Jazzbo
Well-known member
- Joined
- Jan 1, 2005
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I met up with Rols and Tuco for an early morning rendezvous at 3:30am at Exit 4 Derry. Everyone was on time and we were shortly on our way motoring up Route 93 northbound. We enjoyed early morning sunrise driving along Route 2 in Randolph and Gorham arriving at TH one of only 2 cars in the parking lot.
We were on the trail at 1600’ elevation by 7:30 or was it 8:00?. We opted to bypass the Eyebrow on word that it might be wet and icy and stream-crossing could be dicey. The main trail ascends by switch backs with frequent views of a brook descending by a long series of cascades.
Somewhere at around 2200’ snow and ice started becoming continuous and we switched over to micro-spikes. We were treated to nice views of Grafton Notch from upper ledges. We quickly reached junction with Eyebrow Trail at 2600’. Shortly after that post holing became more frequent and annoying so we switched over to MSR snowshoes we stopped post-holing. The trail WAS in good shape with consistent monorail that you had to stay on in order to avoid post holing even with snowshoes. The snow was looking pretty dirty though.
The trail continues to limb steadily along the lip of big ledges until it attains a knob about 3400’ where you are treated to some nice views of the notch, the Baldpates, and Old Speck summit. The weather was becoming sunny with a cool breeze off the snow pack that felt truly delightful. At this point the trail meanders for a spell up and down over some minor bumps through some pretty spruce forest.
The trail resumes climbing steadily with a few particularly steep pitches. The snow pack along this stretch was very firm for MSR snowshoes. The MSR snowshoes handled these steep pitches extremely well both going up and going down later. We reached the 4180’ summit in somewhere around 4 hours. Book is 3 hours 20 minutes so I guess we were going a little slow.
Summit was beautiful and sunny with cool breezes. We spent 45 minutes or so relaxing and enjoying. The view from the old fire tower is 360 degrees.
View of Baldpates and Maine peaks to the north east
Zoom shot - Views of Presidentials and Mahoosic Notch.
On our way down we encountered two young fellows in shorts coming up with a dog. One of the fellow’s shins was bloody from post holing. They didn’t posthole the trail too badly so we didn’t complain too much. We later encountered a Mom and Dad with two small kids down at 3000’ who turned around when we told them just how far away they were from the summit. These were only people we saw on trail all day.
Air temp’s became distinctly hot by the time we got back to 3000’. We shed much clothes to stay cool. The snow melt water was impressive in the transition zone down around 2500’ and lower. The waterfalls were obviously discharging much higher that when passed by in the morning and one stream crossing went from trivial to bit tricky.
It was 86 deg F in the parking lot. We now had a long drive back to NH, but all in all it was great day hiking a new mountain in the state of Maine and particularly great pleasure to make the acquaintance of two new friends Rols and Tuco who I look forward to collaborating with on future hikes.
Pics are here: http://outdoors.webshots.com/album/571443766vUYuiI
We were on the trail at 1600’ elevation by 7:30 or was it 8:00?. We opted to bypass the Eyebrow on word that it might be wet and icy and stream-crossing could be dicey. The main trail ascends by switch backs with frequent views of a brook descending by a long series of cascades.
Somewhere at around 2200’ snow and ice started becoming continuous and we switched over to micro-spikes. We were treated to nice views of Grafton Notch from upper ledges. We quickly reached junction with Eyebrow Trail at 2600’. Shortly after that post holing became more frequent and annoying so we switched over to MSR snowshoes we stopped post-holing. The trail WAS in good shape with consistent monorail that you had to stay on in order to avoid post holing even with snowshoes. The snow was looking pretty dirty though.
The trail continues to limb steadily along the lip of big ledges until it attains a knob about 3400’ where you are treated to some nice views of the notch, the Baldpates, and Old Speck summit. The weather was becoming sunny with a cool breeze off the snow pack that felt truly delightful. At this point the trail meanders for a spell up and down over some minor bumps through some pretty spruce forest.
The trail resumes climbing steadily with a few particularly steep pitches. The snow pack along this stretch was very firm for MSR snowshoes. The MSR snowshoes handled these steep pitches extremely well both going up and going down later. We reached the 4180’ summit in somewhere around 4 hours. Book is 3 hours 20 minutes so I guess we were going a little slow.
Summit was beautiful and sunny with cool breezes. We spent 45 minutes or so relaxing and enjoying. The view from the old fire tower is 360 degrees.
View of Baldpates and Maine peaks to the north east
Zoom shot - Views of Presidentials and Mahoosic Notch.
On our way down we encountered two young fellows in shorts coming up with a dog. One of the fellow’s shins was bloody from post holing. They didn’t posthole the trail too badly so we didn’t complain too much. We later encountered a Mom and Dad with two small kids down at 3000’ who turned around when we told them just how far away they were from the summit. These were only people we saw on trail all day.
Air temp’s became distinctly hot by the time we got back to 3000’. We shed much clothes to stay cool. The snow melt water was impressive in the transition zone down around 2500’ and lower. The waterfalls were obviously discharging much higher that when passed by in the morning and one stream crossing went from trivial to bit tricky.
It was 86 deg F in the parking lot. We now had a long drive back to NH, but all in all it was great day hiking a new mountain in the state of Maine and particularly great pleasure to make the acquaintance of two new friends Rols and Tuco who I look forward to collaborating with on future hikes.
Pics are here: http://outdoors.webshots.com/album/571443766vUYuiI
