Elevation: 1,587 ft (overall) 2,045 ft (total)
Time: 2:56 Summit 4:28 Total
Trails: Old Halfway House Trail, Cart Path, Mossy Brook Trail, Marian Trail, Marlboro Trail, Smith Summit Trail, Great Pasture Trail
The primary goal for this hike was to do some trails that I haven't done for a while. I was going to do a longer route up and then would decide on my route down once I was at the summit. The start of the hike was nice. It was good to see things finally starting to green up in the woods after such a drab end of winter and start of spring.
Green developing in the forest
At an early stop for a few photos, I was lucky enough to have the surprise of a deer eating in the trees only about 35 feet from me. Once I noticed her, I tried to stay still and quiet to keep from scaring her off. Eventually another deer stood up out of it's bedded position as well. This second deer appeared to be last years fawn from the doe I was already watching. Over time I started to move around more trying to get photos and even made some noise. The deer were unphased by this and had already decided I wasn't a threat. Eventually I moved to get a better view and they soon came even closer while continuing to eat. Once they were about 25 feet from me, I decided I would leave them be and get on with my hike. It was a pretty interesting interaction with them.
A deer eating behind some saplings
The rest of the hike up the Old Halfway House Trail went smoothly and quick. Soon I was at the intersection with the Cart Path. This trail is an easy walk through mostly open hardwoods. It stays at almost the same elevation for the entire length of it. As soon as it moves into the softwoods though, the trail ends and becomes the Mossy Brook Trail.
The Mossy Brook trail follows the path of the Mossy Brook crossing it one time. It has a completely different feel to it than the Cart Path with spruce trees all around and moss covered rocks in the brook. It's nice and quiet here and had much more green today than the trails up to this point. At the top of the trail, instead of going right and up to Monte Rosa like most would, I headed left up the Marian Trail to the Marlboro Trail.
Mossy Brook Trail
This was another quiet trail today. I saw some moose sign early on, but never did see any wildlife. On this trail I was starting to get up into the low clouds for today, so the few viewpoints on the route didn't provide much to look at.
Marian Trail
The Marian Trail comes out relatively low on the Marlboro Trail for how long you have been hiking. So there's still quite a bit of climbing to do before the summit. Today I was lucky enough to see almost no hikers at all until just before the summit. Unfortunately, there were more hikers than I would have expected for a cloudy day and also one quite loud group. Normally I find a spot off to the side of the summit and enjoy my time up there even when crowded. But today, with the lack of views and the loud people making what had been a nice quiet hike less enjoyable, I headed down pretty quick.
Summit in the clouds
I had been thinking about doing some route down that would get me towards the park headquarters so I could hike back on the Parker Trail, but based on the loud group and the direction its members seemed to be heading, I quickly changed plans and headed down the Smith Summit Trail. It's one of my favorite trails anyways, and I decided I wanted to descend via the Mossy Brook Trail. I had enjoyed it and the quietness over there so much earlier, I decided to get back to it so I could forget the loud group on the summit.
Hiking down out of the clouds
The hike down went pretty quick and without any issues. I saw only 5 other people on the entire descent and got to have the woods mostly to myself with plenty of peace and quiet. I also got back tot he parking lot shortly before it started to rain lightly. So I didn't even get wet.
Conditions on the summit: Cloudy with an average wind speed of 9 mph with gusts up to 13 mph. 46 degrees with a 43 degree wind chill.
For the fully gallery of photos, go here
Route for the day
