Roxi
Active member
First of all, many thanks to Peakbagger for joining me on this hike and being my guide. He set a nice pace, knew the trail, and was a great conversationalist along the way. I learned a lot.
After reading Wowser’s trip report to this peak on 6/30 (?), I was so psyched to do it! The weather forecast today looked good and indeed was GREAT despite early morning clouds as I drove through Crawford Notch on my way to Rt 16 North. Peakbagger and I met at the Rocky Branch trail at 9 am and began climbing up the steepest part of the whole hike (except for the last little bit up the summit), but it wasn’t really all that steep at all, or at least less than I was expecting. I love it when a trail is less steep than I was expecting!! It doesn’t happen all that often; it’s usually the opposite!
The entire hike was easy on the knees! It did NOT feel like 14 1/2 miles. The trails were beautiful and somewhat wet, especially the Isolation trail. Stream crossings were interesting as the water was high, probably due to the recent rains we’ve had. We’ve had thunder showers almost every day for the past two weeks. But after negotiating the first stream crossing in my hiking boots, Peakbagger very tactfully reminded me that I had brought my Crocs and they might be useful on the next stream crossing. I took his advice and LOVED crossing the stream in them. I waded right through! It’s amazing how much fun you can have crossing a stream when you no longer care if you get wet. I kept them on while hiking the rest of the wet Isolation trail. In fact they were SO COMFORTABLE I kept them on for the rest of the hike! Puddle splashing was a blast! I felt like a kid again!
Of course I did have a few sliders, one mud slide in particular, but hey, it’s an avocational hazard.
We saw several toads, one snake, a grouse, and a few folks on the way. The one guy we saw on the summit soon departed while we got to look at a 360 degree view that was OUTSTANDING! It was so cool looking at the southern presidentials up close and personal from the eastern side. We could see Mitzpah hut. A gentle breeze blew away the bugs while we ate lunch. The sun felt warm, and it was a PERFECT day to be on Isolation! What a great hike! I will come back to this mountain. It was so much fun! And again, many thanks to Peakbagger for joining me and making it even more so.
After reading Wowser’s trip report to this peak on 6/30 (?), I was so psyched to do it! The weather forecast today looked good and indeed was GREAT despite early morning clouds as I drove through Crawford Notch on my way to Rt 16 North. Peakbagger and I met at the Rocky Branch trail at 9 am and began climbing up the steepest part of the whole hike (except for the last little bit up the summit), but it wasn’t really all that steep at all, or at least less than I was expecting. I love it when a trail is less steep than I was expecting!! It doesn’t happen all that often; it’s usually the opposite!
The entire hike was easy on the knees! It did NOT feel like 14 1/2 miles. The trails were beautiful and somewhat wet, especially the Isolation trail. Stream crossings were interesting as the water was high, probably due to the recent rains we’ve had. We’ve had thunder showers almost every day for the past two weeks. But after negotiating the first stream crossing in my hiking boots, Peakbagger very tactfully reminded me that I had brought my Crocs and they might be useful on the next stream crossing. I took his advice and LOVED crossing the stream in them. I waded right through! It’s amazing how much fun you can have crossing a stream when you no longer care if you get wet. I kept them on while hiking the rest of the wet Isolation trail. In fact they were SO COMFORTABLE I kept them on for the rest of the hike! Puddle splashing was a blast! I felt like a kid again!
Of course I did have a few sliders, one mud slide in particular, but hey, it’s an avocational hazard. We saw several toads, one snake, a grouse, and a few folks on the way. The one guy we saw on the summit soon departed while we got to look at a 360 degree view that was OUTSTANDING! It was so cool looking at the southern presidentials up close and personal from the eastern side. We could see Mitzpah hut. A gentle breeze blew away the bugs while we ate lunch. The sun felt warm, and it was a PERFECT day to be on Isolation! What a great hike! I will come back to this mountain. It was so much fun! And again, many thanks to Peakbagger for joining me and making it even more so.
