rocksnrolls
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Almost 7 weeks after Day 1 of section hiking the M-SG, Cantdog, Dugan and I commenced with Day 3. The temps were near freezing and there was a threat of rain but this would be Dugan 2-Legs' last chance for a hike until after Dugan 4-Legs' recovery from his surgery, so we decided to give it a go.
Meeting at the nearly car-free Mt Sunapee parking area before our scheduled 7am start, we piled gear and people into my car and hit the road. Dugan had thoughtfully scouted out the shortcut of Brook Rd on her way up, so we headed down through the picturesque countryside to the village of Washington. We left my car at the now completely unmarked parking spot off Faxon Hill Rd and started on our way (after Cantdog made the aquaintance of one of the local kitties).
The start of our hike was on a gravel road with a few houses along it. We were very surprised by the number of vehicles that drove past us along the way. I thought Washington-Bradford Rd was a dead end (that's how the map shows it), but now I'm not so sure. Shortly after passing by Halfmoon Pond we all headed off in different directions offtrail to pee (thought Jade might like to know
). The trail soon bears to the right onto a muddy logging road which would our last road of the hike
It was a gentle climb up Lovewell Mtn and we were fooled by a large cairn on the southwest shoulder into thinking we had reached the summit. Well, after a short loss in elevation, we soon found ourselves climbing even steeper. I've been mistaken so many times along this trail thinking we were one place when we were really in another ! We took a short break to enjoy the views and started heading down after signing into the trail register.
The north side of Lovewell is very lush with lots moss. I had recently joined the MSGTC and the newsletter had mentioned a plan to clear the blowdowns around here soon, so we anticipated some rough going. Luckily it seemed most of the lesser blowdowns have already been cleared and the few large ones we encountered were easy to get around. That was quite a relief with the long day we had in store for us.
On one of the bumps heading off Lovewell the trail goes right through the middle of a large old cellar hole. Cantdog really digs that kind of thing so we spent some time checking it out, especially the old bricks that were partially buried there. Many stone walls could be seen in the vecinity as well.
Finally reaching Washington-Bradford Rd again, I was surprised that the road continued north as far as we could see. Maybe it does go through after all?? Anyways, we went downhill a bit, crossed a stream and started up Kittredge Hill. We wondered if Bob Kittredge had some connection to this area.
In our groove, we continued on, enjoying each other's company and the beautiful hiking weather. It was a little on the chilly side still, so we had to change our layers depending on wether we were heading uphill or not. And then as we approached the very muddy intersection of the Bear Pond Tr we had quite a shock - other hikers! We hadn't seen anyone else on the trail on Day 1 or 2 and here we encountered a group of 8 campers hanging out. They were from a local college and were on a 3 day hike in the area. Something to do with a leadership class or something. We talked briefly and were surprised they didn't know about the forcast calling for rain tomorrow. Hope they had rainproof gear!
We signed into the trail register, then sat for a while as we enjoyed some of Dugan's tasty mexican brownies. Mmm mmm good!
Continuing on, I was looking forward to getting to the steep climb leading to Lucia's Lookout. I had been there back in January on one of my first snowshoing trips and wanted to see how different it would look now. Back then I had come up the Five Summers Tr, breaking trail the whole way. Reaching the steep and icy last 1/8 mile about 0:45 later than I had planned I had almost turned around. I'm glad I pushed on then, it gave me quite a feeling of accomplishment. Coming back in the spring, I could see were the blazes were painted on the rocks. Not sure I really followed the trail back then . Anyways, we signed into the register after I looked back at my previous sign-in, and enjoyed the view for a bit, but the strong wind chilled us so much we soon continued on our way.
The ridge trail continued on, up and down, left and right. We spotted many trees that had been stripped of some of their bark. Wondering if it was deer or moose that had done the damage, I figured probably moose since we had been seeing tons of moose droppings but no deer droppings. Dugan commented that deer droppings probably disintigrate faster so she wasn't sure which had been chewing on the trees. We also saw a couple of hikers heading south with very little gear. I guessed they were doing the 5 Summers/Bear Pond loop.
After a couple nice eastern views we started the climb down to Lake Solitude. We soon met one more hiker, a young woman heading out to do the whole Greenway southbound. She had all the gear and wasn't worried about the probable rain. Hopefully all went well for her.
Being a little frustrated at the large amount of elevation loss before the last summit, we found a nice spot to sit and have a snack at the edge of the Lake. On the northern side, just before the trail branches toward the summit and to Andrew Brook, is a nice grouping of bare rocks that made for excellent seating and a view of the lake. One male mallard browsed the waterplants below us as we rested. Kind of symbolized the Solitude part of the lake.
Then it was climb, climb, climb. At this point we started getting hit by tiny little pieces of hail, two of which somehow managed to land in Dugan's ear. Don't ask me how they manage that! We soon reached a service road and the ski area. After a very steep climb up the gravel road, we wandered around on the top of Sunapee, tagging various high points so we could be sure we had been to the summit. Off in the back I spotted the TH for the Summit Tr and so we started the 2 miles downhill to the parking lot. Shortly after starting to head down I remembered that I had gotten ahold of 3 patches for us to commemorate our accomplishment and handed them out. Cantdog was quite happy to get her award so promptly after finishing the trail
At this time the hail had turned to rain, but gladly it wasn't too heavy and we only got a little wet and the trail wasn't too hazardous on this last stretch of our adventure.
Parting at the parking lot, Cantdog headed off to the 4k Awards while Dugan and I headed to get my car and then to her place for a delicious dinner of veggie enchiladas, spinach and baked potatoes, a fine cap to the day.
To sum it up, I'd have to say my favorite sections of the Greenway are the two northernmost ones. It's more like wilderness and has almost no roadwalking to put up with. Wildlife sightings included a flattened snake and lizard on the road near the beginning of the day, a nuthatch, several chickadees, 4 or 5 startled grouse (or some other small ground nesters - never got a good look), a small rodent skull sticking out of some predator scat and not much else. My corpse-spotting count is pretty high already for this year!
Many thanks to Cantdog for initiating this adventure and to Dugan for inviting me along (and providing many yummy treats!)! So when do we start the SRKG and the W-M?
Meeting at the nearly car-free Mt Sunapee parking area before our scheduled 7am start, we piled gear and people into my car and hit the road. Dugan had thoughtfully scouted out the shortcut of Brook Rd on her way up, so we headed down through the picturesque countryside to the village of Washington. We left my car at the now completely unmarked parking spot off Faxon Hill Rd and started on our way (after Cantdog made the aquaintance of one of the local kitties).
The start of our hike was on a gravel road with a few houses along it. We were very surprised by the number of vehicles that drove past us along the way. I thought Washington-Bradford Rd was a dead end (that's how the map shows it), but now I'm not so sure. Shortly after passing by Halfmoon Pond we all headed off in different directions offtrail to pee (thought Jade might like to know
). The trail soon bears to the right onto a muddy logging road which would our last road of the hike It was a gentle climb up Lovewell Mtn and we were fooled by a large cairn on the southwest shoulder into thinking we had reached the summit. Well, after a short loss in elevation, we soon found ourselves climbing even steeper. I've been mistaken so many times along this trail thinking we were one place when we were really in another
! We took a short break to enjoy the views and started heading down after signing into the trail register. The north side of Lovewell is very lush with lots moss. I had recently joined the MSGTC and the newsletter had mentioned a plan to clear the blowdowns around here soon, so we anticipated some rough going. Luckily it seemed most of the lesser blowdowns have already been cleared and the few large ones we encountered were easy to get around. That was quite a relief with the long day we had in store for us.
On one of the bumps heading off Lovewell the trail goes right through the middle of a large old cellar hole. Cantdog really digs that kind of thing so we spent some time checking it out, especially the old bricks that were partially buried there. Many stone walls could be seen in the vecinity as well.
Finally reaching Washington-Bradford Rd again, I was surprised that the road continued north as far as we could see. Maybe it does go through after all?? Anyways, we went downhill a bit, crossed a stream and started up Kittredge Hill. We wondered if Bob Kittredge had some connection to this area.
In our groove, we continued on, enjoying each other's company and the beautiful hiking weather. It was a little on the chilly side still, so we had to change our layers depending on wether we were heading uphill or not. And then as we approached the very muddy intersection of the Bear Pond Tr we had quite a shock
- other hikers! We hadn't seen anyone else on the trail on Day 1 or 2 and here we encountered a group of 8 campers hanging out. They were from a local college and were on a 3 day hike in the area. Something to do with a leadership class or something. We talked briefly and were surprised they didn't know about the forcast calling for rain tomorrow. Hope they had rainproof gear! We signed into the trail register, then sat for a while as we enjoyed some of Dugan's tasty mexican brownies. Mmm mmm good!
Continuing on, I was looking forward to getting to the steep climb leading to Lucia's Lookout. I had been there back in January on one of my first snowshoing trips and wanted to see how different it would look now. Back then I had come up the Five Summers Tr, breaking trail the whole way. Reaching the steep and icy last 1/8 mile about 0:45 later than I had planned I had almost turned around. I'm glad I pushed on then, it gave me quite a feeling of accomplishment. Coming back in the spring, I could see were the blazes were painted on the rocks. Not sure I really followed the trail back then
. Anyways, we signed into the register after I looked back at my previous sign-in, and enjoyed the view for a bit, but the strong wind chilled us so much we soon continued on our way.The ridge trail continued on, up and down, left and right. We spotted many trees that had been stripped of some of their bark. Wondering if it was deer or moose that had done the damage, I figured probably moose since we had been seeing tons of moose droppings but no deer droppings. Dugan commented that deer droppings probably disintigrate faster so she wasn't sure which had been chewing on the trees. We also saw a couple of hikers heading south with very little gear. I guessed they were doing the 5 Summers/Bear Pond loop.
After a couple nice eastern views we started the climb down to Lake Solitude. We soon met one more hiker, a young woman heading out to do the whole Greenway southbound. She had all the gear and wasn't worried about the probable rain. Hopefully all went well for her.
Being a little frustrated at the large amount of elevation loss before the last summit, we found a nice spot to sit and have a snack at the edge of the Lake. On the northern side, just before the trail branches toward the summit and to Andrew Brook, is a nice grouping of bare rocks that made for excellent seating and a view of the lake. One male mallard browsed the waterplants below us as we rested. Kind of symbolized the Solitude part of the lake.
Then it was climb, climb, climb. At this point we started getting hit by tiny little pieces of hail, two of which somehow managed to land in Dugan's ear. Don't ask me how they manage that! We soon reached a service road and the ski area. After a very steep climb up the gravel road, we wandered around on the top of Sunapee, tagging various high points so we could be sure we had been to the summit. Off in the back I spotted the TH for the Summit Tr and so we started the 2 miles downhill to the parking lot. Shortly after starting to head down I remembered that I had gotten ahold of 3 patches for us to commemorate our accomplishment and handed them out. Cantdog was quite happy to get her award so promptly after finishing the trail
At this time the hail had turned to rain, but gladly it wasn't too heavy and we only got a little wet and the trail wasn't too hazardous on this last stretch of our adventure.
Parting at the parking lot, Cantdog headed off to the 4k Awards while Dugan and I headed to get my car and then to her place for a delicious dinner of veggie enchiladas, spinach and baked potatoes, a fine cap to the day.
To sum it up, I'd have to say my favorite sections of the Greenway are the two northernmost ones. It's more like wilderness and has almost no roadwalking to put up with. Wildlife sightings included a flattened snake and lizard on the road near the beginning of the day, a nuthatch, several chickadees, 4 or 5 startled grouse (or some other small ground nesters - never got a good look), a small rodent skull sticking out of some predator scat and not much else. My corpse-spotting count is pretty high already for this year!
Many thanks to Cantdog for initiating this adventure and to Dugan for inviting me along (and providing many yummy treats!)! So when do we start the SRKG and the W-M?
