I have not written a trip report in a while, mainly because I haven't been anywhere new in a while. With the large numbers of people on the 4Ks, I took the opportunity for a long day hike over four NH 3K/52 WAV and was rewarded with 6+ hours (out of 8) of not seeing any other hikers but our group.
After leaving a car at the Mount Stanton "trail head" (on Covered Bridge Lane in Bartlett), we took the other car up to the Davis Path and headed up to Mount Crawford. There were a few rills with water, but overall it was pretty dry. I packed a few 1 liter bottles in Gryffin's pack to supplement whatever he could find on the ground. The fabled Davis Path was in good shape, and obviously gets a lot of use, especially through the staircase sections up to Mount Crawford. Scrambling up the spur trail, we were rewarded with wrap around views from the summit cone of this fantastic 3K/52WAV peak.
Gryffin on Mount Crawford
While I think Mount Crawford had the best all-around views of the day, I was really looking forward to Stairs Mountain. The "Giant Stairs", as they are sometimes called, are uniquely identifiable from many points in the WMNF, much as Chocorua, Kearsarge North, Washington, and Carrigain are. From Mount Crawford, Stairs was visible just to the left of Mount Resolution's enormous bulk. Returning to the Davis Path, we crossed the so-called Crawford Dome, which has impressive views of the cliffs of Crawford proper, and an increasingly closer view of Stairs. From here, we followed the Davis Path to the spur for Stairs Mountain. Surrounding the summit cliff there are 3 or 4 tent sites, albeit without a local water source. Stairs has an impressive drop from atop the highest "step", straight down onto the lower step. We spread out here to enjoy lunch and 180-degree views to the east.
Tim and Gryffin on Stairs
There are early signs of autumn, including hobblebush and mountain ash berries, and we saw a handful of cedar waxwings which enjoy the fall berry crop. It looks like we are in for an early foliage year. After consuming our lunches and our views, we returned to Stairs Col and then to the turn up hill for Mount Resolution. The trail officially does not cross the summit, but we did wander around on the slabs and criss-crossed the highest contour interval, discovering a pair of cairns at what is presumably the actual high point. We did skip trying to find the north summit ledges. Heading east, the Resolution Trail is lightly traveled but should not be hard to follow for all but the least-experienced hikers--it is minimally blazed in the Dry River Wilderness but well blazed outside. We explored the overgrown path/herd path to the southerly knob of Resolution which provided delightful views - second only to Crawford - in all directions. Watch for this 0.1 mile herd path if you are in this area.
View east to Parker and Kearsarge North from the southern knob of Resolution
Continuing to the east, the final "list" peak for today was Mount Parker, which has nice views, but is somewhat grown in. It does offer views to the North and an impressive side view of Iron Mountain in particular. Parker was lousy with black flies and again we poked around hopefully crossing the highest point before being chased away by those pests.
Iron Mountain from Parker
Next up was a series of PUDS, which include Mount Langdon, the Langdon Shelter (with a weak but clear and steady flow at the water source), Pickering, Stanton, "The Crippies", and White's Ledge. While ascending Pickering, it was obvious that trail maintenance had happened recently because the corridor went from needing brushing to wide-open, 4x8 sheet of plywood width, and for the rest of the trek out, was clearly well-used. There are directional views, through the trees, all along this ridge. At Mount Pickering, we ran into the second group of hikers, the first being ~5 hours ago on Mount Crawford. The lower reaches of this ridge reminded me of southern NH, like the Wapack trail over Pack Monadnock and Temple mountain.
Attitash/Bear Peak from a viewpoint along "The Crippies"
With three GPS and three Strava uploads, we got three distances and three elevations, but they centered on 16.3 miles and 5300' of elevation total in 8 hours total.
Tim
After leaving a car at the Mount Stanton "trail head" (on Covered Bridge Lane in Bartlett), we took the other car up to the Davis Path and headed up to Mount Crawford. There were a few rills with water, but overall it was pretty dry. I packed a few 1 liter bottles in Gryffin's pack to supplement whatever he could find on the ground. The fabled Davis Path was in good shape, and obviously gets a lot of use, especially through the staircase sections up to Mount Crawford. Scrambling up the spur trail, we were rewarded with wrap around views from the summit cone of this fantastic 3K/52WAV peak.
Gryffin on Mount Crawford
While I think Mount Crawford had the best all-around views of the day, I was really looking forward to Stairs Mountain. The "Giant Stairs", as they are sometimes called, are uniquely identifiable from many points in the WMNF, much as Chocorua, Kearsarge North, Washington, and Carrigain are. From Mount Crawford, Stairs was visible just to the left of Mount Resolution's enormous bulk. Returning to the Davis Path, we crossed the so-called Crawford Dome, which has impressive views of the cliffs of Crawford proper, and an increasingly closer view of Stairs. From here, we followed the Davis Path to the spur for Stairs Mountain. Surrounding the summit cliff there are 3 or 4 tent sites, albeit without a local water source. Stairs has an impressive drop from atop the highest "step", straight down onto the lower step. We spread out here to enjoy lunch and 180-degree views to the east.
Tim and Gryffin on Stairs
There are early signs of autumn, including hobblebush and mountain ash berries, and we saw a handful of cedar waxwings which enjoy the fall berry crop. It looks like we are in for an early foliage year. After consuming our lunches and our views, we returned to Stairs Col and then to the turn up hill for Mount Resolution. The trail officially does not cross the summit, but we did wander around on the slabs and criss-crossed the highest contour interval, discovering a pair of cairns at what is presumably the actual high point. We did skip trying to find the north summit ledges. Heading east, the Resolution Trail is lightly traveled but should not be hard to follow for all but the least-experienced hikers--it is minimally blazed in the Dry River Wilderness but well blazed outside. We explored the overgrown path/herd path to the southerly knob of Resolution which provided delightful views - second only to Crawford - in all directions. Watch for this 0.1 mile herd path if you are in this area.
View east to Parker and Kearsarge North from the southern knob of Resolution
Continuing to the east, the final "list" peak for today was Mount Parker, which has nice views, but is somewhat grown in. It does offer views to the North and an impressive side view of Iron Mountain in particular. Parker was lousy with black flies and again we poked around hopefully crossing the highest point before being chased away by those pests.
Iron Mountain from Parker
Next up was a series of PUDS, which include Mount Langdon, the Langdon Shelter (with a weak but clear and steady flow at the water source), Pickering, Stanton, "The Crippies", and White's Ledge. While ascending Pickering, it was obvious that trail maintenance had happened recently because the corridor went from needing brushing to wide-open, 4x8 sheet of plywood width, and for the rest of the trek out, was clearly well-used. There are directional views, through the trees, all along this ridge. At Mount Pickering, we ran into the second group of hikers, the first being ~5 hours ago on Mount Crawford. The lower reaches of this ridge reminded me of southern NH, like the Wapack trail over Pack Monadnock and Temple mountain.
Attitash/Bear Peak from a viewpoint along "The Crippies"
With three GPS and three Strava uploads, we got three distances and three elevations, but they centered on 16.3 miles and 5300' of elevation total in 8 hours total.
Tim
