rocksnrolls
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- Mar 6, 2005
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I did some early morning hill climbing in the Blue Hills with my friend Hugo to help get his legs ready to tackle Monadnock and then Moosilauke next week. My other hiking buddy, Slowpoke, wanted to hit a peak this weekend too, so we headed up to Cardigan for an afternoon climb.
Traffic was aweful heading up 93, took me twice as long as usual to get to Concord, but when we hit the Cardigan Lodge parking lot, we still had over 5 hrs of daylight, so we were good to go.
Heading west from the lot, we met several groups heading back down, including alot of kids. Seems like a great peak for families! To get a little more solitude, we hit the Manning Trail and headed up to Firescrew. Manning's a great trail, very easy to follow, a moderate climb most of the way. Slowpoke was glad there weren't as many rocks on the trail as there were on the way up Osceola. The trail gets steeper around the halfway point, and has some great rock scrambles to contend with. The peak was laid bare by fires some time in the past, so there's alot of exposure up at the top, with amazing views from many vantage points. I'm glad to know that I'm getting better at recognizing peaks in the distance, and could easily spot Franconia Ridge, Mt Washington and many others. Now I'll have to try to spot Cardigan from those peaks!
We took Mowglis Trail over to the peak of Cardigan, which we almost had all to ourselves, only encountering one guy who proceded to run down off the peak. The weather was as good as one could hope for. Big fluffy clouds dotting the sky, temps in the 70s, and hardly any bugs at all. The wind on the peaks certainly lived up to it's reputation. Almost lost my hat a few times! The steep climb heading up to Cardigan from the col was a blast. Slowpoke had plenty of opportunity to try out his new boots today.
Came back down via Clark Trail, Cathedral Pines and Holt Tr. Very enjoyable, easy climb down, and we had the trail all to ourselves on the way down.
Next time I want to head up the Hol Trail all the way, I hear it's one of the steepest non-technical climbs around.
Traffic was aweful heading up 93, took me twice as long as usual to get to Concord, but when we hit the Cardigan Lodge parking lot, we still had over 5 hrs of daylight, so we were good to go.
Heading west from the lot, we met several groups heading back down, including alot of kids. Seems like a great peak for families! To get a little more solitude, we hit the Manning Trail and headed up to Firescrew. Manning's a great trail, very easy to follow, a moderate climb most of the way. Slowpoke was glad there weren't as many rocks on the trail as there were on the way up Osceola. The trail gets steeper around the halfway point, and has some great rock scrambles to contend with. The peak was laid bare by fires some time in the past, so there's alot of exposure up at the top, with amazing views from many vantage points. I'm glad to know that I'm getting better at recognizing peaks in the distance, and could easily spot Franconia Ridge, Mt Washington and many others. Now I'll have to try to spot Cardigan from those peaks!
We took Mowglis Trail over to the peak of Cardigan, which we almost had all to ourselves, only encountering one guy who proceded to run down off the peak. The weather was as good as one could hope for. Big fluffy clouds dotting the sky, temps in the 70s, and hardly any bugs at all. The wind on the peaks certainly lived up to it's reputation. Almost lost my hat a few times! The steep climb heading up to Cardigan from the col was a blast. Slowpoke had plenty of opportunity to try out his new boots today.
Came back down via Clark Trail, Cathedral Pines and Holt Tr. Very enjoyable, easy climb down, and we had the trail all to ourselves on the way down.
Next time I want to head up the Hol Trail all the way, I hear it's one of the steepest non-technical climbs around.
