Knowing a little of the course is always a good idea.  I’ve snowshoed, run, orienteered, and hiked in Bear Brook before so I had a good general feel for where we were going.  The course was going to be tough, but the footing was cement hard which would make the going relatively fast.

 

At the start Rookie of the Year (ROTY) Nacho Hernando sprinted out.  Double-J went off in pursuit and after ¼ mile they were out of sight.  Jim P gapped me and Tim Van Orden right away and built up a 20 second lead by about 2 miles in.  TiVO stayed right on my heels and Ryan was a step or two back.  It took me a while to get into a groove; I’m definitely in a post-big-race funk.  We hit a wide trail around 2 miles in and it had narrow ruts on both sides and a center lane where the snowmobiles had ridden.  I found the running to be best in the rut but it was tough to not kick your own shoe (or ankle) while in it.  Jim seemed to have eased up on this part and/or TiVO and I picked it up.  Either way the gap narrowed and by 3 miles or so (24 minutes in) we’d got within a couple of strides of Jim.

 

It was really hard to close those final few strides, Jim did not relent and I had TiVO right behind me.  At about 4 miles we hit the first of the bigger climbs and I made a move by Jim.  TiVO stayed behind Jim for a bit and I forged a slight lead.  Soon after that we started the ascent of Catamount hill which would be out final uphill of the day.  We took a turn and I caught my ankle in a pothole and twisted it badly (probably spooking the volunteers at the turn as I cussed).   I tried to push the pace but could not drop TiVO who had gotten by Jim sometime during the climb.  I asked him if he wanted to pass but he said he was all out.  I held onto the lead over the top of the hill but Tim went flying by on the descent.  I was a bit worried about my ankle and maybe breaking a leg in another pothole, I was also going about as fast as I could.

 

Tim ended up putting 15 seconds on me in the last ¾ of a mile and I ended up keeping the 10+ second gap on Jim.  Double-J took the win running 48:28, taking Nacho by over 2 minutes then TiVO, me and Jim Pawlicki with race director Ryan Welts taking 6^th  about a minute back.  In all 80 runners took on this excellent course on an ideal day for racing.  Jim Johnson won the overall series (he had already won prior to the race thanks to the best 4 finishes format), I took second place and top 40-49.  Ryan took third, but I imagine this will be the last year that I beat him in the series.  Every year he gets a bit faster and I’ve been getting a bit slower.  In 2015 I’ll focus on 50-59 age group!

 

 

1          48:28    Jim Johnson        M36      CMS      100.00

2          50:51    Nacho Hernando M20      Pies       95.31

3          52:58    Tim Van Orden   M45      CMS      91.50

4          53:17    Dave Dunham     M49      CMS      90.96

5          53:29    James Pawlicki     M39      CMS      90.62

6          54:13    Ryan Welts         M33      aR         89.39

7          56:48    Danny Ferreira     M31      GCS       85.33

8          57:41    Phil Erwin           M46      aR         84.02

9          58:45    Kenneth            Wiley     M31      aR         82.50

10         59:05    Marek Telus        M38      aR         82.03

11         59:24    Chuck Hazzard     M53      TM        81.59

12         1:00:18 Coby Jacobus      M34                  80.38

13         1:01:11 Chris Dunn          M45      aR         79.22

14         1:01:20 Eric Narcisi          M34      Level     79.02

15         1:01:52 Kristina Folcik      F36       La Spor  78.34

Sidehiller Ten

Sidehiller 4 mile snowshoe race

 

Sidehiller ( Sandwich NH) – This was my fourth snowshoe race of the year but the first “serious” snowshoe race.  After a couple of 100+ mile weeks I dropped down to the low 90’s this week hoping to feel a bit fresher for the race.  Dave Lapierre met me at the River for a carpool and we were surprised to see (among others) Bill Morse and Rich Busa dropping a car, I guess that is a popular carpool location.  110 miles and a lot of 1^st wave on the Sirius radio got us to Center Sandwich.  The wind was howling and the temperature was about 6 degrees, but as teammate Ken Tripp noted “at least its sunny”.

 

Ken, Kevin Tilton and I headed out for an easy 3 mile warm-up on the road.  After a quick change into racing gear and snowshoes I headed back out, this time onto the course with D-La and Ken.  We met up with Ben Nephew which was a pleasant surprise.  Ben doesn’t race much so it was great to see him turn up to qualify for nationals.  We did my normal routine of doing 1 mile in snowshoes out/back over the last part of the course.  It is always important to know as much of the course as possible and I always want to know when I’m getting close to the finish.

 

A record crowd of just under 120 lined up in the ball field for the 2 mile loop we’d do twice, basically just going around the fairground.  I was surprised at how relaxed the field went out; typically there is a crazy sprint at the start.  I found myself in 10^th place (give or take).  After about ¼ mile I saw Jim Johnson (CMS) and Brandon Newbould (WRT) break away from the field stringing everyone out behind.  About 1 mile in Todd Callaghan (GCS) stormed by, he looked strong running smart in his first snowshoe race.

 

We hit some very soft sugary snow soon after and Ben Nephew and Jim Pawlicki were coming back.  I like the slower more difficult snow but may have pressed a little too hard.  I passed Jim, Ben, and Todd bat at the 180 degree turn I could see the line of guy’s right on my tail.  I passed through the first loop in 14:48 in 6^th place.

 

I could hear the clomp of snowshoes right behind me and about ¼ mile into the 2^nd lap Ethan Nedeau (acidotic) went flying past.  Damn, I forgot that Ethan was racing!  Right after that Todd went by as well.  I tried to latch on but they pulled away.  I focused on closing the gap as they closed on Steve Dowsett (WRT).  We hit the single-track, and then got into the sugar snow which slowly brought them back to me.  I got around Steve and got to within a couple of strides of both Ethan and Todd.  We hit the 180 turn and again I saw that ½ dozen guys might get me if I faltered.

 

With ½ mile to go I pushed the pace as hard as I could and as I did I saw that Ethan was accelerating.  He smoked the last ½ mile putting 23 seconds on me.  I never really closed on Todd and in the last 100 meters I got passed by Dowsett who put in a great kick.  I couldn’t react and crossed the line pretty wiped out in 29:14, for 8^th place.  The second lap was 22 seconds faster than the first despite the snow being a bit slower.

 

It was great to see so many teammates show up!  The field was solid as many were attempting to qualify for Nationals.  From the results it looks like CMS will be able to field a competitive team.  We put 7 in the top 20, only acidotic had more (8 in the top 20).  The CMS ladies also took first and second place!

 

Place	Time	First	Last	City	ST	M/F	Age	Team
1	27:25	Brandon	Newbould	Nottingham	NH	M	31	WRT
2	27:37	Jim	Johnson	Madison	NH	M	36	CMS
3	28:11	Kevin	Tilton	Conway	NH	M	32	CMS
4	28:21	Robert	Jackman	Warwick	RI	M	31	TNT
5	28:51	Ethan	Nadeau	Amherst	MA	M	40	aR
6	29:03	Todd	Callaghan	Beverly	MA	M	44	GCS
7	29:12	Steve	Doucett	Newburyport	MA	M	25	WRT
8	29:14	Dave	Dunham	Bradford	MA	M	49	CMS
9	29:24	Nate	Bassett	Northwood	NH	M	26
10	29:27	James	Pawlicki	Lynn	MA	M	39	CMS
11	29:29	Ryan	Welts	Northwood	NH	M	34	aR
12	29:48	Ben	Nephew	Mansfield	MA	M	38	CMS
13	30:02	Phil	Erwin	Wading River	NY	M	46	aR
14	30:07	Ken	Tripp	Amesbury	MA	M	44	CMS
15	30:47	Tim	Cox	Northwood	NH	M	40	aR
16	30:49	Peter	Keeney	Bar Harbor	ME	M	47	aR
17	31:29	Kenneth	Willey	Claremont	NH	M	31	aR
18	31:48	Jeffrey	Litchfield	Hopkinton	NH	M	54	aR
19	31:49	Scott	Mitchell	Greenland	NH	M	44	aR
20	32:08	Sam	Wood	Laconia	NH	M	27	CMS
25	33:30	Paul	Bazanchuck	Ctr Conway	NH	M	59	CMS
27	33:53	Abbey	Wood	Laconia	NH	F	28	CMS
29	34:00	Melissa	Donais	North Andover	MA	F	30	CMS
34	34:20	Ernest	Brake	Sutton	NH	M	52	CMS
38	34:56	Dave	LaPierre	Chelmsford	MA	M	49	CMS
111	57:55	George	Boudreau	Dudley	MA	M	44	CMS