The 49th 4000-footer

Peaks: Sandwich Dome (NEHH, 52WAV), Jennings Peak (52WAV), Noon Peak
Trails: Drake's Brook Trail, Sandwich Mountain Trail, Jennings Peak Spur
Mileage: 8.7
Elevation: 2800ft

It's the peak that I've heard so many stories of that people climbed when they didn't want to climb a 4K. But when said peak is maybe 20 feet shy (and if one were to stand at the top of one of the trees, who knows?) of that threshold and involves more elevation gain than a good chunk of the 4Ks, I never understood that thinking...so, let's just add Sandwich Dome to the 4000-footer list, shall we?

My plan was to do a loop (because I get bored by out-and-backs). I opted to head up Drake's Brook and down the Sandwich Mountain Trail, hitting Jennings Peak on the descent. Drake's looked/sounded to be more gentle in grade which sounded good for an ascent as I was a bit tired.

But first I had to get to the trailhead. I decided for some reason while heading South on I-93 that taking Tripoli Road, now open, would be a fine way to get there. Maybe a bit slower, but a nice drive. Well, let's just leave some advice right here: DONT. The road is in horrible shape. Yes, it is passable by any normal car, but the paved sections of it are in very poor shape with massive multi-foot wide, 1-2 foot deep potholes. Of course, lots of frost heaves too. The road goes through a nice stretch of woods, but I couldn't enjoy them as there was a car-swallowing pothole every couple hundred feet (and of course I just had my front suspension partially rebuilt...). The gravel stretch in the middle portion of the road was actually fine, just one brief spot of potholes, but otherwise smooth.

I was the second car in the lot, and hit the trail at about 8:45. Drake's Brook is a logging road at the start, with a gate and all. At 0.4 miles it leaves the road and crosses the brook, which required a short excursion about 30' upstream to find a suitable rock-hopping place. After that the trail appears to be an old logging road for a while, and is an easy grade, but doesn't seem to gain much elevation.

Nice, open trail corridor low on the Drake's Brook Trail

After a while it climbs steadily, but still not badly. There is a washed-out section of trail that must be Irene-caused damage. But just before the switchback section there is a very steep pair of pitches with a short flat stretch in between. The good news: they are short-lived. Other than that I really rather enjoyed the trail, which was good because I felt sluggish this day. Nevertheless, I plowed on and hit the trail junction.

The next 1.2 miles seemed to stretch on for a long time. It probably didn't help that the Sandwich Mountain Trail basically does nothing as far as gaining the last 800 feet for the first half of it. Thus, a typical grunt to the summit was in order, but I made it and was treated to wind (of course) and fantastic clear views.

Mount Tecumseh from Sandwich Dome

I headed down shortly as the wind was pretty stiff, and made solid time back to the Jennings Peak Spur junction. A snack here, and then the climb to Jennings Peak, which also has fantastic views. In my opinion, Jennings Peak has better views, at least of the Sandwich Range. As a bonus, the rocks were in the sun, but on the East side just below the summit, so the wind was light. A nice spot for a rest.

After a little, I headed down, passing a lot of people on their way up. Seems my "late" start was early on this day, I saw only one person on my way up, near the summit of Sandwich Dome, but about 15 on my way down.

The Sandwich Dome Trail slowly drops elevation until past Noon Peak (which I thought was the set of open ledges, but they came too fast after Jennings Peak so I'm not entirely sure where the peak was). After Noon Peak it is pretty steep for a while. I was glad I didn't come up this stretch, and I think if I climb from this side again, I will do an out-and-back via Drake's Brook or do something else entirely.

The stream crossing right before the road was wading territory at the trail crossing, I went about 100 yards upstream and rock-hopped carefully.

Another great day out in the mountains, and I did the whole loop in 5:15 with a lengthy stay on Jennings Peak! I guess I wasn't as sluggish as I felt after all.

2 more very worthy 52-With-a-View peaks (Sandwich Dome and Jennings Peak).

The trails were in pretty good shape, some blowdowns here and there (many looked pretty old so probably are staying there), but only one muddy spot (on Drake's Brook and it was filled with branches making it a non-issue). Drake's Brook Trail was in far better shape than Sandwich Mountain Trail too interestingly.

All pics: https://picasaweb.google.com/114607190336092730169/April292012SandwichDome?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCLPPq4Kf3r2shQE&feat=directlink

Something New - No 4Ks!

With the rush of hiking nearly every weekend for 2 months this winter while working on the New Hampshire 4000-footers in winter now over, I was looking for something new. I have plans to hike many of the peaks I have remaining on my winter list at some point this summer and fall to familiarize myself with the different trail approaches (for example, the Osceolas from the Kangamangus Highway as the Tripoli Road trail head is several miles past a closed gate in winter). However, I wasn't really wanting to hike 4Ks again. With that said, I enjoy the hiking and especially now that I am in pretty good hiking form, I want to keep it going. With a roughly 3-hour drive to the Whites from Massachusetts, I also try to do longer, full-day hikes to make the trip worth it.

Which brings me back to the original quandary: what should I hike? The only hikes I have ever done in New Hampshire were 4Ks or part of an approach to a 4K, as when I was first working on them, my dad and I would drive nearly 9 hours from Rochester, NY and so there was little time to be spent on other hikes.

I settled on going for a peak I have heard a lot of great things about: Mount Crawford, off of the Davis Path at the bottom of Crawford Notch. With a 2.5 mile one-way hiking distance and a little over 2000 feet of elevation gain, this peak is a lot like hiking a 4K, and was reputed to have terrific 360-views. However, knowing that this would be a half-day hike at best for me despite not having been on a trail in over a month, I needed more. Well, what do you know, Stairs Mountain and Mount Resolution are right in the neighborhood and are also part of the 52-With-a-View list, meaning they ought to have good views at or near the summits. A Y-shaped approach from the Davis Path would net all 3 of these peaks in a little under 11 miles and ~3300 feet of elevation gain. Perfect, a pretty average day hike for me of late!

To throw some extra "fun" in the mix, I decided to go to the real summit of Mount Resolution. That's right, the true summit of Resolution is actually the Northern-most of 2 nearly-identical high knobs, and is 0.1-0.2 miles off of the trail. From all indications and first-hand accounts it was pretty thick spruce all the way with no real herd paths. To this point, I've never really bushwhacked. I did the Liberty Springs - Bikepath bushwhack solo a couple months before, which was in open hardwoods, near a road, and tracked out in the snow. Not really a bushwhack. I also did the Engine Hill bushwhack on the way to and from Mount Isolation back in the winter. Also tracked out (and packed so hard you probably could have ridden a mountain bike most of the way!) and I was also with 12 other people... Not a real bushwhack.

That said, I've always had a pretty decent sense of direction, knew pretty much where I would be heading, know more or less how to use a compass, and also have my GPS with topo maps loaded on it. It was time to give this a whirl. My primary plan was to go to the high point on the Mt. Parker Trail, take a visual bearing on the true peak, and head over from there, staying just East of the "ridge" between the peaks, as Google Earth indicated that there were some ledges part-way to the summit just east of the shallow col. My plan B was to maybe find a stream heading that way from the main trail, and follow that, hoping for some better woods.


I hit the trail earlier than I had anticipated (got up earlier than expected!) at 7:40. The Davis Path initially follows a dirt path that residents park along as they don't have a vehicular bridge to their homes on the other side of the Saco River. They walk on foot (or bike I suppose) across the Bemis Bridge, which the Davis Path shares. The river was flowing, but looked pretty low considering the time of year. The stream crossing shortly past the homes required some careful rock-hopping, but it was very doable along the actual trail corridor, and after that the climbing begins.

There was a light dusting of snow from the morning's flurries, but it never totaled more than 1" at any point during the hike.

Just a light dusting of snow on the Davis Path

The trail climbs steadily, but never steeply until it reaches some ledges shortly below the Mount Crawford Spur Trail. It truly is like a 4K climb, you start at 1000 feet and climb to near 3000 feet in 2.2 miles, with the rest of the climb to the summit on the 0.3-mile spur trail. The views here were nice and showed that the skies were starting to clear. I decided that I would leave Crawford itself for the return trip at the end of the day, hoping for clear skies. I also figured that by the time I got to Stairs Mountain that the skies would have cleared and views there would be good too. So I soldiered on.

The trail between The Crawford Spur and the Mount Parker Trail was wet with standing water in a lot of places, but often under a thin ice crust as the temperatures were near the freezing mark. That coupled with skim coatings of ice in the shadowed places meant one had to be careful with foot placement. There was just not enough ice to use microspikes, so I barebooted all the way to Stairs Mountain in fact.

I was surprised to run into someone just past the Stairs Col Trail, he was heading down because he thought he'd missed the Davis Path when things got really steep. After he found out he had probably gotten 3/4 of the way to Stairs Mountain before turning around he had a good chuckle. He'd headed up late the night before to the shelter on Rocky Branch at the Stairs Col Trail, and was heading over Isolation and to the other Rocky Branch Shelter (or thereabouts) for the night. Hope he had a good trip, we parted ways after visiting the summit of Stairs Mountain.

There are 2 nice tent pads on the top of Stairs Mountain (perhaps more, I saw 2 for sure) right near the ledges overlook (not so near to roll off of course!). I'd love to spend a night here some time! It was pretty windy on the ledges, but I took a short pictures/snack break before heading back to the Mount Parker Trail for the interesting part of the day.

Well, interesting started just past the downlook heading down to Stairs Col. I hit a hidden patch of ice on a rock face and went down, spun sideways, and slid down about a 10' rock face, bouncing off the rocks on my tailbone a few times. Well that HURT! After laying there for a minute or so, the pain subsided enough to get up (slowly) and determine that I had a scraped elbow, rather sore tailbone, sore wrist, but nothing major in the long run. At that point I decided that I didn't care about burning out the microspikes and put them on until shortly past Stair Col. There were a couple of icy spots on the steeper sections that they were helpful for, but otherwise I was walking with them on rock/gravel...not so comfortable but I didn't fall!

Hung a left at the Mount Parker Trail, and put the microspikes back on for the first ledge on this trail, which has wonderful views from it.

Towards Crawford Notch

I planned to bushwhack to the true (NE) knob of Resolution. I knew that there weren't really any herd paths and the brush was very thick. I wasn't disappointed in that regard...My hope had been to find even a faint herd path just for some easier going (navigation wasn't the worry, I had a map, compass, and GPS with topos, and the distance was under 0.2 miles). My second-best case was hoping to find a stream or something heading more or less towards the summit, figuring I might find some easier going along that. Well, shortly before the high-point on the trail, I crossed a little streamlet heading more or less towards the right place! I missed this in the guidebook description initially, but upon further reading, it is mentioned. I decided to start here.

The stream initially provided fairly easy going, but soon swung West and also became rather marshy.

The "easy" part of this bushwhack

So I struck out from here towards the summit which I could sort of see though the dense trees (spruce I guess? Not so good at tree identification...). The going got thick fast, and even though I tried to meander my way towards thinner spots, I was literally swimming through branches a lot of the time. Near the summit I hit some thinner spots and was able to make the rest of the way alright. Woot, my first real bushwhack! (Engine Hill in winter fully tracked out such that a bike probably could have made it and the Camp Dodge shortcut from Imp Trail don't really count in my book...) The views were well worth it, great lookouts to the North/East and Stairs Mountain.

The Southern Presidentials

There was a carin here, near the highest point. I didn't see any sign of a register that apparently was there at one point, but I admittedly didn't look too long or hard, it wasn't in the carin or the tree nearby. I thought about taking my original planned path back to the trail, which was to stay slightly South of the "ridge" between the 2 peaks as there were more ledges there it seemed, but I opted to re-trace my steps instead, as I knew what to expect there. I actually had a fairly easy go of it for about 1/3 of the way back, then hit some really dense stuff, before hitting the stream right where I had left it earlier. From there I picked my way back to the trail and I headed up the trail to get some views from the upper ledges.

After that, a u-turn back to the first ledge, re-donning of the microspikes for only the ledge (it wouldn't be a good one to slip and slide on), then a return to the trail junction for a snack. All was left was Crawford. From here to Crawford was the same as the morning, except a little easier as some of the ice had melted and I had fewer spots to worry about. A quick scramble up the spur trail resulted in a return of the wind that I'd felt off-and-on all day (basically whenever out of the trees), but fabulous views. I also saw the first people since the guy on Stairs Mountain.

Mount Washington from Mount Crawford

I hung in a sheltered spot on the rocks for some fuel after taking lots of pictures (many of which came out grainy and flat because my camera's zoom stinks, at least with auto-mode on and I've never taken the time to learn to take non-auto-mode pictures). After a while, I headed down for the day, passing a couple pairs of people shortly below the spur trail who were on their way up. One pair in particular had some massive packs on and were clearly heading for an overnight, they were planning on maybe Stairs Mountain. One made a comment about staying out until it hit 70F, so maybe by the end of the week those 2 will come out of the woods!

It was a great day out, though the wind was heavy and the low temperatures made it worse. But it's hard to beat clear skies! These 3 peaks are well deserving of their place on the 52-With-a-View list. The views from the true summit of Resolution are great, and different from the other ledges of that summit, but the woods are pretty tough to get through. I have nothing to compare it to, but it took me about 20 minutes to push through. One thing to remember for the future, when you have seasonal allergies and trees tend to be one of the main culprits, it's probably a good idea to take your meds if you are going to go bushwhacking through thick pines/spruce...

All pics: https://picasaweb.google.com/114607190336092730169/April282012StairsCrawfordResolution?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCIKO8LSQiuXcEA&feat=directlink

Last "Winter" hike of 2012 - Carters 3-18-12

Sunday I woke up at Joe Dodge Lodge ready for one more trek in the "winter" wonderland. With temps forecast to be near 50 on the rockpile and in the 70-degree range in the valleys, it was going to be more like many summer hikes I've done. The nice part was I could dump some of the extra layers I've been carrying all winter, losing a couple pounds of pack weight. The bad news was that I was almost certain I would need the snowshoes for a good chunk of the day, in soft snow (ew!).

The plan was to do all 3 Carter plus Hight (since it was to be a clear sunny day and it was). I decided the night before to do Carter Dome first, then Hight, and so on until I hit the North Carter Trail where I would head down, grab the South Imp Loop until the old logging road to Camp Dodge, and a short road walk back to the 19-Mile Brook Trailhead.

I eventually got rolling on the trail near 8:30, not exactly looking forward to the descent at the end of the day with ice likely and only one treking pole...(see the Moosilaukee TR). But this was the plan and I was sticking to it if possible. The trip up the 1.9 miles to the Carter Dome Trail went fast, despite stopping often to look at the quickly-running brook. 40 minutes for this mileage (plus 950 feet gain)!

19-Mile Brook running solidly

I hit the Carter Dome Trail and headed upward. It felt slow at times, but I still hit the ridge in good time to continue the full time. I've had some good trail times this winter, I'm still not sure if that is due to the general lack of rocks and such or hiking most every week, I'll just go with both and leave it at that. It's allowed for some awesome longer hikes that I would never have tried before! (Such as this one).

I headed along the Carter Dome Trail to the Dome, putting on snowshoes just past Zeta Pass. I wasn't post-holing yet, but things were soft and it wasn't going to be long. I left them on until partway down the Imp Trail. The only other time I wore snowshoes for more than 2-3 miles this winter was the day on the Wildcats...

I made the summit of Carter Dome uneventfully at 11:30, took a few pictures at the overlook towards the Presis, then headed to Hight for a longer stop. This climb was easy, though I knew the descent would be interesting. The section of the Carter-Moriah Trail between Carter Dome and the split to Hight was post-hole-riddled. Luckily people today were all putting snow shoes on after a post-hole occurred. Drifts in spots were over 5 feet deep still, and even in snow shoes, step off the forming monorail and you're going to post-hole to your hip. Hight was awesome! Well worth the side trip and I spent my longest break of the day here.

The Northern Presidentials

Eventually I left, and headed to South Carter, and then the slow trip up to Middle Carter. I saw a total of 3 people along this stretch, 2 RUNNING Southward with 3 dogs, and one just below Middle Carter heading towards the North Carter Trail with a stove out cooking lunch.

On the way to the North Carter Trail I thought about taking a stab at the bushwhack to Lethe, as the summit is only about 150 feet off-trail according to the topo maps. There appeared to be a herd path heading to the summit from the height-of-land on the Carter-Moriah Trail, and it was well-packed. I dropped my pack, grabbing the map and compass and GPS and started out on it, but it petered out after about 20-30 feet in a nasty tangle of spruce branches. Must have been a popular pee trail... I was tired, and didn't want to deal with this even though I could see roughly where the summit was. Too much nasty stuff to push through at the end of the day so I bailed and headed down the trail to the road.

Heading down the Imp Trail I eventually removed the snowshoes and microspiked for a while, before the trail dried up of all snow (though not all mud of course...). When the trail bent away from Cowboy Brook I was looking all over for the old logging road toward Camp Dodge and finding nothing. I recalled that it was lower down the trail, just before the trail crosses a smaller stream. There was nothing here either that looked like a trail. The woods were open hardwoods with little snow and I could easily have headed through towards Camp Dodge but didn't want to bother. I was a little peeved figuring I missed the road and wondering how I missed what was supposed to be a pretty obvious path. I resigned myself to a long road walk, carefully crossed the stream (which was BARELY rock-hoppable as it was running deep), and was faced with a huge blowdown blocking the trail. Right before this blowdown was what I had been expecting earlier: an obvious logging road crossing the trail. There was still snow on it and there was lots of evidence of people on this path before, and off I went. It was pretty easily to follow...

The "bushwhack" to Camp Dodge

Being in Camp Dodge when it was shut down was eerie-feeling. Lots of skeleton tent frames and the like. There were also a bunch of old trail signs on one of the bunkhouses. Guess we know where some of the retired signs that don't get auctioned go...

Don't think Mt. Pemi is that close...

I was back at the car at 4:30, and tired. 3.5 hour drive home now. But up to 27 winter 4Ks! A beautiful day to cap off the winter, even it felt more like spring or summer.

Pics: https://picasaweb.google.com/114607190336092730169/March182012CartersAndHight?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCJvk1dbnrdvzVA&feat=directlink

St. Patty's, the Moose, and a Broken Limb

I'll get to the broken limb later. Let's start with the good:

I had some fun finding the Glencliff Trailhead (High Street is NOT signed, and Glencliff is not on any maps...follow the signs to the Sanatorium!) I also pulled into the gated road for Townline Trail (it's on the left, but I'm directionally dyslexic some days and thought that left was right...) at first and was worried I might get stuck in the mud while trying to get out - I lucked out here! Eventually I got going. Left the car (only the second in the lot) at 8:30 under cloudy skies. Reports from the OBS in the morning indicated that this MIGHT be an undercast, and I was hoping for it to stay, but be below 4000 feet so I could get my first undercast views. Ultimately I was satisfied. I took the dirt farm road behind the gate at the lot instead of walking down the road. It intersects with the main trail pretty quick (the guidebook mentions this road as an option). I chugged away up the trail in bare boots at first, as there was NO snow or ice to be seen.

The bottom part of the trail was very muddy, with occasional little patches of ice easily avoided. Around 2400', right before the first stream crossing on planks, I put the spikes on as the ice was omnipresent now, only along the trail of course.

Beginnings of the monorail

I kept heading up, soon passing a solo hiker who owned the truck I had seen in the lot. She was using this hike as a re-tune up after being sick for a while with various ailments including just getting over pneumonia! I kept moving.

After a while the misty day ended and I broke into blue skies with an undercast!

Undercast to the West

Still I headed up, still in spikes as the trail was still solid under me at this elevation and early hour. I slowed down on the steep approach to the ridge, but still somehow covered that first 3 miles and 3000 feet of climbing in 2 hours! Not sure where that came from! I passed on South peak planning to grab it on the way down, I wanted to hopefully get some undercast views from the 360-view summit of the Moose.

The ridge was still (just) solid enough to support me, though snowshoes might still have been a good choice now. I saw lots of previous postholes, but avoided adding any of my own (on-trail ones that is) until near the base of the summit cone in a drifted area, where I caused a couple. I would have put the snow shoes on except I could see the trail to the summit was either bare or just some light ice not 100 feet past this point...I hate rock-hopping in clown shoes.

 I summitted at 11 on the nose, a ridiculous time of 2.5 hours from the trailhead for the 3.8 miles and 3300 feet (3.5 is book time...). I was alone on the summit, with clear skies above a partial undercast (Northward was thinning out, but still solid to the South), along with mild winds, the lowest I've ever felt on this usually-windy summit! It was also warm, somewhere in the high 40s I'd say.

The Presidentials far behind the Bonds and Liberty/Flume

I put on a light jacket and figured I'd hang for a while. JustJoe, BobC, and Salty from Hike-NH were expected at some point and I was in no hurry. I enjoyed watching the undercast slowly pull away to the south revealing more peaks. I spoke with one gentleman who came up from Kinsman Notch with his dog, he lives in N. Woodstock. Must be nice! He had finished a SSW48 by early February... After a while more people filtered up and I was still just hanging. Somewhere around noon I saw some guys coming up, and I recognized the long-haired Salty pretty fast. JustJoe and BobC were soon behind, and I later found out that their companion was the one New Hampshire, err, Brian.

We chatted for a while, and eventually I decided it was time to head down. It was 1 PM and I had been on the summit for 2 hours! I've never spent that long on a summit EVER (even in summer) and it was awesome! A nice relaxing day. I bid my goodbyes, strapped on the snowshoes and headed to South Peak. I had previously been on this knob on an overcast day (not sure why I bothered since we couldn't see 200 yards that day...) and it was far better on this day. Still, the views were not great today since this spot has views into Tunnel Brook but the undercast was still there. Still, I'm not complaining any.

I snowshoed steadily down the trail, crossing the major ice bulge at 3000 feet that had water running over it. This thing is at least 300 feet long (or at least it WAS) and pretty thick, it gave my spikes a test on the way up on a step section, but overall it is fairly flat and light traction was sufficient. The snowshoes did far better with it on the way down, probably helped by it being a bit softer, but these MSR LAs also have some impressive crampons!

The giant ice bulge...over a foot thick for much of its length!

Below the bridged crossing I removed the snow shoes and bare-booted the rest of the way. Somewhere between here and the fields I slipped in the mud and went down HARD. Here's where the broken limb came in. I was scraped up in a few spots, but overall I was OK aside from being angry at myself and the mud, but my left treking pole didn't fare quite so well...

DOH!

These poles saw me through 12 years of on-and-off hiking, most of the initial 4Ks, the Grand Canyon, and my grandfather even used them at Machu Picchu! Oh well, guess I know what's on the top of my shopping list this spring! I can manage with one pole, but really like having 2 for descents as they really help out my knees (plus having 4 feet is better than 3).

All in all a great day, aside from the end. Good to meet Joe, Bob, Mike, and Brian (the singing really should have tipped me off as to who it was...). Awesome undercasts, super-warm temps, and the mid-point of my winter 4Ks!!! 24 down in my first 2 months of winter hiking ever, wow! In early January I still swore I would never hike in winter, now 2.5 months later I'm half-way to the Winter 48 patch...good grief! I drove to Pinkham Notch to stay at Joe Dodge for the night and enjoyed seeing all the crazy spring skiers leaving for the day. Hard to call this a winter hike as I was in short sleeves all day and it was near 50 on the summit, but who cares!

Pics: https://picasaweb.google.com/114607190336092730169/March172012Moosilaukee?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCNOwyc-e-pf5swE&feat=directlink

A Weekend Blitzkrieg of the Presidentials - 3-10-12 to 3-12-12

Saturday 3-10-2012
Peaks: Jefferson, Washington, Monroe
Miles: ~13.7mi (estimated due to trail re-locations of Jewell plus the higher up the road start)
Elevation: ~5550ft
 
The plan was a Washington->Pierce traverse. I drove north from MA, leaving around 3:45 AM and driving through near-whiteout conditions in central NH. I was worried about the plan for the day, but the skies were clear and sunny from Lincoln on north. Kelly and Pete picked me up at the Highland Center and we went to the lower Cog lot where they were starting on their final winter 48 hike. Got going at 7:40. They went up Jewell to Jefferson, then to Washington and Monroe for the finish. I also planned to go up Jewell and possibly scramble up to Clay before heading South, but the skies were pretty clear and the winds were non-existent at treeline, so I decided now was a good time to tag Jefferson. In fact, things were so nice above treeline we joked about putting on t-shirts. Despite it only being about +5F (sun was nice and warm!)

The skies clouded up and the winds picked up by the time we got to Jefferson (low-30s mph, not a huge deal, but it was cold too so ~-20F wind chills), visibility was 100-200 yards at best. It lifted a bit (not great, but enough) for the rest of the day thankfully, after leaving Jefferson. Otherwise I might have bailed back down Jewell and walked back to my car. The climb to Washington was slow (and my hands were slow and painful to warm, I didn't go to warmer gloves fast enough...). I just wasn't feeling it at this point, might have had something to do with the really early morning and the tough drive up.

We ran into Sue and Earl (from Views From The Top) doing a Wash/Jeff hike near the Clay/Washington Col. After hitting Washington and eventually Monroe, I called it a day, which I knew was likely after heading for Jefferson (I had held out hope for making good time and doing a Jeff-Pierce traverse!). No regrets, I considered Jefferson to be one of the hardest peaks to get, though I do plan a revisit on a better weather day. Back at the car at 5:25, so total ET of 9hr 45 min, not bad imo.

Thus I ended up not needing the car spot. Thanks anyways Kelly and Pete, it was an honor to be present for your finish and I was glad to be able to take the pictures on Monroe as no one else was around! Great to meet you two. Sorry I was such a slug after hitting Jefferson, hope I didn't slow you guys down too much.

Pictures: https://picasaweb.google.com/114607190336092730169/March102012JeffersonWashingtonAndMonroe?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCNe4hLmQovDWngE&feat=directlink


Sunday 3-11-2012
Peaks: Pierce, Eisenhower
Miles: 9.6mi
Elevation: 3200ft

The night before, I decided I would do the Osceolas on the way back to MA. But I woke feeling poor (sore, beaten, tired, etc) and decided I didn't want a steep climb. With forecasts for winds in the 60mph range on George but nice clear skies all day, I decided to take a crack at the peaks I skipped the day before: Pierce and Eisenhower. I figured I would turn around if it was too windy on Pierce, as it is protected most of the way to the summit. I was staying at the Highland Center so I didn't even have to move my car from where I left it the morning before! The climb went decently after I got moving for a while, this is not an uncommon thing for me the second hike day, and I had been counting on it. Started at 9, hit the summit of Pierce at 11:25. I was greeted with bluebird skies and noticeable but not crazy winds, I figure in the high-20s range. Good enough to go for Eisenhower for sure.

Kelly the day before had mentioned a horror story of spruce traps and a hard-to-follow trail between the peaks, but with the lack of snow and warm temps (it was near 35F and sunny) this was not a problem. I had worn microspikes all the way to this point, they were great on the hard-pack before Pierce, but things were soft between the peaks and I got some balling under the spikes. Now I know what that feels/looks like, not pleasant at all. There was also some minor drifting in here, but alternated with bare rock so I stuck with the spikes. I had brought my Hillsound Pros instead of the full crampons (which were overkill the day before due to thin snow/ice coverage) for the ledges up Eisenhower on the loop trail, but there was only a few small spots of ice and I stuck with the spikes. Not problems. The summit was nearly bare of any snow.

The massive carin on the summit of Eisenhower.

Here the winds were higher but still tolerable long enough for some pictures. I figured low-30s which agreed with a couple guys with wind gages. I reversed direction and headed down as I needed a rest. Also, I had seen in the morning that the MWOBS was calling for diminished winds and more sun the next day. I was thinking about staying for one more night. The descent was uneventful, though I ditched the microspikes at the Webster Cliff junction and bare-booted down. The snow-balling was making the 'spikes useless anyway. I met a bunch of people on this day near both summits, and more coming up to Pierce as I descended. All were in 'spikes or Hillsounds (the spike version). A couple people did put full crampons on at the Eisenhower Loop for that ascent, but only because they didn't have other traction (bare-booted up). Spikes were sufficient for the ledges. I got to have both summits to myself until after I left them (~10-15 min at each). Despite stopping to talk to several groups of people for several minutes each, I was back to the road in under 6 hours total time (just before 3PM). Awesome considering how I felt when I had gotten up in the morning!

Pictures: https://picasaweb.google.com/114607190336092730169/March112012PierceAndEisenhower?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCLiY9tzt4O_XEw&feat=directlink


Monday 3-12-2012
Peaks: Madison, Adams
Miles: 10.5mi
Elevation: 5050ft

On Sunday when I got back to the Highland Lodge I requested the NOAA graphs at the front desk. The MWOBS was calling for 40-50mph winds early, decreasing to 15-30 (or something like that) but I wanted to know WHEN the decrease would occur. It turned out that NOAA agreed on the wind values with the OBS and had the winds dropping under 30 around noon. With the forecasts all also calling for ample sun and temps near 40, it was an easy decision to stay another night, as I had the flexibility at work. I had already planned on taking one more vacation day this calendar winter (either a Friday or a Monday; I was planning on St. Patty's weekend though since Monday was supposed to be very windy all day) and had been told at work that it could be last minute if it was for a great weather day. This qualified for sure!

I headed out to Appalachia and hit the trail at 7:55. The plan was up and down Valley Way, teeing at Madison Hut to Adams first via Gulfside and Airline, then Madison via Osgood (of course). I planned on a 4-hour climb to the hut knowing how long my weekend had been already, but I was shocked to reach the hut at 11! I saw one person about half-way (~10 AM) up who was coming down, he had already hit Madison and Adams, starting at 5AM and getting the sunrise on Madison. Must have been a nice one! I also was leap-frogging with 3 guys from 0.9 miles in all the way to the hut. They were carrying full packs and were planning a full traverse, with an overnight at either Spinx Col or near Lakes depending on how the day went. Hope it went well guys! They dropped packs at the hut and went for Madison while I started for Adams.

I remembered the climb to Adams being rocky and fairly steep in spots and wasn't disappointed. With the warm temps and sun the last couple days, there was little snow left in the snow fields even. I had put on Hillsound Pro's at the hut (microspikes were balling up for the second half of the climb to the hut) and kept them on until back at the road; they worked awesome! There were spots where snow shoes would have worked better, but there was too much rock on the summit cone to keep them on. Eventually I summitted, after picking my way up somewhat along the Airline Trail. It was 12:10. I had the summit to myself with terrific views everywhere.

Washington, Clay, and the Great Gulf from Mount Adams

I was greeted with moderate winds, maybe low-20s at worst. Nothing at all to worry about with the bright sun and warm temps (nearing 40F!). After a bunch of pictures and a few minutes of just enjoying the views I headed down. I would have stayed a while but I had a 3+-hour drive home at the end of the day, and another 5000-foot peak yet to go. I picked my way down and met a solo hiker about halfway back to the Gulfside who had come up the Airline from Appalachia. I would see him again when I was half-way down Madison. Interestingly he was only wearing instep crampons. There was considerable ice between the rocks on the summit cone for which I was glad to have the Hillsound Pros (full crampons would have definitely been overkill though and there was a lot of rock-hopping involved). Microspikes likely would have been okay though. He was unconcerned though, and was doing fine when I saw him later, so to each his own I suppose.

Back at the hut I dropped my pack near the shed (pump house?) and after a snack break scooted up to the summit. There I ran into one more solo hiker on his way down, he had reached the hut just before my return, he was off to Adams (I later saw that he finished his Single-Season Winter 48 for this winter on Adams this day! Congratulations!!!). Once again I had a summit to myself. There was no snow at all on the upper 100 feet of the summit (except in a few spots) and so I had to rock-hop a lot in the Hillsounds...glad I didn't bring the full crampons! Microspikes would have been fine for this peak, and indeed the guy I had run into coming down (plus the 3 from the morning) all summitted using 'spikes. Great views despite the horizon haze and again I spent a little while enjoying the views and snapping pictures. After a little I headed down. 4 more people at the hut having just come up Valley Way. I headed down. Near the bottom of Valley Way I decided to take the Fallsway loops and got some nice peeks of the thawing cascades (pictures came out meh though). Back at the car at 3:40 and drove home.

Pictures: https://picasaweb.google.com/114607190336092730169/March122012AdamsAndMadison?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCO_t5IKAwq30mgE&feat=directlink


Weekend Recap

Like nearly everyone else, I had been looking for a Presi Day before winter's end (calendar winter that is, regular winter seems to have abandoned ship, at least for now). Unlike seemingly everyone else, I was just looking to get one in before winter's end to have one under my belt, versus wanting one to finish a winter list. I didn't have to have one to finish the list as I'm not finishing this year. I was hoping for one though just for the experience. I ended up with 3 consecutive tolerable days (well, 1 marginally tolerable, 1 tolerable off the higher summits, and 1 awesome day), with Saturday being the worst day (cold and limited views after the morning though the views on Monroe were interesting) and Monday easily being the best. Sunday was great too though. Honestly, all 3 days were great in their own ways, I don't regret any of them. I didn't expect to have all of the Presis done this year, but I now sit at 23/48 winter peaks and all of the Presis now done. That said, I plan re-visits to all of them, especially Washington and Jefferson.

What an amazing weekend!

That said, 33.8 miles and 13,800 feet of gain in 3 days...I'm sore and tired!

I'm considering calling it a season and not hiking this weekend. What a way to finish! Still, I think I might head to the Carters this weekend anyway. Depends on what trails sound like...my guess is mush...

2 Kinsmans on President's Day - 2-20-12

I went via Fishin' Jimmy. I didn't want the extra elevation gain plus drive time of the Western approach on this day. I was hoping to visit George (Mount Washington) on this President's Day, but 60 mph winds at 7AM on the summit nixed that idea, as expected. The winds were forecast to drop to 35-50 during the afternoon, still not good enough. Turns out this didn't happen and the winds stayed over 60 most of the day. Definitely a good call to stay below treeline.

Great day for the Kinsmans. Clear skies until early afternoon when some clouding occurred (opposite of the forecast morning clouds, afternoon clearing but I'm not kicking) Got a late start for me, hitting the trail around 8:50AM. Chugged up the Lonesome Lake Trail in what seemed like a slow pace, but I hit the hut by 9:50. One hour, not bad, guess I'm doing better than I thought! Thought about going in the hut, but decided to keep moving, especially since people were still eating breakfast it seemed. I had 8.5 miles left on the day. I would be back later anyway.

Left on the Fishin' Jimmy and soon passed 3 people on the first significant descent about 1/3 mile from the hut. First ice of the day too... Turned out that these people would be the only ones I would see above the hut all day. The Fishin' Jimmy meanders along, gaining and losing a little elevation constantly for the first mile. After that it climbs, and steeply in spots. In the summer there are some steps drilled into the rocks, right now all of the steep rock faces are coated in a LOT of ice. Most spots are bypassed, though one or two of the bypasses are pretty icy too.

Eventually I crawled up to Kinsman Junction and headed south on the Kinsman Ridge Trail. Hit the summit of N. Kinsman at about 11:45. Gorgeous views with very few clouds from the overlook just below the summit. The only other time I was on the Kinsmans, it was overcast and views weren't great. Not so today.

Franconia Ridge

I hung out here at the overlook for a while, there was no wind here and it was a nice view to snack at. After a little while I packed up and headed over to S. Kinsman. There was some more snow and a little minor drifting near the summit. Nothing worth pulling out the snowshoes.

Snow-covered trees near the summit of North Kinsman

I started to feel some of the wind now, and even more so on the summit. Seeing the Southern summit of S. Kinsman, I headed over to it because it looked close in elevation even though I was pretty sure the northern knob was higher (it was). The trail to that knob was not as condensed (or clear due to some drifting) and I'm afraid a couple kittens were killed. The prints were already filling in when I headed back after just a couple pictures of Moosilaukee and South-West. A few pictures of the snow ghosts at the true S. Kinsman and I headed back to North Kinsman.

Franconia Ridge from South Kinsman

At the overlook I ran into the trio I had seen before. They were only going for the N. summit and were wondering if it was a little further up, they seemed pleased when informed they had already climbed over it (well, I guess the summit is just off-trail, but close enough). They wanted views, and since things were clouding up, weren't all that interested in S. Kinsman. Besides, I think the N. Kinsman outlook has better views overall, though you can see Vermont from S (that was rapidly becoming not the case though).

Heading down the Fishin' Jimmy steeps was interesting. Some glissading was used on the icy spots instead of the bypasses, and I made it to the hut intact. There I headed inside for a while to have a snack and just chill. It was warmer inside anyway (though still not warm of course, I would have put a layer on were I to stay longer). I had a nice conversation with a couple of dads who had brought their sons up for the night. I left around 2:55, setting myself an aggressive goal of reaching the car at 3:30. Turns out I made it by 3:25. 6.5 hour elapsed time with a couple longer breaks. It's insane how fast the trails are right now, I've never been this consistently under book time with long stops in my life. Hiking 5 out of 6 weekends probably doesn't hurt either.

I ran into a couple of people just getting off Franconia Ridge, they said it was hard to stay upright at times, I guess not doing the Presi's was a good move.

Another free ride for the snowshoes, really they were only needed going to the southern summit of S. Kinsman and only in a couple spots. Microspikes were perfect for all but the steep mile of Fishin' Jimmy. There I had to take my time, especially on the descent. The others I saw were using microspikes and Hillsounds too. Crampons or at least Hillsound PROs would not be un-reasonable for Fishin' Jimmy. Lonesome Lake and KRT can be bare-booted if desired, not much ice to speak of there.

Nice day out, gorgeous views. Good plan B for winds too much for the presi's.

All pics: https://picasaweb.google.com/114607190336092730169/February202012TheKinsmans?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCJjT16-p7eDVpwE&feat=directlink

S. Kinsman marked the 1/3 marker on my winter 4Ks! Just over 2 months ago I would have laughed at you if you told me I would have ANY winter 4K's done. So far I'm loving winter hiking, second only to fall (and boy is it a close one, I like not having to watch every step for rocks tripping me up!)

Summary:
Mileage: 10.2 miles
Elevation Gain: 3500 feet
Peaks: North Kinsman (4293', NH4K), South Kinsman (4358', NH4K)

14 Miles to #14 - Mount Carrigain - 2-19-12

I had hoped to hit Madison/Adams, but the wind forecast (once NOAA decided to update things properly) nixed that one. I was kicking around either the Hancocks, Pass/Whiteface, or Carrigain. With the forecast for ample sun, I was leaning toward Carrigain. Winds were supposed to be stiff, but out of the NW, so things should be sheltered nicely until at least Signal Ridge, if not until the summit itself. Saturday morning Petch (whom I had hiked with the weekend before on the Mount Isolation hike) declared he was going to hit up Carrigain for his winter 48 list too, so that sealed it.

My goal was to be on-trail at 8:00 AM while Petch (and it turns out Steve too - another participant in that crazy-cold hike) were shooting for 8:30. I figured we'd meet somewhere along the line. I left the Boston area at 5AM and in my morning fog completely missed the I-93 exit off of I-95, and didn't realize this until about 10 minutes from NH...luckily taking NH rt. 16 was supposed to be only a few minutes longer...aside from the person going 35 in a 50 with no legal passing for 10 miles...anyway, I arrived at the trailhead around 8:15. O well.

Petch and Steve were about ready to go, so I grabbed my stuff, we took a picture, and were off along the herd path along the river (not the road) right at 8:30. After following the herd path for about 1 mile (at which point it was fading), we cut up to the road, right at the major washout section which has been nicely repaired. My guess is the grade is going to be left like this, but who knows. (Update 5/2012 - it appears that this is going to see more work, as the road is remaining closed for construction work much of summer 2012).

Somewhat repaired wash-out section on Sawyer River Road

We hit the summer trailhead in about 45 minutes. A brief break and we charged along the trail. Shortly before the Carrigain Notch Trail, we ran into a pair of guys with MASSIVE packs (probably c.a. 80 pounds) taking off some snowshoes (large ones at that). They had been in the woods for the last 2 nights, having camped about a mile off towards Mt. Lowell. They had climbed up Lowell the day before and now they were on their way out (and glad to hear they would be fine bare-booting or microspiking the rest of the way). We hit the junction around 9:50.

To this point is pretty moderate, gaining only about 1000 feet since the parking lot (the winter one), in 3.7 miles. Soon the climbing starts, there is nearly 4000 feet of climbing in the 7 miles of this route overall, 3000 of it in the last 3ish miles. Slowly but surely we chugged up the mountain, taking frequent breathers (my fault, sorry if you guys wanted to keep moving!) at the limited peek-though view points that offer great views of Mount Lowell.

Mount Lowell across Carrigain Notch from Signal Ridge

We eventually crested Signal Ridge, where the views were OK but no where near what they can be. You see, the weather men were all wrong: the skies were not sunny, but mostly cloudy. The lower elevations were OK, but the higher summits apparently all had clouds...

Looking towards distant Crawford Notch with Vose Spur in the right foreground

There was no wind until we got up on the tower, where there was enough to limit our time hanging out up there. We sat below the tower (where the wind was pretty much non-existant) and ate for a while, then headed down. Just below the summit in the steeps we passed Pam's group making their ascent.

Nothing much to report on the descent. We guessed we would be back at the cars around 4PM and sure enough we hit the cars at 3:52. We took the Sawyer River Road the whole way this time instead of the herd path. Sub 7.5 hours for 14 miles and 3900 feet of gain. Not bad!

Trails were just like all the others right now: hard packed, rocks all hidden, and thus FAST. Microspikes were perfect, only minor drifting along Signal Ridge. We all carried snowshoes for 14 miles. Another free ride for them.

Good day out, too bad the sunny summits forecast wasn't true. The weathermen were all wrong on the sky cover Sunday and Monday... 

Summary:
Mileage: 14 miles
Elevation Gain: ~3900'
Peaks: Carrigain (4700', NH4K)

Winter NH 4000-footer #14 for me!

More pictures: https://picasaweb.google.com/114607190336092730169/February192012MountCarrigain?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCKKoyqaZktC1vQE&feat=directlink