The cool nights have started to bring some color out in the trees. This is the back side of Welch from Dickey. If you look carefully you can see people at the summit.
Monday, September 24, 2007
Dickey Mountain - 2631'
We got to play peak-baggers today with Dickey so close to Welch. The second half of the Welch-Dickey Loop starts with a bang! Here you can see Dickey from the top of Welch...and Muh contemplating how to get there. That is a sheer drop off that she's looking at and the trail blaze indicated you needed to walk parallel to that cliff! Fortunately, by taking one more step toward the edge you could see the rest of the trail off to the left--a great relief. Frankly, we're wondering why you never hear of people getting killed out here. There are plenty of opportunities!
The cool nights have started to bring some color out in the trees. This is the back side of Welch from Dickey. If you look carefully you can see people at the summit.
The cool nights have started to bring some color out in the trees. This is the back side of Welch from Dickey. If you look carefully you can see people at the summit.
Welch Mountain - 2339'
Back to the White Mountain National Forest's west side. The Welch-Dickey Loop takes off from the trail head just off Route 49. There were quite a few cars in the parking lot--we were sure to have company on the trail today.
The first 800' of vertical was almost effortless thanks to a twenty minute break for a phone call from Arj. The second 800' was mostly steep open granite ledge. Very challenging for us! Easily the toughest terrain thus far. Thankfully it was dry. Had it been wet we would have retreated.
There was a nice view just before the final ascent that showed off Sandwich Mountain and the Sandwich Range overlooking Route 49..
Turning left gave you a good shot at Welch's summit and Muh, the volunteer family portrait photographer.
The trip up Welch had us scrambling over and squeezing between granite slabs. This passage was about 20" wide, 15' deep, and about 8' vertical change front to back.
The first 800' of vertical was almost effortless thanks to a twenty minute break for a phone call from Arj. The second 800' was mostly steep open granite ledge. Very challenging for us! Easily the toughest terrain thus far. Thankfully it was dry. Had it been wet we would have retreated.
There was a nice view just before the final ascent that showed off Sandwich Mountain and the Sandwich Range overlooking Route 49..
Turning left gave you a good shot at Welch's summit and Muh, the volunteer family portrait photographer.
The trip up Welch had us scrambling over and squeezing between granite slabs. This passage was about 20" wide, 15' deep, and about 8' vertical change front to back.
Thursday, September 20, 2007
Oak Ridge
A rare Monday off encouraged us to go to Castle in the Clouds in Tuftonboro for an easy day. Beautiful location on Lee Mountain. Queer house. Tragic ending for the Thomas Plant story is about all I can say.
Muh checking out the waterfall leading up to the "castle":
A nice trail map of the Ossipee Range provided by Lakes Region Conservation Trust gave us high hopes for many hikes to come. Our first effort on the Oak Ridge Trail was very disappointing. You could have driven an eighteen-wheeler up the trail!
Lucknow from Oak Ridge:
Duh admiring the view of Gunstock on the other side of Winnipesaukee:
The major trailhead at Shannon Pond features "Feed the giant trout"--these trout are 3 times larger than any trout I've ever seen!
The ducks were equally fond of the Trout Chow.
White Ledge Loop
Oh boy--what a great trip! Our best yet.
With rain eminent, we headed off to EMS and got some rain gear Friday night. One more step to being real hikers :-) Saturday we headed off for the White Ledge Campground in Albany. The White Ledge Loop Trail took off from the back of the campground. Last week we did Boulder Loop, northeast of Chocorua. White Ledge is southeast.
What a great trail! We manage to miss most of the rain, but the rain gear came in handy nonetheless.
An intermittent stream near the trailhead. Definitely there Saturday after the rain:
This is not an intermittent stream. This is water gushing down the ledge trail! (And some rain on the lens.) There were several spots where we actually had to stop and think about how we were going to get from point A to point B. That was a first for us. And fun.
Near the top of the ledge. This is a lot steeper than it looks!
The view from the top of the ledge (the opposite viewpoint from the previous picture).
Muh checking out the GPS looking for the White Ledge cache. (Note the purdy rain shell.)
On the return trip the look eastward over Iona Lake (left) and Whitton Pond hiding behind Whitton Ledge.
Two hours up. One hour down. Just a little over 4 miles and 1400' vertical.
We stopped a few miles down Route 16 and found the Albany Moose Lookout Cache. Here's a big cache of moose to look out for that we found near the cache.
With rain eminent, we headed off to EMS and got some rain gear Friday night. One more step to being real hikers :-) Saturday we headed off for the White Ledge Campground in Albany. The White Ledge Loop Trail took off from the back of the campground. Last week we did Boulder Loop, northeast of Chocorua. White Ledge is southeast.
What a great trail! We manage to miss most of the rain, but the rain gear came in handy nonetheless.
An intermittent stream near the trailhead. Definitely there Saturday after the rain:
This is not an intermittent stream. This is water gushing down the ledge trail! (And some rain on the lens.) There were several spots where we actually had to stop and think about how we were going to get from point A to point B. That was a first for us. And fun.
Near the top of the ledge. This is a lot steeper than it looks!
The view from the top of the ledge (the opposite viewpoint from the previous picture).
Muh checking out the GPS looking for the White Ledge cache. (Note the purdy rain shell.)
On the return trip the look eastward over Iona Lake (left) and Whitton Pond hiding behind Whitton Ledge.
Two hours up. One hour down. Just a little over 4 miles and 1400' vertical.
We stopped a few miles down Route 16 and found the Albany Moose Lookout Cache. Here's a big cache of moose to look out for that we found near the cache.
Wednesday, September 12, 2007
Boulder Loop
Boulder Loop Trail runs off the north side of the Kancamagus Highway's east end. Even though we stopped at the Saco Ranger's Office for a map and annual White Mountain National Forest parking sticker we forgot the blasted interpretive guide to the trail! It must have been informative--there were about 20 viewpoint trail markers.
This was a nice hike. Steady climb up and down. The eastern part of the loop was undergoing some trail maintenance. The footing on the way down that section was a little loose. We almost made the 3.1 mile loop without seeing anyone. We ran into a mother and daughter about 300 yards from the trail head.
This was a nice hike. Steady climb up and down. The eastern part of the loop was undergoing some trail maintenance. The footing on the way down that section was a little loose. We almost made the 3.1 mile loop without seeing anyone. We ran into a mother and daughter about 300 yards from the trail head.
Just in case you were wondering why they call it Boulder Loop:
I'm sure kids get from Point A (the little patch of trail visible under the boulder) to the camera's vantage Point B by climbing under the boulder. We acted our age and climbed around.
The trail curls around a huge U-shaped ledge. From the western edge we got a nice glimpse of the Swift River peeking through and (NH) Sugarloaf in the distance.
This is an unusual view of Chocorua from the north with Blue Mt in the foreground, left.
From the eastern edge of the ledge another shot of Chocorua and the sheer western ledge. I have to admit being a bit uncomfortable "au natural" without a safety railing on those ledges.
Thursday, September 6, 2007
Mount Major - 1786'
A "Major" step up for us!
Alton is so nice. Not the hustle and bustle of other lake areas. We got some nice deli sandwiches "downtown" at 9am at a delicious country store that had heavenly-smelling freshly baked bread.
We huffed and puffed all the way up the Brook Trail leap-frogging another family. We found this little orange salamander on one break.
What a beautiful 360 degree view from the top! A beautiful blue day, too. The wind at the top had us reaching for the second layer.
A wee bit early for lunch, I broke out the new Garmin GPS and said let's find burried treasure! I think Muh thought I was nuts! As I homed in on our first geochache she started to look like she believed I was actually looking for something and started looking too. Here she is posing with our first cache:
After lunch we went straight down the Main Trail. I guess we're getting old. That was pretty hairy--descending the steep expanses of slab. The old thighs might never be the same :-) I guess we'll be continuing with the "easy" hikes for a while. I thought we were in shape!
Alton is so nice. Not the hustle and bustle of other lake areas. We got some nice deli sandwiches "downtown" at 9am at a delicious country store that had heavenly-smelling freshly baked bread.
We huffed and puffed all the way up the Brook Trail leap-frogging another family. We found this little orange salamander on one break.
What a beautiful 360 degree view from the top! A beautiful blue day, too. The wind at the top had us reaching for the second layer.
A wee bit early for lunch, I broke out the new Garmin GPS and said let's find burried treasure! I think Muh thought I was nuts! As I homed in on our first geochache she started to look like she believed I was actually looking for something and started looking too. Here she is posing with our first cache:
After lunch we went straight down the Main Trail. I guess we're getting old. That was pretty hairy--descending the steep expanses of slab. The old thighs might never be the same :-) I guess we'll be continuing with the "easy" hikes for a while. I thought we were in shape!
Basin-Cascades Trail
As we left the Flume we still had plenty of gas in the tank and I asked a Franconia State Park ranger how rigorous Mt. Pemigewasset (across the street) was. He confided that the place to be on a humid day was the Basin-Cascades Trail a couple miles down the street. Boy was he ever right!
The Basin, a granite pothole 20 feet in diameter, had wonderful light and made for some great photos.
We followed the very rooty Basic-Cascades Trail for a long half mile along Cascade Brook. Lots of ledge and potholes in the brook. We stopped for a few minutes to consider the sanity of a family swimming in the pool at the base of Kinsman Falls. A few minutes later marked our turnaround point--the first crossing of the brook.
On the way down we dropped our feet into the chilly brook while munching down our Big Boy's sandwiches.
A spectacular recommendation for a sticky day--the trail was remarkably cool. We'll be back.
Sunday, September 2, 2007
The Flume
What do you do when it's 90 degrees and humid? Go a couple of hours north into the woods...where it's 90 degrees and humid! We didn't think it could possibly be that humid in the White Mountains.
We hadn't been to The Flume since our first family camping adventure about 18 years ago. I'm sure it hasn't changed but we sure didn't remember it. It was a nice easy stroll. We kind of wondered why they had rain shelters until we started getting poured on with no warning. We took a short 5 minute rest in a shelter we happened upon one a few minutes into the storm.
Believe it or not, I didn't notice the waterfall pouring on Muh's head:
We hadn't been to The Flume since our first family camping adventure about 18 years ago. I'm sure it hasn't changed but we sure didn't remember it. It was a nice easy stroll. We kind of wondered why they had rain shelters until we started getting poured on with no warning. We took a short 5 minute rest in a shelter we happened upon one a few minutes into the storm.
Believe it or not, I didn't notice the waterfall pouring on Muh's head:
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