albee
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- Jan 14, 2005
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Saturday was a beautiful day in the mountains, and I took advantage of it by knocking off a couple more solo bushwhacks. Due to non-hiking plans on Sunday that would require the use of "fresh legs", I decided to focus on a couple short and simple 'whacks: Pliny Mountain and Little Wildcat.
Pliny is on the NH100 list, and as such it seems like a popular bushwhack. If people knew how straightforward it is, it would be a lot more popular. I found the old Priscilla Brook trailhead with ease. The trail is still marked on my earlier edition of the AMC WMG's maps. I followed the old logging road for about 2 miles. There are many blowdowns along the route but nothing that was difficult to get around. Snowshoes were needed after about 2300' elevation since the trail is in a narrow drainage area for most of the way. At the height of land I headed uphill and ended up in a beautiful clearing on the summit of the sub-peak south of Pliny. The woods were open all the way to the summit proper, and the cannister was easy to find on a downed tree. There were views of the Waumbek ridge and the Presidentials and Dartmouth Range. It had taken 45 minutes to the height of land while on the "trail", and another 35 minutes along my slight detour to the true summit. I sat in the sun for 20 minutes eating a snack and reading the register entries dating back to 1992. The trip back to the car was a bit more straightforward and I made it back in 40 minutes flat, for a total time of 2:35. I had my compass with me but it was such an easy whack that I never took it out!
I drove straight from there to the 19 Mile Brook trailhead. It was still only 1:30, and I had plenty of daylight left for whatever adventure I felt like getting myself into.
I headed up the trail, planning to head in a WSW direction at the Carter Dome trail junction. It was easy going and I was able to bareboot up to the junction, but I passed one man coming down the trail who didn't look too happy as his jeans were soaked up to his knees and he had no sign of snowshoes. I passed another large group of about a dozen people heading up to the hut as they had stopped to take a break on one of the bridges over a tributary stream. They were all in good spirits, but I noticed that once again, not a single pair of snowshoes were to be seen. I really hope the trails at elevation are well packed down, because it seemed like most people still don't expect to be encountering snow in May.
I strapped on my snowshoes as soon as I crossed the brook at the trail junction. There were some bare patches at 2400', but it got consistently deeper as I climbed and soon there was 12 to 24" of snow everywhere. There were some steep climbs, but the route to the true summit was fairly straightforward. I found the peanutbutter-jar cannister on the summit easily and signed in. Surprisingly, I found another entry on the same day from Pig Pen... where did he come from?! I searched around and picked up a faint trace of his MSRs coming in from the west. He must have come up from the Mt Washington Auto Road/Great Glen area, and it must have been early as he hadn't been sinking in nearly as much as I was in the afternoon mush. It had only taken me 1:15 to get to the summit, so I decided it would be fun to track him back down and compare the two routes. My route up had once again been through open woods with hardly any use of my hands, save for using tree branches to pull myself up on some of the slippery slopes. The trip down seemed to be quite a bit steeper and at least marginally thicker. Certainly not a bad route except for the steepness. I was able to follow his tracks all the way down to a little past where he took off snowshoes at 2200', and I followed his general bearing down through the woods and came out right behind the Great Glen adventure center, or whatever it is.... I walked down the road for 10 minutes and I was done with my hike in a little over 2 hours.
It took 40 minutes to descend, so the route was probably at least 3/4 of a mile shorter than mine. I would say my route was easier since it gained the first 900 vertical feet on the trail, and my bushwhack was less than half the distance. Too bad I didn't start the day on this whack - it would have been nice to meet Phil. I spent the remainder of the afternoon and evening with a bunch of new friends at Barnes Field. What a great day, and a great night!
Pliny is on the NH100 list, and as such it seems like a popular bushwhack. If people knew how straightforward it is, it would be a lot more popular. I found the old Priscilla Brook trailhead with ease. The trail is still marked on my earlier edition of the AMC WMG's maps. I followed the old logging road for about 2 miles. There are many blowdowns along the route but nothing that was difficult to get around. Snowshoes were needed after about 2300' elevation since the trail is in a narrow drainage area for most of the way. At the height of land I headed uphill and ended up in a beautiful clearing on the summit of the sub-peak south of Pliny. The woods were open all the way to the summit proper, and the cannister was easy to find on a downed tree. There were views of the Waumbek ridge and the Presidentials and Dartmouth Range. It had taken 45 minutes to the height of land while on the "trail", and another 35 minutes along my slight detour to the true summit. I sat in the sun for 20 minutes eating a snack and reading the register entries dating back to 1992. The trip back to the car was a bit more straightforward and I made it back in 40 minutes flat, for a total time of 2:35. I had my compass with me but it was such an easy whack that I never took it out!
I drove straight from there to the 19 Mile Brook trailhead. It was still only 1:30, and I had plenty of daylight left for whatever adventure I felt like getting myself into.
I headed up the trail, planning to head in a WSW direction at the Carter Dome trail junction. It was easy going and I was able to bareboot up to the junction, but I passed one man coming down the trail who didn't look too happy as his jeans were soaked up to his knees and he had no sign of snowshoes. I passed another large group of about a dozen people heading up to the hut as they had stopped to take a break on one of the bridges over a tributary stream. They were all in good spirits, but I noticed that once again, not a single pair of snowshoes were to be seen. I really hope the trails at elevation are well packed down, because it seemed like most people still don't expect to be encountering snow in May.I strapped on my snowshoes as soon as I crossed the brook at the trail junction. There were some bare patches at 2400', but it got consistently deeper as I climbed and soon there was 12 to 24" of snow everywhere. There were some steep climbs, but the route to the true summit was fairly straightforward. I found the peanutbutter-jar cannister on the summit easily and signed in. Surprisingly, I found another entry on the same day from Pig Pen... where did he come from?! I searched around and picked up a faint trace of his MSRs coming in from the west. He must have come up from the Mt Washington Auto Road/Great Glen area, and it must have been early as he hadn't been sinking in nearly as much as I was in the afternoon mush. It had only taken me 1:15 to get to the summit, so I decided it would be fun to track him back down and compare the two routes. My route up had once again been through open woods with hardly any use of my hands, save for using tree branches to pull myself up on some of the slippery slopes. The trip down seemed to be quite a bit steeper and at least marginally thicker. Certainly not a bad route except for the steepness. I was able to follow his tracks all the way down to a little past where he took off snowshoes at 2200', and I followed his general bearing down through the woods and came out right behind the Great Glen adventure center, or whatever it is.... I walked down the road for 10 minutes and I was done with my hike in a little over 2 hours.
It took 40 minutes to descend, so the route was probably at least 3/4 of a mile shorter than mine. I would say my route was easier since it gained the first 900 vertical feet on the trail, and my bushwhack was less than half the distance. Too bad I didn't start the day on this whack - it would have been nice to meet Phil. I spent the remainder of the afternoon and evening with a bunch of new friends at Barnes Field. What a great day, and a great night!
