Sandwich Dome (3,993 ft) 8-22-20

Distance: 13.2 mi.
Elevation: 2,539 ft (overall) 3,407 ft (total)
Time: 3:30 (Sandwich Dome) 7:06 (Road) 7:38 (Total)
Trails: Algonquin Trail, Black Mountain Pond Trail, Guinea Pond Trail, Sandwich Notch Road

Having finished the New England Hundred Highest last year, I have already hiked Sandwich Dome before. But today I wanted to revisit it using a different route so that I could work on some redlining and see some new trails and sights along the trails. I decided on accessing the mountain from Sandwich Notch Rd so that I could go up the Algonquin Trail and down the Black Mountain Pond Trail while being able to still walk easily back to my truck on the road. Hiking solo means I can't do a car spot with someone else very easily.

Sandwich Notch Road is narrow and a little rough in a couple spots, but a nice drive early in the morning when you don't see anyone else. The parking at the Algonquin Trail is big enough for 3-4 cars off the road at the trail sign and a few other small spots in the area next to the road so you don't block the roadway. Even though there was room in front of the sign, I picked a spot about 100 feet down the road. I don't mind the short walk and this way I would have 100 feet less to walk on the road at the end of the hike.

The Algonquin Trail starts off gradual with a smooth footbed, making for a nice walk and a good way to get warmed up for the rest of the hike. There is one brook crossing, but today it was pretty much bone dry with the drought we have been having this summer. After getting you warmed up, the trail makes a bit of a left turn and finally starts to gain elevation. Still at a good incline so as to not be too steep though. As the trail nears the turn by Black Mountain there are a couple sections where you get a break as the trail levels out for a bit.

An easy start to the day

After the trail passes by Black Mountain, there is a steep rocky scramble before you are rewarded with a couple nice views to the west from on or next to the trail. After this the trail keeps climbing and soon starts to work through some shorter trees and open sections of rock. I was a bit surprised by how much this section is similar to what you see when you near treeline on a bigger peak. This is where you will soon run into the intersection with the Black Mountain Pond Trail coming up from the right.

The first steep section of the day

Some nice views from along the trail

Looking down on Black Mountain Pond

Leaving the intersection, the trail becomes more mellow as it works up towards a subpeak of the mountain before going just to the side of it and back down some. Soon it goes back uphill gradually getting steeper as it nears the summit. You will come to a junction with the Sandwich Mountain Trail, at which you need to go to the right for a short distance before reaching the summit. The summit is a small open area with exposed rock and limited views over and through the trees. Today the lower level of the clouds were almost even with the summit, so the views were even more limited as you could only see parts of the nearby peaks through the clouds. The better views today were from the open spots along the trails.

The last climb before the summit

Views from the summit were hindered by the clouds

The small open summit

After a nice long break and some chatting with other hikers, it was time to turn around and head back down the mountain. The hike back down to the intersection with the Black Mountain Pond Trail was easy and went by quick. Once at the intersection it was time to head down a new trail and say goodbye to one of the hikers I had been playing leap frog with much of the day and had talked with quite a bit on the way back down to here.

A storm passing just south of the mountain

Shortly after starting down the Black Mountain Pond Trail it drops off steeply, steeper than I expected it to be. I guess I hadn't paid as much attention to the guide book as I thought. The trail wasn't too bad as long as you take your time and watch where you step. But if you are uncomfortable going down steep rocky trails or don't like coming up trails this steep, you might want to pick another route. The trail stays steep for quite a ways with some short breaks from it. It also goes next to some interesting and tall rock faces as well as over some very large boulders with some pretty deep drops between them. While steep, rocky, and challenging, it was also interesting and fun too.

Heading steeply down the mountain

The trail passing a cliff face

Shortly after the steep part of the trail ends, you will come to the upper portion of Black Mountain Pond. Little more than a big puddle with some swampy area around it, but it does feed down into the main pond. Just after this the trail passes part of the pond with a short path leading to the shoreline. The area around the pond has had lots of recent work done to eliminate many extra tent spots and allow revegetation to happen. Due to this, it is asked that you don't walk along the shore and try to stay on all trails around the pond. Signs clearly indicate where things are here and some rope is still in place to help keep you on trail and off sites you shouldn't be on.

Black Mountain Pond

From the pond out the trail is pretty gentle with good footing and no more steep or rocky sections. It would have been pretty smooth and fast sailing from here out, but I hadn't packed enough water and didn't bring anything I could have filtered water from the pond with. So I kept at a moderate pace as I still had a good distance to go without much to drink. Even though I didn't expect much water to be coming over it, I did make the short hike out the spur trail to Mary Cary Falls. I was redlining today anyways and didn't want to have to come back just for this section alone. The falls look like they could be quite interesting with lots of water coming over them, but today there wasn't a drop coming down and they were just a pile of rocks.

A dry Mary Cary Falls

The rest of the Black Mountain Pond Trail was a nice walk as it gently lost some elevation. It follows the brook for a while which today wasn't really flowing. It also crosses another brook just before the intersection with the Guinea Pond Trail that was flowing some. It was an easy brook to cross today with dry feet and made for a good place to splash some water on myself to help me cool down a bit. The Guinea Pond Trail was again smooth and good for fast walking. It stays mostly straight except for going around a large swamp. I does come out onto the powerlines briefly near the end before Sandwich Notch Road. Once at the end of the trail, it was a steady slog back to the truck along Sandwich Notch Road. All the while thinking about the big bottle of ice water I had waiting for me in a cooler in my truck.

The trail next to the dry brook

The last water crossing, quite easy today

Guinea Pond Trail

Google Earth representation of the hike

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

Mt. Pierce, Mt. Eisenhower & Mt Jackson 3-7-20

Distance: 11.8 mi.
Elevation: 2,920 ft (overall) 4,911 ft (total)
Time: 1:54 (Pierce) 3:01 (Eisenhower) 4:01 (Pierce) 5:31 (Jackson) 6:37 (Road) 6:52 (Total)
Trails: Crawford Connector, Crawford Path, Eisenhower Loop, Webster Cliff Trail, Webster Jackson Trail, Route 302

With the official winter hiking season almost over, I needed to get at least a second hike in for the season. The weather was looking pretty good other than a little windy. Given the forecast, I decided it was time to get some of the southern presidentials checked off the list. These would give the chance of great views while providing shelter in the trees for most of the hike. My plan for today was Mt. Pierce, my favorite southern presidential peak, and Mt. Eisenhower. If weather, time, and energy allowed, maybe I would add on either Mt. Monroe of Mt. Jackson.

From the Mt. Clinton Rd parking lot I used the Crawford Connector to get over to the Crawford Path. This short trail was well packed from everyone else previously this winter. Once on the Crawford Path the trail was even smoother. It was like super highway and was perfect for microspikes. The hike up the trail went quicker than I thought it would as I played leapfrog with a group of other hikers. The trail has a steady incline for almost the whole length of it which made it easier to keep a nice pace that was a bit quicker than I expected. Once up to the ridge though, the trees stopped sheltering me from the wind and it was time to adjust layers and put on either some goggles or sunglasses. I started off by tagging Mt. Pierce since it is so close to the junction. It is almost my favorite of the southern peaks on the range due to its great views while still having partial tree cover which is different than all the peaks to the north.

Packed trail heading up the Crawford Path

The summit of Mt. Pierce was a good place to adjust layers, get on my goggles, and strap on my snowshoes. The Crawford Path should be decently packed, but I expected some drifting and would rather have snowshoes on for that instead of not have them on for the well packed sections. The area around the junction of the Crawford Path and Webster Cliff Trail was the first place snowshoes were useful as there wasn't one set path here and there was certainly some drifting in the snow. After this though the trail was pretty easy to follow and had only a little bit of unpacked snow on top of it most of the time.

View from Mt. Pierce

At this point the wind speeds became more evident. You start to come out of the trees more and until you are completely exposed. The wind was blowing in from the west and I was glad to have my goggles on. It was cold enough I also needed to think about having my face covered as well. I covered what I could, but too much covering and the goggles would just fog up. I was generating enough body heat that I was warm enough with some of my face exposed.

Mt. Eisenhower getting closer

As I neared the summit of Mt. Eisenhower the wind was starting to blow the snow around as well which helped make my face colder. Once up onto the summit of Eisenhower I bundled up more and made sure I was covered up well. There is no shelter other than the summit cairn and I wanted to stay and enjoy the views for a while even if it was cold and windy. After a nice break here and plenty of pictures, it was time to head out. I had decided I wasn't going to try and add Mt. Monroe to this hike because it was too much time exposed to the elements. I probably had enough gear, but better gear would have made that much distance more enjoyable. So I turned around and headed back towards Mt. Pierce.

Mt. Eisenhower summit cairn

Mt. Washington from Mt. Eisenhower

The hike back to Pierce went well with the wind still blowing and the sun still shining. I headed back up to the summit to take in the views again and because I forgot to get a picture of Miles here the first time. It was busier this time with more hikers that were coming up just to tag Mt. Pierce. I checked the time and it was still earlier than I had planned. Since I was still feeling good and had the time, I decided I would add on Mt. Jackson to today's hike. If I wasn't feeling it, I could always bail out after the hut and come back down using the Mizpah Cutoff.

Getting back towards Mt. Pierce

The hike down to the hut was good except the last tenth or two. Most of the trail was pretty well packed and there was only a few tight places due to snow laden trees. The last stretch though is a bit steeper dropping down to the hut and the track was pretty messed up here. It seems a number of hikers have hiked through here without snowshoes which made for lots of deep, messy, and irregularly space holes to avoid. It took care to stay out of them with my snowshoes and a couple of times I avoided the trail all together to stay out of them. There were some people gathered at the hut and also a pair of hikers that were setting up a tent in the opening. I was still feeling good so I decided to go all the way to Jackson from here.

Heading south after Mt. Pierce

Mizpah Hut with some snow up against the doors

The trail to Mt. Jackson was a mix of conditions. In places it was clear others had used snowshoes, in some places it looked like only people without snowshoes had been through, and in other places the trail was drifted in. There was only one place where the trail was hard to follow. In an open area there were tracks leading in two directions. I checked out both directions and picked the one that looked better. I'm not sure if I picked the right one or not, but the path eventually had to push through a small band of thicker spruce trees, so it probably wasn't actually the trail. It was a short off trail path that quickly came back onto the trail though. The rest of the hike to the summit went smoothly and even the steep last section of rock wasn't bad.

Mixed trail conditions heading over to Mt. Jackson

Getting close to Mt. Jackson

The summit of Jackson was windy so I bundled back up again before spending some time taking pictures and enjoying the last big views of the day. It felt good to look all the way back up to Mt. Eisenhower and see how far I had hiked today. After ample time enjoying the summit to myself, I decided it was time to head down off the mountains for the day. Just below the summit and back into the trees, I took off some layers and switched over to microspikes. The trail from here down was like a packed highway again and the spikes would make for a faster descent.

View from Mt. Jackson

Willey Range from Mt. Jackson

View west from Mt. Jackson

On the way down I passed a few people headed up, but traffic was pretty light being later in the day. I made good time on the way down as there aren't many steep sections through here and the conditions were so good. The only difficult part of the descent was a couple sections of ice where the lower part of the trail has some short steep and rocky sections in the warmer months. Other than that the worst part was needing to walk the side of the road back to my truck once I was down.

Packed trail coming down from Mt. Jackson

View of today's three peaks from the entrance of the Mt. Washington Hotel
From the rounded dome of Mt. Eisenhower on the left to small open summit of Jackson on the right

Google Earth representation of the hike

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

North Hancock (4,420 ft) & South Hancock (4,319 ft) 1-18-20

Distance: 9.84 mi.
Elevation: 2,275 ft (overall) 3,120 ft (total)
Time: 3:14 (North Hancock) 4:15 (South Hancock) 5:55 (Total)
Trails: Hancock Notch Trail, Cedar Brook Trail, Hancock Loop Trail

I've hiked the Hancocks twice before (first time, second time) with snow covering the trails, but today was the first time I've been able to count them as a "winter" peaks on the 4K list. I'd like to see more of what this hike looks like without snow on the ground, but I had a commitment in the evening and needed a hike I could get done in a relatively short period of time.

I brought my snowshoes with me in the truck this morning, but decided when getting my gear on not to bring them on the hike. Looking up the trail as I crossed it on the road things looked pretty packed down. About 150 feet up the trail I stopped and thought about going back for the snowshoes as the snow was just a bit soft on top. I decided against it and kept hiking up the trail since it was just a bit of soft snow on top. In the end I should have brought them with me today.

Packed Trail and gentle hiking

At the first small brook crossing I put on my microspikes just to be sure I didn't slip on the icy rocks. The extra traction wasn't going to hurt for the trail either. The hike up the trail went pretty fast as it is a long gradual climb to the Hancock Loop Trail. The section of trail that has been rerouted away from the water crossings and mud was nice and had some good character to it. The brook crossings that do still remain along the trail were solidly bridged today, but I still tried to hike over rocks or logs just in case.

Brook Crossing

Frost on the ice at a brook crossing

The Hancock Loop Trail gets a little bit steeper before it splits to head up the peaks. This was the area where I was starting to rethink not bringing the snowshoes. At the split I went left and headed up North Hancock first. I've done the loop in both directions and prefer this way a little bit more. It was going up the steep trail here that I started to really want my snowshoes. They have more traction than spikes and the televators would have been nice. I made the best of it though as spikes were still doing pretty good.

Hancock Loop Trail to North Hancock

Steep climb up North Hancock

After a nice break at the summit of North Hancock and chatting with the other hikers there, I headed across the ridge to South Hancock. I needed some more layers as the cold temps and wind on North Hancock had cooled me off. Along the ridge is where the trail was the least packed down and there was more soft snow on top of it. It would have been worth bringing the snowshoes today just for the walk along the ridge as I had to go slower with spikes and watch where I stepped more. It was still a nice hike over to South Hancock with plenty of snow on the trees and some varying conditions that kept things interesting.

View from North Hancock

A winter wonderland between the peaks

I had the summit of South Hancock to myself for a while before some well known and accomplished hikers (and her dog) showed up. It was nice to meet them in person and chat briefly before we all headed down about the same time. They came up the Arrow Slide which I thought was pretty impressive given the winter conditions. They said it went well until needing to break through the trees at the top. The hike down South Hancock went quick (about 15 minutes if I recall) as at one point near the top I kind of slipped and landed on my butt. I decided this was bound to happen more on the way down and made the best of it by just sliding on my butt where I could and walking the other parts. This was both fast and fun in sections and you had to be careful not to get going too fast. Normally I prefer not to slide down the mountain as it makes it harder for those going up after (in my opinion), but without my snowshoes I thought it would be slow and tedious trying not to fall with just spikes on since others had slide down recently as well.

View from South Hancock

Once back down to the split in the Hancock Loop Trail I did a bit of a fast walk the rest of the way out. Not having snowshoes across the ridge slowed me down more than I hoped for and I still had a time commitment to get home for after the hike. The cool temps made it so that I could do this without getting to hot on the way out. The temps also drained my batteries more in my camera so I wasn't able to take any more pictures after getting to the Hancock Notch Trail. This gave me less reason to stop and more reason to keep hiking along back to the truck.

Smooth sailing down the Cedar Brook Trail

In the end the hike went pretty smoothly and I was still home on time. I wish I had brought my snowshoes with me, but it was nice to finally count these two peaks as winter peaks even though I have only ever hiked them in the snow.

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