“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)

Mt. Pierce (4310)

Trail: Crawford Path

Date: March 7 2000

Attending: Gabe, Simone, & John Chicoine

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

AMC huts, / shelters / camping site:

Weather: Mid 40’s at base, 30’ish on summit 40-50Mph wind, mostly cloudy,

What a beautiful day again, again! Again, our first 4K of 2000! We started at 10:00AM at the 1’ST parking lot on Mt Clinton Road. We took the Crawford Path to the top of Mt Pierce. The Crawford path to Pierce was a very easy path, well traveled in recent days. The section of the Crawford path that bears left at the Mizpah cutoff was less traveled but still a solid footpath. The Summit of Mt. Pierce was crusted over with rime-ice. The trees had it a foot thick but the trail had blown clear with only a 1/4-inch rime-ice crust. It helped our footing a lot over what we could see was an icy path that would have required crampons or at least some tricky rock hopping until just a few days ago. From the summit, we could see a couple of hikers on the side of Eisenhower. Simone thought they were on a rope because one of the hikers would go ahead a short distance and then the other would hike up and meet him, then the process would repeat until they traversed the whole side of the Eisenhower dome. It certainly was windy enough to merit that type of hiking. Even on Pierce it was very windy and Eisenhower is much higher, and the Crawford path is totally exposed for miles.

We had lunch for about 20 minutes on the summit; it was wicked windy but if we stayed low it wasn’t that bad. Coming off the dome, facing into the full brunt of the wind was a different situation. We got brain freeze from the wind chill in just a couple of minutes; even with the Wind-block balaclavas cinched down tight. I had to rush to remove my gloves to take a picture and get the gloves back on quickly. My fingers froze to the bone in the time it took to snap a picture. Fortunately it was only for a few hundred feet of open exposure before we would tuck behind the tree cover out of the direct wind. As soon as we got into the trees the sun made it nice enough to take the wind-blocks off. We met another couple on the trail right as we were getting into the trees, (before we had a chance to unbundled, so we must have looked real strange all bundled up while they still were still in head bands and vests. They asked Gabe to snap a picture of them so I stepped 2 feet off the trail to get out of the picture and sunk almost hip deep into the snow.

We brought our snowshoes, but we never needed them. Simone used hers on the descent, just for the fun of it. As we were dealing with the harsh conditions on the summit, I though about a conversation I had had with a friend of mine discussing the cost of his scuba diving gear, and comparing his expense to mine, and how he needed to spend as much as he did, because his life depended on his gear, but I was just hiking. He obviously has no clue how much trust my family and I put into the hands of the gear we use. But I do accept how instantaneously an equipment failure on his gear could be catastrophic.

 

We’ve still never seen this trail in the summer and although I suspect it must be very nice I think we plan to save this trail as one of our regular winter hikes. Although,,, if I had to bring a complete new-be up a 4K, (a sneakers and T-shirt kind of guy) this would be one of my top 5 picks.

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)

 

 

Mt. Pierce (4310)

Trail: Crawford Path
Date: April 7 2002

Attending: 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, 20’ish on summit 30-40Mph wind, mostly cloudy,

This was another new peak for Shawn, and we had a beautiful day for it! Again, our first 4K of 2002! Note! Try not to schedule a hike on Daylight savings morning. We started at 9:30AM from the 1’ST parking lot on Mt. Clinton Road. There was a foot of snow at the trailhead. We took the Crawford Path to the top of Mt Pierce. The Crawford path to Pierce is a very easy path, usually well traveled as it had been in recent days prior to this hike. Fortunately there had been recent snows to give us acceptable footing on a hard packed snow trail. Crampons would have been very useful for the hike especially for the descent. The section of the Crawford path that bears left at the Mizpah cutoff was less traveled but still a solid footpath. The Summit of Pierce was crusted over with rime-ice. The trail had been blown clear with only a 2-inch ice crust.

We had PopTarts for lunch while we enjoyed the summit for about 20 minutes. It was windy, but if we stayed low, it wasn’t that bad. Coming off the dome, facing into the full brunt of the wind was a different situation. In just a few minutes we experienced cold noses, and fingers. The short stay on the summit chilled our drinks into slushies’. As soon as we got into the trees it was nice enough to take the wind-blocks off. From a few random postholes on the trail, (other peoples, not ours) we could see that the snow was at least 3 feet deep in places. We brought our snowshoes, but we never needed them. Simone used hers on the descent off the summit for extra footing on the hard crust, but the trail was such a hard formed foot path that the snow shoes weren’t functional.

Well, we’ve still never seen this trail in the summer, and although I suspect it must be very nice, I think we plan to save this trail as one of our regular winter hikes. Although,,, if I had bring a complete new-be up a 4K, (a sneakers and T-shirt kind of person) this would be one of my top 5 picks.

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)

 

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)

“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)

Mt. Pierce (4310)

Trail: Crawford Path

Date: March 19 2005
Attending: Shawn White, 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, 20’ish on summit with winds gusting 40 – 55mph, bright and sunny

Another visit to a good friend: We don’t spend time up here. Life is changing, Gabe is hiking with us less and less and we just don’t do this enough. This hike was absolutely memorable. One for the books! The recent big snow falls of 2 feet of pure powder have left this trail a magical mystery tour.

From the base on up to the summit our path had hardly been traveled by more than a small hand full of Snow-Showers. To step off the 18 inch wide path pressed down into the landscape just a few inches deep was accompanied by a quick plunge into snow powder up to your hips and even deeper. The trees hadn’t shaken any of their snowy covered icing yet, (they looked like candy trees covered thick with white frosting in a ginger bread scene). The sun lit up the forests with glimmering diamonds of light reflecting off the sparkling surface of the snow from head to foot. Towards the summit where the sun and cold air had played their special magic, icicles hung from the branches like on a picture perfect Christmas tree.

“We are all travelers in the wilderness of this world, and the best we can find in our travels is an honest friend.”
Robert Louis Stevenson

The day couldn’t have been better for hiking; It just the right temperature that we could feel the cold all round us biting at the very surface of our skin, but not enough to make us feel cold inside, (untill we broke tree level). The mountain air was crisp and chilled and it filled our lungs like it needed to be there. Few places in our world (simone’s and mine, those others of us that do this), offer the kind of calling to come and do nothing but be there. It is a process that escapes all but a very few people. To invest the effort to climb the side of a mountain for several hours; to reach a summit where there is “nothing to do” (in the standards of the world). To brave bone chilling winds and icy trails to stand quietly and serenely and just let your eyes take in God’s marvelous handiwork and let your spirit be renewed by the assurance that surely this is no accident of chaos and chance.

“Never lose an opportunity of seeing anything beautiful, for beauty is God’s handwriting.” Ralph Waldo Emerson

On the summit we were able to stand with our backs against the wind and convince ourselves that we had each found adequate shelter against the chill to enjoy what seemed like the better part of a 1/2 hour looking at the surrounding mountains. We had almost unobstructed 360 degree views that are usually blocked by trees just tall enough to block the view, but today the snow was deep enough that the trees tops were just barely up to our knees. The 5ft. tall summit cairn was just a single rock protruding through the surface of the snow. (Simone couldn’t resist and had to sit on it for lunch.) We managed to take our ritual few pictures at the summit and trail sign, but at the cost of instantly and painfully frozen fingers as I fumbled for the button on the camera. Shawn and Simone waisted very little time covering the several hundred yard dash facing into the wind until you reach tree cover, but I was not so wise, attempting to snap the last few irresistible shots.

These pictures that are nothing more than disappointing reminders of how futile a photograph’s attempt is at capturing the majesty and beauty of the grandeur of the White Mountains, will have to serve as reminders that we will have to do this again. Soon! And with friends (or maybe new-bes, hopefully converts to this addiction.) Until next time!

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)

May God Bless !!!

 

 

Mt. Pierce (4310)

Trail: Crawford Path

Date: March 27 1999

Attending: Gabe, Simone, & John Chicoine

Miles: ???? Round trip Time: 3.75hrs up, 6.5hrs. total

AMC huts, / shelters / camping site: Mizpah

Weather: Sunny, mid 50’s at base, 40’ish on summit no wind, hot sun,

What a beautiful day! First new 4K of the new year! Started at 10:00AM at the 1’ST parking lot on Mt. Clinton Road. We took the Crawford Path to the top of Mt. Pierce, made the loop to Mizpah hut, then to the Mizpah cutoff, and back down to the Crawford Path.

The Crawford path to Pierce was a very easy path well traveled that morning with foot holes to step in. There was a section of the Crawford path that branched after the Mizpah cutoff that turned into a single footpath with a few blowdowns, but just enough to make things fun. (I’d say most people went the Mizpah hut way). The Summit of Pierce was crusted over and we had to kick our boots into the crust to make a safe footing, (here is where crampons would have made things a bit safer but snowshoes even with crampons were inappropriate.) We met a couple vacationing from Europe that had hiked from the Crawford hostile, up Crawford path, and from the Mizpah hut in street shoes and street cloths: I.E. He was in a dress leather jacket and dress shoes. She was in a parka that one would wear to the mall in winter. Mt. Washington was 5.5 miles away but the day was so clear it looked like we could reach out and open the doors on the buildings. The Crawford Path across the ridge over to Eisenhower and Monroe was snow covered and looked inviting to hike over to Mt. Washington. Later we heard that the sun and recent rains had iced Washington up so hard that you couldn’t get an Ice axe into it. The Ice was several inches thick.

It’s a good thing we brought our snowshoes. John and I used them on our way down from Mt. Pierce to the Mizpah hut. On the way we stopped at a large exposed rock outcropping to sun our selves and have lunch. The last 1/4 mile of the trail before the hut was very steep and we slid and stumbled and dragged the snowshoes under the trees, and post-holed 3 to 4 feet deep. John got cut and scratched legs because he was hiking in shorts! Gabe didn’t posthole much because he was light enough to keep from breaking through the crus, but with the hot sun in the afternoon heating the snow slope on the south-west side of MT Pierce we were postholing a lot but only on the short steep section. We pushed hard on the Mizpah cutoff path to get to Crawford path, mainly because we were unsure of the trails. All the blazes were under the snow so we couldn’t locate the trails by name. The sun sets early, and we didn’t have a lot of time to recover if we happened to be on a wrong trail. Once we got to Crawford Path it was a nice relaxing hike back to the car with 15 minutes of daylight to spare. One of these days we’ll have to do this again. We might even hike Crawford path in the summer just to see what the trail looks like.

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)

“Alas! how little does the memory of these human inhabitants enhance the beauty of the landscape!”
Henry David Thoreau

Mt. Moosilauke (4802)

Trail: Gorge Brook – Carriage Road – Snapper Tr.

Date: 11/25/98

Attending: Matt LeBlanc, Gabe, Simone & John Chicoine

Miles: 7.5-mile loop Time: 3 hours to summit. 6 hour total

AMC huts, / shelters / camping site: Moosilauke Ravine Lodge

Weather: Sunny, clear, gentle cooling breeze

Moosilauke Again!!! We love this mountain!

This is our answer to “BLACK FRIDAY”. Shop this!

This time it’s in new fallen snow! The snow was a foot deep or more at the base but the trail was well traveled and easily hiked in bare boots. Towards the summit there were a few blow-downs and we had to step to the side off the trail. We could see from the post-holes that the snow was at least 2 feet deep in most spots. Last night they had a sleet storm on the summit that sprayed the mountain with several inches of the finest snow we’d ever seen. What a Hike! Undoubtedly our prettiest hike ever and one that we will spend a lifetime looking for these conditions again.

The temps were perfect, 30’s at the base, and high teens on the summit with just enough wind to put a sting in the air. The air was so clear that if someone waved at us from the base, we could have seen him smiling. The snow formed a feather that extruded off of everything, even the tiniest pine branch. We took lots of pictures with a disposable wide-angle camera. I can remember shooting one of Gabe, Simone and Matt hiking along a ridge while I was off to the side, it looked like we were on Mt. Everest. Of all the trips this is the one that we lost the camera on. (After 2 years WE FOUND THE Camera, and you are looking at just a few of the shots! The lodge was closed. The road to the lodge and all the paths around the lodge were glare ice. (I meen total “skating rink” ice. The only way we could get down from the parking lot to the trail was to hug the railings (that were also covered in glare ice). Thank God the trails weren’t like the paths by the lodge. We only saw two other hikers the entire day; both passed us on the way up. Hey! What’s the hurry? If all goes well we hope to hike this one again the day after Thanksgiving 1999. What a lofty goal…

1. Moosilauke1 Matt Leblank, Gabe, J&S (Winter 1998)
2. Moosilauke2 Shawn, Ralph, Gabe, J&S (Winter 2000)
3. Moosilauke3 Shawn, Ralph, Gary, Gabe, J&S (Winter 2002)
4. Moosilauke4 Gary & Pete, Gabe, Noah, J&S (Winter 2003)
5. Moosilauke5 J&S (Spring 2009)
6. Moosilauke6 Chris, Joel, Shawn, J &S, (Fall 2011)
7. Moosilauke7 J&S (Fall 2017)

 

Mt. Moosilauke (4802)

Trail: Gorge Brook – Carriage Road – Snapper Tr.

Date: 11/25/2000

Attending: Shawn White, Ralph Chicoine, Gabe, Simone, & John Chicoine

Miles: 7.5-mile loop Time: 3 hours to summit. 5.5 hour total

AMC huts, / shelters / camping site: Moosilauke Ravine Lodge

Weather: Sunny, clear, cool wind

Moosilauke Again! Again!

Aint no mountain like dis-here mountain.

Exactly 2 years after our last spectacular winter Moosilauke Hike we done did it again. And true to this mountain’s character it was absolutely beautiful. The road to Ravine Lodge was snow covered with several inches but it had been well-traveled and fairly easy to drive. Timing is everything for this hike, we need snow on the mountain but not on the road. Too much snow on the road and they close it up for the winter. Not enough snow on the summit and it’s just another great hike. But if you time it just right the mountain transports you into a picture perfect world. Speaking of picture perfect between Ralph and us we shot 48 pictures.

On this hike, the base had several inches of new snow, increasing to between 12 to 15 inches of fresh fallen winter wonderland powder at the summit. As always the trail was well broken and easy to follow. From the lookout at the hairpin turn before the summit stretch, we could identify 20 or more 4K’s.

From the summit, we could see Mt. Monadnock in Massachusetts like it was part of the Whites. The temperatures on this hike couldn’t have been better for a winter hike. We started the morning at 9:30 in 20 degree temps, (felt a bit chilly and we all layered up but within 15 minutes we were stripping back down to the shirts.

It wasn’t until we reached the hairpin that we layered back up. This time most of us put on everything we brought. Shawn even stripped totally down to put on his polly thermies for the cold out on the open summit. As soon as we stepped above the tree-line we knew we were at 4800ft. on a brisk winter day. Without my Balaclava tight over my face, I got brain freeze on the forehead within a minute. The wind chill brought us down to the low single numbers but we were all dressed well enough to linger on the summit for 10 or more minutes. (All we could take without keeping moving.) We continued on over the summit to the Carriage Road ridge trail in search for a spot still on the top but out of the wind, for lunch. With the warmth of the sun and no wind we had lunch in a comfortable, sunny, 20+ degrees. We weren’t the only ones to know a good thing this day. The mountain had lots of visitors on this afternoon; at least 30 or more that we saw!

Not that we were trying, but we did the loop back to the car in 5.5 hours, with a good 30 minutes of break and lingering on the summit. Our second Thanksgiving Moosilauke hike was a delight. There’s nothing like God’s Wilderness Sanctuary to put one in the Christmas spirit. When Simone starts singing Christmas songs, (by Alvin And The Cipmunks,,,) you know she’s happy!

So let’s see,,, We could have spent the day driving around parking lots not finding any place to park. Then jamming my car into the last parking spot at the mall. Spent hours elbow to elbow with hordes of hacking shoppers, looking for that great deal on something so useless that we wouldn’t end up giving it to somebody for Christmas anyway. Bla, Bla, Bla, Bla, Bla,,, or spent the day with 4 great friends and 30 other like minded people on the greatest place on earth. I did the right thing!

 

1. Moosilauke1 Matt Leblank, Gabe, J&S (Winter 1998)
2. Moosilauke2 Shawn, Ralph, Gabe, J&S (Winter 2000)
3. Moosilauke3 Shawn, Ralph, Gary, Gabe, J&S (Winter 2002)
4. Moosilauke4 Gary & Pete, Gabe, Noah, J&S (Winter 2003)
5. Moosilauke5 J&S (Spring 2009)
6. Moosilauke6 Chris, Joel, Shawn, J &S, (Fall 2011)
7. Moosilauke7 J&S (Fall 2017)

Moosilauke; a visit to an old friend.

Trail:Gorge Brook

Date: 11/29/2002

Attending: Shawn White, Ralph Chicoine, Gary Gilchrest, Gabe, Simone, & John Chicoine

Miles: 7.5-mile loop Time: 3 hours to summit. 5.5 hour total

AMC huts, / shelters / camping site: Moosilauke Ravine Lodge

Weather: Snowing, White-out conditions on the summit

On this hike the base had several inches of snow increasing to between 12 to 15 inches of fresh falling winter wonderland powder throughout the hike. The trail was well broken in and easy to follow. This was one of Gary and Ralph’s first serious winter 4K hikes. We started up with solid cloud cover hiding the summit at 9:30 in 20 degree temps.

We found one!

Can anybody see the next one?

The white powder started falling within the first 30 minutes of our hike and continued for the rest of the day. The ride into the Ravine lodge was very tricky/slippery. Thank God for good tires. (The ride home was snow covered all the way down into Concord.) Dressing for this one was a bit tricky, we wanted to be in shirts and vests because of the temps, but the snow was soaking us enough that we needed extra layers to keep dry and warm. The down side of this extra layering was that we were wetting through from sweat. By the time we reached the last section of the climb where the trees thin out enough to get a preview of the cold winds, we were all as layered up as we could be.

What a disappointment when we stepped onto the open summit only to find such inhibiting white-out conditions. We could only guess where the summit was from past experience so we pulled out the compass in hopes of finding the first cairn. We decided to send out a scouting party to search for cairns to the top. We could see a human figure standing at a cairn, but we couldn’t see the cairns themselves (white on white). We managed to work this process for three cairns up towards the summit, but soon we would have to pull the person standing at the trailhead (loosing our century to the trailhead off the mountain.) We opted to call it off. So we didn’t touch the sign on the summit, (all of us have at one time or another) and one view of 30 ft. of white-out is a s good as the next.

Was this your lunch?

None the less, we all had a wonderful hike and the snow falling added such a pleasant feeling to the time we spent with this gentle giant

None of us wanted to leave. On our descent we opted to have lunch at the first section of the trail that provided us some shelter from the storm. We can’t wait for our next winter hike in the Whites.

Winter’s here! It’s time for snow-shoeing and cross-country skiing! To get any better than this, we’d have to be hiking into heaven. Thank’s God.

 

 

 

1. Moosilauke1 Matt Leblank, Gabe, J&S (Winter 1998)
2. Moosilauke2 Shawn, Ralph, Gabe, J&S (Winter 2000)
3. Moosilauke3 Shawn, Ralph, Gary, Gabe, J&S (Winter 2002)
4. Moosilauke4 Gary & Pete, Gabe, Noah, J&S (Winter 2003)
5. Moosilauke5 J&S (Spring 2009)
6. Moosilauke6 Chris, Joel, Shawn, J &S, (Fall 2011)
7. Moosilauke7 J&S (Fall 2017)

A hot drink never tasted so good!