Elevation: 1,835 ft (overall) 2,068 ft (total)
Time: 2:17 (Summit) 3:53 (Total)
Trails: Long Trail
With little time so far this winter for hiking, it was time to get in my first "winter" hike of the season. I picked Stratton Mountain because I wanted to get back here when the views were clearer than the last time I was here, and I also knew it would be an easier hike due to the gradual incline and lower elevation gain for a New England Hundred Highest peak. But also, and maybe more importantly, my hiking partner Miles the Mountain Monkey needed this peak to get closer to finishing up his hundred highest peaks.
For some reason I was thinking that the Stratton-Arlington Road wasn't plowed all the way to the summer trail head and that I would be hiking in from the IP Road to get to the trail crossing there. I was a bit surprised to find it was and that there wasn't any tracks heading out the IP road. From the summer trail head though there was a nice packed trail. This meant a bit longer hike than I initially planned, but probably better conditions and not needing to avoid snowmobile traffic walking up the side of their trail to get to where the Long Trail crosses is.
Starting the hike at the normal summer time trail head
The trail to the crossing of the snowmobile trail is mostly flat and today was well packed. It made for a good warm up for the hike. There are a couple small brooks through here, but they all had bridges or were easy to step across. Once to the snowmobile trail I quickly crosses even though you could easily hear if someone was coming. I took a quick break to adjust just off to the side before continuing on.
A nice easy start to warm up with
After crossing the snomobile trail the hiking trail starts to gain a little elevation, but still stays pretty mellow. There was what appeared to be one brook crossing through here that looked like the terrain under the snow was pretty rocky. This was a bit messy to snowshoe across mostly because it appears recent traffic was more from skiers and it wasn't packed well.
As you continue up the mountain it slowly gets a little bit steeper about two thirds of the way up, but it never really gets that steep. I still think this is one of the easiest hikes on the NEHH list. Gradually you do work out of the hardwoods and into more spruce trees. A lot of snow has accumulated on the branches in places and quite often I had to lean out and around branches or duck under low hanging ones. Near the summit the trail levels out a little bit again before going though a narrower opening in the trees just before the summit area and tower.
Snow covered trees closer to the summit
As expected in the winter, today the tower was covered in snow and ice that had built up on it. That means going up the stairs is a bit tricky since they aren't flat, they can be slippery, and there isn't much room for your feet. I carefully made my way up to get the views and take some pictures. I didn't stay up as long as I normally would have because it was pretty cold and very windy above the trees today. You could go up into the cabin to get out of the wind, but all the windows are also covered in snow and ice so you wouldn't be able to see anything. The views are great in all directions though and it wasn't anywhere near as hazy as the last time I was here.
Summit tower
Summit view to the south
Summit view to the north
The tower had a thick layer of snow and ice
After a fair amount of time on the summit enjoying the blue sky and sun, I left the other hikers that had shown up and headed back down the mountain. The hike down went smoothly considering the snowshoe that I noticed had a broken binding at the start of the hike broke even more. It stayed on well, but twisted side to side too much at times. In the end conditions were good enough I could have used spikes for the descent. About half of the people today were wearing them anyways.
Hiking back down with low branches to duck under
Limited view to the south on the descent
Back to the open hardwoods
Today turned out to be a great hike on a nice gentle peak. It was good to get out for the one winter hike I actually had time for. The only thing that could have been better were if there was less wind so I could have stayed on the tower longer. But below the trees the wind wasn't bad at all so I can't complain.
Google Earth representation of the hike
For all the pictures from the hike, just go to my gallery on SmugMug
