Yesterday's Hike: North and South Baldface (NH)
Mileage: 9.8 miles
Elevation: 3,570 feet (South Baldface) and 3,610 feet (North Baldface)
Vertical gain: 3,600'
Weather: Partly sunny with a few periods of clouds, temps around 60, light breeze, great visibility. Just an awesome mid-Spring hike!
This hike certainly got started with fits and starts, but obviously it ended up being a great day in the end. First and foremost, I wasn't sure I was even going until Friday evening, even though I spent the whole week wishing I'd be able to go. It had been discussed on Tuesday, but Craig had a prior obligation that he wasn't sure he could get out of, and as I hadn't yet heard back as of Friday at 5pm, I was basically resolved about not being able to go. I told Martha on the phone just before she came over on Friday night that I hadn't found anyone to go hiking with, so I would be free the next day, at which point we planned a fairly low-key day on Saturday culminating with a Kentucky Derby part at Fore-Play that the Portland Junior League was putting on.
Between my phone conversation with Martha at 5pm, and her actually arriving around 5:30, Craig called me back and said he was free to go hiking, and wished to do Caribou Mountain in Evans Notch. So, when Martha arrived, I informed her of my change of plans, and she was very understanding and accomodating. I appreciated it :)
On Saturday itself, we had another hang-up when we discovered that Rt. 113 through Evans Notch was utterly inexplicably still closed for the "winter" in spite of there being freaking leaves on the trees and snow being a distant memory. Craig and I were both literally incredulous and a bit angry as we looked at the closed gate. Seriously people...WTF?!? So, unwilling to walk the 6 miles each way on the closed road to the Caribou Mountain trailhead near Gilead, we had but two options left open: Speckled Mountain, which we'd climbed back in November, or the Baldface loop trail.
We ruled out Speckled, since we didn't want to repeat it so soon, so that left the Baldfaces, which Craig highly recommended. The only problem was that we'd sort of signed up for a moderate hike, and this was a 10-mile loop with 3,600' of vertical gain. That may be a moderate hike in the peak of my summer fitness condition, but as a first hike of the season, where I was unsure of my fitness level? Not so much. But I was up for it.
Luckily, the trail starts gently, which lets you warm up your muscles nicely before the hard stuff starts. The hike up to the shelter was fairly easy, though I'd be lying if I said I wasn't more winded that I was expecting. Craig was too I think, but we both later realized that even in peak conditioning, the first mile always sucks and you wonder how you'll ever make it, before you get into your rhythm and start to feel like you could hike forever.
It was a good thing that I was finding my groove by the time we reached the shelter, because just after that were some cliffs we had to scramble up, which climbed 900 feet in a mere .6 miles. I would not want to try these in the rain, it was a little hairly in a couple spots anyway, with trickles of snow run-off making the rocks wet in places. Nearing the top of this, the views really opened up, and being cliffs, the views were constant as we obviously didn't need to wait for a break in the trees to get a view.
Atop this section we saw a trail sign indicating how far it was to our first summit - .7 miles I believe, so we immediately went on our way. Upon reaching South Baldface, we were treated to a fantastic view of Evans Notch, Pleasant Mountain way to our East, and not too far to our West we could see the peaks of Pinkham Notch, including the snow-covered Mt. Washington, with a view into Tuckerman's Ravine. The trail sign there indicated it was a 1.2 mile traverse through the col over to North Baldface, so after having a snack, we went on our way.
We did encounter some snow during the descent into the col, and while we found the trough of the col to be snow free, we encountered more on the ascent onto North Baldface. In neither case was the snow too soft to hold our weight (4-5 post-holes excepted), nor were the snowy areas large enough to be a real nuisance. There were some steep areas, but nothing too challenging, and before too long we were sitting on the summit of North Baldface, 3,610 feet up into eastern New Hampshire. The views were similar but prettier in a way, as the look back at South Baldface was quite a bit more striking than the look over at North Baldface was.
In spite of us being on our 2nd and last peak, we were only at the mid-point of the hike mileage-wise. This was OK with me, as it seemed to mean that the descent would be gentler and less steep than the ascent. This turned out to be exactly the case, and the walk down was mostly uneventful except for a couple small patches of deeper snow, and 1 tricky river crossing. We had expected, for some reason, to come out about a mile down the road from where we started, and with some minor dread were anticipating a road-walk at the end, but to our pleasant surprise, the trail came back around .7 miles from the road on the exact same trail we started on! This was a most welcome revelation, knowing we'd exit the woods right next to the car :)
Our total trail time was about 5 hours and 15 minutes, which is a really good time considering the 9.8 mile loop we'd done, and it being our first hike of the season. Craig and I were a little surprised about how well we did, and pleased to learn that we hadn't lost too much endurance over the winter. Personally, I can now tackle the 2009 summer hiking season with complete confidence that I can still hike literally anything in New England without any difficulty. In fact, I'm already starting to think of my next Katahdin trip :)
The Apres-hike meal was at Ebenezer's Pub again, and like last time, it was insane. I got to try 7 of their beers thanks to their offering samplers. This was but a small percentage of the 1000+ beers they've got there, though. It's not for nothing that this is Beer Advocate's #1 ranked beer bar in the entire world...
What an awesome day :)
Elevation: 3,570 feet (South Baldface) and 3,610 feet (North Baldface)
Vertical gain: 3,600'
Weather: Partly sunny with a few periods of clouds, temps around 60, light breeze, great visibility. Just an awesome mid-Spring hike!
This hike certainly got started with fits and starts, but obviously it ended up being a great day in the end. First and foremost, I wasn't sure I was even going until Friday evening, even though I spent the whole week wishing I'd be able to go. It had been discussed on Tuesday, but Craig had a prior obligation that he wasn't sure he could get out of, and as I hadn't yet heard back as of Friday at 5pm, I was basically resolved about not being able to go. I told Martha on the phone just before she came over on Friday night that I hadn't found anyone to go hiking with, so I would be free the next day, at which point we planned a fairly low-key day on Saturday culminating with a Kentucky Derby part at Fore-Play that the Portland Junior League was putting on.
Between my phone conversation with Martha at 5pm, and her actually arriving around 5:30, Craig called me back and said he was free to go hiking, and wished to do Caribou Mountain in Evans Notch. So, when Martha arrived, I informed her of my change of plans, and she was very understanding and accomodating. I appreciated it :)
On Saturday itself, we had another hang-up when we discovered that Rt. 113 through Evans Notch was utterly inexplicably still closed for the "winter" in spite of there being freaking leaves on the trees and snow being a distant memory. Craig and I were both literally incredulous and a bit angry as we looked at the closed gate. Seriously people...WTF?!? So, unwilling to walk the 6 miles each way on the closed road to the Caribou Mountain trailhead near Gilead, we had but two options left open: Speckled Mountain, which we'd climbed back in November, or the Baldface loop trail.
We ruled out Speckled, since we didn't want to repeat it so soon, so that left the Baldfaces, which Craig highly recommended. The only problem was that we'd sort of signed up for a moderate hike, and this was a 10-mile loop with 3,600' of vertical gain. That may be a moderate hike in the peak of my summer fitness condition, but as a first hike of the season, where I was unsure of my fitness level? Not so much. But I was up for it.
Luckily, the trail starts gently, which lets you warm up your muscles nicely before the hard stuff starts. The hike up to the shelter was fairly easy, though I'd be lying if I said I wasn't more winded that I was expecting. Craig was too I think, but we both later realized that even in peak conditioning, the first mile always sucks and you wonder how you'll ever make it, before you get into your rhythm and start to feel like you could hike forever.
It was a good thing that I was finding my groove by the time we reached the shelter, because just after that were some cliffs we had to scramble up, which climbed 900 feet in a mere .6 miles. I would not want to try these in the rain, it was a little hairly in a couple spots anyway, with trickles of snow run-off making the rocks wet in places. Nearing the top of this, the views really opened up, and being cliffs, the views were constant as we obviously didn't need to wait for a break in the trees to get a view.
Atop this section we saw a trail sign indicating how far it was to our first summit - .7 miles I believe, so we immediately went on our way. Upon reaching South Baldface, we were treated to a fantastic view of Evans Notch, Pleasant Mountain way to our East, and not too far to our West we could see the peaks of Pinkham Notch, including the snow-covered Mt. Washington, with a view into Tuckerman's Ravine. The trail sign there indicated it was a 1.2 mile traverse through the col over to North Baldface, so after having a snack, we went on our way.
We did encounter some snow during the descent into the col, and while we found the trough of the col to be snow free, we encountered more on the ascent onto North Baldface. In neither case was the snow too soft to hold our weight (4-5 post-holes excepted), nor were the snowy areas large enough to be a real nuisance. There were some steep areas, but nothing too challenging, and before too long we were sitting on the summit of North Baldface, 3,610 feet up into eastern New Hampshire. The views were similar but prettier in a way, as the look back at South Baldface was quite a bit more striking than the look over at North Baldface was.
In spite of us being on our 2nd and last peak, we were only at the mid-point of the hike mileage-wise. This was OK with me, as it seemed to mean that the descent would be gentler and less steep than the ascent. This turned out to be exactly the case, and the walk down was mostly uneventful except for a couple small patches of deeper snow, and 1 tricky river crossing. We had expected, for some reason, to come out about a mile down the road from where we started, and with some minor dread were anticipating a road-walk at the end, but to our pleasant surprise, the trail came back around .7 miles from the road on the exact same trail we started on! This was a most welcome revelation, knowing we'd exit the woods right next to the car :)
Our total trail time was about 5 hours and 15 minutes, which is a really good time considering the 9.8 mile loop we'd done, and it being our first hike of the season. Craig and I were a little surprised about how well we did, and pleased to learn that we hadn't lost too much endurance over the winter. Personally, I can now tackle the 2009 summer hiking season with complete confidence that I can still hike literally anything in New England without any difficulty. In fact, I'm already starting to think of my next Katahdin trip :)
The Apres-hike meal was at Ebenezer's Pub again, and like last time, it was insane. I got to try 7 of their beers thanks to their offering samplers. This was but a small percentage of the 1000+ beers they've got there, though. It's not for nothing that this is Beer Advocate's #1 ranked beer bar in the entire world...
What an awesome day :)