Mount Wachusett

Recently, Katy and I decided it was time to get our hiking boots back on and summit a peak. We hadn't done much hiking lately, but we have extra motivation to get some hikes under our belt this spring. For years now, we've been talking about doing a single day Presidential Traverse. It's kind of a running joke because we've talked about it for so long, but for a variety of reasons, have never been able to coordinate it and pull it off. Well, the time for talk is over. This year, in mid June, we are doing it. In preparation, we are aiming to get some smaller hikes in leading up to the main event.

We had some nice weather over the weekend, and thought it would be a good chance to get a family hike in. Toby is almost 3 now, and can handle longer distances without being carried. Tyler is approaching 1, and loves being in the carrier. We decided Mount Wachusett would be a good choice as it's only an hour away and is a small, relatively simple hike. We decided to do an out and back to the summit via Mountain House Trail. We started off with me carrying Tyler on my back, and Toby walking on his own. Toby did well and made it almost halfway up the mountain before he got too tired. At that point, we put Toby on my back and Katy carried Tyler with the Baby Bjorn front carrier. We went the rest of the way up like this until reaching the summit which was quite crowded.

We had lunch at the summit, and after navigating a few potty-training toddler challenges, we began heading back down. The boys were doing well, but at this point, it was best that they were both carried down as well. This proved probably the most challenging as Tyler is getting a little too big to be carried with the Baby Bjorn but we only have one back carrier which Toby was occupying. Despite this, we made it back down to the trailhead before heading home.

A small hike - but an adventure nonetheless bringing two boys under the age of 3 and Tyler's first real hike!

Killington Peak

We're back! Three years ago almost to the day, Katy and I hiked Mount Carrigain to complete our 48th and final New Hampshire 4000 footer. Since then, our lives have changed quite a bit as we now have two children and are as busy as ever. It's always been our goal to continue on with our peakbagging and tackle the New England 4000 footer list. We love our boys and we love being parents, but one thing that is certainly true is that finding the time (and the babysitters) to get out and hike a 4000 foot peak is quite a bit more challenging now. But last weekend, we found both! We decided to rent a condo in the Killington, VT area for Columbus Day weekend for a classic New England trip. We invited Katy's sister Patty and her boyfriend Mike to join us, and they graciously offered to watch the boys for a few hours on Saturday so that Katy and I could hike Killington Peak for our 49th New England 4000 footer and first outside of New Hampshire! It was definitely a different experience from our peakbagging trips in the past, but on Saturday morning we were ready to go and out the door of the condo to make the short drive over to the Bucklin Trailhead to start the hike.

It was about 10:00AM when we made it to the trailhead and were geared up to go. The weather was cool and crisp with forecasts in the 40's under mostly clear skies. The Bucklin Trail is about 3.5 miles long with a total of about 2500 feet of elevation gain. The first couple miles are quite straightforward though as they are mostly flat. We cruised along without issue, enjoying the fall foliage and just being out. The trail gradually became steeper and we continued to work our way up, passing a few other hikers along the way. It wasn't too long before we reached the trail junction with the Appalachian Trail and the Long Trail (both the same trail during this stretch) which we followed for a short while. We passed by the Cooper Lodge Cabin and a few tent platforms before reaching the Killington Spur trail which is just a quarter mile to get to the summit. This section was short but quite steep, requiring a bit of scrambling as we rapidly popped out above the short Alpine Evergreen trees which were still covered in frost. We reached the summit which was busy with people and where apparently just seconds earlier a couple had just gotten engaged! Pretty cool.

Despite only seeing a few other hikers on the trail, the summit was packed. Killington Peak is a ski resort and while it wasn't ski season yet, they operate gondola rides to the top year round. It being a peak fall foliage weekend, there were plenty of people who made the trip up to catch the pretty spectacular views. We took some pictures and then made our way to the Peak Lodge, which has cafeteria style food available as well as a full service bar operating. In contrast to other summit services that I've seen (i.e. Mount Washington), this one was surprisingly posh and definitely catered to a certain crowd. Even though we brought our PB&J sandwiches, we decided to share one of the sandwich offerings from the menu which turned out to be quite good. It was fun to spend some time up there and take in all the mountain had to offer.

Overall we spent about an hour at the summit before beginning the journey down. The hike down was again fairly straightforward and we were at the bottom in short order. We made it back to the condo by about 3:30PM and were quickly back to our busy world but not before checking off number 49 of 67 on the New England 4000 Footer list!

Madison and Adams

About a month ago, Brian suggested that we go on a hike. Sounds like a great idea! After some coordination, we finally found a date that works, and we were locked in with a plan for this past Saturday. Since finding time to get these hikes in is not always easy to come by these days (Katy and I have two young children now and Brian has a toddler of his own keeping us all busy), I put some careful thought into what hike we should do. The criteria in my mind was something like this:

1. Do-able in a single day, including driving there and back
2. Big enough to be worth our while, somewhere in the 10 - 15 mile range
3. Preferably prolonged, above treeline exposure for maximum views and remoteness "feel"
4. Include a unique trail or two, one that is less heavily traveled and that we haven't done before

That's a pretty picky checklist, but hey why not be picky? And looking at the list, there was really one one place to go - back to the Northern Presidentials. Last year we took on a hike that met all of those checkboxes in the form of a Jefferson and Adams loop. This year, I figured we could go at it from the opposite side with a Madison and Adams loop. The key to this choice and one that checks off that last box on the list was to make the ascent from the Randolph East parking area up the Howker Ridge Trail. While we've both been up these mountains before, neither of us have been up this trail which avoids the typical and more heavily traveled routes leaving from Appalachia.

So the plan was set. We would meet at the Park and Ride lot in Nashua at 5:30AM to begin the day. Somewhere along the way, though, before the planned date, our twosome turned into a foursome. Mo and David, who are working on their 4000 footers list, joined the group for the outing. We added a daisy-chain to the carpool plan with Brian and I meeting at the Nashua Park and Ride at 5:30AM and then continuing on together to meet Mo and David at the Hooksett Park and Ride at 6:00AM. Fully consolidated, we made it to the Randolph East parking area at around 8:00AM. The weather was cool and clear and the forecast was for an absolutely perfect day in the high peaks. After getting organized for a few minutes, we were off.

The initial part of the hike was gradual and steady. We moved along at a reasonable pace and began to climb. There's a bit of a backstory to this hike, though, as not all members of the party ended in as good a shape as they started. Brian was actually on the fence about coming all week leading up to it, as his son brought home a nasty stomach virus early in the week that he caught and was still recovering from. He made the decision to go for it the night before, though, and early in the hike he was beginning to feel the effects of basically not eating all week. About halfway up Madison, he asked for the map and was planning an escape route. He was still going up Madison but didn't think he was up for the Adams portion of the hike. Nevertheless, we continued on.

A couple hours into the hike, we finally popped out above treeline. The Howker Ridge Trail did not disappoint as we made our way up and over each of the exposed "Howks" under the warm sun, clear skies, and calm conditions. We made it to the summit of Madison in about 3 hours or so and stopped for lunch and to soak in the views. After spending some time on the summit, we made the relatively simple descent from the Madison peak down to the Madison Hut. Brian made it, but he decided that he was done climbing up for the day and would skip Adams. Our original plan had us climbing up and over Adams without doubling back, but we modified our route slightly so that we could meet up with Brian and descend Airline after tagging the Adams summit.

So after a quick break, Mo, David, and I continued on to the summit of Adams. We actually made an error here as we planned on taking one trail to the peak but ended up on another. It turns out there are two trails from the hut that both will bring you to Adams in about the same distance. The difference is that the trail we took had some really neat, scrambly sections that required some more technical maneuvers to get up. Overall, it was a good mistake, and we made it to the summit in about an hour. We spent some time up there, but with a weird cloud of flies and mosquitos right on the peak, we headed down before too long. We made it back to the meeting point with Brian in reasonable time to continue our descent.

We headed down Airline which is a nice trail that keeps you up on the ridge line for a little ways before finally ducking down out of the Alpine Zone. While on the ridge we were eyeing the multiple routes up Kings Ravine to our left that looked absolutely unbelievable. Someday we'll have to return for a thrill and ascend up that headwall. In any case, we continued down, with Brian and I leading the front pack while Mo and David were separated a bit behind.

The hike down was a bit of a grind, with an interesting twist happening towards the end. Brian, of course, was still not feeling well but was gutting it out on the descent. However, while the two of us were waiting at a trail junction for Mo and David to meetup, Mo came running down and handed us her keys. She said to go ahead and get the car and bring it over to Appalachia to pick up David. I at first thought that David had some type of serious injury and we were going to need to mount a rescue operation. A few seconds after that though, though, David came strolling up behind Mo. It turns out that he, too, was starting to feel queasy and wanted to get done as quickly as possible.

So with both Brian and David feeling ill, I completed the last mile and half of the hike on my own to retrieve the car, while Mo, David, and Brian went one mile to Appalachia. After an easy walk, I picked up the car, retrieved the three of them down the road, and the hike was complete. We headed back, stopping for some pizza on the way home, to complete another epic day.

Despite the unusual twists, I really enjoyed the day and the hike. Hopefully we'll be back out there again soon.

Iron Mountain

In my previous Mount Avalon post, I described how we managed to get in a 52 With A View peak during our recent trip to AL and UP's condo in the White Mountains. However, what I didn't mention in that post is that during that same trip, and on the very next day after hiking Mount Avalon, we bagged another peak! We woke up on Monday morning without too many plans, with the exception of eventually packing up and heading home after an enjoyable holiday weekend. With the sun already shining and warmer temperatures then the day before, we thought it would be fun to get in another quick hike in the morning. The trailhead for Iron Mountain was only a few minutes drive away, and the hike itself was less than a mile each way. We asked around to see if anyone from the previous day's hiking team was interested in coming along, but didn't have any takers. So we quickly got dressed and headed out the door with the smaller crew of Owen and Katy plus Toby.

The road to the trailhead was a long, narrow dirt road. It was in good shape and we made it to the trailhead with no trouble but it definitely seems like it could be tough to get two cars past eachother in some spots. When we finally reached the trailhead, there was a small little parking area with room for about 5 or 6 cars with 3 other cars already there. We squeezed in a spot and got ready for the hike. Right off the bat the trail takes you through an open field with really nice panoramic views of the Presidentials. These were probably the best views of the entire hike. We worked our way up the easy trail and navigated the .8 miles in no trouble. About halfway to the top, Toby fell sound asleep and I could hear him snoring in my ear as we worked our way up the trail.

The summit is wooded with minimal views, and we opted to skip the extended trip to the ledges on the other side which would add another mile each way to the hike. Overall, though, it was a very enjoyable morning outing, and we were finished and back to the condo in time for lunch.