Tag Archives: The Loj

Nov13

NewComers weekend at the Loj: Part 1

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Part 1: The Arrival.

 

Friday, 05OCT12

 

NewComers (alternatively spelled NUComers) is a rather amazing weekend for NUHOC. Ton’s of people show up to the Loj, and everyone gets to relax, go on adventures, and meet lots of new people. And when I say lots, I mean “triple digits”. I mean “we have people who’ve never been in the woods before”. I mean “It’s freaking amazing”.

Seriously… Some people like mocking others for not having experienced certain things. I disagree – everyone’s a newbie sometime, and seeing someones excitement at seeing real mountains for the first time… it’s amazing! It reminds me of all of my firsts – my first lead climb, my first backpacking trip… it’s amazing and infections and excellent.

Thus, I went up to NewComers. It should have been a pretty simple drive from Danvers, but since I can never do anything simple-ways, I decided to stop by Mike’s place in Somerville first to comandetheer his GoPro camera for the weekend. Mike was working all weekend (dangers of being in a high-tech lab), and so he’d left it hidden in his mailbox for me to grab. And after a nice and roundabout route, I did comandeer it from the foul grips of the mailbox.

The ride up was, in a word, amazing. It’s all about the perfect components coming together at the right time – it was a Friday, I’d had a good week at work, my paychecks had been coming in for a while, and I was on the road early enough to miss the bulk of the Columbus Day traffic. I was feeling really good, and the ride went by rather impressively well. (Ed note: this is one of my favorite drives in the world. See my first or second post for an example as to why).

And to make matters even better – I was the first up at the Loj. I was honestly not expecting this, so it was a bit of a shock when I was setting my tent up in the prime location, with not a soul around. I wasn’t able to relax much though, since almost as soon as my camp was set and ready, people started showing up with truckloads (literally) of food needing to be unpacked. And since I was the only member of the Loj Committee up there so far, it fell to me to open everything up and help organize.

From there, the night turned into a snowball of insanity and excellence. I took it upon myself to be “that LC” for the night – that one alumni who had a big stein of drink, mead in my case, and walks around making sure that no one is lighting themselves on fire. You think I’m joking, but I seriously had to stop a few people from doing things like setting their tents in the middle of the road, or starting fires off in the woods somewhere. It was fun, and getting the chance to help people decipher their tent-instructions was a fun way to start the weekend off. The mead didn’t hurt either.

But the fun couldn’t continue unabated; too soon the whole discussion of trips started in earnest. After listening to far too many possible ideas I simply gave up – leaving the decision of where I’d go and what I’d do to be decided in the morning.

With that, I headed back to my tent and slumber-land. Or… I tried to.

Remember the whole occupy movement? Yeah.

This was “occupy Ben’s tent”.

Seriously, I quickly learned that my “new spot” was actually known as “the complex”, and it’s effectively THE spot to camp out if you’re not interested in sleeping in the Loj. So… to say I wasn’t alone there is an understatement. To say that every square inch of turf was taken up by a tent… that’d be a bit more accurate.

But even with the company, I did crash quite quickly, dreaming to adventure on the day to come.

Jun29

Weekend of 23Jun – A few days up at the Loj

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Friday, 22Jun12 through Sunday, 24Jun12

 

It had been a hot week. No, “hot” doesn’t really cover it… This was New England heat – 97+ Fahrenheit, with 80% + humidity. If you’ve never lived in New England, this is much like what it’s like inside of that pressure cooker that your grandparents would use to cook potatoes. Except that you are the potatoe. And it’s not pleasant, or buttery.

Thankfully I had planned out an escape from the heat – heading to the Loj with my friend Alex. Her and I were planning on trying for some rock climbing, with the backup of hiking if it rained, and I was very much looking forward to the chance to get to hang out away from Medway. Job-searching is important, but it’s just as important to sneak away every once in a while to recharge the batteries.

To be honest, this drive to the Loj was one of the memorable ones – Not only did I not have to drive (thank you Alex!) but I had another climber to chatter on with. We talked routes, gear, and things that would probably have bored any non-climber to tears within the first few minutes. It was relaxing, exactly what I needed after a week full of melting heat and stressful job hunting.

When we walked into the Loj I got pulled into a “spirited discussion” almost immediately;

“BEN! Help us with this! Life or death!”

“Ok… what is it?”

“Who was Obi Wan Kenobi’s Master?!?!”

Yep. For a good portion of that night, I sat in on a game of Star Wars Trivial Persuit – made even more entertaining by the fact that it was from before the prequels… and thus had the “old” canon to it, some things that had been changed since the game had been released. My friend Peter and I spent more than our fair share of time mocking people for their lack of Nerd Cred, before Alex finally hauled me away to try and make some plans for the weekend.

The rest of the night was spent pouring over climbing books, trying to pick out which routes we wanted to try out the next day… assuming the rain held off that is. And even after Alex headed off to bed, I stayed up on the couch reading through the hundreds of routes nearby… remembering some, and dreaming of the rest.

 

Saturday morning took it’s time rolling around. That night was horrible – the loj was sticky and hot, and for one reason or another I was not ready to pass out. I spent the night tossing and turning, getting sleep in short snatches only a few minutes long.

At one point I was shocked back to conciousness by someone in the bunk nearby having a full-on Night Terror – I wasn’t exactly sure what to do, and thankfully someone else knew to kick the poor kid awake before his screams woke the rest of the Loj. Seriously, I thought someone was being murdered.

 

The sun did finally break over the horizon, but of course it was just as I was finally settling into a clean rhythm of sleep. But adventure was calling, and so I made myself a tall mug of the most vile-tasting instant coffee I could find and slowly started waking myself up.

Breakfast quickly became a staging area for Alex and I – pulling out the climbing books, maps, and notes we had taken the night before. We finally settled on going to Cathedral and climbing a super-classic route (one of the “best in New England”, according to the guide) called Black Lung. Once that was decided and lunch was packed, we were on the road within half an hour – a rather impressive start if I may say so.

<See post: Weekend of 23Jun – Climbing at Cathedral and Rumney for specifics on the climbs>

We got back to the Loj early – really early for me. Usually I arrive back just in time to stop being from sending out a search party to find me, but this time Alex and I were the second group back, stepping over the doorstep only a few minutes after 16:00.

We spent the afternoon relaxing – listening to the radio on Mark’s old-school boombox, reading, swimming in the swimming hole, and just kicking back and chatting about everything we could think of. Soon enough we were starting dinner, eating dinner, and everyone was settling into their normal Loj routines.

My evening broke down pretty cleanly into three segments – Nerdy, Climby, and Introspecty.

Nerdy was, not surprisingly, a nerd-fest. Peter, Tim and myself geeked about about Diablo 3, bragging about our characters, and what part of the game we were on at the time. It’s true: even adventurers can be nerds.

Climby found Alex and myself stuck to the couch going over various routes and climbing areas, picking and choosing things that we could do over the next few months. Excellent, but a bit too exciting for an evening event – I left the couch wanting to climb El Capitan, instead of being sleepy.

Introspecty involved myself, a chair outside, a cigar, and a small glass of scotch. I’d been ages since I’d had a good cigar-night, and so I took myself away from the hubbub of the Loj for a while and let my thoughts flow around as I sipped the scotch and took slow drags on the cigar.

And, needless to say, my sleep that night was perfect and refreshing. Funny how an active day, followed by a relaxed night, can do that.

 

Usually, there isn’t really much to say about Sunday. This Sunday started out the same as any – Everyone woke up a bit late, dragged their feet through the closing proceedures, and we delayed leaving as long as we could. But once that we on the road Sunday swerved into the far lane, breaking out from the usual “blah go back to Boston”.

Instead, we started out with a bit of cliff-diving. You know… to keep things boring. Heh. I wish I could say that I dove into the water with the sun shining behind me, as dozens of bikini-models cheered in the background. Instead, I was the one sitting in the sun and cheering as Alex dove in – I was explaining my aversion away by saying it was cold, I didn’t want my dreads to get too wet… dozens of reasons. But looking back, I kind of wish I had jumped in… Lesson for everyone: If life gives you a chance for adventure and awesome? Take it every time.

After heading out from the cliffs, we headed to the other cliffs in the area: good old Rumney. Over the years I’ve climbed more routes than I can count at Rumney, but every time I go I somehow find something new to challenge myself on. This time was no different, and between Alex and I we both pushed our limits rather spectacularly over the course of the day.

<See post: Weekend of 23Jun – Climbing at Cathedral and Rumney for specifics on the climbs>

When we finally finished climbing, and dried off from the swimming that came after, everyone packed into the car and we started the long and boring road back to Boston. Aside from being scared by the time (it was barely getting dark, but was already 21:40) and stopping in for Burger King (yummy and horrid all at the same time!) the drive was pretty relaxing – Alex and I chatted, while Adam and Liz slept in the back seat.

Apr7

Ninja camping at the Loj

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Ninja-campers

or

How to roll with the punches and still have an amazing camping trip

March 23rd and 24th

A key component to any adventurers arsenal is his or her ability to adapt plans to fit the changing world around us. Its a fairly well known quote, but the phrase “no plan survives contact with the enemy” holds quite true when it comes to exploration, camping, and general adventure-ish activities; in this case the “enemy” is the world, fate, and the universes seeming desire to make my life “more interesting”.

The quick back story – Mike and I had planned on camping out in Pawtuckaway State Park in New Hampshire the weekend of the 23rd of March. I’d camped out there countless times before, and even had a campsite planned out for us. Now, the campground wasn’t officially open for the season yet, but I’d never run into trouble with that before… the campground entrance was always open and unbarred, and so we’d just drive in and set up camp right next to the lake.

Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case this year. Actually, it was quite far from the case – the rangers (I assume) had actually went as far as to fell a tree so as to block off the main road into the park. Seriously: we found a full three-foot diameter tree sitting in our path. This, obviously, was a wee bit too much for Mike’s Eclipse to drive over, and so we did what any intelligent college-educated men would do in this situation… we went to the supermarket to buy some more food.

At the market we picked ourselves up a good bit of fruit and berries and other “keep your brain working” food, to help us think up a solution to our dilemma. Driving around the log was out, since an Eclipse isn’t exactly an off-road car, and neither of us knew any other campgrounds in the area. Our solution came from a slightly unexpected place – after leaving the grocery we started chatting with a woman walking out to her car (she stopped to talk while we were looking for pamphlets). We shot the breeze for a while, and she told us about a small campground nearby, a place called sunset campground.

Unfortunately, “Sunset campground” was quite miss labeled – instead, it should have been named “sunset trailer town”. We drove around a bit, but found out that there were no open spaces, but instead of campsites and restrooms we found lots and lots of summer homes and trailer hitches. We did a quick drive-through in the vain hope that we’d find a hidden tent site farther back, but there was no such luck to be had, unfortunately.

We parked at the camp office for a few minutes to try and come up with a new plan of attack for the weekend… we debated going south-bound, going to the cape, and a few other possibilities, but in the end we both knew what was going to happen – we were going to drive up to the Loj. We didn’t want to admit it, since the drive would be roughly three and a half hours more and it was already nearing eight at night, but we both knew that it was the best option to be had, thanks to Pawtuckaway being closed.

The plan was that we wouldn’t actually go up to the Loj itself, but instead camp out at one of the small “hidden” campsites that lay around Connor Brook a bit past the swimming hole – that way we wouldn’t be interrupting the weekend that the Undergrad’s had planned, and in turn wouldn’t have to deal with a whole host of people. Not a bad set up, at least in theory.

And so we drove. We drove for hours, but honestly… it was nice. I hadn’t gotten to really hang out with Mike in ages, and so we spent the time chatting and shooting the breeze about pretty much everything in the world, from relationships and politics to job offers and masters degrees. It was nice; very relaxing, and actually quite reminiscent of that drive up to the Loj so long ago that finally gave me the impetus to start this very blog.

Once we got to the Loj we cruised in and parked Mike’s car up at the LC Lot (a special parking lot for 2-3 cars a bit up the main trail. Not really to save walking time, but to add that “we’re special” feel for Lcs. In our case, it was to make sure that the car was safe, since there had been a series of break-ins in recent weeks). On the way in we ran into a car full of people just arriving to the Loj, but I didn’t recognize any of them, and they probably just assumed that they’d see us up at the Loj, so they didn’t stop to say hi… which was perfect for us. After a quick walk up the trail we turned off for the swimming hole, walked a ways down the stream, and found ourselves a nice campsite to use – flat ground, a pre-made fire ring, and far enough away from the normal paths that we wouldn’t be bothered, or be bothering anyone else.

I had my tent set up within a few minutes (upside of using a camping hammock), so while Mike was still fighting with his tent I started setting up a fire for ourselves – we had brought a few steaks along, and I had started getting more than a bit hungry on the walk up… It was seriously time to eat. The fire caught almost immediately (with a bit of impatient help from white-gas that I had brought), and soon enough we had a cheery blaze going, with a nice bed of coals that I started cooking the steaks over.

I had brought one of my fry pans with me, so we had the steaks fried up within ten minutes or so – cooked just right so that they were cooked nearly through, but still had the nice and warm and pink center. We ate Brazilian-style, just slicing both steaks up and chowing down from a pile of meat. To boost the amazingness of the meal, we had picked up a full cheesecake-sampler that we made quick work of after the steaks had been eaten up.

For the rest of the night, we sat up and relaxed, drinking beers and singing songs. Mike had brought his guitar along for the camping trip, so we stoked the fire high and sat back against a few trees, rocking out into the night. Mike played a few old-school songs that I sang along to (notably Crazy Train… seriously. On acoustic guitar), and even pulled out a few songs that him and his friend had written earlier in the year. It was excellent, and exactly what both of us needed – him as an escape from the stress of working insane hours, and me from worrying about when I’d finally be employed again.

The next morning was relaxed and slow… I don’t think that I even woke up until ten or so, and I definitely didn’t emerge from my warm hammock-cocoon until a bit past noon. It was sunny, cold, and clear… pretty much the ultimate early-spring morning in New England. The fire had gone out completely (since we had poured a bit of water on it and spread the ashes out the night before), so we just ate a breakfast of cheesecake and drank down some water fresh-filtered from the stream next to our camp.

Cleaning up the camp took us a bit less than an hour, what with taking it slow, packing up the beers, and cleaning the fry pan, but it was a relaxed hour… we weren’t in any rush to move on. We slowly packed everything up, organized the leftovers, and finally sat down to decide what to do with the rest of our day.

The one strange part about the morning was the soundtrack – instead of just the stream, we were also met with the screams of injured and dying hikers. This would normally have sent us both rushing over to start the process of saving people from themselves (and/or bears), but in this instance we both laughed, and told stories about injuries instead. Why wouldn’t I go help people in need, you may ask? Because these people weren’t actually hurt – it was Wilderness First Aid training weekend for NUHOC, and so small groups were sent out from the main team with the job of “playing injured” so that the other students could practice their first aid skills.

After hoofing our gear back to the car we decided to head out on a short hike not something to tire us out, but just a quick stretch of the legs so that we could enjoy the weather before getting back in the car for the drive home. We didn’t honestly go very far, just a quick 20min walk or so towards the suspension bridge, and we decided to turn back a bit earlier than we had planned when the trail started to turn into mud-city on us. But it was excellent… almost fall-like weather, to be honest. That point in the fall when it hasn’t yet gotten so cold that you always need a jacket, but it’s past when all the leaves have fallen.

The drive home itself was uneventful, but relaxing as well. If you note, there is a theme to this weekend- relaxing and laid back. The drive home hit that theme exactly. We chatted, stopped for food and gas, listened to music, and chilled out. I drove for a bit, Mike drove for a bit, we even stopped in to get the car a full car wash in some small town in backwoods New Hampshire at one point, but throughout the trip we told each other stories about stuff we had missed out on – my time in New Zealand, some parties and drama that had happened back in Boston. In a word, it was excellent.