7 hikers climbed up and around Mt Hedgehog after a rainy night and before more rain arrived later in the day.
A good size group of us took a long walk in the woods and uphill to the ridge that comprises the Carter Range, on the east side of Pinkham Notch. We did a clockwise loop, starting with a half mile road walk, then uphill for a few miles to the ridge, at the junction of the North Carter Trail and Carter-Moriah Trail. Turning south, we hiked 0.6 miles along the ridge to Middle Carter, the high point on the loop for most of us. There were nice views along the way, both west across the notch to the northern presidentials and east over to the Baldfaces and beyond into Maine.
Moving on southward, we came next to South Carter, and finally down to what's called Zeta Pass, the col between South Carter and Carter Dome. Some of the faster hikers had gone on ahead, to do the out-and-back to include Carter Dome. Several went up to Carter Dome via Mt Hight, known for its great 360-degree views.
For those of us who did just the two Carter loop, the return to the cars was the end of an 11-mile, nine-hour hike. For those who also did Carter Dome, add another 2-1/2 miles and close to two hours. That's all, folks!
Three hikers went up to Mount Crawford then decided to add in Stairs Mountain. John also did Mount Resolution. Beautiful remote area with excellent views and great companionship. 10 miles 3100 ft elevation gain.
5 Group B hikers went up the South Moat trail.
It was hot and muggy on the ascent.
On July 30 The over the hill Hikers, B group, enjoyed the Butterworth Trail to East rattlesnake, and then the Ridge Trail to West rattlesnake in an adjusted plan due to the weather. We were joined by two new Hikers and were lucky enough to have excellent weather in spite of the questionable forecast. In the end, we did 4 miles and had a great time.
A good group of us OTHH hiked up Mt Eisenhower (4,760 ft), "just down the street" from Mt Washington, on a clear, dry summer day. The trail was generally wet, from a soaker the previous day and into the evening, but the air was dry and cool for August. As we got up higher, the breeze became more and more noticeable, and once out of the trees we had to layer up for comfort. The breeze got even stronger as we made our way the last few tenths of a mile to the summit, where there were gusts perhaps to 50 mph. We took our photos, provided by that 360-degree view from the top, then beat it back down to shelter behind a rocky ridge for lunch. Below, at the top, are (front) Chris, (mid) Brenda, Ginger, (rear) Katherine, Dick, and Pat.
On Aug. 4, the Turtles hiked Fletcher's Cascade -- a new hike for us. Thanks to the recent rain, there was enough water in the brook that we could hear it along much of the trail.
As John Y stated, only one word can describe the B hike on July 23rd. And that is “Success”!
Five hikers headed up to east of Berlin on a beautiful Thursday to tackle Mt Success. The trail includes a little of everything, including a small chimney. We met a few AT thru hikers along the way, including one from Spain. Trail magic cookies and bars were shared and much appreciated by the AT hikers (and B hikers at the end of the hike!) We took a side trip to visit the site of the 1954 plane crash. While the trail to the crash site is not easy to find, it was well worth the time to find it. Just Wow!
At the top of Mt Success are John, Katherine, Pam, Michele and Bernie
Heading up the Chimney at Pam, Katherine and Bernie
A small group of us OTHH left our cars at the hairpin turn view site on the Kancamagus Highway and went for a relatively easy hike for about 3.5 miles into the wilderness. Then it was time to get serious about ascent and get ourselves up the very steep "trail," in places covered with loose rock, to the top of North Hancock. A short detour of 100 ft or so off the top took us to the very nice view ledge, where we had lunch. Below, at that point, are Chris, Andrea, Dick, and Pat.
After a relatively easy 1.4 mile hike through the woods along the ridge, we came to South Hancock, with its own little view ledge just off the summit. Below, at the summit signs, are Dick, Chris, Pat, and Andrea.
On July 24, the Friday Walkers had a real treat: a mushroom walk on the Brook Path in Wonalancet, led by Chris Neefus, professor of biology at UNH. Chris' specialty is mushrooms, and he showed us samples of several different kinds of mushroom as we ambled along by the brook.
Anne, Ann, John, Betsy, Lisa, Chris, Lea, Ginny, Jane, Irena
Four of us OTHH did a clockwise loop hike in great weather, taking in Lonesome Lake and Cannon Mountain. The day was cool, dry, and sunny, with a gentle breeze at times. From the Lafayette Place Campground area, we took the Lonesome Lake trail up to the lake, around to the north end of that, and upward to its end at the Kinsman Ridge trail. Then it was up, steeply up, over boulders and ledges for a few tenths of a mile, until we topped out at the intersection with the top of the Hi-Cannon trail. From there, the hiking was easy by comparison the rest of the way to the tower atop Cannon. Below, with the Franconia Ridge above us and across the notch, are Chris, Pat, Donna, and Dick.
After lunch at the tower, our descent took us back to the top of the Hi-Cannon trail, which we followed down to to the Lonesome Lake trail for the short walk the rest of the way to the cars. Hi up on Hi-Cannon there is an interesting feature - a steep ladder descending a ledge. Below, coming down this, are Donna, Pat, and Chris.
The A group hike for the week was a N-S traverse of the Willey Range, on the west side of Crawford Notch, bagging Mts Tom, Field, and Willey. Weather again made us move our hike up a day, to take advantage of fair skies and comfortably dry air. It was a warm day, but not all that bad for summer, and the following day would have been downright hot and humid. Doing the nine miles with around 3100 feet of elevation gain would have been downright unpleasant by hike's end.
We dropped a vehicle off at the end of Willey House Station Rd, where the hike would end. The hike began at the train depot at the top of the notch, near the AMC Highland Center. This is the starting point for hikes up Mts Willard, Avalon, Tom, and Field to the west as well as anything across the street, such as Jackson and Pierce. Up a way from the start on the Avalon trail, with a fair amount of elevation gain behind us, we took the right at the junction with the A-Z trail, which took us up another steep mile to where the Mt Tom spur trail begins at the col between Tom and Field. Ultimately, the A-Z trail would have taken us over the hill and down to the Zealand trail and the Zealand Falls hut, but that was not where we were headed.
After a quick snack, we made the half mile ascent to the top of Tom, which has no view at all. Pictured below is the group gathered at the cairn. L-R are Chris, Deb, Mary, Andrea, Andy, and Donna (pic by Dick).
After a quick return to the col, we followed the A-Z trail another 80 yards (so says the sign) to the north end of the Willey Range Trail, which we would follow over the next two peaks and down to its end at the Ethan Pond trail, which would take us the rest of the way out to the vehicle left earlier. But first it was the fairly easily hiked 0.9 miles up to Mt Field. This one has no view at the very top, but a few yards down a little side trail does have a nice view back at Mt Tom and down to the Mt Washington Hotel area. Here we had lunch or at least a snack.
It took around an hour to descend from Mt Field and make our way over and up to Mt Willey. This peak again has no view at all, but a few hundred feet of descent beyond the summit took us to the viewpoint ledge with a stunningly good view down Crawford Notch, across the notch to the famous Webster Cliff, and past there to the southern presidentials and Mt Washington off in the distance. Here is where we refueled for the descent. Pictured below, with the camera view somewhat distorted by the view upward from the bottom of the ledge, are Andrea, Dick, Chris, Mary, Deb, and Donna (pic by Andy). Below that is the view of Webster Cliff and beyond behind Donna.
As a result of a cancellation due to rain, the Turtles scheduled hike of the Brooks Fisher trail, with an optional extension to Mt. Webster, occurred on two different days. On June 24, a group hiked to Mt. Webster, with a stop to admire the view:
On July 7, the same hike was offered again.
Mary, Karen, Irena, Lea, Ann
Nine from the B Group hiked Mt Roberts on a warm, but not too hot day. We saw a handful of other hikers including a group of 5-9 year-olds and their adult on some sort of outdoor adventure. The kids were having a great time and were focused on the outdoors, which was great to see.
After a hot, humid stretch to end the previous week, we had a very nice, sunny, tee-shirts & shorts kind of day for a walk up to Mt Moriah. This peak is the northern most one on the east side of Pinkham Notch. We took the Stony Brook trail up from rte 16 to its upper end at the Carter-Moriah trail, which runs up from Carter Dome and the Carters to Moriah. Continuing on the C-M trail, we passed over numerous open ledges, with great views to the east and southeast. Just before the trail peaks at the tiny side spur to the actual summit, there is a steep hands-on climb. Below, ascending this "nice little feature," are (bottom-up) Chris, Donna, Dave, and Charlie.
The views from the open ledge at the summit provide nice views southeast across the notch to Washington and the northern presidentials, south along the Carter peaks, east into Maine, and the closer neighbor Shelburne Moriah. Below, at the summit, are the six of us: Donna, Chris, Dick, Charlie, Dave, and Jolie.
Although the first stream crossing was a bit tricky, and the summit of Sandwich Dome was a bit buggy, Jennings and Sandwich Dome both had great views shared with great company. It was an awesome day in the mountains!
Seven of us OTHH took advantage of a day we found sunny and quite warm, but ahead of the building heat and humidity following, to hike up to Mt Liberty (4459 ft). We gathered at the Liberty Spring Trail parking area just to the north of the huge parking area for the Flume Gorge. Then it was around 3/4 of a mile along the paved but hilly bike path that runs along much of I-93 through Franconia Notch State Park. That was the easy part. Then it was a typical hiking trail for a while, climbing steadily but not too steeply over and around boulders. After crossing a few minor drainage streams and then rock-hopping carefully over the larger last of these, the trail got ever steeper and rockier. This stretch seemed to go on forever, until finally we reached the Liberty Spring tent site, noted for its ongoing bear "incident" problem. Onward and upward perhaps another 1/4 steep and rocky mile, we reached the intersection with the Franconia Ridge trail. It was up here that we saw the sign about the bear issue, while there had been no sign at the tent site (this time). No Yogi for us, so we pressed on and up the last 0.3 mile to the rocky summit, some 3185 ft higher than at the trailhead. The views from there are 360 degrees, looking first north up the ridge to Mt Lincoln, and sweeping around to Mt Garfield, the closer Owls Head long ridge, over to the Twins, east to the three peaks of "The Bonds," south to Mt Carrigain far off, the Loon Mountain ski area to the south, and finally across the notch to the Kinsmans, Lonesome Lake, and finally the easily recognized Cannon Cliff.
Pictured below is our gang of seven, atop Liberty, (L-R) Donna, Ginger, Mary, Michele, Dick, and Pat, with Chris perched on a higher rock behind.
Most of us decided to skip Mt Flume and just head down. Chris and Donna chose to "go the extra mile" (actually 1.2, each way) to bag Mt Flume, then return to Liberty for the descent. This added nearly another 1000 ft of elevation gain and two hours to their day. Below are Donna and Chris atop Flume, with Mt Liberty behind them.
We had a relatively cool day, for late June, for a hike three miles up the Crawford Path to the top of Mt Pierce (4310'). As we passed along the last stretch through the very short trees and into the clearing at the trail junction with the Webster Cliff trail, we could feel just how cool it was up there. We had to layer up to ward off the breeze and temperature in the mid 50s. While there had been some chance of showers during the hike up, none materialized. Mt Eisenhower, off just to the north, was in and out of the clouds, but Mt Monroe and Mt Washington farther to the north stayed in the clouds. We went quickly up the last short stretch to the cairn at the top of Pierce, then came back to the trail junction for a quick lunch.
Below, at that trail junction just below the top of Pierce, are (front) Barbara, Pat, Dick, Michele, and (rear) Donna, Ginger, Dave R, Chris, and Dave D.
On June 16, two groups of Turtles hiked the Old Bridle Path to West Rattlesnake, where we all enjoyed the beautiful view. A perfect day for hiking!
One group headed back down from there, while the other took the Ridge Trail over to East Rattlesnake.
A large group of us OTHH had a great weather day, sunny, cool, and dry, for a hike up Mt Tecumseh, in Waterville Valley. Below, gathered at the top, are (front, sitting) Dave, Tracy, Katy, (back, standing) Jonathan, Doug, Donna, Pat, Chris, Becky, Ginger, Leanne, and Pam (pic by Dick).
On June 12, the Friday Walkers hiked a new trail in Tuftonboro: the Meadow Loop Trail. The highlight for the group was the opportunity to climb to the top of the viewing station and look out at the marsh:
Finally, the group turned around for the official picture:
Welch Dickey hike. Left to right are Kim, Donna, Leanne (holding camera), Hillary, Ginger and John.
It was a great hike, views and company.
It was a warm day in the Franconia Notch today with gorgeous views on Pemi . Some mud and bugs along the trail kept us moving . We enjoyed lunch on the ledges and we down by 1pm. Thank you to a great group of hikers.
It was a great weather day for a hike/rock climb up the Caps Ridge Trail to Mt Jefferson. This trail is on the "Terrifying 25" list, although most who have climbed those "hands required" rock scrambles and steep ledges, which earned the trail a spot on that list, have said they did not think the word "terrifying" really applies. This trail is, however, one where both ascent and descent take longer than "book time." Perhaps half the trail is above tree line, and the long views south to Washington and the southern presidentials and west all the way over to the Franconia Ridge and Mt Moosilauke are always rewarding. Up on the last boulder-strewn stretch over and up to the summit, we had a nice view down into Washington's Great Gulf and up its snow-patch strewn headwall.
Below, at the trailhead start, are Pat, Charlie, Michele, Larry, Barbara, Mary, and Chris (pic by Dick).
