We kicked off the OTHH B season with a short and sweet hike up to Mt. Pemigawasset. We picked the beautiful weather day of the week (a Wednesday, when usual hikes for the group are on a Thursday), and had skies filled with sunshine and temps in the high 50s. No bugs, a bit of mud and beautiful views. Pictured from left to right: Barb, Lacey, Steve, Pam, Mary and Mel.
Despite our best guessing on weather from iffy forecasts, our hike up Mt Garfield turned out to be rather damp, along with temps in the 40s to start, and dropping into the 30s up top. Much of the time there was no precipitation, but now and then there were some sprinkles and mist. Still, a good hike up something always feels good, but getting back into a warm, dry car feels that much better after a cold, damp hike. There were no views, as the summits were in clouds. Perhaps the most memorable aspect of the hike was the unexpected icing on the trees above perhaps 4000 ft. from the night or two before. As we went up higher, and then again as we came back down from that upper zone, the moderating temperature let the ice be released, to rain down on the trail and often on us. The last, steep pitch to the summit was mostly all covered with a loose collection of ice chunks of all sizes, making for tricky footing. Surprisingly, the rock slabs around the old concrete foundation atop the peak were essentially all bare and dry, and that made a good place for us to have lunch. Then it was the long five mile walk down and out.
Six of us OTHH took a ski trail route up Cannon Mountain on a perfect May weather day. Hiking up a steep ski slope is not as easy as one would think. A typical mountain trail would have a mixture of boulders and tree roots, providing regular somewhat like stair-like places to get the feet down level. On a ski trail, there is a lot of grassy, continuous unbroken slope, without those flat spots to get the feet down level. Some of found ourselves going up the steepest pitches in a series of back and forth switchbacks, to provide some relief for the calf muscles. The open nature of the ski trails does provide great views. After lunch on the outside deck of the upper tram terminal building, we took a different route down, avoiding the steepness of "black diamond" rated ski trails, taking instead the intermediate ("More Difficult") trails. While there were some stretches with loose rock, much of the downward route was over grassy slopes with good footing. This let us descend at a relatively quick speed, although being constantly "on the brakes" was something we felt burning our thighs. As it turned out, the descent took just 1:05, about the fastest we've ever come down a 4K.
Below are Dick, Pat, and Marie atop the big communication tower at the summit, with the Franconia ridge behind and across the notch.
