North and South Hancock

2-01-2009 Hancocks Hike from Peter Rhodes on Vimeo.

Hiked with Pete and Perry. There was light snow at the start of our hike and for probably the next hour or so and the skies were overcast for the entire day. Lots of snow was on the ground from previous storms this winter. However, the trail was well packed out, so it was actually pretty easy going. As long as we stayed in the trail we were all set, but get off the trail and the snow was waist deep. The one difficult part was the trail up to South Hancock, which was really steep and pretty consistent for about 0.5 miles. It was relatively chilly at 8 degrees at the car and I'm guessing it was about -10 to -15 at the summits. The only time I was actually cold was on the summit of North Hancock, but these peaks are not above treeline so we were protected from the wind for the most part. There were no views at all becasue of the clouds. 9.8 miles in 5 hour 55 minutes.

Mt. Flume and Mt. Liberty

Hiked Mt. Flume via the Flume slide trail then took Franconia Ridge trail to Mt. Liberty and down the Liberty Spring trail back to the Basin parking lot. Didn't bring the camera since I could not find it this morning. Probably a good thing since the Flume slide trail was pretty much nuts with all the ice on it along with the snow that was falling all day. Not really any views from the summits of either peak since they were in the clouds. Temps were definitely below freezing and wind in the exposed areas was probably blowing 20 to 30 mph. Took about 4:45 for the loop.

North and South Kinsman

First hike in quite a while. We decided to do the Kinsmans. It was a good hike to get back into it after not hiking since January. Nothing too eventful other than using the composting toilets at the Lonesome Lake Hut and trying out my new Camel Bak. North Kinsman didn't have much of a view, but South had a 360 view and the day was clear, so it was possible to see Franconia Ridge and Moosilauke from the summit, I'm sure other mountains were visible, but I don't know the geography all that well. A little over 11 miles in 5 hours 50 minutes.

Mt. Eisenhower and Mt. Monroe

Our original plan was to just hike Eisenhower today. We went up Crawford path to Mt. Pierce, this was very familiar from our previous hike last month, except this time the temps were much milder. Probably around 30 degrees higher today than the last time we hiked. The trail was pretty buffed out making it fast with consistent footing. It was actually much easier than during the summer where you need to look out for rocks and roots etc... We made it to the summit of Eisenhower and I made the pitch to Pete to continue on to Monroe, another 2 miles away. I figured since my knees weren't hurting yet, that I could make it the extra 4 miles, and since we were so close we might as well do it. Days this nice don't happen all the time in the winter.

Well, things always seems to look closer than they really are, and this was the case with Mt. Monroe. It was a long 4 miles to say the least and especially since I didn't have crampons and everything was covered in a layer of ice. Pete got to bust out his new crampons and I wished I had a pair. I did order some, so the next hike should be a little easier with them. We snapped the obligatory summit photos and made our way back down to the parking lot. We had to walk 2 miles on the snow mobile trail once we got to the base to get back to my car and I fell on the ice no less than 3 times, once I almost slide off the road and into the drainage ditch, luckily I found a bamboo walking stick that somebody left and used that to stop my slide. I think we figured it out to be a total 13.5 miles which we did in 7 hours and 15 mins.

Mt. Pierce and Jackson

It was pretty cold to start off, only 2 degrees in the parking lot. Pete and I decided not to bring our snowshoes since there was only 2-3 inches on new snow and under that the trail was relatively packed down. At least these were the conditions at the beginning of Crawford Path trail leading from the parking lot. We were the first hikers of the day on the trail, so we had fresh track. The snow got progressively deeper the higher we went. I would estimate in the deepest sections, snow was averaging about 1-2 feet with snowdrifts thigh deep. All in all we probably could have used our snowshoes for ½ hour out of the entire hike, so I think we made the right call in not bringing them.

It as pretty cold up on the summit of Pierce due to the wind. We had to take cover behind some trees and put on more clothes, but we were only in the wind for about 10 minutes before we were back in the comfort of the trees, I’m guessing the temp was around –10 degrees at this point. The sky was really clear with only a few clouds, so we were able to see the summit of Mt. Washington in the distance. From here we headed south to Mt. Jackson, passing the Mitzpuh hut along the way, where we ate some lunch. We saw one other hiker coming up the trail, so after we passed him we didn’t have to break trail anymore, which was good.

It wasn’t as cold on the top of Jackson, and from here we headed back down to Crawford Notch via the Webster-Jackson trail, this part of the trail was nice and back down by snowshoers. We ran into some more of those Gray Jays, so I had to feed them some of my chex mix. We made it back to the car and headed over to the lodge get warm and change out of our snowy clothes. 8.5 miles in 5 hours 23 minutes.

Mt. Willey, Field, and Tom

This was a really nice day. It was the first time in the snow for the year. There was about 6 inches of snow at the base and probably around 10 inches at the higher elevations, with some drifts a couple feet deep up on the ridge. Temps were in the low 20's.

Jim, Pete, and I dropped off the roadmaster at the train station so someone would be able to coast down to the car at the bottom of the notch when we finished the hike. The roadmaster is a girls huffy 24" mountain bike painted in a lustrous mauve color. Spotting the bike here would prevent us from having to walk the 2 miles back to the car on the road at the end of the hike, although someone would have to brave the decent on this beauty of a bicycle.

The ascent up to Willey was the steepest park of the whole loop, so it was good to start with this end of the loop. In spite of the cold temps we were definitely warm on the ascent thanks to the quick elevation gain. There was really no wind to speak of making the woods really quiet and peaceful.

We were making some good time over Mt. Willey and Mt. Field but then we took the wrong trail and ended up going down the Avalon Trail instead of staying on the Willey Range Trail, which would have taken us up to the trail leading the summit of Mt. Tom. Since we had dropped down so far and it was 0.9 miles back up to the trail junction we decided to drop down another 0.5 miles to the junction with the A-Z Trail. Once to the intersection of Avalon and A-Z, we started back up another 1.5 miles to the Mt. Tom summit. I came to do 3 4,000 footers and that’s what I was going to do. Although it would have been temping to just go the 1.3 miles back to the parking lot at this point and come back another day for Tom, I knew that I would have been disappointed in not getting the 3 peaks in that day.

There was a lot of pain involved in this section of the hike since both my knees started hurting on the way up to Tom. Once we got up the 1 mile to the Mt Tom spur we dropped our packs at the trail intersection so we didn't have to carry them the 0.5 miles to the summit of Tom. Mt. Tom has limited views but the sky was clear for the most part and I snapped some pictures. Mt. Washington was in the clouds. I was waving to Kyle but I don't think he saw me.

The decent was relatively uneventful; the typical thoughts of food and a warm car prevailed. I was happy that Pete, being the hiking super stud that he is, volunteered to run ahead of Jim and I to get the roadmaster (bike mentioned above) and ride the 2 miles down the notch to pick up the car. I wish I could have seen Pete pedaling that girls bike off down the highway, that would have been quite humorous. Evidently there were no major incidents on the decent to the car, other than breaking off the shifter due to the cable being rusted inside the housing. When Jim and I arrived at the parking lot at the base of the trail Pete was waiting for us with car.

It was a long day, at 6.5 hours, but very rewarding since this was only the second day of hiking 4,000 footers for this year. It was a good time except for the knee pain. The beer at the Woodstock brewery tasted especially good, that and the pile of cheese and bacon covered potato skins and buffalo chicken wings.

Mt. Tecumseh

Hiked this with Karen, Chris, and Radley. It was actually chilly and we didn't really bring any extra clothing, the summit was cold and windy. One guy had a themometer and said it was 38 degrees, not sure if I buy that, but it was chilly on top.

Mt. Cabot (Not)

JUST DISCOVERD WE DIDN'T ACTUALLY GO FAR ENOUGH AND NEVER MADE IT TO MT. CABOT, DAMN! WE THOUGHT THE BULGE WAS ACTUALLY MT. CABOT, SO LOOKS LIKE WE'LL BE DOING THIS ONE AGAIN. I THINK I'LL DO IT FROM THE OTHER SIDE NEXT TIME. BELOW IS WHAT I WROTE THINKING WE ACTUALLY DID CABOT.

Mt. Cabot was actually not that exciting, the trail itself was pretty typical with nothing really that interesting, so it was a good thing we saw three moose along the way to make the hike worth while. We saw a huge male with a giant rack, definitely the biggest moose I've seen. He was crashing through the woods and crossed the hiking trail about 75 feet behind us.

The next two moose we saw were right in the hiking trail 30 feet in front of us staring us down. We and the moose just stood there looking at each other, with nobody moving, except Pete and I were reaching for our camera's and trying to get them ready before the moose made a run for it, unfortunately, as I was about the snap the shot, the moose took off, damn! So, no photo documentation of the moose sightings.

Another funny tidbit on this hike was that Pete had one of those shit attacks. Luckily, there was a campsite along with outhouse that he made it to just in time. Unluckily, there was no toilet paper, so he had to make do with a burlap sack along with a plastic bag, neither of which is ideal for cleaning your ass. Pete didn't feel quite right for the rest of the hike, he had the sort of dirty feeling that you get when you don't fully clean yourself in that area. You know what I'm talking about.

The top of Cabot is totally wooded with no views whatsoever, but we decided to go up to the Horn, another peak nearby, only 0.3 miles off the Cabot trail. We were glad we did, the Horn provided nearly a 36o degree view of the area. We could see Cabot, and also further away we could see the Presidential's. The Horn was definitely worth hiking to and was the highlight of the hike, well other than Pete almost shitting himself, oh ya, and the 3 moose. So, I guess this was a pretty good hike overall.

On the downside, I think my hiking season might be over. I could barely make it to the car, my knees were hurting so bad. Hopefully, if I start stretching regularly I can avoid this pain in the future.
10. 4 miles in 4 hrs 30 minutes

Mt. Hale

Another hike, this one was cold and windy. Although we were sheltered from the real winds that were blowing that day. The National Weather Service was calling for gusts of up to 90 mph in the higher elevations. Mt. Hale is pretty sheltered and the summit is just a small clearing, so that is really the only time it was real windy and cold. 4.6 miles in 2 hours and 10 minutes.

There were lots of trees down along the road on the way up to the mountain. We also saw a moose on the way home. I just caught a picture of it through the windshield.

Mt. Garfield and Galehead

Hiked with Pete, Paul, and Andy. Its was damnn cold at the summit of Garfield, probably in the 20's, with winds around 40- 50 mph. There was an old foundation of a former fire tower, so we were able to get out of the wind and eat some food there.

I still don't have hiking boots (my last pair was stolen along with my car), so I used my running shoes. They are mostly mesh, so not too protective from the elements, and not great on ice. I also ran the jeans making for a sweet combination. It's funny to pass people on the trail with all the outdoor gear from EMS, when all I have on is street clothes, they must think I'm an idiot, oh well.

I'm writing this 5 days after the hike and I think I did permanant damage to my knee because it still hurts. This was the toughest hike so far I think, it took us almost as long as the Bonds Hike, but was 5 miles shorter. 15.3 miles in 8 hours and 30 minutes.