Four of us OTHH made a loop hike out of the trip to the Twins, going up the North Twin Trail, down the Twinway to the AMC Galehead hut, and out via the Gale River Trail. The first part of the trip is a fairly easy two miles in from the end of Haystack Road, following the Little River for much of the way. The river crossing wasn't too hard, as water flows were less than at other times. Then we got down to business, over a steeper and generally rocky two more miles, topping out at a very nice view ledge. Five minutes later we were at the top of North Twin. There is no view at all from the actual summit, but a couple hundred feet past that leads to an open ledge. This was a nice place to regroup, have a snack, and take photos. Below is part of the view from there, with South Twin (4902') on the left , looming over "little" Galehead (4204') to its right. Beyond Galehead is first the long humped ridge that is Owls Head, and beyond that the two pointy peaks of Flume and Liberty. Part of the Franconia Ridge is shown to the right, all of which, plus Garfield, were easily identified from where we stood. If you look closely, the roof of Galehead Hut is visible as that small white dot in the col between South Twin and Galehead.
From North Twin, we took the spur trail down, over, and up to the top of South Twin, which has its own grand view of the Pemigewasset Wilderness. That makes a great place to stop for lunch. Below, at the top, are the four of us (L-R), Brenda, Dick, Chris, and Pam.
Next was the mile long, steep descent from South Twin to the hut, dropping around 1,000 ft in elevation. Pam and Chris dropped packs at the hut and made the short hike up to bag viewless Galehead, since it's "right there." Meanwhile Brenda and I decided that an 11-mile day would be long enough, left Galehead for another day, and went on ahead. It wasn't long before Pam and Chris caught up. After the rocky first two miles of descent, the trail got a lot easier to cover, but the rest of it, while fairly easy walking, seemed to go on forever. Chris gave us a ride back to Haystack Road, where we began the long day.
On Aug. 18, the Turtles hiked to the first viewpoint on Mt. Roberts. In spite of forecasts for rain, the weather turned out to be just fine.
A few of the hikers then continued on to the top of Mt. Roberts
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
