freighttrain48
New member
I got out of work at 6pm New Years and did something I have never done on New Years eve before. I went home and was in Bed by 11pm. My girlfriend and I were planning to hike the franconia ridge the next day. When I got home she was napping and complaining about how she felt I thought to myself maybe we should save the ridge for a day that she felt better. She has never done a winter hike before and I myself have only done a few none being a white mountain 4k. I had hiked the Kinsmans we Big Earl and Sue but since that was Dec 10th it is not a winter 4k.
We woke up at 7am new years day and My Girlfriend said she felt much better. We gathered our gear and hit the road. With our late start I new that a big mileage day was out of the question. I figured that Jackson would be a good short Winter 4k, Tecumseh was our first summer 4k and I wanted something with good views for our first Winter 4k.
We Started off on the Webster Jackson trail around 11am( really late start I know!) and we made it about 100 yards up the trail before the Micro spikes came on. We skipped the elephant view and continued up the trail with the goal of a short stop at the second view point. I had learned a lot from hiking the Kinsmans with Earl and Sue. I paced myself trying to keep my sweat levels down. We made it to the view spot and saw nice views of crawford notch and the Highland center and the majestic Majestic Mount Washington Hotel shinning in the distance.
Shortly after we were at the spilt of the Webster Jackson trail. When I did this in the summer I skipped Webster and did an out and back on Jackson. Things were going smoothly so I suggested adding Webster and Its amazing views into crawford notch in the mix. My Gf agreed and we descended briefly to and awesome water fall that was just about completly frozen over. From there it was a decent jaunt up to the webster cliff trail. Once we made it to the thick woods at about 3500ft we started to get rained on. Not rain from the sky but rain from all the ice melting off the trees. It looked really cool the water falling off the trees as the sun shined through.
The views on webster were not dissapointing to say the least it. Great views of the Willey Range, Crawford Notch and Carrigan. The Higher peaks of the Presis were starting to dissapear in the clouds. The Webster Cliff trail to Jackson finally felt like a winter hike a good amount of snow covered everything and It truly felt like winter. We made quick work of this trail and I found myself almost to the top of Jackson when we encountered a big icy slab.
I smiled to myself as I pulled my G10s out for the first time. Did you need crampons to get past this obstacle, no my girlfriend bypassed it and continued up on her microspikes. Those that know me know that I am a gear fanatic and I was excited to use them so I straped them on and climbed right up the slab with a big S#*#t eating grin on my face
it was about that time a lonely Gray Jay showed up and I couldnt help giving him some cheese its.
I had told my girlfriend that Jackson had an amazing view, kind of like Pierce but set back a little more. So when we hit the summit and we could see 360 degrees of fog she was a tad dissapointed and cold. I pulled out my camera handed it to her to take my summit pic and the battery was dead. So I put it down on the summit cairn and wipped out my cell phone and snapped a couple pics.
Alyssa on Jackson
Me and Gray jay on Jackson
Gray Jay
After snapping the photos it was time to go and we descened the Jackson portion of the Webster Jackson trail. We descended about 1000ft and took a break and thats when I realized my camera was still on the summit. Being that it was getting dark and I realized we had one headlamp going back up was not in the cards. this hole section was pretty much bare ice from the recent rains and descending it with one light took a bit but we got down safely. Alyssa was quite distraught that I left our camera up there and I told her that I would post on here as soon as I had cell service. Which I did as we were driving past Bretton Woods. By the time we reached El Greccos in Lincoln I had a response from Michelle saying that she was hiking Pierce and she would leave a note at the Jackson trail head.( Big thanks to Michelle)
Flash forward to monday afternoon I am on the arc trainner at the gym and I got an email from a man we will simply call Peter who found my camera and asked me how I would like to get it back! I ran over to Alyssa and shared with her the good news. In closing I would just like to say a big thank you to those that helped and to everyone that is a member or lurker here on Vftt. Its awesome to be apart of such a great community!!
We woke up at 7am new years day and My Girlfriend said she felt much better. We gathered our gear and hit the road. With our late start I new that a big mileage day was out of the question. I figured that Jackson would be a good short Winter 4k, Tecumseh was our first summer 4k and I wanted something with good views for our first Winter 4k.
We Started off on the Webster Jackson trail around 11am( really late start I know!) and we made it about 100 yards up the trail before the Micro spikes came on. We skipped the elephant view and continued up the trail with the goal of a short stop at the second view point. I had learned a lot from hiking the Kinsmans with Earl and Sue. I paced myself trying to keep my sweat levels down. We made it to the view spot and saw nice views of crawford notch and the Highland center and the majestic Majestic Mount Washington Hotel shinning in the distance.
Shortly after we were at the spilt of the Webster Jackson trail. When I did this in the summer I skipped Webster and did an out and back on Jackson. Things were going smoothly so I suggested adding Webster and Its amazing views into crawford notch in the mix. My Gf agreed and we descended briefly to and awesome water fall that was just about completly frozen over. From there it was a decent jaunt up to the webster cliff trail. Once we made it to the thick woods at about 3500ft we started to get rained on. Not rain from the sky but rain from all the ice melting off the trees. It looked really cool the water falling off the trees as the sun shined through.
The views on webster were not dissapointing to say the least it. Great views of the Willey Range, Crawford Notch and Carrigan. The Higher peaks of the Presis were starting to dissapear in the clouds. The Webster Cliff trail to Jackson finally felt like a winter hike a good amount of snow covered everything and It truly felt like winter. We made quick work of this trail and I found myself almost to the top of Jackson when we encountered a big icy slab.
I smiled to myself as I pulled my G10s out for the first time. Did you need crampons to get past this obstacle, no my girlfriend bypassed it and continued up on her microspikes. Those that know me know that I am a gear fanatic and I was excited to use them so I straped them on and climbed right up the slab with a big S#*#t eating grin on my face
it was about that time a lonely Gray Jay showed up and I couldnt help giving him some cheese its. I had told my girlfriend that Jackson had an amazing view, kind of like Pierce but set back a little more. So when we hit the summit and we could see 360 degrees of fog she was a tad dissapointed and cold. I pulled out my camera handed it to her to take my summit pic and the battery was dead. So I put it down on the summit cairn and wipped out my cell phone and snapped a couple pics.
Alyssa on Jackson
Me and Gray jay on Jackson
Gray Jay
After snapping the photos it was time to go and we descened the Jackson portion of the Webster Jackson trail. We descended about 1000ft and took a break and thats when I realized my camera was still on the summit. Being that it was getting dark and I realized we had one headlamp going back up was not in the cards. this hole section was pretty much bare ice from the recent rains and descending it with one light took a bit but we got down safely. Alyssa was quite distraught that I left our camera up there and I told her that I would post on here as soon as I had cell service. Which I did as we were driving past Bretton Woods. By the time we reached El Greccos in Lincoln I had a response from Michelle saying that she was hiking Pierce and she would leave a note at the Jackson trail head.( Big thanks to Michelle
)Flash forward to monday afternoon I am on the arc trainner at the gym and I got an email from a man we will simply call Peter who found my camera and asked me how I would like to get it back! I ran over to Alyssa and shared with her the good news. In closing I would just like to say a big thank you to those that helped and to everyone that is a member or lurker here on Vftt. Its awesome to be apart of such a great community!!
