; "The Wilcox Family (almost), Moultonborough, NH, July 2007.")
Our boring, personality-less family.
Well, we’re back (again) from our now-annual trip to Moultonborough, New Hampshire.
Highlights:
- NaNi woke me up every morning by knocking on my head as one would a door, and announcing, “Dad, look out the window.” Thankfully, it was never very early, but to her, daylight meant it was time to do things.
- Isaac and I climbed Mt. Percival, elevation 2,212 feet, near Squam Lake. (A full 1,000-feet higher than our usual hike across the street.) Nichelle, NaNi, David, my niece Jenn, and my sister Cindy made it much of the way, but didn’t get to the summit. (They were scared off by a report more seasoned hikers.) This is the first “moderate”-rated trail from our new AMC White Mountain Guide, 28th: Hiking trails in the White Mountain National Forest (Appalachian Mountain Club White Mountain Guide)
, and it was wonderful. While the others went slowly down the first part of the hike, Isaac and I really pushed it to get to the summit, but the view was worth it. The trail back, only 1.9 miles, seemed much longer. I couldn’t have done any of this without the 6-day-a-week weight training program my beautiful Nichelle has me on. (The hike was a great leg and cardio workout; the next two days I could feel muscles I didn’t knew I had.)
- Neither Isaac nor David caught any pickerel this year. They didn’t spend as much time fishing, but more time swimming. We had bait left at the end of the week, even.
- NaNi caught the biggest sunfish we have seen to date. It was actually too big for her to hold up the pole as Nichelle took a picture.
- In an incident involving a fishing reel NaNi managed to disassemble, recovering the same reel from the bottom, getting the line tangled up in the paddleboat pedals, losing the reel permanently in the pond, getting stuck, and prayer … NaNi and David had quite an adventure. NaNi was very impressed that David “prayed to God twice,” and “knew the right thing to do.”
- One of the few down sides to this trip was that Naomi has developed an unprecedented degree of fear of bugs and spiders, especially considering in whose family she is. She spent an hour or two one night, quite literally screaming, apparently from some nightmare about spiders which persisted into her mostly-woken state. (She was afraid of a lot of things, compared to earlier in her life, and was highly suggestible, but I expect she’ll have outgrown those issues by next year.)
- We did our first all-family picture at Clark’s Trading Post, and Nichelle and NaNi did their traditional “Southern Belle” photos. I’ll try to get pictures up tonight.
We’ll post a Picasa Web Albums slide show after we go through the pictures.
Such a beautiful place! It was great to share it with you all. My favorite part was getting out of the kyak and flipping it, at least the water was warm! I loved the moon coming up over the water too as we paddled back to the dock, and how quiet the morning was, as you slackers rested up for the day! Love Cindy
The “Beware of Attack Sister” sign is hilarious! Did you really find it somewhere or did you design it?
Nani would get along well with Colin. He instituted a “byword” in our family – “Rise and shine. You’re burning daylight.” Unfortunately half our family comes by that sentiment naturally, while the other half are a little slow at starting their day.
Glad to hear you have been exercising regularly before attempting such a climb. Too often people attempt such hikes while on vacation, without having had any previous exercise program. We had an acquaintance in his 30’s actually die on Mt. Monadnock while hiking with his family during their vacation. He had not worked his way up to it and he had a heart attack on the mountain. So keep up the good work!
Isn’t it gratifying to see your child’s faith in action?! How wonderful that David responded the way he did. We can all learn from him.
I was considering chiding you about living in So.NH and not getting to live in such an environment all the time, until I realized I, too, live in So.NH [though not so south as you!]. Then I realized I am really remembering where we grew up. My family is from the Claremont-Lake Sunapee area and Colin is a north-country boy – well north of Franconia Notch. I guess as a result of that we have spent much of our life in those areas, though our own home is in So.NH. When we’re up there, I am always surprised by the mountains and wonder how I can possibly live out of sight of them. But once we’re back home I’m always glad it’s so easy to drive into Boston. Maybe if I could transport the MFA to northern NH…
I also bicycled up the road into Sandwich. What a long, uphill ride! Great cardio workout, but I wasn’t particularly motivated for bicycling after that, although if we’d had more time, I’m sure I would have done some more.
My blood pressure is surprisingly perfect, and my doctor wants me to do as much cardio as possible to keep my heart healthy and avoid high cholesterol and diabetes. I could have accomplished the hike a year ago, with much more difficulty, but would never have been able to do it in the time frame Isaac and I had.
I’m also grateful to Nichelle and my sister Cindy for letting Isaac and I do that. We were in communication by radio after they started back, and they gave in to my begging to see if Isaac and I could get to the summit. As it was, they took a very leisurely pace down, stopping to play in the brook, and we made it to the summit, took pictures, and returned to the car only about 20 minutes after they did.
Still, it’s troubling to hear about a hike killing someone. Did your acquaintance have an undiagnosed heart problem, or was his fitness attempt really the death of him?
The mountains are beautiful. Still, they can’t beat the convenience of where we live now. Besides, where would we vacation if we already lived in our vacation destination?
Doug said:
This reminds me of when I used to work for Reuters. They had an office in Bermuda, and it was staffed by only one guy. So one time Reuters paid for me and my family to fly and live in Bermuda for 2 weeks so the regular Bermuda guy could go on vacation. The big joke was… where does someone who lives in Bermuda go on vacation? To Toledo??? 😉
Hey N, where are the Clark’s photos???
The missing Clark’s photos are my fault: I’m the family photo scanner, and will do them soon.
The Attack Sister sign came from the Old Country Store, in Moultonborough. They had dozens of different ones, everything from Attack Alligator to Attack Programmer.
Man, I thought this was about us!Right family, wrong generation! Um, dear sister?? Exactly how warm IS warm? I don’t get in the pool water untill it gets over 8o! We got some nice pics from our short visit to the cabin too, but not the same as getting to stay. Maybe next years vacation we can plan on getting up too