KPMMBM
Member
An AMC group hike includin Bob Kittredge from this site (nice to meet you Bob). We met across the highway from Lafayette Place campground and headed out at just before 9:00am on the Old Bridle Path. There were a few other cars in the parking lot and we saw 6-8 hikers take off before us. At the beginning temps were in the 30s and there wasn’t any snow on the trail, lots of leaves and ice but no snow. We encountered more and more snow as we climbed. Pretty uneventful climb up to Greenleaf Hut with some breaks for layering, gear adjustments, and photo ops. With the summit in sight we headed up and by noon we were at tree line. By the time we reached tree line, there were a few flakes in the air. The views had diminished at the summit, in one direction we could see the summits of Lincoln & Little Haystack but not beyond. Lots of rime ice up top on the rocks and signs. Temps were down into the 20s, maybe teens but not very much wind. We met a few other groups that had come up the same way we did and a few that had come over from Little Haystack & Lincoln. I definitely want to do that ridge walk on a clear day some time. After we all had some lunch, we started our descent as the snow had picked up and was pretty steady. Everything had a fresh layer of snow now and this hid ice and rock so it was hard to tell the two apart. Most of the group had put on Stabilicers or Microspikes on the way up as there was plenty of ice to navigate. Two of our group bare booted the whole day and with plenty of caution they were fine. I have to rank Microspikes as one of the best pieces of gear in my bag at this time of year. We passed a lot of hikers going both ways all through out the day but as it got later we didn’t meet very many coming up as we were going down. The group was now thinking about whether or not we’d be hiking in the dark and we all were thinking about how the drive home would be after an afternoon of snow. Later in the afternoon, we did meet a large group of Canadians on their way up. One of them said they intended to go up to see the sunset and if not for the steady snow, they might have been right on time. I bet the sunset from the summit is pretty spectacular when it is a clear night. We did end up hiking out by the light of our headlamps and indeed the snow had been falling down low for a while and there were probably 3-4 inches on the cars in the lot. We ended up taking 8 hours and 15 minutes for this 8 mile round trip hike. A little slower than book time but everyone completed the hike safe and sound. The trail was in good shape, water crossings were all fine, and there were only two duck under blow downs down near the beginning of the trail. The ride home for me was a long and tedious drive. The driving was slow in spots but not really slippery if you didn’t go too fast. Overall, a day where I spent as much time driving to and from the hike as I did hiking. NH 4000 footer #29 and a great day in the woods.
