[at-l] Day trip reports - hiking in NH...

[jball65@shaw.ca (Jason Ball)]

Thanks for the trip report. I needed that. Think I'm going to go for day
hike tomorrow. No where as notable as NH but just as fun.

Jakealoo (Dream'in of a Hikin' Christmas and Single Path New Year)

----- Original Message -----
From: "Mara Factor" <m_factor@hotmail.com>
To: <BackpackingLight@yahoogroups.com>; <at-l@mailman.backcountry.net>
Sent: Wednesday, December 26, 2001 7:23 AM
Subject: [at-l] Day trip reports - hiking in NH...


> After briefly meeting Han Solo at the Gathering, I noticed the "APB" that
> went out afterwards had a Boston area number.  Turns out he grew up just a
> few blocks from where I lived for ten years and his parents are still
there.
>   I'm now just 1.5 miles away.
>
> Anyway, I told him to look me up when he came to town and we would go
> hiking...  That was last weekend.
>
> Our first trip was an AMC hike up Tecumseh, a 4,003' mountain in the
> southern Whites.  I don't do much hiking with the AMC but another friend
was
> going on this hike and it was fun to carpool.  Although it was December
and
> cold, there was just an inch or so of snow and the conditions were
> definitely more three season hiking than winter.
>
> I probably wore the least rugged footwear of the group with my NB961s.
> While not the typical shoes seen on an AMC hike in December, they were
fine
> for the occasion.  Certainly not the overkill of the plastic boots that
one
> novice was wearing.  Although I keep wanting a bit more torsional
rigidity,
> I continue to favor those shoes over my newer Merrills.  The going was
slick
> in a few places with the little bit of snow coating the ledgy rocks but
the
> pace of a group of ten made us go slow enough that it didn't matter.
> Eventually, we did split into two groups for some of the hike up.  We met
> near the summit and all summited together.  Not much of a view from the
tree
> and fog covered summit.  We all went down mostly together as a group.
>
> The trail skirts one of the Waterville Valley ski area trails.  We stopped
> both on the way up and down to catch the view from the downhill trail of
> still mostly exposed rock.  But, there was skiing and snowmaking on the
> neighboring slopes just above us.
>
> The next day, we took a short trip up to Mt. Monadnock and climbed by way
of
> the Pumpelly trail.  As usual, I did see someone I know at the summit and
> was able to introduce Han to Larry Davis, a 'regular' on Monadnock.
>
> Fast forward to Thursday...  I had been talking about contra dancing in
the
> car over the weekend so brought Han to the Thursday night dance.  He had a
> good time and is already looking forward to checking out the Lansing area
> dances.
>
> On Saturday, we got a late start and drove directly to Glencliff.  Han
> wanted to check out Moonbow's Gearskins - OK, yes, so did I  ;-).  We
> stopped by to figure out when would be a good time that evening and Big
Jon
> ended up joining us for the hike that day and the next.
>
> Rather than take the AT up Mooselauke, the three of us climbed the
Carriage
> Road but with a foot or so of powder on the trail, the going was slow.
> Since we didn't start hiking until around noon, we aborted the summit
> attempt and turned around at the Snapper Trail intersection about 1 mile
> from the south summit.  Going down was a whole bunch of fun as it usually
is
> in the winter.  While there wasn't enough of a base yet to just glissade
> down in our boots, we were wishing for our skiis.  The conditions and
grade
> of that road would have been perfect for them.  I wore my Limmers for the
> first time all year for this hike.  I had given Han my gaitors as he was
> wearing NB804s so my feet did get wet from melting snow that got stuck
> inside the ankle of my boots.  But, as long as we didn't stop for too
long,
> my feet stayed  plenty warm.
>
> That evening and the next morning, we were all feeling the effects of
> pulling our feet through the snow.  Lifting our legs to climb stairs was
an
> interesting experience and we were glad to be going primarily downhill on
> Sunday.
>
> On Sunday, we hiked south from 25c, past the new Ore Hill shelter and
Atwell
> Hill Rd to 25a.  I have good memories of the 25c trailhead from the trail
> magic I received from Mother Hen during my thruhike, a winter hike with
some
> friends, and some trail maintenance with Key-Mho-Saw-Bee, Mrs Gorp (who's
> memories may not be so good) and others from the ATC and DOC.
>
> By the time we got out there and started hiking, we had loosened up a bit
> and the hiking itself seemed to work out whatever left over kinks we had
> from the previous day's hiking.  We saw an incredible number of animal
> tracks in the snow.  Deer and rabbit were pretty easy to ID but many
others
> left us wondering...  There were tiny tracks with a dragging tail, others
> that might have been squirrel or marten, and some that looked canine but
> whether it was fox, coyote, or a neighborhood dog, who knows?  We saw none
> of the animals but saw and heard a few birds.  A moose sighting would have
> made Han day but we didn't even see and moose tracks, much less the
animal.
>
> The new shelter is great.  It is south facing and enjoys the full benefit
of
> the sun.  For a winter hike, it definitely made for a pleasant break
point.
> Look for the H2O sign in front of the shelter and the Privy sign in back.
I
> didn't follow either sign.
>
> The snow depth was a bit lower here than up on the slopes of Mooselauke.
> Probably in the 6-9" range.  For the most part, the dry fluffy snow was
easy
> to walk through but negotiating bog bridges that are barely visible was
> always "fun"  ;-).
>
> The hike down after the shelter was very fast.  Crossing Atwell Hill Road,
> we looked back to note the northbound DOC sign with accurate mileage (to
the
> tenth of a mile) to the next shelter, road crossing, and Paris (go
figure).
>
> Sunday night, Han and I went into Lincoln for dinner and to check out
> McKenzie Gear, an outfitter with a strange mix of gear that just happens
to
> include Red Ledge, Feathered Friends, Golite, and Montane.  I couldn't
> resist buying the Montane featherlite pants.  :-)
>
> On Monday, we knew we needed to get out early to get Han back to town for
> his family Christmas celebration.  So, we started at 8:00 and did the 4
> miles from 25c back to Glencliff.  Big Jon declined to join us for this
> day's hike.
>
> The weather had warmed noticably by the time we left in the morning.
Rather
> than snow on the car from the night's precipitation, we had to scrape
> freezing rain off.  But, the rain had mostly stopped before we started
> hiking.
>
> We quickly realized that once again, there were many animal tracks criss
> crossing our path.  There were also deer tracks that we ended up following
> for miles.  While some of the tracks were obviously old, some were so new
> they made me look around to see if the animal was still nearby.  But, no
> such luck.
>
> As we climbed Mt. Mist, we ascended into the fog and mist.  Somehow it
> seemed appropriate for that mountain.  As Han said, it was a good thing
the
> summit was marked or we wouldn't have known we had hit the summit.  We
> started descending and soon arrived at yet another DOC sign.  This one,
> pointing out a side trail to a viewpoint was marked "Beware of tourists."
> Given the fog, we skipped the sidetrail.
>
> We soon arrived at a T intersection with a double white blaze.  To the
left
> was the Webster Slide trail to the top of Mt. Webster 1 mile up.  We took
> the right turn to go down towards Lake Watchamacallit (Wachipauka) and
found
> ourselves following the DOC tiger strips rather than white blazes.  This
> trail quickly brought us to the Lake which we could tell would be a really
> nice place for a break in the summer.  But, we also couldn't find the
trail
> out of there.  The DOC blazes seemed to end.  We started to backtrack up
the
> hill a bit but decided to just bushwhack given that we could here the road
> from the lake.
>
> We had my compass but no map (this was off my White Mountains map and I
> hadn't brought my AT maps).  We knew the approximate direction of the road
> (SE to NW) and the trail in relationship to that, and backtracking would
be
> an absolute cinch given our snowy footprints should we not be able to
figure
> out how to continue north.
>
> So, we followed the path of least resistance through the trees for a while
> and then stumbled upon a DOC blaze.  Although we couldn't see any hint of
a
> trail, we knew there was one.  Han stayed within site of the tree while I
> scouted ahead.  Based on the compass reading, he thought I was heading too
> far to the right so I turned left, looked up, and 50' to my left, I
spotted
> another DOC blaze.  We followed this process a few times until I spotted a
> true, honest-to-goodness, white blaze.  We had figured out fairly early on
> that we probably turned right to go down to the lake when there was a some
> less obvious trail straight ahead to stay on the AT.  We had just found it
> again.
>
> Following the AT was much easier and we were once again able to make good
> time even as we climbed the Wyatt Hill, the last hill before descending to
> Glencliff.  As we were starting the final mile or so of descent into
> Glencliff, it started sleeting and raining but we were warm while we were
> moving so just hiked wet knowing we could change as soon as we got to the
> hostel.  It took us a bit longer to get to the road than expected as I
think
> we were angling toward the road rather than going straight at it.  We
could
> hear trucks seemingly close by but it took forever to get there.
>
> The snow today was somewhat compacted by the rain we had and the snow we
> kicked up skittered across the surface rather than sinking in as it had in
> yesterday's powder.  Pulling our feet through the snow took a bit more
> effort but with less than 6" on the ground, we could mostly just pick up
our
> feet a bit higher.
>
> On Sunday and Monday, I wore my Sorels and had toasty warm and dry feet
all
> day on both days.
>
> With any luck, the Whites won't have any more major melts this winter and
> the snow we hiked in all weekend will be an excellent base for more snow.
> While there was certainly enough snow to support snowshoes, snowshoes were
> unnecessary this weekend.  The added weight of the snowshoes would have
> probably been more work than the extra effort to break the trail in the
> powder.
>
> I'm looking forward to yet another weekend in the Whites but given that I
> woke up with a really nasty cold yesterday, this coming weekend's hiking
may
> now be in question.
>
> Mara
> Stitches, GAME99
>
>
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