On a forecast warm and humid day with a significant chance of rain and thunderstorms by late afternoon and knowing that the black flies and skeeters would probably be thick, we decided we’d stay below tree line and hike a couple of NH 3,000’ers—Randolph and Crescent and also hike to the Pond of Safety on our way back.
We headed up the Vyron D. Lowe trail to hook up with the Crescent Ridge trail which would take us over Randolph (the false summit) and then on to Crescent. The woods here are very rich and over the course of the day we counted 27 blooming wildflowers, including the flowers we saw on our road walk back to the car.
Besides the great variety of wildflowers we spotted, there was an incredible abundance of signs of wild life. There was moose scat everywhere. We’ve never seen so much moose scat on any trail we’ve ever hiked. We also saw lots of black bear activity from scat to ripped up trail signs. Not to be forgotten were grouse, deer and four pawed scat of an unidentified variety.
The bugs were thick and annoying but we never slathered on the bug dope. As long as we kept moving, they didn’t seem to bother us but the moment we stopped- watch out! The humidity was killer. It definitely wore us down. The big rains and t-storms didn’t hit until we were on our way home. We had a few sprinkles while heading over to Crescent but that was it. The major sprinkling of the day was our sweat falling to the ground. We carried lots of water knowing that it was going to be a sweater of a day.
To reach the true summits of both Randolph and Crescent, short bushwhacks are required. There is an RMC sign on the Crescent Ridge trail marking the summit of Randolph but that is not the true summit. You have to keep going. The true summit of Randolph is maybe 5-10 minutes off trail if you set your course right. It took us about 20 minutes to find the true summit going over both bumps but only 5-8 minutes in a different direction to get back to the trail from the true summit. The summit jar was fairly easy to find on the second bump. This jar is just laying on the ground on the summit.
Crescent is at the end of the Crescent Ridge / Mt. Crescent trail. Once you know where the jar is, you can get to the summit in about 3 minutes. However, that’s once you know where the jar is. There are many little bumps on the summit and we visited most of them a couple of times each looking for the jar before we pushed through some fir surrounding a nondescript bump and found the summit jar. We replaced the Ziploc bag holding the log as the old Ziploc was totally in tatters and fell apart in our hands. There was also a ¼” of water in the bottom of the jar. The log itself was dry though.
We had planned on visiting the Pond of Safety on our return but due to the time (but mostly because we were tired of both the bugs and the humidity) we beelined the trails to get out to Durand Rd. as quick as possible for the somewhat enjoyable road walk back to the car. It was only enjoyable because of the blooming wildflowers and quaint cabins (well at least some were quaint) along the way.
We saw only one other person all day and that person was Michelle Cormier who is an officer in the Randolph Mountain Club. We had a great chat at the lookout by Crescent before she headed down and we headed off to climb Crescent.
All in all a very enjoyable day with beautiful trails, wildflowers, two short bushwhacks and the absence of rain.
Pictures here.
We headed up the Vyron D. Lowe trail to hook up with the Crescent Ridge trail which would take us over Randolph (the false summit) and then on to Crescent. The woods here are very rich and over the course of the day we counted 27 blooming wildflowers, including the flowers we saw on our road walk back to the car.
Besides the great variety of wildflowers we spotted, there was an incredible abundance of signs of wild life. There was moose scat everywhere. We’ve never seen so much moose scat on any trail we’ve ever hiked. We also saw lots of black bear activity from scat to ripped up trail signs. Not to be forgotten were grouse, deer and four pawed scat of an unidentified variety.
The bugs were thick and annoying but we never slathered on the bug dope. As long as we kept moving, they didn’t seem to bother us but the moment we stopped- watch out! The humidity was killer. It definitely wore us down. The big rains and t-storms didn’t hit until we were on our way home. We had a few sprinkles while heading over to Crescent but that was it. The major sprinkling of the day was our sweat falling to the ground. We carried lots of water knowing that it was going to be a sweater of a day.
To reach the true summits of both Randolph and Crescent, short bushwhacks are required. There is an RMC sign on the Crescent Ridge trail marking the summit of Randolph but that is not the true summit. You have to keep going. The true summit of Randolph is maybe 5-10 minutes off trail if you set your course right. It took us about 20 minutes to find the true summit going over both bumps but only 5-8 minutes in a different direction to get back to the trail from the true summit. The summit jar was fairly easy to find on the second bump. This jar is just laying on the ground on the summit.
Crescent is at the end of the Crescent Ridge / Mt. Crescent trail. Once you know where the jar is, you can get to the summit in about 3 minutes. However, that’s once you know where the jar is. There are many little bumps on the summit and we visited most of them a couple of times each looking for the jar before we pushed through some fir surrounding a nondescript bump and found the summit jar. We replaced the Ziploc bag holding the log as the old Ziploc was totally in tatters and fell apart in our hands. There was also a ¼” of water in the bottom of the jar. The log itself was dry though.
We had planned on visiting the Pond of Safety on our return but due to the time (but mostly because we were tired of both the bugs and the humidity) we beelined the trails to get out to Durand Rd. as quick as possible for the somewhat enjoyable road walk back to the car. It was only enjoyable because of the blooming wildflowers and quaint cabins (well at least some were quaint) along the way.
We saw only one other person all day and that person was Michelle Cormier who is an officer in the Randolph Mountain Club. We had a great chat at the lookout by Crescent before she headed down and we headed off to climb Crescent.
All in all a very enjoyable day with beautiful trails, wildflowers, two short bushwhacks and the absence of rain.
Pictures here.
. There's plenty of redlining to do in that area so I'll have to make a better effort to find the Randolph cannister the next time I'm up there.
