Mt. Pierce (4310)

Trail: Crawford Path

Date: March 14 2004
Attending: Gary Gilchrest, Shawn White, Gabe, 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 with 20Mph wind, bright and sunny

The day started out very much the same as most of these hikes do (dragging our sleepy buts onto the road before sunrise). We made the pickup at Shawn’s by 6AM. In our original preparations over the phone we all agreed that this could be a “snowshoe” hike so we had lots of extra gear strapped to the fanny packs. As we pulled into Gary’s driveway, Gary hoisted a fully loaded backpack onto his shoulders and ambled towards the car; Shawn glanced half surprised at Gary’s pack and said “it looks heavy”, then continued with “he always manages to pack some totally useless item that he digs out of his pack during the trip.” We laughed. He does! All packed and on the road the trip has become a mindless trek of habit as if the car does the trip on it’s own. Lord knows the miles drone by. The trip never varies; not even the routine stop at Tilton’s McDonalds for breakfast and a bathroom break. We’ve done this a hundred times over the last 5 years. A necessary passage; the dues we pay to satisfy an unexplainable thirst for the trail that brings this merry band of adventurers together. 3+ hours up and 3+ hours back. Just enough time to catch up on what’s been on our minds lately. Sometimes we spend more time in the car than on the trail. The miles have nit us together.

We hit the trailhead by 9:30. At the trailhead we all opted to leave the snowshoes behind. Not that there was anything about the deapth of the snow at the parking lot, or how the snow looked on the mountains we passed by on the way to the trailhead. (I guess we just didn’t feel like taking the things for anoter walk as we so often do.) I can’t help but laugh; as our group was prepping ourselves in the parking lot for the hike we were un-packing the snowshoes, strapping on fanny packs over home-made polar fleece vests, (well worn gear), and tattered hiking shorts. Another group was prepping itself with the latest gear, plastic mountaineering boots and crampons, gaiters, and wind-pants with Gore-Tex shells over several layers of EMS’s latest goods, topped with perfectly packed day packs.

“The happiest man is he who learns from nature the lesson of worship.” RALPH WALDO EMERSON

This was the first 4K of the year for all of us; the steps weighed a bit heavy, the miles seemed like MILES. It felt good to be putting one foot before the other on the trail of a 4K again. The trail had a nice covering of a few inches of fresh fallen snow to make the footing soft and secure. After the section of the trail that splits off up to the Mizpah hut the Crawford trail towards the summit of Pierce was almost unbroken. I love this section of the trail where most people have branched off to Mizpah. Up until now Gary hasn’t been a big “4K winter peak bagger” but he’s rapidly becoming a winter hiking convert. No heat! No bugs! Soft snow covered trails! No boulder bounding! It’s all cool. We reached the summit in good time. The stretch from the Crawford path sign (where the group pictures were taken) up to the summit (only a few hundred feet) was as it usuely is, wind-blown and mostly clear with ice covering most of the trail. This is the trickiest section of the hike. We’ve often found the summit hard crusted over making it very slippery. Even though it was cold up there, once we made our way to the summit cairn, if we stayed low we were warm enough to settle in for a long lunch and a big heaping helping of the spectacular views. We took our time. We took lots of pictures. We took only what fed our spirits.

Then, in the midst of our “joy unspeakable” as we were sharing a few snacks and basking in presence of God’s finest handiwork, (what a wonderful place to be.) Gary rummages through his insulated lunch pack and offers up, “Anyone need an ice pack to keep your food cold?” There it was. The useless item. Unanimous Spontaneous Laughter broke out has he held up a frozen blue plastic ice block. “It’s a habit, I chuck it in my lunch box every day when I pack my lunch.”

As always, parting was such great sorrow, but we had to leave the summit sometime. Our hike down was a lot of fun sliding “glissading” down the softening afternoon snow. The hike over, the thirst quenched (for a while) and this fellowship of hikers successfully completed another hike. Nothing left to finish but the long drive home.

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)