July 28, 2025 - Adams & Madison

Six of us OTHH had a sunny but warm and humid summer day for knocking off one of the more difficult hikes in the White Mountains - Adams (5799') and Madison (5366') in the presidential range. Our route took us from the Appalachia trailhead parking area to the north of the range first up Valley Way, the primary route to the AMC Madison hut. Short of the hut, we took the very short Upper Bruin connector trail up and over to the Airline trail, coming out of the woods mostly above treeline. From here on, we were treated to those unending vistas, first looking across and down (steeply) in King Ravine. We also found ourselves treated to a very nice breeze, almost chilly! Up further, we took Gulfside over to Thunderstorm Junction, then up the rest of the way to the peak of Adams. Below are Andy, Andrea, Deb, Pat, Dick, and Jonathan at the summit, pic courtesy of another hiker.

 Following a much deserved lunch, it was back down to Gulfside, over and down to Madison hut. Most of us made the half mile ascent to bag Madison (may as well while we're up here), then returned to the hut for more snacking to fuel the long trip down Valley Way to the cars. All done, it was a very long day on our feet, covering over ten miles of rough trail, and climbing a total of over 5,000 vertical feet. There was, after all, a steep (pun intended) price to pay for those glorious prolonged views above treeline.

B group hikes Mt. Monadanock, July 23rd

 Tracy, John, Cathy, Ann, Steve J. and Griff enjoyed a hike up the Dublin trail to the summit of Mt. Monadanock.  This route is a bit rugged, but is a good choice in regards to the number of hikers you see.  You may be more likely to hear and see the logging operation taking place, but even that is not a huge deal, as they're doing a nice job keeping the integrity of the trail.  We were so happy with the weather, low humidity, and a nice breeze.  I'd say it was a solid 10.

B group hikes Morgan & Percival, June 26, 2025 (late entry)

A nice hike up Percival and Morgan to enjoy the lake views.  We skipped the caves and ladders, but had a wonderful hike.  Lot's of kids from camp were out, we saw two sets of young folks, one boys camp and a group of girls.  Nice to see so many people enjoying the trails.  Fun to hear all the, are we there yet, questions.  

John, Ginger, Susan, Mary and Tracy 

July 22, 2025 - Whiteface & Passaconaway

 Eight of the A group hikers had a great (cooler, low humidity, sunny) day for a hike up Whiteface, with six of us continuing on to bag Passaconaway also. There actually seemed to be four different hike groups, with different starting times. Deb & Andy started earliest, followed by Pat and Dick, then Hilary and Cynthia, and finally Pam and Doug. Those who have gone up Whiteface using the Blueberry Ledge Trail will remember a series of  challenging rock face climbs high up on the mountain. Below is Pat part way up one of the least difficult of these. A minute later gave us one of the great views from the open ledge areas up high, with Mt Passaconaway standing prominently to the left of center.

 

 

Pam and Doug passed first the Hilary/Cindy pair and later caught up to Pat and Dick as the latter pair had finished snacking at the open ledge view area often mistaken by hikers as the top of Whiteface. This is where the Rollins Trail starts northward, passes over the wooded actual Whiteface summit 0.3 mile from that "view summit," and eventually curves eastward. From the actual Whiteface summit, Rollins finally ends about 2.5 miles later at the Dicey's Mill Trail, where Pat and Dick met up with Deb and Andy, who already had been up the 0.9 mile remainder of Dicey's Mill to the Passaconaway wooded summit (no view there). Deb and Andy continued downward, while Pat & Dick went on and up to bag Passaconaway, passing Pam and Doug again as the latter pair were on the way back down. The descent from Passaconaway to the parking area at Ferncroft is fairly easy hiking, although 4.6 miles at the end of an already long hike makes for an exhausting day on foot.

Hilary and Cindy, having planned to do just Whiteface, went back down to Ferncroft the way they had ascended.

 On July 22, the Turtles hiked the Brooks Fisher trail in Holderness.   We all enjoyed the view of Squam and the Rattlesnakes, and then some of us headed back down while others continued on to Mt. Webster.  A wonderful hike with perfect weather!

Lorraine, Karen, Tracy, Ricky, John, Linda, Irena

Photographer:  Jane

The Mt. Webster group:  Linda, Karen, Irena, Lorraine

Photographer:  Tracy

 On July 18, the Friday Walkers hiked Rainbow Falls and then Quincy Bog.  Here's a picture of the group at Rainbow Falls -- though unfortunately you can't see the waterfall.  (It was actually quite pretty.  Not surprisingly, it had more water than is typical for the middle of July.)

John, Nancy, Jane, Charlie, Ricky, Kathie, Scott

July 15, 2025 - Liberty and Flume

Taking advantage of the relative cool early morning woods, seven of the A group, plus two starting later, headed up the paved bike path from near the Flume Gorge, to the start of the Liberty Spring Trail. This trail is fairly easy hiking at first, but after climbing gradually for over a mile it goes up a steeper, boulder strewn section that seems never to end. Finally, we came to the Liberty Spring tent site, a good place to pause. A notice posted by the site caretaker said that there was a "bear incident" at 4:25 that morning! It was not specific as to the nature of the "incident" and we hoped it wasn't a camper dragged off and not his package of Hostess Twinkies. Then it was on and up to the Franconia Ridge, and the final 0.3 mile ascent to the top of Mt Liberty (4459 ft). Following a short snack break, we took the ridge trail the 1.2 mile descent/ascent to Mt Flume (4328 ft), where we had lunch. Partly due to the high humidity and partly due to lingering smoke from the western Canada wildfires, the views weren't their normally stunning panoramas. Still, being up on a high ridge always is impressive.

Then it was time to begin the return trek, off the Flume summit, over and finally back up to just below the top of Liberty, then to the top of the Liberty Spring Trail. That boulder-strewn next mile was slow-going, and all of us were glad to be off that part and back to a more easily traveled trail. It was interesting to note the several large groups of young folks (camp groups?) heading up toward both peaks, plus one that we let pass as they headed down, at a pace we older hikers may remember being able to do when we were that young. 

We had advanced warning from Pam and Doug, who were down well in advance of us, that they had encountered a bear on the trail, a short way up from the bike path. They backtracked and took an alternate route the remainder of the way to the bike path. It was some time before the rest of us got that far, so we stayed on the trail, keeping our eyes out as we descended. No Yogi for us. Having that 0.7 mile return trip along the bike path and back to the cars behind us was a relief. It had been a long day in warmth and humidity (per Alltrails, that was 9.4 miles, 4143 ft elevation gain.)

Below are Pat, Barbara, Marie, Jane, Michele, and David at the bridge on the bike path early in the hike (pic by Dick). I don't think we looked that fresh at the end.

Larry completed the hike on Wednesday.

 

Here's a picture of the bear that Pam and Doug encountered near the bottom of the Liberty Spring Trail. The bear was not intimidated by yells or whistles that we made which was a bit disturbing as most Black Bears run away from human interaction. This bear just kept meandering up the trail, forcing the five hikers (Pam, Doug and three other hikers that were coincidently there at the same time) to go back up the trail about a quarter of a mile until we could take the bushwhack down to the Pemi Trail. The bear started to follow us down that trail until he came to a spot where one of the five hikers had thrown up due to being nervous about the presence of the bear. My guess is that the bear was in the 250 to 300 pound range. (Another guess is that this guy realized that he was the slowest runner of the five!!) Four other hikers coming down the LS trail were held up at the trail junction for a few minutes until the bear followed us down the bushwhack. All ended well.