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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Southern Presidential Range 5-5-15 thru 5-6-15

Since I was having computer problems around the time of this hike, I seem to have forgotten to put together anything about it. So a little bit late, here it is.

DAY 1

Distance: 5.11 mi.
Elevation: 2,368 ft (overall) 2,602 ft (total)
Time: 3:20 (Mizpah) 4:24 (Pierce) 5:11 (Mizpah)
Trails: Crawford Path, Mizpah Cutoff, Webster Cliff Trail

A friend of mine from college was coming to NH for a week this spring and was hoping to do some hiking while here before visiting family. Since she was bringing another friend, she wanted to give him a partial hut experience by staying at Mizpah Hut during self service season. This was fine with me since it would be a much cheaper way to stay at the hut. Being as the hut is so close to the trail head, I don't foresee myself paying full price to stay here at least until my daughter is old enough to hike and do an overnight here.

Even though it was already May, I knew there was still going to be snow higher up. I didn't expect it to be as deep as it was though. Leaving from the Highland Center where the others spent the night, the ground was still bare and there wasn't much mud. It didn't take long however to start coming across patches of ice in the trail. The last remains of the winter mono-rail. Gradually the ice become a constant fixture of the trail. there was just enough grit on the ice that you could still get good traction with careful foot placement.

Starting to see ice

The ice eventually turned into snow and a well established and solid mono-rail. The hard path wasn't overly wide, but it was stable and easy to distinguish. This meant not much sinking in. Up to the Mizpah Cutoff, conditions had been good. Being a regular hiker year round and knowing the conditions so far this spring, I had my snowshoes with me and should have put them on here. Being the largest hiker of the group and the most familiar with these trails, I was in the lead. With the lower use of this trail, the firm mono-rail wasn't as firm and became hard to find in some places. I especially started to sink in more and more. Many steps were seeing me sink in about knee deep into the snow.

Mizpah Cutoff

Finally I had had enough and put on my snowshoes (enough being stubborn). This made it easy going for me from here to the hut. But my friends didn't have any snowshoes, so they still had to go slowly. They were trying to find the hard spots before sinking in and even going as far as using large sticks to test conditions before taking their next step. Eventually we all made it to the hut and dropped off our overnight gear and extra supplies.

Leaving Mizpah for Pierce

From here we planned to summit Mt. Pierce and maybe venture a bit further depending on conditions. Without the others having snowshoes, we didn't want to get over ambitious with our plans. The hike up from the hut was a bit slow. I was still in the lead and using snowshoes, but my friends were finding lots of places where they were postholing. The snow was getting deeper as we went on and in places it was hard to push through the branches blocking the trail. Most of the branches were bent over into the trail due to the snow load on them. They then got stuck there, which meant they were across the trail even at a height that would normally be easy to pass through.

View from bare section of trail

In some places higher up the snow wasn't overly deep. This was mainly the few places were there is exposed rock in the summer that gets lots of sun. Just before the summit, I stuck my trekking pole into the snow just off trail. Trying to put it in handle first, I never did hit solid ground. Based on the length of my trekking pole, this meant the snow was still about 4 feet deep. The cairn at the summit of Mt. Pierce was just barely poking out of the snow. I know from being here before that this cairn is a little over 4 feet tall.

We spent some time above treeline in the sun and taking in the views. It was a gorgeous day out and it was nice to be wearing shorts and a t-shirt... even if I was still wearing snowshoes on my feet. The hike back down to the hut went a bit quicker being downhill. We also weren't quite as worried about getting wet from the melting snow since we had dry gear back in our bunks. It was amazing to see how much softer the snow had gotten though in the short time since we had come up through here.

Summit of Mt. Pierce

Coming back down to the hut

Back at the hut for the evening and in dry clothes again, we all made up our own meals and talked with the caretaker. She informed us we were to be the only guests for the night, so it should be very quiet. We enjoyed talking with her enough, we all spent the next few hours together in the kitchen just telling stories. The caretaker has hiked the AT before, and my college friend is hoping to hike it next year. So we went over lots of stories from her hike.

DAY 2

Distance: 5.12 mi.
Elevation: 248 ft (overall) 803 ft (total)
Time: 1:52 (Jackson) 4:14 (Parking Lot)
Trails: Webster Cliff Trail, Webster-Jackson Trail, Saco Lake Trail

After a small breakfast and a bit of time for things to warm up, we started our hike over towards Mt. Jackson. It's easy to tell this section of trail doesn't see much traffic in the winter. There was very little sign of tracks or anything firm snow underneath from past hikers. I was smart today and started off on my snowshoes, but my friends were going to have to hope for the best still. A little ways down the trail we did find some recent moose tracks. It had hiked down the trail briefly before venturing back into the trees.

The trail along the ridge was mostly easy to follow. It's a well established trail that is nice and wide by normal standards. In a couple places today though, the branches and trees were bent down across the trail. There were also a couple places were it wasn't clear which opening in the trees was the correct one. I believe the blazes might have been partially buried, but we were able to stay on course well. My friends were still constantly sinking into the show, but it had gotten to the point where we were all laughing about it. We even took a couple pictures of me standing on top of the snow with them sunk into the snow appearing much shorter than I am.

Webster Cliff Trail

Small bog near Mt. Jackson

The summit of Mt. Jackson was bare rock from the sun and it was another great day. Again, it was nice to be snowshoeing in shorts and a t-shirt with temps near 50. We finally starting seeing other hikers now too. Coming down the mountain, I stayed in my snowshoes as long as I could. With this trail much more traveled than the ridge, it was easier for all of us to stay on top of the snow. But things were softening up quickly. Once the snow became patchy, I took of my snowshoes and tied them to my pack. We had a nice smooth hike after this. there was a bit of mud in places, but he ground was mostly dry and quite firm (a relief to my friends). The hike down from here went smoothly with some others still headed up. We even went around the back side of Saco Lake so the others could see that short trail too.

Mt. Jackson summit

Mt. Jackson summit

Ice and snow coming down

View from Bugle Cliff

TOTALS
Distance: 10.23 mi.
Elevation Gain: 3,405 ft (total)
Time: 9:25

All in all this was a fun hike. It was nice to hang out with a college friend and meet one of her friends. I was certainly glad I brought my snowshoes just in case. It was interesting to see just how deep the snow could still be up high where down low you couldn't find much anywhere. It also dawned on me after this hike that from my first hike of the winter season where I saw snow until now had been 7 months. So for more than half a year now, I had been hiking in at least some snow for parts of my hikes. Over half the year with snow on the ground and still more to melt.

For all the pictures from the hike, just go HERE