Stinson Mtn. (2,900 ft) 8-15-14

Distance: 4.82 mi.
Elevation: 1,325 ft (overall) 1,410 ft (total)
Time: 2:39 (Summit) 4:36 (Total)
Trails: Stinson Mountain Trail, Stinson Lake Outlook Path, Snowmobile Trail, Stinson Mountain Trail

Today's hike would be another one with my daughter while working on her 52 With a View list. This would be the first time for either of us here so we could bother check this one off the list. It would be #4 for here and #17 for me. Plus it would get me a bit of redlining in as well.

The trail starts off nice and easy with a flat surface and almost no incline. This makes for a nice warm up as you start out the hike. It gradually starts to gain elevation, but stays easy for quite a while. There are some rocks in the trail that are easy to get around and today there were just a few spots that were a bit muddy.

The trail starts off nice and easy

Gradually the trail gets steeper and narrower, but stays pretty easy. Slowing my pace down to that of a 7 year old today, I was able to find lots of smaller things along the trail to point out to my daughter so that I could teach her more about the forest while we hiked today. After pointing out some different mushrooms along the trail, today's hike quickly turned into her pointing out all the mushrooms along the hike.

A little rougher as the trail climbs

After the section of trail that follows the snowmobile trail is where the trail finally gets steeper and rougher. Those sections come in short bursts where it will be real rocky for a bit, then smooth again, then rocky again. Liliana made good work of these sections and found some fun in climbing over the bigger rocks instead of going around them.

A large rock in the trail

A rocky section near the top

The summit has a nice opening in the trees that provides a great view to the south out over the town of Rumney. From the higher points on the rocks or the old footings for the long gone fire tower you can also see over the trees to the northeast further into the big mountains of the Whites. We spent quite a bit of time on the summit today since the weather was so nice and I wanted to give Liliana a nice break so she wasn't too tired for the hike down. She was also having a fun time climbing over the rocks at the summit and finding all the grasshoppers that were jumping around.

View from the summit

View from the summit

Liliana at the top

As we left the summit we took the short side path that led to an overlook of Stinson Lake. There isn't much room at the viewpoint, but it does provide a great view over the lake and towards Mt. Moosilauke as well. The wind was blowing straight in at us from this direction, so we didn't stay too long as Liliana started to get a bit cool while not being on the move.

Stinson Lake from the side path

For the descent we used the snowmobile trail instead of the regular trail at the top. I like doing loops instead of following the same trail back down all the way, plus I figured the snowmobile would be smoother and easier hiking for coming down. The trail is wide and grassy, but enough people use it that there is a beaten path going down it so you don't have to walk through the tall grass. Once back to the normal trail, we followed that all the way back to the truck though.

Upper section of snowmobile trail

Lower section of snowmobile trail

This ended up being a very enjoyable hike with my daughter today. I think this is a very family friendly hike that isn't super hard for someone that doesn't have a lot of experience. The views at the top are nice and the side path to the view over the lake provides another good view that helps make it more interesting. Definately a hike we will repeat once my youngest daughter gets old enough to hike as well.

Google Earth representation of the hike

For all the pictures from the hike, just go to my gallery on SmugMug

Mt. Moosilauke (4,802 ft) 7-31-21

Distance: 11.8 mi.
Elevation: 2,313 ft (overall) 3,435 ft (total)
Time: 3:56 (Summit) 5:49 (Total)
Trails: Al Merrill Loop, Asquam-Ridge Trail, Beaver Brook Trail, Carriage Rd, Snapper Trail, Gorge Brook Trail

In my previous three attempts of Mt. Moosilauke I have yet to have good views in all directions. Either It was cloudy in every direction or the summit was right on the edge of the clouds limiting the views to only one direction. So with today's good forecast, I decided it was time to try again for good views as well as take a longer than normal route to get in some redlining miles as well. Today's loop would start out using the All Merrill Loop over the height of land along it before dropping back down and joing onto the Asquam-Ridge Trail. This trail starts off very gentle with lots of small foot bridges crossing water bars along the trail. As it gets higher the waterbars go away and the trail stays nice and gentle. It does a couple switchbacks as it ascends up some old woods roads.

Gentle grades along the Al Merrill Loop

At the height of land along this trail there is a small clearing that provides a view of the summit. There were still some clouds around the summit when I got there, but I could see things were clearing up nicely.

View from the high point of the trail

Dropping back down to the Asquam-Ridge Trail, the Al Merrill Loop gets narrower and has more rocks than the gentle hike up. It is also a bit steeper. This section of trail seemed to take longer than I expected, but it was still nice going. Once at the junction I turned right and started heading back uphill again. The Asquam-Ridge Trail is steeper and rockier, but still made for an enjoyable hike. There are some interesting things to see along the trail and the woods along the trail go through some changes as you hike too.

A very mossy section of trail

This loop was certainly a good way to avoid some of the crowds as I didn't see my first hiker until near the junction with the Beaver Brook Trail after crossing over Mt. Jim. There was a small path that lead to the high point of Mt. Jim just a few feet off trail. I took this just in case it counted for anything. I would be reminded when I got home and looking at other lists that this made the peak count towards my Trailwrights 72 list. Glad I made the 30 foot excursion so it would count.

I bypassed the path to Mt. Blue from the Beaver Brook Trail. Turns out that is also on the Trailwrights list, but you can only bag one peak per hike. I will have to get it when I come back to redline the rest of the Beaver Brook Trail. With how much rain we got in the last few days of this week, I was surprised to find that they only real muddy spots were along the Beaver Brook Trail a little bit before coming out above treeline. There was plenty of it when I did find it though.

Mud along the Beaver Brook Trail

The trail pops out above treeline just after passing the junction with the Benton Trail. While a nice hike above treeline, it was disappointing to see the paths on both sides of the trail that have trampled the vegetation above treeline. I guess multiple signs clearly telling hikers not to do this just isn't enough. The trail wasn't that rough or wet so as to make it necessary to walk over the plants instead of along the trail.

The summit was a pretty busy place today, but the views were great and people were spread out pretty well so it was still enjoyable. Since it was the best views I have had up here in four hikes, I spent plenty of time looking around and taking pictures.

View north from the summit

View west from the summit

View east from the summit

Mt. Lafayette and Mt. Lincoln off in the distance

For the descent today I would start down the Carriage Road. I have been on the upper section of this a couple times now, but I would be following it further this time to get more redlining done on it. Footing is good to start with it being a little bit rocky though. Once starting into the trees it gets pretty smooth with firm dirt which makes for quick moving.

Coming down the Carriage Road before entering the trees

I bypassed the South Peak this time since I have been there before and just wanted to continue on my way. I did take a couple pictures around the junction though were I saw a mouse pop out from under a rock just to turn back around to run and hide. The Carriage Road below this junction was rockier than I expected. This made it a little slower going than I normally go while descending and it could be a bit harder on the knees for those that have issues with that. It was still sunny though, with few other hikers, and there were some views along the way.

Descending the Carriage Road

Once down to the junction I would take the Snapper Trail over to the Gorge Brook Trail. This would let me redline the Snapper Trail which is just over a mile. The trail had one small brook crossing and has a number or larger rocks in it that are easy to get around or over.

Descending the Snapper Trail

I followed the Gorge Brook Trail back down to the Baker River where I took a few more pictures and then used the nice bridge to cross over. The Ravine Lodge was still closed to non guests/staff due to Covid so I couldn't go in and check it out. Since the last time I was here it has been completely redone. I guess I will have to check it out some other time. After following the path ways around the lodge, it was just a short walk back down the road to my truck. Vehicles were parked all along the road today, but I got an early enough start to be pretty close.

Google Earth representation of the hike

For all the pictures from the hike, just go to my gallery on SmugMug

Baldpate Mtn (3,780 ft) 9-29-19

Distance: 8.76 mi.
Elevation: 2,357 ft (overall) 3,579 ft (total)
Time: 1:56 (West Peak) 2:28 (Summit) 3:13 (West Peak) 4:45 (Total)
Trails: Appalachian Trail

New England Hundred Highest Finish!!!

A day after re-hiking Elephant Mountain I was back into Maine to hike my last peak in my quest for the New England Hundred Highest. I picked Baldpate Mountain as a finial peak after talking with other hikers in my travels when discussing what peaks I had left. Multiple other hikers suggested this peak. It would be a nice hike plus would have some of the best views of my final peaks. I'm glad I listened to the other hikers and finished on this peak as I was a great hike. I didn't want to finish when there weren't any leaves left on the trees, so trying to finish before foliage was done was a priority for me. I ended up hiking this peak just before peak foliage I think, but it wound up being a great day for foliage anyways.

Like most people, I hiked this peak using the Appalachian Trail from the parking lot in Grafton Notch. This is the same parking lot used for Old Speck as well. You just cross the street near the entrance to the parking lot. The trail starts off nice and gentle after using some elevated foot bridges over a brook. Being the Appalachian Trail, it's in great shape and clearly marked. Pretty quickly the trail starts to climb out of the notch, but there isn't really anything steep for quite a while. The trail is a gentle grade for quite a while until it levels out after passing Hedgehog Hill just north of the trail. Here the trail stays mostly level until the spur to the Baldpate Shelter.

An early section of trail

After the shelter spur the trail does get significantly steeper. While steeper, it still has some small switchbacks and is manageable without being to tiring for most hikers. And since this is the Appalachian Trail, there are also a number is good stone steps that are nice and stable to help you gain this elevation quicker. It felt like this climb up to the West Peak went by pretty quickly to me. Once you reach the West Peak, there is a nice view with a small open area just past this summit. This afforded some good views over to the main peak. Here I took a nice little break and had a conversation with an older couple who was just out for a hike to somewhere nice instead of to any particular peak.

Creative stone steps

From the West Peak I looked at the ledges heading up the main peak wondering where the trail went. I expected that at least some of the trail must go around that is it looked pretty steep. It turns out that the trail goes pretty much right up it on the left side of the open area as you are looking at it.

Dropping down off the West Peak is probably the steepest part of the hike. It even includes a ladder down over one steep, smooth, tall section of rock. There are also some other rocky scrambles on the way down into the col between the peaks. Once down into the col you will come out of the trees to cross a small bog on some foot bridges. This then leads you onto mostly open exposed rock until the main peak. Down in the col there were a few wet or muddy areas to navigate as well. This was probably partly due to yesterday's rain, but based on the tracks leading through the surrounding bushes they are frequently there. While I admit there could be some more bog bridges or stepping stones through here, please try to stay as close to the middle of the trail as possible so that you don't trample the vegetation through here like others have.

View from the west peak

Ladder along the trail

Climbing up to the main peak means starting up the open slabs. There was just a bit of water running down them in places today, but they seemed to have plenty of grip. I imagine that during more heavy rain or in winter this area could get slick though. While this section is very open, there were plenty of routes up the rocks that didn't require any scrambles or overly difficult spots. It's a pretty fun and quick climb up to the summit plateau. After the climb up the rocks the summit mostly levels off. This makes for a nice easy walk to the true high point. There are some small stone walls built along the sides of the trail to help keep people off the fragile vegetation through here.

Climbing the exposed rock of the main peak

Interesting layers of rock on the ascent

I'm not much for celebrations, so when I reached the summit, I didn't really have anything planned nor did I come up with anything special to do to celebrate. It was nice however to have the summit all to myself while I was there. After a nice break and plenty of pictures, I headed back down to the large cairn just before the climb down into the col. I think the views are better here so I took another long break and more pictures. I'm not really one for selfies, but I decided I should probably have at least one picture of myself on on peak number 100.

Baldpate summit

View from the summit

View west near the summit

On the summit of #100

I still had plenty of time so the hike back down was fun and casual. It was a great day and I was in a good mood. I made the short side trip to the Baldpate Shelter, but decided not to do the loop over Table Rock. Unfortunately though, near the upper junction with the Table Rock Trail my foot got snagged on a broken root and I fell to the ground. I tried to catch myself with my trekking poles, but one of them went into a small hole and bent. When I straightened it back out, it broke just as I expected. It was a bit of a bummer to break my pole since I think I have used the same ones for almost all of my hundred highest peaks as well as multiple other 4Ks, but they have had a lot of miles put on them and I think I got my monies worth.

Baldpate from the col between the peaks

Baldpate shelter

My broken trekking pole

Foot bridges just before reaching the road again

Once back to my truck I set down my gear and changed into some dry comfy clothes. The one thing I did have ready as a way to celebrate my finish though was a giant brownie that I bought before making the trip to Maine for the weekend. I didn't plan to eat the whole thing as it was pretty big, but I did make sure to eat a pretty good portion though. Before too long I put everything into the truck and started the drive home. It was still another 4 hours or more until I would be home.

A giant brownie to celebrate my finish

Google Earth representation of the hike

For all the pictures from the hike, just go to my gallery on SmugMug

Mt. Nancy (3,926 ft) & Vose Spur (3,862 ft) 9-21-19 thru 9-22-19

DAY 1

Distance: 12.3 mi.
Elevation: 2,933 ft (overall) 3,481 ft (total)
Time: 1:26 (Nancy Cascades) 2:43 (Start of Bushwhack) 3:27 (Mt. Nancy) 3:56 (End of Bushwhack) 5:55 (Camp)
Trails: Nancy Pond Trail, Bushwhack, Nancy Pond Trail, Carrigain Notch Trail

For a while now when thinking about hiking Mt. Nancy I've wanted to do it as a loop continuing down Nancy Pond Trail past the pond and then come back through Carrigain Notch.With only a few peaks left before finishing up the NEHH, it didn't make a lot of sense to drive here twice to hike Vose Spur as well when my loop was going to have my walk past the start of the bushwhack for it. So I decided to combine the two hikes into one bigger multi-day hike instead.

I parked at the Nancy Pond trail head on Route 302, which was more full than I expected when I showed up. After getting all my gear into and on my pack I headed up the trail which starts off pretty easy and gives you a nice warm up. There is one small brook to cross an then further up you'll also cross the bigger Nancy Brook which was a quite a low level today. There are some big rocks here that you should be able to use to cross over with a more normal flow rate. After this crossing the trail turns left and starts to get steeper. Before too long the trail goes higher up the hillside and back away from the brook on a newer section of trail that keeps the trail away from where it will get the damage from really high water levels.

Gentle hiking along the Nancy Pond Trail

Crossing of Nancy Brook

There was very little water coming down over Nancy Cascades today, but I can see why many people hike up the trail just to the falls when water levels are higher. It's a pretty tall cascade with lots of places for the water to divert and make some interesting patterns in the water. After crossing the brook below the cascades, the trail quickly gets much steeper and rougher with more roots and rocks. You gain elevation quickly this way though and it doesn't take too long before things level back out again before you get to the ponds.

Nancy Cascades with low flow

As the trail levels out it stays kind of rough with plenty of roots to walk over. There will also be a number of foot bridges as there are plenty of sections of damp ground along the trail that you wouldn't want the trail going directly through. Today while I hiked through here, it was interesting to see evidence of a moose that had walked through here too. You could see where it had walked next to the foot bridges and sunk right in. Apparently moose don't like foot bridges. The trail brings you right up to Nancy Pond before then following the side and then leading you do Norcross Pond.

Norcross Pond

Just before the outlet of Norcross Pond is a small open area with signs indicating no camping there. To the right it looks like there is a trail, this is actually the start of the herd path to Mt. Nancy. Right off there appears to be another fork in the path and you will want to go left here. From this point on I found the herd path to be easy to follow. It was steeper than I thought it would be and also a bit narrower/tighter than I thought as well. This path goes pretty much straight up the mountain without much for making it an easier route. It does level back out nicely shortly before the summit. The summit of Mt. Nancy as a surprisingly good view for a wooded peak. You can see pretty clearly from north to east with parts of Crawford Notch and the Presidentials to other smaller peaks to the east.

Mt. Nancy herd path goes left here

Another left to follow the herd path

One of the easiest parts of the herd path

Panoramic view from Mt. Nancy

View from Mt. Nancy

Once back down to the pond, there was now only one other hiker here so it was a bit quieter and more remote feeling. I talked with the other hiker and his dog some before we both parted way in opposite directions. I headed down the Nancy Pond Trail which has a nice gentle grade with smooth solid footing all the way down to the bottom. There was only one wet spot along the trail while going downhill. After stopping here, I happened to notice that there was also an old metal pipe coming out of the ground with water flowing through it (not the main source of the mud though).

View from the outlet of Norcross Pond

A lower section of Nancy Pond Trail

Once the trail crosses Norcross Brook the forest immediately changes. The trees and other vegetation change and open up and the trail gets pretty flat following mostly old railroad grades from the logging days of J. E. Henry. This section makes for some smooth easy hiking while going through a nice remote section of the Whites. I only saw one pair of hikers on the trail through here until I got close to Stillwater Junction.

Norcross Brook crossing

Tree tunnel

Rather than just stop near the intersection with the Carrigain Notch Trail so I would be closer to Vose Spur in the morning, I did the extra miles to the end of the Carrigain Notch Trail until Stillwater Junction which is at the junction with the Wilderness and Shoal Pond Trails. I've hiked past here in the past and wanted to get back to this junction mostly just for redlining purposes. It's also a nice area and I was figuring I could find a good place to camp near the Carrigain Branch so I would have good access to water. So after filtering some water at Stillwater Junction, I headed back to a nice campsite I walked past on the way there. There was also one pair of hikers in the area, but it ended up being a nice quiet area to camp.

Tent setup at camp for the night

I ended up going to bed earlier than expected tonight since it gets very dark deep in the forest and I had no plan to have any sort of fire. I had a headlamp, but didn't really bring much to read/do, so I basically got bored of sitting around. In the end I ended up laying there for a while though until I did finally fall asleep since it was so much earlier than normal for me.

Google Earth representation of day 1

DAY 2

Distance: 13.6 mi.
Elevation: 1,827 ft (overall) 2,394 ft (total)
Time: 1:38 (Start of Bushwhack) 3:11 (Vose Spur) 4:06 (End of Bushwhack) 5:33 (Sawyer River Road) 6:08 (Route 302) 6:29 (Total)
Trails: Carrigain Notch Trail, Bushwhack, Carrigain Notch Trail, Signal Ridge Trail, Road

Between having two kids and getting up early for work everyday long enough, I didn't need an alarm to make sure I would be up early today. After waking up and just laying there for a bit, I got up, got dressed and started to get some of my gear ready to pack up already. While heating things up for breakfast I did more packing. After eating my breakfast I took down my tent and put it into its stuff sack. Even with taking my time at camp, I was still on the trail easily by 8am.

The hike back along the Carrigain Notch Trail was a great warm up for the day. Nice smooth trail with mostly level grades. After passing the junction with the Nancy Pond Trail the grade of the trail increases some, but still stays relatively easy. The trail progressively gets away from the old RR grades and gets narrower and a bit more rocky.

Starting the morning on the Carrigain Notch Trail

The high point of Carrigain Notch is also the boundary of the Pemigewasset Wilderness. I took a short little break here as the morning was a bit more humid than I expected it to be. From here, the start of the Vose Spur bushwhack isn't that far of a hike. I found what I believed to be the start of the whack when there was a small cairn next to the trail. The path leading from it wasn't super defined so I did a short walk without my pack to see if just around the corner was the boulder that most people reference as being near the start. Sure enough, it was nearby. That is one downside of coming in the direction I was instead of hiking in from Sawyer River Road like most others do.

Bushwhack boulder

The start of the Vose Spur bushwhack

Before starting the bushwhack I picked a tree off the trail a bit that I could hang my tent and sleeping bag/pad up in. I would be coming back to this spot and it made no sense to carry it all up with me. This was probably the smartest thing I did today as this made my pack much lighter and smaller. I would have caught on so many more branches on this route if I hadn't done this.

The bushwhack for me was pretty easy to follow, but I did find a few places lower down where you had to look ahead a bit to see if the path you were taking was the proper one or if it looked like it might peter out soon. At times there was some old flagging around, but it wasn't everywhere so I wouldn't rely on that alone to keep you headed in the right direction.

A more open section of the bushwhack

Most people reference the end of this bushwhack to be very steep, but the rest of it was steeper than I expected. Pretty much from the start, the path is steep. There really aren't any breaks from this either until just before the actual summit. Above the talus field the path does really get the steepest. It is steep enough that it wouldn't be a normal trail anywhere else in the whites. It also gets pretty narrow as it works along the side of some steep sections as well. You wouldn't want to take a spill here.

When I got to the talus field there was a piece of flagging where the trail entered it. I looked up the field to find some flagging or a cairn as others have mentioned for where to enter back into the woods. I could see both of these above me and just to the right as well as some other flagging off to the left. I picked the route to the left as it looked a bit easier to get to. On the way down I picked the route to the right. It turns out that once back into the trees both routes connect back up and the one on the right when headed up is a bit shorter and easy, so I would go that way when climbing.

Looking up the talus field

Steep section of bushwhack near the top

The summit was as viewless as expected and I didn't see the old folding chair I've seen pictures of. So after a little break, a snack, and some pictures I headed back down until I got to the talus field where I took a longer break and enjoyed the only views of the day.

The summit and canister

View from the talus field

After getting back to the trail and grabbing my tent and sleeping gear, it was time to head to Sawyer River Road and back to the truck. The trail through here is easy to follow with no steep sections. There were some spots where it was impressive to see what mother nature has done through here (mostly with water). What looks like entire streams of just rocks crossing the trail.

A river of stone that crosses the trail

10 foot deep hole next to the trail

With it being a bit humid today and the bushwhack being steep the entire length of it, I was running low on water. Luckily I made it to a section of Carrigain Brook that had water near the intersection with the Signal Ridge Trail. Up to this point the nearby brook had been dry. I filtered enough to get me back to the truck and keep on hiking out. Around now is when I started seeing other hikers which I hadn't seen any of so far. It seemed a number of them were hiking Mt. Carrigain today.

Foot bridges along the Signal Ridge Trail

Time to filter water again at Carrigain Brook

Once down to Sawyer River Road I took a quick break and prepared for the about 3 miles walk back to my truck. I didn't try to hitch a ride with anyone driving down the road, but there ended up only being maybe 4 vehicles that passed by me before I got to Route 302. There was plenty of traffic on 302, but again I didn't try to hitch a ride and I was on the wrong side of the road anyways. In the end the road walk was a bit long and boring, but you can do it relatively quickly. The biggest downside is the hard surface of the road on tired feet. The dirt next to it might be softer, but it quickly slants away from the road which would make you walk lopsided.

Time for the road walk back to the truck

Google Earth representation of day 2

TOTALS
Distance: 25.9 mi.
Elevation Gain: 5,875 ft (total)
Time: 12:24

Google Earth representation of the hike

For all the pictures from the hike, just go HERE