“Now I see the secret of making the best persons. It is to grow in the open air, and to eat and sleep with the earth.” . . . Walt Whitman

Mt. Pierce (4310)

Trail: Crawford Path

Date: March 20 2010

Attending: Tyler Seidenberg, Simone, & John Chicoine

Miles: 5-mile Round trip Time: 2.75hrs up, 4.5hrs. total

AMC huts, / shelters / camping site:

Weather: Mid 30’s at base, 30’ish on summit, 40~50Mph. wind, bright and sunny

Simone and I wanted to do something special to celebrate Tyler’s Gold Medal Achievement. Not being all that into ceremony, rituals, pomp and circumstance, and standing around all day eating cookies and listening to commanders telling tails of what they used to do,,,, We figured we’d do what Gold Medalists from Royal Rangers are supposed to be doing. “Getting high!!!”, on the mountain tops that is.

Congratulations my friend!!!

This was the second time in two weeks that Simone and I had visited the Whites. I had intended to do this hike with Shawn two weekends ago but the weather forecast was calling for 50+mph winds 0~10 degree wind chill temps. Even though we were prepared for it, in a last minute panicked; I backed out and we hiked my favorite backup mountain, Bald Peak. (I should have stuck with the original plans.) Anyway!!! This was a spectacular hike! This was Tyler’s second 4K, and his first winter 4K. We couldn’t have picked a better peak, or a better day for this trip. The hike was comfortably warm for a winter hike; so much so that after the first 30 minutes we all needed to shed the layers down to the t-shirts for the hike up to the Mizpah cutoff. We stopped there just long enough to add a few layers and re-hydrate. I love the section of the hike from the cutoff up to the summit of Pierce. First and foremost!!! 90% of the elevation is done and the hike is much easier for this second mile. Second, it’s way less traveled and has a more, “wilderness” feel to it in the winter. (I have no idea if this is so in the summer because I’ve never seen this trail in the summer. :~) Finally,,, there are lots of nice views through and over the tree tops for much of this section, but the trees are thick enough to cut the wind.

The snow conditions for bare booting it were just borderline (only occasional post-holing) for the lower section of the trail, but by the time we got 1/2 way up the second section of the trail we all agreed that the snow shoes were more than justified. (On the way back down we did run into a few hikers that were bare booting it, but the evidence from the many post-holes tells me that we made the right choice in using our snow shoes.) The Mt. Washington forecast had called for 40 ~ 50 mph winds today, but with steady sun, and temps in the high 20’s I knew we would be fine. They were definitely spot on with this forecast. We could hear the steady strong wind the whole time we were on the upper section of the trail and I knew we were in for a treat as soon as we broke out of the trees. Wicked cool! I’m glad we weren’t disappointed. As soon as we got into the exposed section of the trail things got a bit more serious. But not too much; Just enough to make this 4k hike exciting! AS IT SHOULD BE! After all, it is a 4K and I’d have hated to have this hike be no more exciting than it is to hike Mt. Watatic. I wanted Tyler to have the kind of hike that he would remember for a lifetime!

By rights it should have felt much colder on the summit especially considering that degree of wind, but the wind itself wasn’t very cold, and when the clouds weren’t blocking the sun, we were more than comfortable enough. At this point all of us had layered up with everything we had brought, (and were glad for it.) but we had no problems staying on the summit enjoying the views for at least 1/2 hour. As always we hated to leave, but the Park Rangers don’t let anybody live there so we reluctantly began out long trek home.

God must have known just how special this hike was to all of us and pulled out all the stops! He even blessed us with one of our, (and now Tyler’s) most coveted experiences of hiking in the Whites. A friendly visitation from some hungry Grey Jays! What a treat it was to watch another 4k hiker experience his first encounter with feeding a wild bird right out of his hand. (Simone took at least 20 pictures of Tyler with the birds!)

Dude! We’ll have to do this a lot more! You’ve just got to do Moosilauke, and Laffayette, and camp out in October on Bald Peak, and hike up Mt. Blue via Beaver Brook, and Mt. Garfield, and …….. It’s a good thing you’ll be living in Plymouth N.H. for 4 years.

Links to all the pierce hikes:

  1. Pierce 1 – (2014, Carrie, Winter)
  2. Pierce 2 – (2013, Ben, Winter)
  3. Pierce 3 – (2010, Tyler, Winter)
  4. Pierce 4 – (2000, Gabe, Winter)
  5. Pierce 5 – (2002, Shawn, Gabe, Winter)
  6. Pierce 6 – (2004, Gary, Shawn, Gabe, Winter)
  7. Pierce 7 – (2004, Dale, Chris, Fletcher, Gabe, Spring)
  8. Pierce 8 – (2005, Shawn, Gabe, Winter)
  9. Pierce 9 – (First summit, 1999, Winter)