Mt. Wolf (3,478 ft) 10-4-25

Distance: 13.1 mi.
Elevation: 2,660 ft (overall) 4,011 ft (total)
Time: 3:01 (Gordon Pond) 3:17 (Kinsman Ridge Trail) 4:24 (Mt. Wolf) 7:01 (Dilly Trail View) 7:36 (Total)
Trails: Gordon Pond Trail, Kinsman Ridge Trail, Dilly Trail (abandoned)

NOTE: The lower section of the Gordon Pond Trail has now been decomissioned, so this write up isn't as relevant as it was at the time. Please be careful if you are going to try and hike this section of trail as it is now not maintained or an official trail.

With some discussion about whether the Gordon Pond Trail is going to be closed on the lower end due in part to no place to park for it, I wanted to try and get a hike of it done while it was still open. I would rather check of a trail for redlining by actually hiking it rather than by having it close and no longer needing too. The original parking area for this trail was blocked off by the owner after people using it to swim in the river left too much trash around it. The trail also starts by basically walking up someone's driveway and right past their garage, so it is just a bit of an odd start to a trail. For my hike, I parked further down the road (east) at a pull off with ample room. I then walked up the side of the road to the driveway where the trail starts. With some intel from another redliner, I knew where I needed to go through the yard so that I could go through quickly without needing to wander around looking for the trail.

Once into the woods and on the trail, you find that it follows a dirt road through the woods that appears to still be used by someone who has maple trees tapped in this area for making maple syrup. This makes for easy walking until you get to the powerlines. The trail use to go straight after going under the powerlines, but now that there are more houses built on the road, it has been relocated and it now goes up the powerlines for a distance following an access road/path. There is a sign that makes it clear where you need to turn right to go back into the woods. This leads you back down so that you lose all of the elevation that you just gained. You will then turn left at another sign and continue on the original path of the trail.

The trail starts on a woods road that is still used

Turn back into the woods after going up the powerlines around some houses

At this point the trail follows and old railroad grade, so it makes for pretty easy walking and an easy start of the day. There were a couple wet spots of downed trees/branches to get around, but this was all good easy walking until reaching the powerlines again. Once I popped out onto the powerlines I turned right and followed the access road (snowmobile trail) until the bridge just a bit up the trail. I checked the map on my phone here (because it was acting up) and saw that I had gone past the trail. So I turned around and went back to where the trail comes out onto the powerlines again. Well, it turns out that the trail actually crosses here, but the vegetation was so grown up I didn't see that. There is a blue painted blaze on a tree on the other side of the powerlines, but the very narrow path leading to it didn't get my attention enough to see it. I pushed through the bushes, and was back on track into the trees again.

Following an old railroad bed

Less than obvious the trail actually crosses under the powerlines here

After getting back into the woods, the trail goes straight for a little bit until a sharp right turn that is marked by a plastic arrow sign commonly used for snowmobile trails. At this turn, the trail crosses a stream that was easy on this day with low water and plenty of rocks to step on. The trail then turns back to the left and follows what is an old woods road. This section of trail was wider than trails normally are and had a steady incline that kept you gaining elevation without being to difficult. This section was quite enjoyable and was a pleasant mix of green and yellow leaves as the foliage change hadn't fully taken affect yet in this area.

Stream crossing

Steady climbing on an old woods road

After plenty of easy hiking and climbing, the trail comes to the upper crossing of Gordon Pond Brook. While easy today with very little water, this crossing looks like it would be the trickiest part of the trail with spring melt or after hard rain. It isn't very wide, and the rocks slope down to the narrow path the water takes before sloping back up on the other side. This could be tricky (or slippery) with limited other ways around it. This brook crossing was interesting though because all of the exposed rock up stream from it makes it look like lots of water has come down through here at some time and it looks like it would have really been ripping through when it was.

Looking upstream at the upper crossing of Gordon Pond Brook

After the crossing, the trail still follows an old woods road as it gets closer uphill to Gordon Falls. The trail works past a small cascade in the brook on your left that I initially thought to be Gordon Falls, but after hiking further up, I believe Gordon Falls to actually be up where the trail crosses the brook as the trail levels out. At this upper section of falls where the trail crosses, there were some interesting old artifacts slowly being buried by leaves and dirt. The water crossing today was very easy, but if it were spring time or after a heavy rain, this could be trickier. The rocks where you cross are wide and flat so water probably wouldn't be super deep when running high, but the surface of the rock has lots of moss on it and it angles down stream, so it could be slippery with that water running over it.

Brook crossing at Gordon Falls

From the falls to the pond was nice easy walking as the terrain mostly levels out through here and there isn't really any climbing. It's just a plesant walk through the woods and along a small brook. You just need to pay attention for where the path to the pond breaks off to the right from the trail so that you don't walk right past it. The pond was a very pleasnt area and you can tell many people have spent the night in the area along the shore. It also provided a nice view up to Mt. Wolf, which makes it appear closer than the hike along the trail actually felt.

Mostly level from Gordon Falls to Gordon Pond

Gordon Pond with Mt. Wolf behind it

From the pond, it's a pretty easy and short walk to the junction with the Kinsman Ridge Trail. Just turning left here would have still made for a nice loop for the day, but I wanted to add in the out and back to Mt. Wolf from this side. This peak is a delisted peak from the NH 52 With a View list, but it can still be counted to the list since it was on it at one point. By hiking it from this side, I could get the trails on the other side by coming up from Reel Brook while hiking the Kinsmans or something similar. The Kinsman Ridge Trail is also the Appalachian Trail, so it was easy to follow and well marked.

Since the Kinsman Ridge Trail sees so much more traffic, the trail was now much rockier than the earlier sections I hiked today. The trail here does a mix of climbing and short level sections. It steadily works its way up to the ridge that connects a shorter subpeak and the summit of Mt. Wolf. It was starting to become pretty warm by this point of the day, so this section of trail was a bit slower going for me than I would have hoped. Before too long though, I was up on the ridge and it was an easy walk over to the spur trail that leads up to the small summit of Mt. Wolf.

Rocky section of Kinsman Ridge Trail with leaning trees

At the spur to the summit of Mt. Wolf

The summit of Mt. Wolf is a small opening in the trees. There was a group of 3 other hikers when I got there, and I was glad that they were almost done since there was so little space. Once they left, I had the summit to myself, but it was still hard no to be up against tree branches. With how limited the view has become from the summit, I can see why the peak has been taken off the NH 52 With a View list. The only really view is in the direction of Franconia Ridge, and you can't even see all of that above the trees without moving around. By looking through breaks in the branches, you could make out a few other summits like Cannon Mountain.

The small summit area of Mt. Wolf

The limited view from Mt. Wolf

If you are tall enough, you can see Franconia Ridge

After a while at the summit, I turned around and headed back towards the junction with the Gordon Pond Trail. This was very straight forward since I had just come through here. Unfortunately, after the junction, the trail had to climb uphill some more before finally descending down into Kinsman Notch. It starts with some steady climbing, before having a couple small ups and downs along the ridge the trail follows. With how warm the day was getting, this was taking a bit of a toll on me and I was slowing down through here.

Exposed rock section of trail coming back down to the junction

Some climbing up after the junction

On a downhill section before reaching the abandoned Dilly Trail, I finally took a nice 15 minute break in a shaded area with some soft ground to lay down on. I wish I had a spray bottle of water or something to cool myself off quicker, but laying on the cooler ground helped enough. After my break, I made my way to the now abandoned Dilly Trail Spur. This trail use to go all the way down to Route 112, but a forest fire did enough damage that the lower section was closed. Later on, the upper section was closed as well and the sign was removed. I knew what to look for to find the trail, but I didn't realize that it had been fully closed, so I didn't actually need to hike it at all today. Since I didn't know that until after, I made my way down the trail to the limited view point that is quickly growing back in. The trail was mostly easy to follow, but it is also clear it hasn't been maintained for a while. So I made my way slowly back uphill to the Kinsman Ridge Trail.

The abandoned Dilly Trail

Very limited view from the Dilly Spur

From the Dilly Spur Trail, it is all downhill until you hit Route 112 in Kinsman Notch. The trail gets pretty steep through here and it a little bit rocky. After as much climbing as I had done today, I took my time on my tired legs to make sure I didn't have any issues. I feel bad for the northbound AT hikers that have to climb this section, but then again the Whites aren't that easy on them at any point. I kept making my way downhill until I was finally at the crossing of Route 112. There is a nice parking lot here, and I had stashed my bicycle here earlier in the day on my way to my starting point. I took a bit of a break on a rock next to the parking area before finally hopping onto my bike. It was a long steady downhill ride all the way back to my truck. You can get some pretty good speed coming down the steeper sections of the road, but the road is in pretty good shape so I didn't worry much about that. It took me just 12 minutes to ride the nearly 5 miles back to my truck.

Steap rocky descent into Kinsman Notch

Google Earth representation of the hike

For all the pictures from the hike, just go HERE

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Carter Dome (4,832 ft) 9-29-25

Distance: 13.6 mi.
Elevation: 2,875 ft (overall) 3,542 ft (total)
Time: 1:24 (Wild River Trail) 2:23 (Rainbow Trail) 4:03 (Height of Land/View) 4:56 (Summit) 6:13 (Hut) 8:46 (Total)
Trails: Bog Brook Trail, Wildcat River Trail, Wild River Trail, Rainbow Trail, Carter-Moriah Trail

After discussing trails with a hiking friend and them suggesting using the Rainbow Trail to hike Carter Dome during foliage, I have been wanting to do some version of this hike. I came up with a loop that would get me all new miles for redlining other than the distance from Carter Dome down to Carter Notch Hut. My initial plan was to do a bit of a figure 8 starting from the Bog Brook Trailhead, but that did change slightly by the end of the day.

I started out on the Bog Brook Trail, which enters the woods just before the parking area for the trailhead. This was a nice gentle walk to start getting warmed up that included a few stream crossings that were easy to navigate today with dry feet. In the spring time it could be a bit harder to stay dry though. Down low the foliage was a nice mix of green with some leaves on smaller trees and plants that have started to change.

The second brook crossing. All crossings were easy like this today

At the junction with the Wildcat River Trail, I turned left onto that instead of staying on the Bog Brook Trail which would have been the shorter way to get to the Rainbow Trail. This was where my figure 8 shape came into play, trying to hike across the Wild River Trail to get back to the Bog Brook Trail so that I wouldn't have a 1.1 mile trail hanging out in the middle of this loop of trails afterwards.

The Wildcat River Trail starts off pretty gentle with good footing before getting a little bit steeper with more roots many places later on. The trail stays pretty close to the Wildcat River itself, all while traversing along the side hill above it. There is one brook crossing to navigate on this section of trail, but like the others earlier, it was easy to get across with dry feet. As I got higher in elevation, the leaves started to turn more yellow on the birch and beach trees as well as the smaller plants like hobblebush and ferns. Nearing the junction with the Wild River Trail, there starts to become a number of bog bridges in wet/muddy areas. Some of these are getting old and deteriorated, but I was still able to stay out of the mud just fine.

Fallen foliage on an easy section of trail

After a short break and snack at the junction, I turned right onto the Wild River Trail, where the foliage really started to pop for the day. There was lots of yellow and some orange through here, and the way the sun was coming in just amplified it all. For the most part this trail doesn't really gain much elevation, it just provides a way back across east to the Bog Brook Trail. It was pretty easy walking through this section, but there were a couple of muddy spots to navigate. It didn't seem to take long to get to the upper end of the Bog Brook Trail.

Bright colors on a section of the Wild River Trail

From the junction with the Bog Brook Trail to the junction with the Rainbow Trail, it was a nice walk through some good hardwood forest with more nice foliage. The trail slowly gains some elevation through this section while doing a few small ups and downs along the way. It was another enjoyable section to hike through.

The Rainbow Trail starts off with some gentle climbing through more hardwood forest. With other types of trees in here, there were small bursts of other colors in the foliage. Soon enough though, the trail gets steeper and climbs more steadily. Continuing further up the trail, it eventually comes to an opening in the trees in a section of birch glades where the trees unfortunately appear to have suffered lots of damage over the years since they have few to no branches remaining on them. The clear blue sky above the colorful leaves though made for a nice scene.

More variety in colors heading up the Rainbow Trail

The trail heading up through an open birch glade

Once you exit the open birch glades area, you are back into thicker trees that are now predominently softwoods. This is where the trail gets the steepest too. It is a pretty steady climbing with no real breaks until you start to get closer to the height of land where the view is. Through this section I was really starting to feel tired, I think in large part because of how early I needed to get up for the long drive to the trailhead. Once I reached the height of land though, I was rewarded nicely with some good views in a very pleasant location. Since I was a bit tired and sweaty, I found a large flatish rock and layed down on it to rest a bit and dry my shirt in the sun. After that break, I spent a good amount of time taking pictures and just enjoying the view.

Mostly back in the trees with steeper climbing

View towards the Presidential Range from the height of land

View of Carter Dome for the height of land

Once leaving the height of land, you go downhill briefly through some thick trees that leave a bit of a narrow path. Then the trail climbs steadily to the summit of Carter Dome. Shortly before the summit, the trail turns to the left and follows the sidehill a bit before coming out of the trees at the small opening at the summit of Carter Dome. The summit itself doesn't have much for views, but there are some to the north at a small opening through the trees. Since there once was a fire tower here (there are still remnants), there is a decent sized opening to spend some time resting.

Summit of Carter Dome at the top of the Rainbow Trail

I had thought about doing the out and back hike to Mt. Hight so that I could enjoy more views, but since I was more tired than I was expecting today, I decided to not do this and just take my time doing the descent. From the summit, I headed down the steep trail down into Carter Notch and the lakes and hut that are down there. The trail starts to descend nicely, but gradually becomes pretty steep. I took my time through here and didn't take many pictures. I did do the short spur trail on the left side of the trail that leads back uphill to a nice view point that overlooks the notch nicely. I then continued the steep descent down into the notch, where I stopped along side of the lakes to take some pictures there.

View from a side path dropping down into Carter Notch

It was feeling a bit hot out and I was still a little tired, so I took a nice rest on the bench outside of the hut. I have been inside multiple times before, so I didn't need to go in to see anything I haven't seen before. From the bench, there was a nice view up over the trees to the rocky cliffs that make up the southern side of Carter Dome, and the northern side of Carter Notch. After I was feeling better, I headed past the hut and the bunkhouses to make my way down the trail and back to my truck.

Looking back up Carter Dome from a bench in front of the hut

The trail leaving the hut area starts with a moderate descent, but then becomes pretty gradual for pretty much the rest of the hike back to the parking area. There are some bog bridges in wet areas that you will cross as you work your way back out of the softwood forest and back into the hardwoods. As I got lower down the mountains, I was starting to feel better again with some nice easy walking for the most part. I took advantage of the brook crossings along the way to splash some cool water and my face and head to help cool myself down some and feel a little bit better.

Mostly back into the hardwoods along the Wildcat River Trail

The crossing of Wildcat River just before the junction with the Wild River Trail

My initial plan was to take the Wild River Trail again so that I could make a figure 8 shape of the trails and get the 2.1 miles of the Bog Brook Trail that I went around this morning. But with how I wasn't feeling as energetic as normal, I decided not to do this and to save it for a later date. With the plans I have for the future and continuing past the Rainbow Trail and going further into Perkins Notch later on, I would be back in this area again. I will just hike that section of trail when I do those plans, and check it off then instead of rehiking a second time at that time. So because of this, I knew just what the trail conditions would be like for the rest of the hike out, and I just made it the shortest hike back to the truck that I could, while taking some time to splash up at the brook crossings and just relax at a couple of them to sit in a peaceful location and listen to the woods around me.

Google Earth representation of the hike

For all the pictures from the hike, just go HERE

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Mt. Jackson (4,052 ft) 9-13-25

Distance: 8.05 mi.
Elevation: 2,136 ft (overall) 2,592 ft (total)
Time: (with an 11 year old setting the pace) 2:36 (Mizpah Hut) 3:56 (Summit) 6:28 (Total)
Trails: Crawford Path, Mizpah Cut-Off, Webster Cliff Trail, Webster-Jackson Trail

This year for Flags on the 48 our group picked Mt. Jackson, largely so that a couple of the people that planned on hiking with us could have a shorter hike to participate with. In the end, their plans changed last minute, but we still went along as planned and had an enjoyable day. My youngest daughter and wife were going to join my oldest daughter and I this year as well, but my youngest changed her mind a couple days before the event (as a 7 year old will do). Because my oldest daughter has already done Mt. Jackson on her 4000 footer list (it was her first), this would be her first repeat hike of a 4K. Today we would be doing a different loop than the first time, so that was good to make the hike a little different.

Most of our group parked in the lot on Mt. Clinton Road, with a few team members parking along route 302 so they could come up the shorter way and meet us at the summit. Most of our group was going up the Crawford Path, then using the Mizpah Cut-Off so that we could make a quite side treck to the Mizpah Hut. From there we would take the Webster Cliff Trail to the summit. this allowed for a less steep route and better footing. On the way down, we all went the shortest way and headed down the Webster-Jackson Trail down to route 302. We then either walked back to our cars or got rides from other members in our group.

My daughter Liliana and I got on the trail a little bit ahead of the rest of our group. At 11 years old, she is still a bit of a slower hiker, and we wanted to make sure she could help setup the pole and raise the flag at the summit. I took the flagpole early on and hiked with it on my shoulder for a good distance up the mountain. After a while though, another hiker offered to carry the pole for us for a while. This hiker was actually part of the team going up Mt. Pierce, and his effort was greatly appreciated. We caught back up with him and his team at the junction with the Mixpah Cut-Off, where we asked him to leave the pole anyways if he still had it at that point. By the time Liliana and I had gotten to the junction, some of our group had caught up to us, and we all took a break and talked with the other groups at the junction as well.

Taking a break after carrying the pole for a while

More of our group and another group at the junction

On our way up the Mizpah Cut-Off to the Webster Cliff Trail, more of our group caught up to us and we had a good number of people by the time we got to the hut for a short break and a little rest. When we left the hut, Liliana wanted to try taking the flag pole for a little while. She picked it up and put it on her shoulder, but decided it was a little heavy and a lot awkward for her. The pole does take some getting use to and you need to get it in the right position for it to be comfortable. So with Liliana saying it wasn't for her, our group leader Jim took the pole and was able to carry it the rest of the way to the summit. Liliana and I did well to stay right behind Jim until just before the summit, where Liliana started to slow down a bit.

Mizpah Hut for a short break

Liliana testing out if she can carry the pole

On the bog bridges shortly before the summit

We were all at the summit with plenty of time to spare before we needed to setup. And once the rest of the group came up from the Webster-Jackson Trail, we started putting everything up. We enlisted the help of any of the younger hikers to hold the flag or help raise it up the pole. The only problem we had today was getting the rocks we put around the base of the pole to stay where we put them and keep the pole from tipping over.

A young group member holding the flag

Liliana helping to raise the flag

After the flag was up, we did our normal moment of silence, pledge of allegiance, and other short speeches about the day and thanking everyone for coming/helping. Unfortunately there wasn't a lot of wind today, so the flag wasn't blowing around that much. The weather was nice though and there were lots of friendly hikers on the mountain today. My daughter was also thrilled with how many dogs were out as well.

Kevin leading us in the Pledge of Allegiance

Partial group photo

Larger group photo, with most of our core group members

The view north from the summit

The view south from the summit

Liliana next to the flag

After our normal 2 hours of flying the flag, we took down the setup and returned the rocks back to where we found them. For the descent, all of our group headed down the Webster-Jackson Trail down to route 302. It is steep and slow going at the start, especially while carrying the flag pole, we everyone was able to get through the hard parts without and real issues. With everyone hiking their own pace, most of us got a little spread out along the trail, periodically running into each other depending out who was taking a break. The hike down went smoothly for everyone, and after a ride back to our truck from Brian, Liliana and I joined some of our team for dinner at the Woodstock Inn before we headed home. This was my daughter's 3rd year participaing in Flags on the 48, and she is already looking forward to next year's event. Hopefully we can find a way to get my other daughter to want to come so that her and my wife can participate as well.

Folding the flag up

Descending the steep upper sections of the trail

Google Earth representation of the hike

For all the pictures from the hike, just go HERE

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