New Hampshire sampler

Sunlight beaming down the trail
Managed to get off to New Hampshire last week. I like to get down there at least once a year to do some hiking. Was meaning to try to get down during the winter and try out a few areas for some skiing but that trip never came together. At any rate it’s nice to get into a slightly different area to do some hiking in terrain that is new so I looked forward to it. The past couple of years the trips to NH have had little success. Low cloud decks and heavy rains greeted me in the granite state. I did climb a few trails (so there must be some mountains in there somewhere!) but it was mostly a wet, miserable affair with little or no views to enjoy at the summit. This time the weather looked promising. While it was going to rain heavily on the drive down it was supposed to clear out overnight and give blue skies the next day. Indeed as I negotiated my way through and around Montreal’s construction headaches I was indeed pelted with heavy rains but they mostly subsided by the time I got to the US border. Made camp at a little spot outside of Twin Mountain and – with long summer days - I had time to scurry up and down a nearby high peak before darkness fell. Only some slight vistas at the top but the clouds were starting to break up which was encouraging.

Summit views from Mount Tom
Sound sleep and the next morning I awoke to…. A very low cloud deck with limited views :( Maybe it would clear through the day so I headed out for a long hike over the Willey range in hopes that, up top at least, the clouds would break. They did not completely… but I did get some limited views so not a total loss. New Hampshire’s mountains are a little different than the Adirondacks I’m more used to. They don’t muck about with long, gradual approach hikes to the bottom of where you start to go up to the top. Rather they get down to the real work of gaining elevation almost right from the get go. There is also a lot better trail construction, as a result I suspect, to much higher volumes of hikers. As my first “big mountain” hikes of the season I was far from prepared for this and the steep climbs took their toll. Slow and steady progress though and once on the ridges the walking was quite pleasant. Sadly, summit time was somewhat limited as the black fly hatch had made its way up in elevation and the demons were waiting for me. Black flies have long since come and gone in the valleys but I guess the climate changes as you climb and they had found a happy existence above 3500ft. So summit visits consisted of a few pictures, a few mouthfuls of food and a swig or two of water before the clouds of black flies started to take their toll and it was time to pack up and get moving again. Still it didn’t rain until I got back to camp and then only sporadically so what was there to complain about.

The Tripyramids from Mt. Tecumseh
After the long hike – and a wet night – the next day was to be somewhat slack. Sadly it proved the nicest day of the my trip with clear sunny skies. After touring around through midday I found myself in Waterville valley and loaded up the pack for a short trip up Tecumseh peak to take advantage of the nice day. Not a favourite with peakbaggers I quite enjoyed it with a steady climb for a couple of miles to the summit ridge and an overlook to the nearby mountains. Again the black flies found me so a short stop but even still it was a nice hike.

Lots of cold mountain streams to soak away the lactic acid after a hard hike
Final day I got low clouds and some scattered showers again but picked a nice hike in Waumbeck mountain. Again, peakbaggers tend to bemoan this peak with limited views but after three days of hiking I enjoyed the steady grade, good trail. Add to that the nonexistent views proved to be somewhat misleading with a nice lookout over to the northern presidential range. The quality of the trail also made for easy/fast descending which was an enjoyable end to the day before the long drive home. So a good few days in the Whites with some limited views (but vastly improving over previous years visits). It proved good “training miles” for climbing high peaks and will stand me good stead as the hiking season marches on.

The cloudy Northern Presidentials from the lookout on Waumbeck