Mount Hale and Zipline Tour

This past weekend Katy and I took a mini vacation ... to the White Mountains in New Hampshire ... again. If you've been keeping up with this blog you will notice that this has been a frequent destination of ours this summer. Before the summer, when we had only summited 10 of the 48 4000 footers in New Hampshire, Katy set a goal for us. She decided that we should get halfway there, to 24 mountains in total, before she returns to law school in late August and inevitably has significantly fewer free weekends. I wasn't sure if we'd find the time to do it, but with this past weekend coming up, we found ourselves just one peak away, at 23 mountains total. Rather than doing a single drive up, hike, drive back day trip, we decided to make a little longer stay of it this time, and celebrate the halfway point in style.

On Saturday morning we woke up early, packed up our hiking gear and an overnight bag, and headed up towards the White Mountains. We chose Mount Hale for this hike for a couple reasons. One is that it's nice and easy, a short 4.4 mile round trip hike that will give us plenty of time to enjoy the rest of our weekend doing other things. Second, it's conveniently located only a few minutes drive from the Mount Washington Hotel, a place that Katy has always wanted to stay and what better time to stay then now? We arrived at the trailhead just after 10AM with warm temperatures and surprisingly partly sunny skies. The forecast had been calling for a chance of showers all week so I had anticipated we might be in for a wet hike, but it turned out to be dry the whole way. The hike was short and straightforward, but pretty steep and steady nonetheless. We arrived at the summit in just over an hour. There's not much to see on the top of Mount Hale as the open summit area is completely surrounded by relatively tall trees. We ate a snack, snapped some pictures and spoke with two other peakbagging couples for a while at the peak before heading back down. The descent was also quite simple, and we were back at the car in the early afternoon and headed over to check into the hotel.

The Mount Washington Hotel is a beautiful place, and the weather actually improved and cleared out some more in time for us to explore the grounds, hang out by the pool, and then have dinner outside with views of the Presidentials. It was a short trip, but it really was nice to have a relaxing afternoon at a grandiose place such as this. It briefly brought me back to a little taste of our fantastic two weeks in Hawaii last year for our honeymoon. On Sunday morning it was foggy and rainy, but we continued our adventure seeking, going on a three hour zipline tour at the Bretton Woods ski area across the street. I had never done ziplining before, but it was a really neat experience. The course at this location had over a mile of ziplines in nine zips total with some over 150 feet off the ground. Cool!

Our recent adventure in the White Mountains barely lasted 36 hours but it felt like a vacation of much greater length. Sometimes just a taste of the perfect combination of fun and relaxation can go a long way.

Liberty and Flume

After a very busy July, Katy and I thought it would be nice to take a weekend off from scheduled activities, and just leave one open for a change. We had already been hiking, swimming, kayaking or some combination of the aforementioned every single weekend in July so far. So yesterday we laid low, caught up on chores and to-do's around the house, and just generally relaxed. However, a funny thing happened: "I'm kind of craving hiking" Katy said. The weather for both yesterday and today was perfect. Warm, in the 80's, not a cloud in the sky. So on a whim we decided that today we would continue our 4000 footers and finish off the Franconia Ridge, hiking Mounts Liberty and Flume.

We got up around 6:00AM this morning and managed to quickly pack up our day packs and be out the door before 7:00AM. The weather was perfect as predicted, and we arrived at the trailhead in Franconia Notch around 9:00AM with completely clear skies, temperatures in the 70's and warming, and calm conditions. We were on the trail at 9:15AM to begin the 10 mile loop hike over Mounts Liberty and Flume. There are a couple of options when hiking Liberty and Flume. I had never done them before but most guide books and trip reports indicate that the Flume Slide Trail up Flume is a class 3 trail, has an unbelievably steep section that rises over 1800 feet of elevation in about 0.7 miles. Most suggest that you should only ever ascend the Flume Slide Trail and if conditions are wet or slippery, consider skipping it altogether by ascending Liberty via the Liberty Spring Trail and doing an out and back to the top of Flume. It was a perfect day and we didn't really think conditions could get any better, so we opted for the loop option up the Flume Slide Trail.

The descriptions of the Flume Slide, generally, were accurate. I would not say any part of it was "fear for your life" steep, but there were many sections in that final 0.7 miles that were difficult to navigate, and pretty much all of it was hand over hand relentless rock scrambling. There were several sections where Katy decided to forgo the actual trail and forged left or right into the bush. She found that she often had better luck with the denser roots and branches to grab onto and power her way up rather than the sometimes steep and sporadic foot and hand holds of the rocks. We eventually made it to the top, though, and it was certainly worth it. The summit of Flume opened up into an expansive cliff outlook looking down into the southern edge of Franconia Notch and also back down to the Kancamagus Highway. On a perfectly clear day there were a lot of views to soak in.

We ate our lunch on top of Flume and then continued on with an easy mile between peaks to the summit of Mount Liberty. Out of all the peaks we have visited so far, this is easily one of the best if not the best in the bunch. Liberty is completely exposed with a large rocky summit peaking out barely above the treeline. From the roomy peak, you can see the large and intimidating Lincoln and Lafayette peaks to the north. You can see the rocky cliff walls of the Cannonballs. You can see the unassuming ridge of Owl's Head and the larger, scarred slopes of the Bonds in behind it. You can see down to the Kancamagus Highway and over to the ski slopes of Loon Mountain. You can see Washington and the high Presidentials peaking out from a distance behind the Bonds. You can see a lot more, but those are the highlights, and the pictures don't really do it justice. On a day like today with warm temperatures at the summits and calm, clear skies, I feel like I should've brought up a grill, some lawn chairs and a cooler of beer. Maybe next time.

Our descent was simple and straightforward in comparison to the Flume Slide. We passed by a large group of backpackers and some folks staying at the Liberty Spring tent site down the trail and made it back to the car around 3:30PM. A great hike on a perfect day, we grabbed some food on the way back home. Numbers 22 and 23 done!

Whiteface and Passaconaway

We've spent a lot of time up in New Hampshire this summer, piling up 4000 footers, enjoying time at the big lake, and spending time with family and friends. This past week was no different. My family has a generally annual stay up at Lake Winnipesaukee in Moultonborough, NH and this year they were up there once again. Being on the north side of the lake meant that we would be only a half an hour from the trailhead of the two southernmost 4000 foot peaks, Mounts Whiteface and Passaconaway. So we packed up our gear and made our way to the very isolated and picturesque Wonalancet, NH.

Mo was jokingly upset that she was not invited on our last trek up the Osceolas. She described that hike as "Katy and O minus Mo". Well we were plus Mo once again for the 11.5 mile loop over Whiteface and Passaconaway and the three of us were at the trailhead at around 9:00AM. When we arrived we bumped into another young couple from Nashua, NH in the parking lot. They were peakbagging too and had done 14 up to that point. We saw them several times throughout the hike along with a few other groups. Generally the trail was pretty quiet, though, on a clear day but hazy with temperates well into the 90's in the valleys. We worked our way up the Blueberry Ledge Trail in the heat with some of the trail exposed to the sun. The climb was relatively straightforward with the exception of the last half mile which consisted of some pretty significant rock scrambling. Fortunately it was dry, though, so we were able to scramble up without too much trouble. We made it to the open and exposed viewpoint just below the true summit at about 11:30AM.

We had good views of Lake Winnipesaukee from the top, and stopped for some lunch, snacks, and pictures before continuing on over the true summit of Whiteface and then onward to the summit of Passaconaway. It was over three miles of hiking between the peaks but the trail was pretty easy with just the final three quarters of a mile offering some steep grades. Passaconaway had a wooded summit, but there were several ledges and viewpoints close by. After another quick stop we headed back down the Dicey's Mill Trail to complete the loop. We motored down with Katy setting her typical blistering descent pace. I think her new hiking poles helped as well. We arrived back at the trailhead at around 4:00PM for the completion of numbers 20 and 21!

This was a fun hike in a neat area. The trailhead is actually home to a network of trails that all kick off from private property at the end of a dead end road. It had a bit of a different feel to it then the notches to the north and there definitely may be more worth exploring once our 4000 footers are complete. For now, though, the beat goes on as we continued the rest of a relaxing week at the lake and are trying to coordinate getting to the halfway point of 24 peaks before Katy goes back for her second year of law school and our schedules quickly fill up once again!

Mount Osceola and East Osceola

Katy and I spent another extended weekend away earlier this week up at Lake Winnipesaukee with her family. It was a fantastic vacation with time spent swimming, boating, golfing, and relaxing. And since we were already well north in New Hampshire, we decided to throw in some hiking as well. We had originally planned on grabbing another couple 4000 footers on Saturday with her two sisters, her sister's boyfriend, (plus Mo). However, those plans fell through and we did a hike on our own on Tuesday morning instead.

The Counihan family tends to be early risers and on this past Tuesday, early morning commotion had already begun around 6:00AM. Katy woke up and said to me in a somewhat sleepy state "I really want to go hiking. Let's go before I don't want to go anymore." I guess we better go then! We got up, grabbed some breakfast, threw some water and granola bars into a backpack, and headed to the trailhead for Mount Osceola and nearby peak East Osceola. It was about an hour's ride from where we were staying in Alton Bay, and the forecast said partly sunny with a chance of an afternoon thunderstorm. We arrived at the trailhead at 7:45AM and were the only ones in the parking lot.

The hike up Mount Osceola was a very steady grade and a relatively easy 3.2 miles. Unfortunately, the partly sunny forecast did not pan out as we were completely in a cloud when we reached the summit and had no views. We continued on for another 1.0 mile with a couple of very steep sections over to the summit of East Osceola which had a wooded summit in the clouds. We retraced our steps back to the car and had completed 4000 footers 18 and 19 by 12:45PM. Overall it was an enjoyable hike that was part of just a generally really nice time away in New Hampshire.

The Wildcat-Carter Traverse

This fourth of July weekend has been targeted for quite some time now for us to tackle a few more 4000 footers on our list. We had another visit planned to AL and UP's condo in Bartlett, NH and we had been debating which hike we were going to do. For a while we contemplated doing a Presidential Traverse, or a half Presidential Traverse, but in the end we decided to knock off the remaining mountains on the Wildcat-Carter-Moriah ridge in one fell swoop. On Saturday, Katy and I plus Mo hiked over the top of five 4000 foot peaks in a 15 mile traverse of this ridge.

Whenever you do a long, end-to-end hike like this one, it's often tricky because you need to coordinate dropping a second car off at one end of the hike. Fortunately, Brian, Kate, and UP were willing to come along with us up the first peak (Wildcat D), and help us spot a car at the other end of the trek. (In fact, Mo was not originally planning on coming the entire 15 miles with us, but she changed her mind a mile into the hike and rather than turning around to return with the other group, decided to continue on with Katy and me). All six of us were up at 5:30AM and left the condo at 6:30AM to make our way out to the hike. We had two cars so we dropped Mo and UP off at the Wildcat Ridge trailhead and we continued on to the Imp trailhead to drop off our car. Brian brought Katy and I back to the Wildcat Ridge trailhead, and all six of us began our trek up at about 7AM.

Not even 1 minute into the hike, we hit our first snag. We crossed the road via an underpass to get to the trail, and immediately were faced with a difficult river crossing. The water was fairly high and moving fast, but everyone was able to eventually make it across rock hopping (except for UP who got a bit wet). We continued on up the fairly steep Wildcat Ridge Trail and made our way to the top of Wildcat D (and the top of the gondola and ski slopes). Brian, Kate, and UP decided to turn back early, while Katy and I plus Mo continued on to the main summit of Wildcat Mountain, Wildcat A. At this point we were more than four miles into the hike, and had bagged two peaks.

Wildcat A contained a great outlook looking over Carter Notch. We could see about 1000 feet down to the rooftop of the Carter Notch Hut (which was on our route), and then back up to the peak of Carter Dome. "We're going all the way down there??" Maureen said when she saw it. Yes indeed. We made the steep decent down into Carter Notch and then climbed all the way back up to the top of Carter Dome after a short break at the hut. From there, we soldiered on over the top of South Carter and Middle Carter Mountains to bring our total peaks for the day up to five and our total peaks overall up to 17! By the time we had made it back to the car at the bottom of the Imp Trailhead we had traveled 15 miles in 11 hours over 5 peaks.

This was a long and challenging hike but it was a perfect day for it and well worth it. Single day Presidential Traverse? Perhaps it is in our future.

North and South Hancock

It's been a while since I last made a post on this blog, which is now becoming more of a status report for our quest to complete the 4000 footers of the White Mountains. I'm back today to report that we have not given up, and that yesterday we knocked off two more mountains on our list: North and South Hancock. This time around, the hiking group contained Katy, myself, my brother Brian, and my sister Maureen. We almost had a bigger group, but a few who were wavering dropped out at the last minute.

The weather forecast for yesterday contained warm temperatures with a chance of sun, chance of clouds, chance of showers, and chance of thunderstorms. Essentially, anything, which is pretty standard for the white mountains, so the hike was on. We all met in Westborough at 6:30AM and headed north from there under cloudy skies, leaving at about 7:00AM. We made one stop on the way up, for Brian's apparently traditional pre-hike Egg McMuffin, and made it to the trailhead at around 9:30AM.

The Hancocks are located just south of the Pemigewasset Wilderness, with the trailhead on the Kancamagus Highway. It's a total 10 mile hike with a loop over both peaks, but much of the trail is quite level. We probably went up only about 1000 feet of elevation in the first 3.5 miles before an extremely steep final half mile to the North peak's summit which went up another 1000 feet of elevation all on its own. We did not encounter any rain, and it was quite warm, even at the peaks. However, it was heavily overcast all day, and when we reached both the North and South peaks, the two lone overlooks available for views on this trip were completely clouded in. We ate lunch and snacks on the summits, before heading back down to the car and arriving back at the trailhead around 4:00PM.

Overall it was a fun trip to put the total number of 4000 footers for Katy and I up to 12. We headed back to Massachusetts and stopped for pizza on the way back. We also learned on the way back that my sister Megan got engaged to her longtime boyfriend Chris while we were hiking! Congratulations to Megan and Chris!

Mounts Tom, Field, and Willey

After our recent Labor Day weekend trek up North and South Kinsman, Katy and I had completed 7 of the 48 4000 footers in New Hampshire. In the hopes of getting to double digits before the winter settles in, we planned a visit to AL and UP's condo in Bartlett, NH for Columbus Day weekend and organized another ten mile hike over three 4000 footers, Mount Tom, Mount Field, and Mount Willey. With absolutely perfect weather all weekend long, we chose this past Sunday for the hike to complete 10 peaks on 10/10/10.

Since we were spending the weekend with several other family members at AL and UP's condo, I had thought we would get a few more takers to join us this time around. But alas, most were dissuaded by the early wakeup call and the hefty mileage. Only Katy, myself, and Mo were motivated enough to be out the door and heading to the trailhead in Crawford Notch at 7:45AM. By 8:30AM we were geared up and on the trail under perfectly clear skies but very crisp fall air in the mid 30's.

Hiked individually, Tom, Field, and Willey are all relatively easy climbs. We made it to the top of Mount Tom fairly quickly and stopped for a snack and some pictures. With not a cloud in the sky the views were spectacular with fall foliage covered mountains as far as you could see and Mount Washington and Mount Jefferson visible with some early season snow cover at the peaks. It was chilly at the summit, though, as temperatures had climbed slightly since the morning but it was still probably in the 40's with some gusty winds. We didn't linger too long before heading off to work our way down the ridge to Mount Field.

The top of Mount Field was enclosed in trees but also offered a side trail to a ledge overlooking the Mount Washington hotel and a good view of the Presidentials. We ate lunch at this peak and amusingly got a phone call from UP while we were on the summit asking if we could see him. Err, huh? Apparently, a late shift of hikers had left the condo about an hour after us and were hiking the nearby Mount Willard, a much smaller and easier hike. They could see the peaks of Tom, Field, and Willey but our view of Willard was obstructed by trees. Sorry no such luck! After more photos and finishing up our lunch, we pressed on to bag the final peak of our hike.

The summit of Mount Willey definitely had the best panoramic outlook with a really great view of Crawford Notch. The wind had settled down and the sun had warmed the temperatures to a really comfortable mid-day level. In addition to snapping the obligatory summit photos, we also managed to capture an image of one of the many gray jays flying around the peaks eating right out of Katy's hand! Those birds clearly knew that there was food to be had with people around and had no fear flying right into your hand. The summit of Willey was definitely a cool spot and we lingered up there for a while before heading out for the descent.

The trip down was relatively uneventful, although the upper section of the Avalon trail was definitely the steepest section of any trail we took during the hike. It wasn't too difficult to navigate but definitely did a number on the knees towards the tail end of the hike. We made it back to the car before 4:00PM to complete peaks number eight, nine, and ten on our list! After setting this peakbagging goal just over one year ago, we're now over a fifth of the way done. And once again, fall continues to provide evidence why it's my favorite New England season.