I once again ventured to the White Mountains not knowing what to expect.  Snow was foretasted which turned out to be surprisingly accurate as we were slammed by white out conditions on Saturday night while venturing to the movies.  Sunday was a rainy mess and it wasn’t until Monday that I woke up to the sweet sound of sunshine.

I threw on my boots and headed for a nice easy 4,000 footer since I had been cooped up eating junk food the whole messy weekend, when we weren’t going out for large steak dinners that is.  Mount Osceola fit these terms perfectly and it wasn’t long before my car joined the 50,000 other ones whose owners obviously  had the same idea as me.

The people loitering around the bottom trying to decide whether to hike or not came in all sort of outfits ranging from the extreme daisy dukes to the snow suits.   I fell somewhere in the middle of this fashion foray with my shorts and long sleeved shirt and my bear spray holstered bag.  I quickly passed a couple who had turned back for the outhouse and soon found myself surrounded by only the mud and the soupy trail.

Even with all the mud and large puddle crossings, I was making good time since this very well may be the easiest 4,000 footer ever invented. It wasn’t long before I found myself approaching the new snow line and people coming off the summit who were obviously shivering.

I finally broke free of the snow as I breached the tree line and went another 20 feet to what I figured was the view less summit but was told that the “real” summit was another 100 yards away which had some great views.  I joined a massive group of hikers on this wide open ledge and took some obligatory shots of the excellent views along with a few photo ops with my stick figured friend before I plopped down to read some of my “White Mountain Hiking Guide”…ding ding which luckily saved me some embarrassment since I learned that the “real” summit was indeed that view less one I had passed earlier.

After finishing some ice cold apple sauce, I started to head back but stopping for a quick unveiling of my compass stick figure for a second photo shoot to prove I didn’t magically skip the summit on my way to the views.

After this, I had a quick descent to my car which had been nice enough to wait for me and with a shout of glee, we sped off in a tire squealing dust storm.  11 down, 37 to go!!!!