Category: Hikes

Found these two panoramas on my camera this morning. They're both from the summit of Mt. Hight.

Last weekend I was on an overnight hike to the Carter Notch Hut with a bunch of friends from work. We hiked in over the Wildcat range, and on day two we hiked out over the southern half of the Carter-Moriah ridge. All in all, it was almost 16 miles and 10 peaks (11 if you count the Imp). Five of those peaks are on the NH 4000-footer list - although I've already climbed one of them. But it was still four new ones for me, which brings me to the 50% completion point on the list. I haven't been actively pursuing the list, but it's starting to acquire some momentum on it's own now!

Recently returned from an overnight hike to Galehead Hut. The route was North Twin, South Twin, and Galehead Hut on day 1 - then back to South Twin, My. Guyot, Zealand, the Zealand Falls Hut, and out on day 2. It rained on us the whole time, and every summit was socked in with no views. But I would still classify it as a good time! The hut was great - good food and good company. We got a chance to talk to some AT through-hikers too - some northbound, and even a southbound group. Below is a panorama of the view from North Twin - as you can see, not the best of viewing conditions!

This past Friday some friends and I hiked up Mt. Webster and Mt. Jackson in Crawford Notch. The view from Mt. Jackson was especially nice. Not really any bugs either!

I hiked up North Kinsman Mountain a week or so ago with a couple of friends from work. It was a beautiful day, and we almost had the trail to ourselves. The view from the summit is of the Mt. Lafayette ridge. Lonesome Lake (home of the AMC's Lonesome Lake Hut) can be seen in the middle ground between the summit and the ridge.

The hiking group from work went back to Mt. Moosilauke this year, and this time we had a few new folks with us. We got a fantastic day for the hike, and Mt. Moosilauke never disappoints in the view department. A friend took the photos you see below - I forgot to bring my own camera.

Our first stop on the road trip was to climb Mt. Kearsarge in New Hampshire. I'd read that it was kid-friendly, and had a really nice view from the top. Unfortunately our day was very foggy - in fact, the entire summit was wrapped in a cloud and ridiculously windy.

Carter had to "pee on a tree", as she calls it. She also got to meet a puppy named "Carter", which was kind of cool. And we also found a bunch of really interesting quartz for the rock tumbler - a lot of the ones we found seem to have pink or red veins running through them. They should be beautiful when we polish them up!

Mt. Osceola is another of NH's 4000 footers that I haven't tried yet. Some of the guys from work and I headed up to try it. Luckily the rain held off long enough for us to get up and down again before it started. The view from the top was better than I expected - much more open than the pictures I saw online led me to believe. The foliage was pretty colorful - but it would have 'popped' a lot more if the sun had come out.

Mt. Moosilauke has always been on my list, and yesterday I finally got a chance to try it. Some friends from work and I took a day off of work and headed up to try it out. We got perfect weather, and somehow had the trail almost completely to ourselves - even though there were a couple dozens cars parked at the trailhead. The view from the top are amazing. A good chunk of the summit is all alpine meadow, so you get great views in every direction. At over 4800 feet, Mt. Moosilauke is the 10th highest mountain in the state. I wish the foliage had been a few weeks further along - as it was we could see only a little color. But still amazing, and definitely worth going back sometime.

I've been thinking about trying to get the kids out hiking mountains more often than just Black Cap once per summer. So I took them out to Mt. Major yesterday morning. This was also their first hike with their own backpacks, complete with their own water bladders. They did really well, and the view of Lake Winnipesaukee from the top was phenomenal. There were also a ton of dogs on the summit, and the kids had a blast petting them all. I love this picture - I told them to give me some "muscle poses" because of how tough they were to climb all the way up there. This is what they came up with.