poison ivy
Well-known member
After doing a lower-elevation hike on Saturday, MEB, Little Sister and I were ready to tackle something a little grander on Sunday. After consulting the map, we settled on a nice 13-mile loop hike of Moosilauke on a series of trails that were mostly new to all of us. We met at the parking area at 8 a.m. and were on the trail within 20 minutes, heading up the Al Merrill Ski Loop to start our journey.
The sun was just poking out of the clouds as we hiked up the trail, which was a suprisingly pretty route. While it was a little wet, the wide open trail had plenty of wildflowers — including trout lilies, Carolina spring beauties and fiddleheads — to keep me entertained. The 10th Mt. Division Outlook, which honors Dartmouth men who served in World War II was a nice surprise and we spent a few minutes watching the clouds tumble over the top of Moosilauke and South Peak before heading on. The Al Merrill Ski Loop was really easy walking with just a small bit of elevation gain — though it certainly felt like we lost most of it when we descended down to the Asquam Ridge Trail.
It was still fairly sunny as we headed up Asquam Ridge, which was initially a fairly wet trail. However, as we gained elevation, I found that I really enjoyed this trail a lot — I love walking on ridges, even when there are hordes of pines obscuring the views. We went through a series of short switchbacks and arrived at the summit of Mt. Jim, surprised there wasn’t a sign since Dartmouth usually labels everything. MEB and I wandered about in the woods, which looked slightly higher, thinking maybe the trail didn’t go directly over the summit. After crashing around a bit, and getting a bit of scare from Little Sister, who jumped out from a hiding spot when we returned, we called it a summit and descended down to the junction with the Beaver Brook Trail.
I’ve hiked the Beaver Brook Trail before since it is part of the AT and I remembered that it wasn’t on my list of favorite trails. It only took a few minutes to remember why — lots of wet, mossy rocks and giant boot-sucking mud holes to contend with — it’s still not one of my favorite trails. As we followed the trail around Mt. Blue, we kept an eye out for a herd path that might lead us up to the summit — but much of the area was filled with thick spruce. When we arrived at a mossy section, we decided to head up the trail after convincing Little Sister to try her first ever bushwhack.
There were lots of areas that resembled herd paths, so I generally tried to follow them in an uphill direction, occasionally squeezing through a strand of thick trees before finding more open spots. MEB took the lead on our final push and spotted a Gatorade bottle tied to a tree, so we celebrated reaching the summit of Mt. Blue by singing in. There wasn’t a register book, but there were lots of scraps of paper mostly bearing familiar names. Little Sister said this would also be her last bushwhack in addition to being her first.
We briefly followed a herd path back toward the trail but soon lost it entirely. I was afraid we were descending too far, and since we could see Moosiluake in front of us, I headed in that general direction. We popped out of the woods about a tenth of a mile north of where we started the ‘whack, which was definitely one of the easier ones I’ve ever done.
It was now time to gain a little elevation and hit the summit of our main goal — Moosilauke. About .4 of a mile before the summit, it started to sprinkle so I dug out my rain gear. By the time I reached treeline, where MEB and Little Sister were hunkered down near a cairn waiting for me, it was raining steadily and a cold wind was whipping a white cloud of fog across the trail. We marched right across the summit — only stopping for a quick picture — before descending along the Carriage Road in the hopes of getting out of the cold wind. It took ages to reach the junction with the Glencliff Trail — I honestly thought perhaps I had walked past the junction without noticing — I don’t remember it being that far.
MEB and Little Sister had dropped their packs and poles to climb South Peak and I followed, afraid that they might be waiting for me up top. I was within two minutes of the summit when they began heading down, so I turned around without officially tagging it — I have been up there before anyway. We headed back down to the junction for our lunch picnic of Little Sister’s banana bread before heading down the Carriage Road.
I didn’t particularly enjoy the descent down the first part of the Carriage Road — it’s pretty rocky and not all that exciting. However, once it passed the Snapper Trail junction, it was new territory for me and I enjoyed it immensely. The trail still curves down the mountain in a wide path — with quite a few easily negotiated blowdowns — but it was really a vibrant green in all the rain splashing around us. We crossed onto the Hurricane Trail and followed that a mile back to Ravine Lodge. It was another enjoyable trek, especially as it followed along the bubbling brook, and a great way to end our hike. We arrived back at our cars at 3:30 p.m. and found a note from LenDawg and ChinookTrail, who were waiting by the fire in the lodge for our return.
A great day out despite the rainy weather!
Pictures from the hike can be found here.
- Ivy
The sun was just poking out of the clouds as we hiked up the trail, which was a suprisingly pretty route. While it was a little wet, the wide open trail had plenty of wildflowers — including trout lilies, Carolina spring beauties and fiddleheads — to keep me entertained. The 10th Mt. Division Outlook, which honors Dartmouth men who served in World War II was a nice surprise and we spent a few minutes watching the clouds tumble over the top of Moosilauke and South Peak before heading on. The Al Merrill Ski Loop was really easy walking with just a small bit of elevation gain — though it certainly felt like we lost most of it when we descended down to the Asquam Ridge Trail.
It was still fairly sunny as we headed up Asquam Ridge, which was initially a fairly wet trail. However, as we gained elevation, I found that I really enjoyed this trail a lot — I love walking on ridges, even when there are hordes of pines obscuring the views. We went through a series of short switchbacks and arrived at the summit of Mt. Jim, surprised there wasn’t a sign since Dartmouth usually labels everything. MEB and I wandered about in the woods, which looked slightly higher, thinking maybe the trail didn’t go directly over the summit. After crashing around a bit, and getting a bit of scare from Little Sister, who jumped out from a hiding spot when we returned, we called it a summit and descended down to the junction with the Beaver Brook Trail.
I’ve hiked the Beaver Brook Trail before since it is part of the AT and I remembered that it wasn’t on my list of favorite trails. It only took a few minutes to remember why — lots of wet, mossy rocks and giant boot-sucking mud holes to contend with — it’s still not one of my favorite trails. As we followed the trail around Mt. Blue, we kept an eye out for a herd path that might lead us up to the summit — but much of the area was filled with thick spruce. When we arrived at a mossy section, we decided to head up the trail after convincing Little Sister to try her first ever bushwhack.
There were lots of areas that resembled herd paths, so I generally tried to follow them in an uphill direction, occasionally squeezing through a strand of thick trees before finding more open spots. MEB took the lead on our final push and spotted a Gatorade bottle tied to a tree, so we celebrated reaching the summit of Mt. Blue by singing in. There wasn’t a register book, but there were lots of scraps of paper mostly bearing familiar names. Little Sister said this would also be her last bushwhack in addition to being her first.
We briefly followed a herd path back toward the trail but soon lost it entirely. I was afraid we were descending too far, and since we could see Moosiluake in front of us, I headed in that general direction. We popped out of the woods about a tenth of a mile north of where we started the ‘whack, which was definitely one of the easier ones I’ve ever done.
It was now time to gain a little elevation and hit the summit of our main goal — Moosilauke. About .4 of a mile before the summit, it started to sprinkle so I dug out my rain gear. By the time I reached treeline, where MEB and Little Sister were hunkered down near a cairn waiting for me, it was raining steadily and a cold wind was whipping a white cloud of fog across the trail. We marched right across the summit — only stopping for a quick picture — before descending along the Carriage Road in the hopes of getting out of the cold wind. It took ages to reach the junction with the Glencliff Trail — I honestly thought perhaps I had walked past the junction without noticing — I don’t remember it being that far.
MEB and Little Sister had dropped their packs and poles to climb South Peak and I followed, afraid that they might be waiting for me up top. I was within two minutes of the summit when they began heading down, so I turned around without officially tagging it — I have been up there before anyway. We headed back down to the junction for our lunch picnic of Little Sister’s banana bread before heading down the Carriage Road.
I didn’t particularly enjoy the descent down the first part of the Carriage Road — it’s pretty rocky and not all that exciting. However, once it passed the Snapper Trail junction, it was new territory for me and I enjoyed it immensely. The trail still curves down the mountain in a wide path — with quite a few easily negotiated blowdowns — but it was really a vibrant green in all the rain splashing around us. We crossed onto the Hurricane Trail and followed that a mile back to Ravine Lodge. It was another enjoyable trek, especially as it followed along the bubbling brook, and a great way to end our hike. We arrived back at our cars at 3:30 p.m. and found a note from LenDawg and ChinookTrail, who were waiting by the fire in the lodge for our return.
A great day out despite the rainy weather!
Pictures from the hike can be found here.
- Ivy
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