The Only Way to Travel

I left Dartmouth on the 14th/15th with style. I finished packing and loaded up the Jeep to the roof Thursday evening and headed up to Moosilauke to spend the night chilling with the spring and summer lodge crews, notably Mar, Pam, Shara, Brenden, and Pete. It was great to spend my last night in New Hampshire with this group. I even got to sleep in the crew loft. In the morning I climbed Moosilauke for the 6th and hopefully not last time, this time going solo and making it interesting by seeing how fast I could go and taking the old snapper trail on the decent (I did the 7.2 mile, 2,000+ vertical hike in 2 hours and 15 minutes in case you were wondering). I then said some hard goodbyes and headed off on my latest road trip.

Since I had to pick up Emily at 11pm at the Hartford airport which was less than 3 hours away and I left the lodge at 1, I had some time on my hands. So I decided to take the scenic route and forsake the interstate for the scenic state highways and backroads of New Hampshire, Mass., and Conn. I also stopped by Hanover one last time to eat lunch and say my farewells to the green. The roads I took south in New Hampshire were beautiful. When I didn't have great views of Ascutney or other mountains the trees arched over the road, enveloping the Jeep in a shimmering green light. I had my windows open and music blaring. I have to give myself props for my "The Drive Home" playlist, it's great to rock out to.

My route took me through Amherst, MA where I was planning to eat dinner at a burrito place I remembered from a tournament my freshman spring. When I got there though I found the town green covered with tents and the taste of Amherst festival in full swing. Needless to say I took part and enjoyed it emensely. It was now 6pm, and still having time on my hands I set off for Mt. Frissel, the highest point in Connecticut in the far Northeast corner of the state. The high point is actually on the side of the mountain though, as the summit is in MA, so it's not one of the more glamorous high points. Due to some traffic though I pulled up the trailhead in the middle of nowhere backwoods of CT/MA at sunset. I set off at a run, hoping the trail was extra short and flat and that I could get back before pitch darkness set it. Turns out the trail was steep and rugged at times and the high point is on the back side of the mountain from the trailhead and I found myself standing in dark forest halfway up the mountain when I realized that despite my love of the outdoors, being alone in unfamiliar woods at night scares the crap out of me. I paused to weigh my options, and then a plane flew over, it's engines sounding a little too much like a bear growling for my comfort, so I quickly retreated to the safety of the Jeep and the 2 hour drive across CT to the airport, where I waited until 12:45am for Emily's delayed flight from Chicago.

All in all a pretty amazing day. It's hard usually to take the scenic because it takes longer, but I'm definitely making a mental note to do it whenever I have the chance.

Summer Plans

So I graduated from Dartmouth on Sunday. I don't really know what more to say about that as I don't think it's sunk in yet. My diploma is sitting on the table in my apartment but I doubt I'll realize I'm done with this place until I'm heading south out of town listening to my "Drive Home" mix on Friday. I don't know when I'll be back, which is an odd thing to think about now. I'm currently packing up my life for the road trip home. More thoughts will come later as I try to keep this thing updated, but for now I'll just post where I'll be this summer before going back to packing. If you're in the area let me know, I have new spiffy Dartmouth alum address now which is bcarr07@alum.dartmouth.edu.

Until June 14th: Dartmouth
June 14th/15th: Moosilauke Ravine Lodge
June 16th: Glastonbury, CT
June 17th: Cooperstown, NY
June 18th-26th?: Madison, WI
June 27th?-August 15th: Norman, OK
Mid July Sometime: Colorado
July 26th-31st: Wildwood, NJ and NYC
August 16th: Starting Grad School in Geophysics at Univ. Wisconsin Madison.