Mt. Roberts from Rt. 171, 5/11
On Saturday we hiked about 11 miles and 3,000 feet along the AT (Moose Mountain, Holt's Ledge and the unnamed trail that goes to the Lambert Ridge trailhead). On Sunday we wanted to do something easier and more interesting!
After a lot of discussion we decided to do Mt. Roberts as an up and down from Rt. 171. About ten days earlier I had done it with the Wednesday Group, starting at the bottling plant and doing the loop over Faraway Mountain. Too much walking along wide carriage roads with gentle grades
We started a bit after 9 AM and went up the Shannon Brook Trail. Wide carriage road, but a few sections were steep enough to make us work hard! We reached the Shannon Pond area and decided to do the northern part of the Pond Trail on the way up, and the southern part on the way down. We soon came upon a large "Bridge Closed" sign, but continued. The bridge was on the shore, but crossing the inlet stream to the pond was trivial.
On our previous trip one of the participants had warned us that the lower part of the Mount Roberts Trail was unusable due to dense poison ivy, so we had crossed the field. Today we decided to have a look; there was no poison ivy to be found
A little below the first outlook the black flies started bothering us, so we put on the DEET. They did not bother us any further, though one did commit suicide in my bronchial tree. We stopped at the outlook and enjoyed the views of the lake and mountains. In the distance we could see Mount Moosilauke with just a touch of snow on the main summit. The snow on the ski slopes at Gunstock is melting fast.
The Mount Roberts Trail to this outlook is an old carriage road, above it becomes a real trail. We soon got to the long ledgy ridge, with many excellent views which caused us to stop often, even though we knew we would be facing those views on the way down.
The last part of the climb is less interesting, but we soon got to the summit with its views to the north. Still plenty of snow on George!!
The best part of the trip is the descent; for a long time you have either open views (on many of the ledges) or views through the rather open trees.
An extremely enjoyable hike; great views, excellent weather, and a reasonable workout (7.8 miles and 1,850 feet of elevation gain). Pity it is so far from where I live, I still plan to do it a couple of times a year. It must be really spectacular on a nice fall day!
On Saturday we hiked about 11 miles and 3,000 feet along the AT (Moose Mountain, Holt's Ledge and the unnamed trail that goes to the Lambert Ridge trailhead). On Sunday we wanted to do something easier and more interesting!
After a lot of discussion we decided to do Mt. Roberts as an up and down from Rt. 171. About ten days earlier I had done it with the Wednesday Group, starting at the bottling plant and doing the loop over Faraway Mountain. Too much walking along wide carriage roads with gentle grades
We started a bit after 9 AM and went up the Shannon Brook Trail. Wide carriage road, but a few sections were steep enough to make us work hard! We reached the Shannon Pond area and decided to do the northern part of the Pond Trail on the way up, and the southern part on the way down. We soon came upon a large "Bridge Closed" sign, but continued. The bridge was on the shore, but crossing the inlet stream to the pond was trivial.
On our previous trip one of the participants had warned us that the lower part of the Mount Roberts Trail was unusable due to dense poison ivy, so we had crossed the field. Today we decided to have a look; there was no poison ivy to be found
A little below the first outlook the black flies started bothering us, so we put on the DEET. They did not bother us any further, though one did commit suicide in my bronchial tree. We stopped at the outlook and enjoyed the views of the lake and mountains. In the distance we could see Mount Moosilauke with just a touch of snow on the main summit. The snow on the ski slopes at Gunstock is melting fast.
The Mount Roberts Trail to this outlook is an old carriage road, above it becomes a real trail. We soon got to the long ledgy ridge, with many excellent views which caused us to stop often, even though we knew we would be facing those views on the way down.
The last part of the climb is less interesting, but we soon got to the summit with its views to the north. Still plenty of snow on George!!
The best part of the trip is the descent; for a long time you have either open views (on many of the ledges) or views through the rather open trees.
An extremely enjoyable hike; great views, excellent weather, and a reasonable workout (7.8 miles and 1,850 feet of elevation gain). Pity it is so far from where I live, I still plan to do it a couple of times a year. It must be really spectacular on a nice fall day!
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