DSettahr
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Climbed these last sunday with a friend. They are the among the last major trailed peaks I'd yet to climb in the High Peaks vicinity.
We hiked these as a loop and started and ended at the Deer Brook trailhead. The trailhead is right on Route 73, between St. Huberts and Keen Valley, and post people probably don't notice it as the drive by.
The first section of trail goes up along Deer Brook through a really neat ravine with steep rock sides. There is a high water trail that follows a dirt driveway in case the trail is submerged. The trail here was a bit steep in spots.
Higher up, just beyond the first junction (where we went north), there is a side path that leads to a couple of nice looking waterfalls. Much of the trail north to Snow Mountain looks like if follows an old road. The grades through here were pretty moderate.
Snow Mountain had some nice views. The best views can be had by going a little ways beyond the summit, down to some ledges that face south. Great views of Giant, Round, Noonmark, and Dix. You can also see Dial and I think Nippletop.
Next up was Rooster Comb; the hike over to Rooster Comb from Snow was pretty easy. Rooster Comb has two lookouts, one facing northeast, and the other facing southwest. We stopped at the northeastern one first- great views of the Brothers (with Big Slide just barely poking over the top), Porter, Nundagao Ridge, Hurricane, and Giant. The southeastern facing overlook had a great view of the Johns Brook area. We could see Lower Wolfjaw and again the brothers, and Basin and Marcy were visible all the way up at the head of the valley. At least a few of the peaks of Table Top were also in sight.
Last up was Hedgehog Mountain. This was probably the steepest climb of the day. There is one false summit that confused us briefly before we found our way to the true summit. No views to be had at all from the top!
To make our hike a loop, we continued up along the range trail to the junction between Hedgehog and Lower Wolf Jaw. The trail had been well packed out to this point, but it looked like no one had gone beyond the junction in some time. The trail back down to Deer Brook had not been broken out at all recently, and was poorly marked in spots and somewhat overgrown. We did have a couple of spots where we had to stop and look hard for the trail. Eventually, we ran into an old set of snowshoe tracks which we were able to follow down. There are some ledges midway down this trail that again gave us nice views to the south. I don't think this trail ever receives much use, though.
Near where the trail crosses back onto private property, we had some further confusion in following it. It looks like there'd been a harvest in the area somewhat recently, the trail was not well marked, and trying to find which way to go on the skid roads wasn't the easiest task.
Over all, a good day in the woods. The hike was probably about 8 miles total, and took us about five hours. We wore snowshoes all day, and the snow was quite deep still even at lower elevations. Above 2750 feet or so is very much still winter conditions as well! The temperatures were warm enough that we were able to wear short sleeves while hiking, but we still carried jackets to put on while taking breaks.
Overall a very good hike. Rooster Comb and Snow Mountain especially are worthwhile destinations with great views that are often overlooked I think due to their proximity to the High Peaks.
Pictures Here
We hiked these as a loop and started and ended at the Deer Brook trailhead. The trailhead is right on Route 73, between St. Huberts and Keen Valley, and post people probably don't notice it as the drive by.
The first section of trail goes up along Deer Brook through a really neat ravine with steep rock sides. There is a high water trail that follows a dirt driveway in case the trail is submerged. The trail here was a bit steep in spots.
Higher up, just beyond the first junction (where we went north), there is a side path that leads to a couple of nice looking waterfalls. Much of the trail north to Snow Mountain looks like if follows an old road. The grades through here were pretty moderate.
Snow Mountain had some nice views. The best views can be had by going a little ways beyond the summit, down to some ledges that face south. Great views of Giant, Round, Noonmark, and Dix. You can also see Dial and I think Nippletop.
Next up was Rooster Comb; the hike over to Rooster Comb from Snow was pretty easy. Rooster Comb has two lookouts, one facing northeast, and the other facing southwest. We stopped at the northeastern one first- great views of the Brothers (with Big Slide just barely poking over the top), Porter, Nundagao Ridge, Hurricane, and Giant. The southeastern facing overlook had a great view of the Johns Brook area. We could see Lower Wolfjaw and again the brothers, and Basin and Marcy were visible all the way up at the head of the valley. At least a few of the peaks of Table Top were also in sight.
Last up was Hedgehog Mountain. This was probably the steepest climb of the day. There is one false summit that confused us briefly before we found our way to the true summit. No views to be had at all from the top!
To make our hike a loop, we continued up along the range trail to the junction between Hedgehog and Lower Wolf Jaw. The trail had been well packed out to this point, but it looked like no one had gone beyond the junction in some time. The trail back down to Deer Brook had not been broken out at all recently, and was poorly marked in spots and somewhat overgrown. We did have a couple of spots where we had to stop and look hard for the trail. Eventually, we ran into an old set of snowshoe tracks which we were able to follow down. There are some ledges midway down this trail that again gave us nice views to the south. I don't think this trail ever receives much use, though.
Near where the trail crosses back onto private property, we had some further confusion in following it. It looks like there'd been a harvest in the area somewhat recently, the trail was not well marked, and trying to find which way to go on the skid roads wasn't the easiest task.
Over all, a good day in the woods. The hike was probably about 8 miles total, and took us about five hours. We wore snowshoes all day, and the snow was quite deep still even at lower elevations. Above 2750 feet or so is very much still winter conditions as well! The temperatures were warm enough that we were able to wear short sleeves while hiking, but we still carried jackets to put on while taking breaks.
Overall a very good hike. Rooster Comb and Snow Mountain especially are worthwhile destinations with great views that are often overlooked I think due to their proximity to the High Peaks.
Pictures Here
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