“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: April 25 2004

Attending: Dale & Chris Larocque, Fletcher Ferneau, Gabe, Simone, & John Chicoine

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

AMC huts, / shelters / camping site:

Weather: Mid 20’s at base, 30’ish on summit, bright and sunny

The second time for us on this peak in just over a month. This was a very special hike for us today; today we introduced three hikers to the White Mountains 4K experience. Dale and Chris were beginning the adventure of the father and son wilderness hiking and camping brotherhood. Fletcher is a seasoned Boy Scout familiar with hiking but never in the Whites and never on high peaks. This was very cool. We picked this peak because of its relative ease and safety as a late winter hike. This was perfect hiking conditions; a snow packed trail well packed by heavy use and an almost record cold night, (no post-holing). The sky was clear and blue, the air crisp, and the views were as nice as the high peaks ever afford.


Without a doubt the experience for Chris was eye opening in many ways. Miles, even 2.5 miles are a very long way to walk. Hiking mountains require a lot of “going UP”. And, when you break out of the crumholtz onto a summit the views are awesome. Another interesting revelation to Chris and Dale was that even though Mount Washington looked just a short hike away; it was over twice the miles we had just hiked to get to the summit we were on.

I do believe I can say without reservation, Dale thoroughly enjoyed the entire experience but I don’t expect he is likely to contract 4K fever. I do however suspect we could see him on a few more high-peaks every now and then. I need to focus on a few over-nighters with him that don’t include a 4k, which suits me just fine. I can definitely see Dale and Chris into Gray Knob shelter or Ethan Pond. Fletcher took the hike in stride, (at 6 Feet) about 1/3 the strides as the rest of us.

The summit was pleasantly cool, refreshing and inviting us to spend almost an hour renewing our spirit. Iinvited Dale and Chris to add a stone to the Cairn so they would remember for life that they were there. I wasn’t able to convince any of our newbies to join me in the ritual foot washing but I can tell you for sure that if that had they would have surely remembered that part of the experience!

Note to remember: Regardless of the excitement of beginning a hike, DON’T Forget to buy the parking pass! I didn’t remember that I forgot to buy the pass until we were 1/2 way down the hill. It made for a few anxious moments wondering if I would finish our hike with a $50.00 fine on the windshield. Thank God we didn’t.

I rather doubt we’ve added any members to our regular crew but I hope that we will be bringing anyone of these guys up north every now and then.

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)