Mt Cardigan

(3155)

Trail: West Side Trail from Cardigan State Park

Date: Saturday 03/5/09

Attending: Nicky, Olivia, Simone, & John Chicoine

Miles: 3.3 mi. Time: 1.5 hours to summit. 3hr 15min. total.

AMC huts, / shelters / camping site: None

Weather: Cool and clear fall day, with a stiff wind on the summit

Mt. Cardigan is a wonderful mountain and if you decide to hike it from the west side it certainly lives up to its reputation as having one of the best views in New England, for the least amount of effort. In hardly more than 1.5hrs of moderate hiking you find yourself standing atop a spectacular 360 degree view with an open summit that shows off many of the high peaks in the White Mountains as well as the high peaks of the Green Mountains. This isolated peak is located far enough north in New Hampshire and just far enough west to make the high peaks of both Vermont and New Hampshire look like you could reach out and touch them. Add to the hike the extra treat of early March snow on the trail, a clear brisk winter day, 40Mph winds and the gentle warmth of the mid day sun in late winter and you have a near perfect day.

Getting there: From the AMC guide: “VIA TRAILHEADS AT CARDIGAN STATE PARK: From I-89. Get off of exit 17 and head east on Route 4 towards Enfield and Canaan. Once in Canaan make a left onto Route 118 towards Orange and Rumney. At roughly a half mile north of Canaan make a right at the Cardigan State Park sign. Bear right after crossing over a stream roughly two and a half miles. The road to the parking area (.4miles long) will be on your left, roughly a mile past the creek (closed in winter and early spring).” (Add the .4 mile easy hike to the 1.5 mile summit mileage.) The road can be quite muddy & rutty in wet conditions.

Our morning started off with a few frantic phone calls to our usual hiking buddies; considering we had only just decided to bag Cardigan that morning and we hadn’t made any prior plans with anybody. By 9:00AM it was obvious that we were going to hike this one without company. Then! I remembered what the AMC guide said about this mountain being a great candidate for a first time hike for children. We had taken our Great Niece and Nephew up Mt. Monadnock last summer and that wasn’t too bad. So we decided to bring then along for this hike. Our day started off unusually late; 10AM, with a long meandering 2.5hour drive up Rt. 10 in New Hampshire. Mt. Cardigan seems like it’s one of those “You can’t get there from here” type of locations. The most direct Rt. from central Mass. is Rt. 10, (a whistle stop 2 lane back water putt putt, that winds up the western side of New Hampshire passing the center of every village with a population greater than 10). We finally arrived at the Cardigan State Park road at 12:30 and hiked in to the trailhead by 1’ish. The outhouses at the state park were open! Very handy with kids. The trail was well marked and well packed in. At no time were there any parts of the trail that exceeded a moderate grade of hiking. Even with a 30lb pack (food and drinks for 4, crampons for 4, stove, pot, hot coco and cups for 4, and all of Nick’s and livie’s extra cloths, a heavy digital camera with 4 dead batteries, and a complete set of replacement batteries also DEAD!), the elevation gain felt very comfortable. If there were any sections that were just a little strenuous they didn’t last longer than 100ft or more.

As far as the aesthetics of this mountain, (We’ve never met a mountain we didn’t like.). The Krumbholtz section near the summit is particularly pretty with nice views and lots of open space between the trees. The summit is almost identical to Mt Mondanock, (except for the fire tower.) but the views are even nicer. Considering this mountain is only 40Ft. lower than Mt. Mondanock, the hike/pleasure quotient is definitely a 10. If we had a working camera this is where we would have posted lots of very nice pictures! (for those you’ll have to check out other peoples sites, or wait for us to go up again and take a working camera. ) Speaking of going up again,,, That’s a given. Because of the wind and ice, we never made it to the high hut near the summit. (Reason #1 to hike it again), and because we didn’t have a working camera we have to go up again just for the pictures. (Reason #2), We know of at least 2 carloads of people we want to bring up there, (Reason # 3 & 4). I absolutely have to hike this as a Royal Ranger event; Reason # ….. well you get the point.). This one might just make it to the “at least once a year” list.

Bald Peak

(2300)

Trail:North Kinsman Trail

Date: Over night 10/13-14/06

Attending:Simone, & John Chicoine

Miles:4.5-mile round trip Time: 2 hours to summit.

AMC huts, / shelters / camping site: None

Weather:Fantastic Columbus Day Hike

This was our first backpacking trip in two years. I can’t tell you how nice it was and how spectacular it was to have the most perfect experience we could have ever hoped for. The trees were in full peak fall colors. The 2 mile hike to Bald Peak was just enough. Two miles/two hours & 2000 feet to a wonderful private spot just on the back side of North Kinsman. We camped right on the summit. We couldn’t have asked for a nicer night, (low 30’s), full moon, and a crystal clear sky. Watching the Moon come up over the Kinsmans was even better than watching the sun set over the Green mountains of Vermont. The entire event was picture perfect.

The morning quickly warmed up into the low sixties for the day. Our hike up was just about our limit, but the hike down was enjoyable. We stopped at the lowest stream crossing to venture down stream enough to bath in the river and clean up. The lower river has a real nice campsite just 200ft. off the trail, right next to a 15ft tall waterfall to shower in. We got back to the car by 10AM leaving us the better part of the day to ride arounf the western path of Franconia. (This was one of the first and only times we’ve done sight seeing up in this part of New Hampshire. We spent for an afternoon riding from Franconia to home all on back roads, We even drove 8 miles on a dirt road next to Mt Moosilauke.

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Bald Peak

(2300)

Trail:North Kinsman Trail

Date:03/07/2010

Attending:Shawn, Simone, & John Chicoine

Miles:4.5-mile round trip Time: 2 hours to summit.

AMC huts, / shelters / camping site: None

Weather:Fantastic

This was a bailout hike that shouldn’t have been. The Mt. Washington forecast from the day before had predicted a bright sunny AM from a cold front pushing in with only 20degree ambient temps, and 40 – 55mph winds producing 0- 10 degree wind chill. It never happened, the front stalled about 12hrs, producing one of the nicest winter hike days we’ve ever seen this early in March. Unfortunately we didn’t know that there were no winds, the temps were into the low 40’s and the sky would stay cloudless all day until.

Now don’t get me wrong, Bald Peak is and was on this day absolutely fantastic. The trail was nicely hiked. (Not excessively so that is wasn’t an enjoyable winter hike.) There was lots of deep clean snow with a narrow well defined packed path cutting through surrounding powder. The summit of Bald hadn’t been trampled at all, just one or two narrow and hardly hiked paths to the main 2 vantage points. As the day progressed the powder warmed up enough to make perfect snow-ball making snow. We spent an hour just sitting in the open air, bright sun, and beautiful surroundings. The trench back down the warmed snow made for a quick 1 hour descent.

Unfortunately I can’t get my head around this hike at all. We knew what to expect, we planned for the cold weather, we could have managed most any day hike-able 4K even with the predictions. I think I let the forecast psych me out and I panicked. Nothing was going right…. I spent the better part of the previous day looking for an accessible 4K that would be a reasonable hike. Mt. Pierce is a great #one pick, and it certainly was the primary consideration, but I focused more on what my options would be, but I never really picked a peak! I figured it would come to me on the 3 hour drive up there. (it didn’t) Even as we were driving I thought about staying lower in the state, (The lakes regions) and bagging a peak there just to avoid the wind chills, but when we got to that area there was not really much snow. Welch Dickey didn’t look any better, I didn’t want to bother driving all the way over to the Mt. Washington valley if the hike had a good chance of being uncomfortably cold for the duration of the hike. As we drove through Lincoln we started to consider Lafayette. (We should have gone for it.) All of the high peaks had cloud caps. As we drove by Lafayette we could clearly see the speed of the clouds blowing over the top. (There was the wind!) (We should have gone for it.) I had about 10 seconds before I passed the cutoff to Franconia! I made the call! Bald peak! Within 5 minutes of getting out of the car I knew I blew it! Considering 6+ hours of drive time, starting out a 6AM, for 3 hours of easy hiking,,, (We should have gone for it.)

Mt. Pemigewasset (2900)

Trail: Indian Head Trail (South of Indian Head Resort)

Date: Monday 3/20/00

Attending: Gabe, Simone, & John Chicoine

Miles: 4-mile round trip Time: 2 hours to summit. 3 hours total

AMC huts, / shelters / camping site: None

Weather: Fantastic frist day of spring, mostly sunny, in the 40’s

To get there from Lincoln, take 93 North and branch onto Rt. 3 North towards the Flume. Just as you see the Indian Head Resort, the trail-head on the west side of Rt. 3 is clearly marked for Indian Head. The trail is 1.7 miles of steady moderate hiking after you pass through the two bridges under Rt. 93 North and South, and 2 tenths that are steep, but no rock scrambling. The Whites got 10 inches of snow a few days before we got there, but the sun had turned this into 6 inches of heavy soft snow on top of a 10-inch solid base. This proved to be tiring combination to hike up on. Simone used her snowshoes for the entire assent, Gabe and I packed ours up. Simone just had to use them one last time this year. The temps were hot enough that we hiked in t-shirts and shorts. Un-knowingly, we had picked the trail less traveled; We were the first to break trail all the way up! I couldn’t believe no-one had bagged this mountain over the weekend. (This was a good thing). Especially on this trail because it is so well marked. I have never seen a trail in the Whites this heavily marked. When we reached the place where the south trail, converges with the north branch of the loop, we were blown away by how heavily that trail had been hiked. There must have been a hundred people that used that trail over the weekend. The summit of Indian Head is really nice, with some great views of the Franconia Range. We spent about 20 minutes on the summit, and headed back the way we came. As soon as we got off of the steep knob, I decided we should try trail running through the snow. It was a blast!!! The snow had softened up substantially, so we were slipping, sliding, and post holing to mid calf, like a bunch of drunken fools, whooping and laughing at ourselves all the way.

We must have run off a mile or more of the trail. We heated up so much we started a snowball fight just to cool off. We originally intended to hike the Benton trail up the back side of Mt. Moosilauke, and after driving 1.5miles down an unplowed road, we reached a closed gate, 1.5 miles from the already 3.9 mile trail, we just couldn’t do an 11 mile hike. (It would be nice of the AMC book mentioned the road is closed in the winter.) So, we didn’t get to Indian Head trail until 10:30, but we still got back to the car by 2:00. I like days when we can get up there, hike, stop at LL-Bean, and be home by 6:00PM. And although I would most likely never bother with this trail in the summer, I highly recommend as a winter hike. But use the south branch of the trail, and avoid the crowds! Come to think of it, this is one of the few hikes in the whites that we didn’t see other hikers all day. Note! We’re not snobs; we actually like it if we see a few other hikers.

Mt Morgan  (2227)    &   Mt Percival  (2212)

Trail:Mt. Morgan, Crawford-Ridgeploe, Percival Trail

Date: Sunday 12/31/2001

Attending: Gabe, Simone, & John Chicoine

Miles: 2.1 up Morgan, .8 along Crawford-Ridgepole, 1.9 down Percival, .3 back to the parking lot.

Time: 4 hours total,

AMC huts, / shelters / camping site:

Weather: 25 degrees, sunny, dusting of snow, 10% ice on sumit domes

Happy New Year! Again, (Almost)

Another fun little hike on the Squam Range just outside of Holderness. This is the second time in 3 years we’ve hiked this section of the Whites with an almost total absence of snow on New Years day. We finally did this loop the way 90% of the hikers do it. Once again the Mt. Morgan parking lot was filled to overflowing while the Mt. Percival parking lot was empty. Mt. Morgan is an easy hike offering a most delightful “optional” challenge at the very summit. You can choose to reach the summit via a steep ladder climb over three ladder sections that you have switch onto as you climb up into a rock crevasse/tunnel with a small crawl through an opening that opens up to your first views of the hike. From there it’s just a few more ledges to another great view spot just a few hundred feet from the summit. Throw in some ice inside the crawl space and a thin crust of snow covering the ledges, and you’ve got a wicked fun time. All this fun can be avoided via a .2 mile hike around to the summit. We continued over the Crawford-Ridgepole trail .8 miles to Mt. Percival. The trail is nowhere as well traveled as the Mt. Morgan and Mt. Percival trails. Mt. Percival has a few hundred feet of rock scrambling to get off the top knob that needed lots of care to ascend because of the ice and snow.

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Mt Morgan (2227)

Mt Percival

(2212)

Trail:Mt. Morgan, Crawford-Ridgeploe, Percival Trail

Date: Sunday 1/01/2004

Attending: Shawn, Gary, Noah, Simone, & John

Miles: 2.1 up Morgan, .8 along Crawford-Ridgepole, 1.9 down Percival, .3 back to the parking lot.

Time: 4 hours total,

AMC huts, / shelters / camping site:

Weather: 25 degrees, partly cloudy, dusting of snow

 

What’s New Years Day without the annual pilgrimage Mt. Morgan.
(Just another rotten day in the flat lands.)

What better way to bring in the New Year than with good friends and family hiking the Squam Range just outside of Holderness. This is the third time in 4 years we’ve hiked this section of the Whites. This was another year with an almost total absence of snow on New Year’s day. We did the loop the way 90% of the hikers do it. by 9:30 AM the wind was blowing and the sun was nowhere to be seen. We were quite sure we had “under dressed” in just WindBlock shells and PolarTech vests. The only other hikers arrived at the same time we did and both of those groups were dressed for a polar caps expedition. As fate would have it, we were dressed just right!

Mt. Morgan is an easy hike offering a most delightful “optional” challenge at the very summit. You can choose to reach the summit via a steep ladder climb over three ladder sections that you have switch onto as you climb, up into a rock crevasse/tunnel with a small crawl through an opening that opens up to your first views of the hike. From there it’s just a few more ledges to another great view spot just a few hundred feet from the summit. Throw in some ice inside the crawl space and a thin crust of snow covering the ledges, and you’ve got a wicked fun time. All this fun can be avoided via a .2 mile hike around to the summit. (I know I said that on the first Mt. Morgan trip report.)

The Mt. Morgan trail was hard packed and icy but passable with bare boots and care. When we reached the point where you have to choose to reach the summit via the steep ladder climb or by the path loop, Shawn voiced, pointing to the ladders, “That’s for me” joined by Gary’s, “Me too!” Cool! The ladders were dry and safe with just a little ice in the crevasse crawl. The ledges on the other side of the tunnel were less icy than they had been in 2003, and the summit cliffs looked much more like they should on a cloudy summer day than on New Year’s day.

We continued over the Crawford-Ridgepole trail .8 miles to Mt. Percival. The trail is nowhere as well traveled as the Mt. Morgan and Mt. Percival trails. Mt. Percival has a few hundred feet of rock scrambling that needed lots of care to ascend because of the ice and snow.

By 1:00PM the Mt. Morgan parking lot was filled to overflowing. The Mt. Percival parking lot wasn’t plowed for parking, but the state did make an extra wide sweep at the entrance to accommodate a few cars.

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Mt Morgan

(2227)

Mt Percival

(2212)

Trail:Mt. Morgan, Crawford-Ridgeploe, Percival Trail

Date: Sunday 12/05/2004

Attending: Shawn, Noah, Simone, & John

Miles: 2.1 up Morgan, .8 along Crawford-Ridgepole, 1.9 down Percival, .3 back to the parking lot.

Time: 5 hours total,AMC huts, / shelters / camping site:

Weather: 20 degrees, cloudy, wind and snow flurries

 

If this is Mt. Morgan, then it must be New Years day
(Not this time my friend!)

This is the 4’th time in 4 years we’ve hiked this section of the Whites. One of these days we’re going to have to hike this trail in the fall just to see the views of the Squam lakes region in full colors.) Once again there was very little snow on these hills. The 2004/2005 winter has had very low snow fall season. The Farmer’s Almanac predicted a heavy snow fall winter; It may still happen, but we haven’t seen any accumulated snow fall (even on Mt Washington)yet!

We like to hike Mt. Morgan first because of the “optional” challenge at the very summit. You can choose a steep ladder climb at the summit. (No way would we choose to do this stretch in winter/icy conditions going down. (Not that climbing down the ledges on the summit of Percival is much easier.)) This was Noah’s first time on this summit, (he tried to make it on 01/04 but he ran out of steam.) this was his first experience over the three ladder sections. At one point you have switch ladders sideways onto a ladder that runs parallel to one that you’re on then you have to hand scramble on your knees over icy rock face up into a rock crevasse/tunnel with a small crawl through an opening that opens up to more ice covered rock ledges. It was a bit daunting (as it always is.) But the spectacular views over the Squam lakes always elicits the same response as someone pops his head out of the cave, “Oh Wow.” This is your first unobstructed views on the hike. At that point you begin to realize you just climbed and crawled through something you don’t want to go back down, to have a few more moments of scrambling up something you’re not sure you want to climb up. But it’s just a few short snow and ice covered ledges to another great view spot just a few hundred feet from the summit. All this fun can be avoided (but who would want to unless you had to), via a .2 mile hike around to the summit.

The .8 miles to Mt. Percival via the Crawford-Ridgepole trail was covered with a fresh 1″ deep snow dusting and a few icy spots but passable with bare boots and care. (Bummer! we just bought crampons last weekend and it would have been cool to give them a try.) We weren’t in any hurry so we took a nice long snack break on the summit of Mt. Morgan. Just as we were about to pack up and head down off Morgan, we noticed two ladies, (about Simone’s and my age) coming up the trail from the Mt. Morgan caves direction. They had followed us up Percival and had seen us scrambling up the ladders as they continued via the by-pass loop on Mt. Percival. (The caves are a very challenging rout of the Mt. Morgan trail that is best avoided in winter.) It appears they knew of a loop on Mt. Moragn to avoid the caves, but couldn’t find it, so they attempted to go down through the caves. Big time no go! Lots of ice and crawling through tight spaces with no good footing. They had wisely decided to abort the attempt and to backtrack all the way to Mt. Percival. We offered to show them the alternate path down, but we knew there was a fair amount of tricky work to get down off the ledges for all of us. The ladies were more than happy to follow us down.

This loop has a new feature to it since we last hiked it on New Year’s day. There is a connecting trail from the Mt. Morgan Trail to the Mt. Percival trail down at the very bottom of the trail. This saves a lot of time, and keeps the heavy pedestrian traffic off the narrow and winding highway between the two trailhead parking lots. This is such a heavily hiked loop that this cutoff is an absolute must. There was a down side to this hike and that was the sight of all the logging that is going on all over the lower section of these trails. The forest is a mess of muddy skidder roads and the woods are really getting cleared out.

Mt Percival

(2212)

Trail: Percival Trail

Date: Saturday 1/1/2000

Attending: Gabe, Simone, & John Chicoine

Miles: 4-miles round trip Time: 2 hours to summit. 4 hour total,

AMC huts, / shelters / camping site:

Weather: 40 degrees, partly cloudy, dusting of snow, 20% ice on sumit dome

 

Happy New Year!

You’ll find the trailhead exactly 5.8-miles on Rt. 113 from Rt.25. on the left .3-miles after the Mt. Morgan parking lot. There is a barely noticeable dirt driveway with a 4″ X 8″ yellow sign on a tree about 30 feet in. The trail is a nice 2-mile moderate stretch with a short rock scramble at the top. In the winter the rock scramble can be a bit tricky, (I think that’s why most people hike Mt. Morgan, but we like the views from Mt. Percival better. The summit is an awesome open knob with great views. To the south, spectacular views of the lakes region, possibly none better in the Whites. (In the picture behind Gabe the white patches aren’t fields, they are the Squam lakes. To the north, you’ll see views of countless 4Ks. This time of the year with the leaves off the trees, gives views of the lakes for most of the entire hike.

This photo is facing north. (It doesn’t do it justice.)

The summit has two paths to it, one over a cliff scramble, and one through a cave formed by crevices between boulders. We tried to do the caves but they were just too cold and covered with ice. Remarkably, we didn’t meet anyone on the entire trip. Later, as we passed the Mt. Morgan Trail parking lot it was full to overflowing onto the road; we counted 38 cars. Our original plans were to make a loop up Percival over on Crawford-Ridgepole to Mt. Morgan and down the Morgan Trail. Not knowing how icy the Ridgepole might be, we decided to back track the Percival trail to the car; we had no idea of the crowd over on the next summit.

Mt Sunapee

(2730)

Trail: Andrews Brook Trail

Date: Tuesday 11/30/99

Attending: Gabe, Simone, & John Chicoine

Miles: 7.2-miles back and forth Time: 3 hours to summit. 6 hour total,

AMC huts, / shelters / camping site:

Weather:35 degrees, partly cloudy, fresh dusting of snow, light spuratic flurries

To get there traveling west on Rt. 103 to Newbury, turn left on Mountain Road just before reaching the center of Newbury. (If you reach Lake Sunapee, you’ve gone about 1/2 mile past Mountain Road.) On Mountain Road travel about 1.5 miles over two small bridges. Just before you cross a third bridge, there will be a yellow farmhouse on the left, and an obvious clearing for parking to your right. The Andrews Brook trail starts at the guardrail for the bridge. The trail is a wonderful, moderate hike that continually crosses back and forth over Andrews Brook for most of its length. At one point the trail is Andrews brook (spring) for a 100 feet or so. The trail was muddy in some spots, and there is need of some trail maintenance, but we really loved this hike and recommend it to anyone, in any season. At the two-mile mark you reach a spectacular alpine lake (Solitude Lake). About .3 miles towards Sunapee summit you reach the White Ledge, towering over Lake Solitude. The summit of Sunapee is about 1.3 miles from White Ledge. The trip can be made into a nice 7 mile loop by hiking Andrews Brook to Lake Solitude, branching northeast onto the Newbury Trail to Newbury center, (don’t forget to branch left at this junction .2 miles over to White Ledge) then hiking the 2.5 miles on the road back to your car on Mountain Road. Gabe was getting cold, so we just headed back down Andrews Brook, but I know we’ll hike every trail on Mt. Sunapee (especially Andrews Brook) lots of times. We picked up a trail map from the Sunapee Ski lodge, and there are several trailheads from the Ski area. You can even hike the Ski Trails up to the summit. There is a 54-mile trail called “The Monadnock Sunapee Greenway” that starts at Monadnock State park ends at Sunapee State Park. This sounds like definite possible future hike.

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Mt Sunapee

(2730)

Trail: Andrews Brook Tr, Solitude Tr, Mt. Sunapee

Date: Sunday 7/2/00

Attending: Gabe, Simone, & John Chicoine

Miles: 7.2-miles back and forth Time: 3 hours to summit. 5 hour total,

AMC huts, / shelters / camping site:

Weather: 80 degrees, sunny.

This was our second time on this trail. The parking lot was almost full when we got there at 11:00. The trail was somewhat muddy, but just enough to be a nuisance. The heat was definitely there, but the Humidity was relatively low, so the hike was tolerable. We brought the good camera in hopes of getting some good shots, but the air was too hazy the get any great distance pictures. All in all the views were from the ski lodge are well worth the hike. The Lodge was open, and the lifts were running, so there were lots of people milling about the summit. A lot of people use the lift to get to the summit, and hike the 2 mile loop over to Solitude Lake and back. (For that matter, Simone is hoping to do just that with Marty in a few days for Marty’s birth day.) The mountain entertains an all summer Mountain biking crew that buy a day pass for $20.00 take the lifts up, and ride down. They can use the lifts all day, and take as many rides as they wish. For the up and downers, it’s only $7.00 for the lift. Gabe tried a new spin on the hike this time, he hiked the whole trail bare foot. He was a one day Mt. Sunapee legend. The bugs were much as expected, if we kept moving, we avoided most of them, but if we stopped for a short break, they would drive us to get moving again within a minute or so. The forest provided some relief from the direct sun heat, but not much, and for the most part, there was hardly a breeze to cool us down.

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Mt. Welch & Mt. Dickey(2.7K)

Trail: Welch/Dickey trail

Date: 11/09/02

Attending: Royal Ranger Hike!

Miles: 4.5 loop Time: 5 hours round trip

AMC huts, / shelters / camping site: None

Weather: Partly sunny, 55 degrees

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Royal Rangers Outpost 88 Cornerstone Church (Winchendon MA) Trail Blazers and Challengers. Sounds Impressive Hugh!

In attendance: Adults… John Moylan, Gary Gillcrest, Nick Kuchta, Simone & John Chicoine; Boys… John Bauver, Gabe Chicoine, Dan Kuchta, Evan Huhtla and Joey Lilly.

This was an absolutely beautiful day, (Either we know how to pick em or a bad day hiking is better than a good day doing almost anything else.) Thank God for Indian summer! We met at the church parking lot at 7:AM, Packed a church Van, outfitted Joey with pair of boots, and hit the road by 7:10AM

The trail guide says to hike this loop counter-clockwise starting on the trail branching immediately to the right by the parking lot, but we hiked it clockwise. One of these days we may actually hike it that way, but “Not Today My Friend”. We could see the snow on the two peaks from Rt. 93 so I figured it would be best to bag Mt. Dickey first just in case the ice and snow made completing the loop too dangerous. I knew with enough determination and care we were likely to summit Mt. Dickey and safely descend it. Under dry conditions this trail is lots of fun and fairly easy, but not too easy. Because of the many steep ledges you have to traverse I don’t recommend hiking this trail in sneakers, (too much toe jamming without the support of a boot). We had some awesome icicles on the ledges ascending Mt. Dickey and there was some ice and snow covering melting off the granite slabs. (Thank God it was melting to the point that we had enough bare rock to hike on or it would have been a bit tougher hike). The trail has lots of open ridge walking, not for people afraid of high cliffs. At first Evan was just a little apprehensive of the cliffs, but within a few moments he adjusted to open cliffs. We took our time hiking the trails taking every opportunity to do a little trail-side teaching of animal tracks, following trail markers, and respect for the trail. Once we reached the summit on Dickey for lunch we did a little map and compass work pointing out some of the peaks in site. To this point we had not seen any other hikers on the trail and when we left the van in the parking lot there were no other cars. (I was wondering if the whole world knew something I didn’t). From Mt. Dickey I could see the heavily snow covered trail up the steep side of Mt. Welch that wasn’t getting the melting benefits of the sun. I knew if we managed to get down into the col we’d scramble up Mt. Welch regardless of conditions unless we hit ice. Just as we were dropping off the Side of Mt. Dickey into the col, we met our first hiker coming from the other direction. Good news! The steep side out of the col up Mt. Welch was slippery snow covered but manageable with lots of care, but the ledges down Mt. Welch to the south-east were mostly melted bare and dry. A first! We got to spend a few moments studying a 2Ft. long snake warming itself on the rocks across the trail. Wicked cool! This guy was moving real slow and we all had plenty of time to get to get a good look. (Later that night Gabe and I checked the books and we think it was an Eastern Milk Snake.) By the time we got back to the van we had few boys walking like old men. (And a few old men strutting around like a couple of kids) and smiles from ear to ear on every face. Mission Accomplished!

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Mt. Welch & Mt. Dickey

(2.7K)

Trail:Welch/Dickey trail

Date: 4/15/99

Attending: Matt LeBlanc, Gabe, Simone, & John Chicoine

Miles: 4.5 loop Time: 4 hours round trip

AMC huts, / shelters / camping site:None

Weather: Bright and Sunny, 55 degrees, with a moderate wind on the summits.

This was the first time we’ve done this one. We had originally planned to hike Mt Osceola but Tripoli road hadn’t opened yet. Bummer! The road had been clear for a long time because the snow season was short this year but the town is keeping the road closed anyway. It was a beautiful day, (either we know how to pick em or, A bad day hiking is better than a good day home schooling.) Anyway,,, The trail guide says to hike this loop counter-clockwise, starting on the trail branching immediately to the right by the parking lot but we hiked it clockwise. We liked it that way. You can see the faces of the people doing the trail the way the trail guide says to, instead of their buts as they pass us heading up the hill. The trail is lots of fun and fairly it’s easy, but not too easy. We had some awesome icicles on the ledges, and there was ice covering melting off the granite slabs we had to traverse. (Thank God it was melting to the point that we had some bare rock to hike on or we would have never made it.) The trail has lots of open ridge walking, not for people afraid of heights/cliffs. Matt and I had a very long, humorous discussion on a book we should write about the greatly feared Attack Mountain Chickens.

Gabe

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Mt. Welch & Mt. Dickey

(2.7K)

Trail: Welch/Dickey trail

Date: 9/5/99

Attending: Gwen and Gary Gilchrist, Gabe, Simone, & John Chicoine

Miles: 4.5 loop Time: 3 hours to summit. Rround trip 8:30 & 1:45

AMC huts, / shelters / camping site:None

Weather: Partly cloudy with thick haze, 75 degrees, with a light wind on the summits.

We hiked this trail for the second time this year; Once in late April with Matt. Lablank and this time with Gary and Gwen Gillcrist. They both agreed that this is a wonderful trail. Only 4.5 miles of moderate trail with almost 2 miles of it on open ledges with spectacular views from the open summits on both peaks. This is the nicest & easiest trail in the southern most parts of the Whites. Only 2.7k at the highest point these two mountains afford views of a dozen of the 4k’s. Today we really meandered along and took lots of time enjoying the warm weather and awesome views, so the 3.5 hour hike took 5.5 hours. The brook was dry this time of year, some one from another hiking party intentionally packed up had a 1-gallon water bottle and he was passing out water to the needy. Simone and I kept asking Gabe, “Where’s your hat?” so Gary asked talked this guy into asking Gabe where his hat was. If you can, remember to use the bathrooms at the info center as you get off Rt93 onto Rt49 towards Waterville Valley, (not the woods); the trail is heavily traveled. To get to the trail, take Upper Mad River RD, across the bridge, and follow the signs to the trailhead parking. As a closing note; It was really nice having Gary and Gwen along, for this hike, hopefully we can do some more hiking with them. I’d really like to see them get some good hiking boots so we can feel more comfortable inviting them to do trails we haven’t hiked before.

Trail: White Cross

Date: November 1, 1998

Attending: Matt. Leblanc, Gabe, Simone, & John Chicoine

Miles: 4.5 miles Time: 3 Hrs.

AMC huts, / shelters / camping site:None

Weather: Clear & Windy, wind chills down to 0 degrees

We did this one after church just to keep the legs in shape for the Whites. It was very cold with spitting snow here and there throughout the hike. The wind was howling, as it often is on this one. We got to the trail at 1:35 after church, The parking lot was full! We geared up and headed up the White Cross. (We don’t like the White Dot much, too well traveled, and polished rock). Mt Monadnock is not an “easy mountain” by any standards. It’s trails can hold their own for levels of difficulty, with most trails in the Whites, (they just arn’t as long). We had lots of good views because the leave were all gone by now. When we got to the summit we hunkered down for a snack, much like the rest of the crowds up there. Then we headed back down the White dot just because. We got back to the car at 4:30, and made our way to the Pizza shop in the center of Winchendon. It was a pleasant hike, but we were all glad we brought the wind and cold gear. Simone tried out her new Kelty Redwing backpack. She likes it!

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Mt. Monadnock

(3165)

Trail: Pumpelly

Date: November 21, 1999

Attending: Simone, & John

Miles: 9 miles Time: 6.5 Hrs.

AMC huts, / shelters / camping site: None

Weather: Clear & unseasonably warm in the high 50’s

What a day. What a hike! We got to the trailhead in Dublin NH. located on East Lake road. It was very difficult to spot; thank God we had the maps from the old AMC trail guide. I actually parked the cairn what looked obvious as a regular spot for parking, and I walked alongside the road for a few hundred feet, looking for the trailhead. We got to the trail late, 11:00, but we were prepared for the possibility of some night hiking, which we end up doing for the last mile of the day from 4:30AM to 5:30AM. We could have done the hike in six hours without breaks, but this hike is no slouch. Once again, Mt. Monadnock will not be classified as an easy bag. Although there are no particularly treacherous, steep, or lengthy elevation gain sections on the trail, it slowly takes its toll, as it scrambles up and down 4 mini summits before it reaches the main summit. We did notice that on this day, there were lots of rocks that wet and slick with slime from some rain we had last night, and the lack of sun. I suspect that the trail gets like this often. We summated at 2:05, and didn’t take more than 5 minutes to linger, we didn’t even sit. 4.5 miles, 3 hours & 10 minutes. We knew that we wouldn’t get off the trail before dark, with the sunset at 4:25. We stopped for a long break to howl at the moon, on the last lookout spot about a 1 & 1/2 miles from the trailhead. Just as we got off the last steep section of the trail, it began to dim, then gray out completely before our eyes, and even with a full moon, we couldn’t continue on for more than a few more moments without the head lamps. The car was a much welcomed sight, we were far more beet than we ever expected from what we though would be our gradual meander up the long slope up the north east side on MT. Monadnock. This trail is nice, but as I think I’ve implied, it can wear you down. I haven’t made up my mind if we’ll do this trail regularly or not, but I am glad we did it this day. See ya at the top.

 

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Ethan Pond tr. & Campsite to Thoreau Falls

Date: Saturday 4/20/02 – Sunday 4/21/02

Attending: Gary, Gabe, Simone and John

Miles: 11 Time: 24hours

AMC huts, / shelters / camping site: Ethan Pond Campsite

Weather: partly sunny, low 30’s during the day, high teens at night.

Another great spring overnighter in the Whites. This time we would not bag any high peaks. New England had just been through one week of unseasonably hot (90’s) for the last week and according to the rangers at Pinkham Notch, all the river crossings were at dangerously high water conditions. Not that this in itself would prevent an attempt at a high peak overnighter, but we had the limitation of not arriving at the trailhead until after 4:00p.m. We had to be able to make it to a shelter before dark.

The first mile to the Willey Range trail cutoff was mostly dry. Shortly after the cutoff the trail was a thin (less than 1 ft. wide) snow ridge from the old snow packed trail, that took much care of foot placement to stay on top of, otherwise you would posthole into several inches of mud or water.

The entire trip out to Thoreau Falls was like this, other than a 50ft. bushwhack required because a section of trail has been flooded over by beavers. The campsite was packed snow, (The shelter was completely taken up by a large family group). We cleared the snow off of one of the tent platforms; all the others only had a few inches of icy snow left on them. A few more nice days and they should all be clear. The outhouse was almost full to the base, of the toilet; I don’t suspect it could take more than a few more visits. I notified the AMC about this when we got home.

We bare booted the entire hike, but waterproof boots, gaiters and a spare set of dry socks in case of the inevitable slip into water or mud were the order of the day. Gabe did slip off an icy rock and soak his leg, and a boot, but we had the dry socks and his polar fleece pj’s under his hiking pants kept him warm and dry. Poles were helpful to stay on top of the packed snow ridge trail and helped when the path gave way (as it did often).

What a wonderful little trip this is. The first mile of trail is a steady uphill slog but then it levels out for the rest of the 1.6 miles to the campsite. We hit the trailhead at 4:30p.m. on 4/20, and made camp in just 2 hours. The night was cold, (in the high 20’s with a steady wind and the more time we spent outside the tents the colder we got. We turned in shortly after 8:00; after a quick cup of hot chocolate. My Primus stove wasn’t working too efficiently at this temp and it took at least ten minutes to heat a few cups of water. (Our plan was to have some hot oatmeal for breakfast, but the water was frozen and my stove was totally unusable at 20 degrees. Bummer! ) The next morning (7:30 AM), we quickly prepared ourselves for the hike and we day packed it out to Thoreau Falls; another 2.7 miles. This hike is well worth it at this time of the year. (What a rush. Literally!) We bushwhacked to the base of the falls and enjoyed the view and some sun for 30 minutes or so. (On a cold spring morning after a cold spring night we loved the warmth of the sun.) The experience was almost perfect except for one mutually shared disappoint though. We all wished Shawn was sharing the experience with us; He would have loved it!

We were back at the campsite by noon and the stove performed well enough to heat a few cups of oatmeal for lunch. The day never reached above freezing and after noon the temps began to drop again. We met a couple of hikers that hadn’t known the “eating out of your hands” habit of the Gray Jays. One of them immediately jumped up to try it, while the other looked on a bit skeptical. Within a few seconds a jay had landed in the first guy’s hand and the skeptic jumped up in amazement holding his hand full of GORP proclaiming “let me try that!”. Happens every time. We had to warn them not to feed the jays their entire supply of GORP.

(We’ve done that! It’s amazing how a couple of Gray Jays can eat a full portion of GORP.)We packed up and made it back to the parking lot by 3:00. Note, It’s well worth the side trip .3 miles to Ripley Falls, but don’t even think of attempting to bag the loop to Arethusa Falls; the Ripley Falls crossing is impassable at high water. You may be able to find a bushwhack around this crossing, but it will either be way above the falls, or way below them.

All in all, we all agreed that this hike was just right for full packs of cold weather gear.

Simone got to try the new Jack Wolfskin pack. It’s a dream.HAPPY Birthday Simone!!!

Love ya