The Night Stalker Rides Again

[RoySwkr]

[near the end you will find out _why_ these hikes were done in the dark]

First up a couple weekends ago was Wilson Hill in Deering, a gem of a knoll in a SPNHF reservation. Since I wanted to start my hikes over half an hour after sunset, this meant driving minor unfamiliar roads in the dark to the trailhead. Once there, it was an easy stroll up a woods road to the field at the summit where I got a good view of the night sky. Down in plenty of time for supper before party and didn't even have to change clothes.

Three nights later was South Pawtuckaway, where I was familiar with the road in but not its current condition and in the dark scraped once each direction. Near the top, I took a wrong turn where the real trail briefly descended and followed a herd path to the N bump. But even at night, I recognized where I was and followed the ridge trail over to the fire tower and on to the S bump - I had plenty of time as I wasn't trying to get down before dark The real trail was easy enough to find going down.

The next hike was a bonus day to replace a bump next to the road under a powerline that I felt silly counting. Finding the correct roads out to Blue Job can be tricky even in daylight, but I was skilled or lucky and made it first try. This parking lot is posted as closing at 9 pm which makes night hiking tough in summer, but in November you get 4 hours which is ample even when the footway is covered with leaves and routefinding is slow. I did lose the E side of the loop for a few yards going down.

Thanksgiving instead of a big turkey at home was a road trip to Plum Island with a friend for a picnic in the car. On the way, we stopped at the Warner Hill fire tower which was one of only a couple active towers in NH they hadn't visited. I deemed it safe enough in daylight as it only required walking up a driveway in a subdivision. There was little snow left from the previous day's storm but it was too hazy for distant views from the tower. On Plum Island we got very close to a flock of turkeys, but a bystander said they had all been pardoned so we couldn't bean one and take it home.

Last night I braved Pitcher Mtn in spite of the recent snowfall, driving out watching the snowdrifts in the hill country I was glad I'd brought the big snow shovel but it turned out the parking lot was well plowed. The trail up was mostly bare with lots of footprints so I left my snowshoes in the car. There was a new generator building since my last ascent and I followed a path along the buried cable to the summit, which proved easier than the old route by the cabin that I went down. It was warm enough that the path was mud and slush. No distant lights were visible in the haze, making the peak seem more remote.

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The Why

A couple years ago I checked to see if over my hiking career I had climbed a different NH peak on every calendar date. I actually had several peaks on the dreaded February 29, but along with scattered dates I was missing big clusters in April when I was often canoeing instead and in the rifle deer season in November-December when I did my hiking in other states. Polishing off April meant trudging through lingering snow while avoiding the muddiest roads, but deer season was trickier. I had already climbed most every peak I could find in game sanctuaries or with a road up. And while there are certainly peaks like Mt Washington which are relatively safe in hunting season, the ones I had left tended to be small bushwhack peaks within a mile or two of the road - exactly the sort of place where hunters are likely to be and aren't going to be expecting hikers.

So my strategy for this year was to climb something else on summer dates assigned to drive-up and easy peaks, so I could reclimb them to count in hunting season. The easy peaks would be climbed at night when deer hunting is illegal, and I would carry a brighter-than-usual light to make myself more obvious. Because I had climbed them all before (often several times), I knew where the highpoints were and wouldn't have to search in the dark. I tried to check rules online and onsite to make sure night hiking was allowed - I apologize to any landowners I got wrong. The drive-ups could be used in slightly bad weather, but in case of major snow or ice storms I would wait till next year - what's one more when some dates go back 40 years Approaching November I was looking for 5 dates for sure and a couple more where I wanted a more prominent peak.

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What's Left

So I'm down to one plus one left next week. Should I go up near Pittsburg where the deer season ended a week early and tag a real peak? Get an easy drive-up nearby that I saved for the purpose? Or maybe there'll be an ice storm and I'll stay home

 

[RoySwkr]

Friday night I went up Great Hill in Tamworth. Back in the '70s I was able to drive to the top, but erosion, overgrowth, and gates have turned this into a hike although an easy one. Fortunately I remembered the route as there were no signs visible in the dark and I'd carelessly left the map in the car. I hoped to see the Northern lights from the fire tower but it was too cloudy to even see the moon most of the time.

Over the weekend I was hiking in MA (no hunting on Sunday in MA), and now that rifle deer season is over in NH I'll probably not be starting hikes after dark until next November. But it was a fun interlude while it lasted!

 

[freighttrain48]

move swift and softly night stalker

 

[RoySwkr]

Having hiked Mt Mist on Nov 12 this year, I could reclimb Wilson Hill for another date which became Nov 24. Remembering the troubles wending my way out on back roads in the dark last year, I hooked up my car GPS which from the route it displayed I realized hadn't been used since December - usually I know where I'm going and don't bother Heading out the Interstate in the dark tunnel around my headlights with cruise control set and my track on GPS, I wondered why I didn't just stay home and let the car go out by itself Once on the back roads, the GPS proved its value as I wasn't constantly looking for turns that were still far ahead - in exchange for which it twice told me to take the narrow dirt road parallel to the wider paved one. The GPS also could do nothing about the unexpected flurries which started to accumulate once the road turned to gravel. Oh well, a short drive and a shorter hike and I'd be home before it could get very deep.

No other vehicles were parked at the gate and I set off up the road with a dim headlamp to show any hunters that I wasn't a deer. There was just enough moonlight through the hazy clouds to make walking easy on the light-colored surface. It was chilly with a brisk breeze but I was hiking in insulated pants and jacket so the cold didn't penetrate. At the summit I looked at the distant lights all around, noting that the only red beacons were to the E. But there was really no reason to linger and after a few minutes I was headed down the same way. The turns were all obvious drving home, but I left the GPS on and watched my progress like an air traffic controller - it may languish for another year now. Next morning there was a little snow in roof valleys although none on the ground.

 

[RoySwkr]

For a bonus hike in this series, last night I climbed Jerry Hill in Concord with the Five Rivers Conservation Trust. The moon was mostly obscured by clouds so most people used headlamps. The new trail was fairly obvious with blazes and footway although the leader missed one junction and had to go back. When I go by myself, the adjacent landowner doesn't invite me in for cocoa and cookies.

 

[RoySwkr]

North Uncanoonuc via Red Spot 12/2/2013

Drive in the back way over a maze of twisty roads took longer than I thought, so it was full dark when I parked and hunting was over for the day so I could just suit up and go. Wore stuff appropriate for 30 degrees colder to take account of temperature drop after dark and so I could walk slowly and carefully. Weather was the same as the last time I was there, light drizzle, but at least then it was daylight. I hadn't walked very far when I realized I had parked at the wrong trailhead in the dark, oh well it's only a couple tenths extra and it's not like this hike was all that far to begin with. The ground was all wet but it was warm enough that there was no ice in the footway.

The rain stopped but the fog settled in, I could see my breath and the mist was blowing by inches from my headlamp. It was sometimes hard to pick out the leaf-covered trail in the open woods - at least in the Presidentials there are cairns and rock walls! Once I walked off the end of a switchback where there was an obvious herd path; my sister says that you only walk the correct trail once but the wrong one twice when you see your mistake and go back! I knew I was nearing the summit when the trail started to level off but that just meant there were a maze of herd paths. It looked like there was a big group ahead holding some sort of quiet service with red and white lights, but as I got closer I was at the view ledge and looking at the lights of town below.

It was trickier going down as where you were going to step had more fog between it and the headlamp, so I got out a handheld light with narrow beam to use right in front while the headlamp gave more general illumination. Going down the steep probably took as long as going up, but I killed the second light when I got back to the old road. I took the connctor back to the highway and walked down the good pavement with no lights at all. It was still dark enough that I might have walked right by my car if I hadn't thought I had gone about far enough and used my spotting light.

Six more days and rifle deer season is over, and I can go back to hiking in daylight!