WeRmudfun
New member
On our continuing quest to stand where a fire tower is standing, once stood or was proposed brought us to Smarts Mountain, elev 3832’, in Lyme, NH. It was #53 out of 92 for us. We parked at the trailhead for Lambert Ridge and Smarts Ranger trails. The weather was perfect, blue skies, nice temperatures and light winds, enough to keep the bugs away.
We started out on the Lambert Ridge trail which is also the Appalachian Trail, so it is blazed in white. The trail started out going up right away with switchbacks. At about 0.8 miles we came to the first of many stone steps. As we headed along the trail we noticed a lot of quartzite. According to our research it dates back about 400 million years.
It wasn’t too long before we reached our first view from the ledges that gave us views of the Dartmouth Skiway. There was a couple more lookout along the this ridge with great views. At one point we had a fantastic view of the fire tower on top of Smarts, unfortunately something happen to that piece of footage in the camera. After passing by the views the trail flatten out nicely, but didn’t last. We got to area that was all was all ledge, rocks and roots, plus it was wet, it went up from there too. It wasn’t too long until we descended down into a col. There was a spot on the trail that reminded us of something like an enchanted forest. It was very cool walking through there. The thing we liked about this trail is that it wasn’t boring, there was a little bit of everything on it; it had UP, it was level, had views and there was a lot of different surrounding that we walked through.
Coming out of the col was, of course, all up, and it was a little steep. We hit this one section of ledge where it was all wet with water running down it. We just hung to the edge of the trail and tried not to slip. At the top of that section we came to the trail junction with the Smarts Ranger Trail, which used to be part of the AT. We took a left at the junction and the up continued, it is a mountain after all. LOL The first thing we ran into was a wooden staircase followed by metal rungs planted in the ledge. We are always amazed at the things trail maintenance people can do in the middle of nowhere and we thank them very much for all they do.
Right after passing the tent platform side trail we ran across a very sad sight, there was a dead moose laying across the trail. Not sure how long it had been there, but it was still intact, there were flies, but no signs that animals had found it and it didn’t smell yet.
We got to the fire tower and went up, the cab is not locked, so we went in. The views were really great up there, but we did the video pan from underneath the cab to avoid the glare coming from the glass. When we came down, we had lunch, then headed over to the cabin. The cabin has been converted to a shelter now with one bed frame in it.
Leaving the summit we decided to take the Smarts Ranger trail back to the parking lot thinking it would make a nice loop…we were wrong! That trail was one of the worse trails we have ever been on. This trail wasn’t just wet it was a flowing steam in places. We saw maybe 4 blazes on the whole trail, to be fair though except for a couple of places, it is pretty apparent which way it goes. We did see some of the old telephone poles that carried the line to the tower along with the fire warden’s garage where they used to park their cars. The coolest thing along the trail had to be the old skeleton of a car off in the woods. The rim have wooden spokes on it.
Overall it was a great hike, felt sorry about the moose and hated the Smarts Ranger trail (might be a better loop when it is not so wet) though. Hoping to see Smarts Mountain again in 6 years when we do the AT!
We did post our video on YouTube for anyone who might be interested is seeing our hike...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I0PE9VR8l0I&list=UUvonD5mWIH03yQY3eosLwcQ
We started out on the Lambert Ridge trail which is also the Appalachian Trail, so it is blazed in white. The trail started out going up right away with switchbacks. At about 0.8 miles we came to the first of many stone steps. As we headed along the trail we noticed a lot of quartzite. According to our research it dates back about 400 million years.
It wasn’t too long before we reached our first view from the ledges that gave us views of the Dartmouth Skiway. There was a couple more lookout along the this ridge with great views. At one point we had a fantastic view of the fire tower on top of Smarts, unfortunately something happen to that piece of footage in the camera. After passing by the views the trail flatten out nicely, but didn’t last. We got to area that was all was all ledge, rocks and roots, plus it was wet, it went up from there too. It wasn’t too long until we descended down into a col. There was a spot on the trail that reminded us of something like an enchanted forest. It was very cool walking through there. The thing we liked about this trail is that it wasn’t boring, there was a little bit of everything on it; it had UP, it was level, had views and there was a lot of different surrounding that we walked through.
Coming out of the col was, of course, all up, and it was a little steep. We hit this one section of ledge where it was all wet with water running down it. We just hung to the edge of the trail and tried not to slip. At the top of that section we came to the trail junction with the Smarts Ranger Trail, which used to be part of the AT. We took a left at the junction and the up continued, it is a mountain after all. LOL The first thing we ran into was a wooden staircase followed by metal rungs planted in the ledge. We are always amazed at the things trail maintenance people can do in the middle of nowhere and we thank them very much for all they do.
Right after passing the tent platform side trail we ran across a very sad sight, there was a dead moose laying across the trail. Not sure how long it had been there, but it was still intact, there were flies, but no signs that animals had found it and it didn’t smell yet.
We got to the fire tower and went up, the cab is not locked, so we went in. The views were really great up there, but we did the video pan from underneath the cab to avoid the glare coming from the glass. When we came down, we had lunch, then headed over to the cabin. The cabin has been converted to a shelter now with one bed frame in it.
Leaving the summit we decided to take the Smarts Ranger trail back to the parking lot thinking it would make a nice loop…we were wrong! That trail was one of the worse trails we have ever been on. This trail wasn’t just wet it was a flowing steam in places. We saw maybe 4 blazes on the whole trail, to be fair though except for a couple of places, it is pretty apparent which way it goes. We did see some of the old telephone poles that carried the line to the tower along with the fire warden’s garage where they used to park their cars. The coolest thing along the trail had to be the old skeleton of a car off in the woods. The rim have wooden spokes on it.
Overall it was a great hike, felt sorry about the moose and hated the Smarts Ranger trail (might be a better loop when it is not so wet) though. Hoping to see Smarts Mountain again in 6 years when we do the AT!
We did post our video on YouTube for anyone who might be interested is seeing our hike...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I0PE9VR8l0I&list=UUvonD5mWIH03yQY3eosLwcQ
