Last Friday's Hike: Mt Moosilauke
Mt. Moosilauke.
Mileage: 7.4 miles
Elevation: 4,802 feet
Vertical gain: 2,450 feet
Companions: Martha McCahill
Weather: Warm, somewhat humid, somewhat hazy.
As my weekends have been filling up with social events and things, I've resorted to taking days off from work in order to get in my fill of hiking. I have the hiking bug seriously bad right now! This time, I wanted to know if Martha would care to join me for a 4,000 footer, so I tried to chose one that I thought she was capable of doing, given that she's rather new at this. For various reasons, mostly the relatively moderate elevation gain and lack of steepness, as well as the amazing panorama that awaits you on top to make it all worth the effort, I chose Mt. Moosilauke. She enthousiastically agreed :)
The Gorge Brook trail up was really quite lovely. It started up alongside Gorge Brook with minimal steepness, crossing it via some log bridges a couple of times, before veering off at the 3,300 foot mark up the side of a ravine. The trail here still never got particularly steep, and where it did there were actually a few switchbacks installed and some rough rock steps to aid us. The Dartmouth Outing Club must have a different philosophy than the AMC, though I hear that the Beaver Brook trail which descends to the North (and is part of the AT) is more typical, steep, sketchy boulders.
I allowed Martha to lead in order to set her own pace, and to be honest, had I been alone I probably would have arrived at the summit perhaps only 10 minutes sooner. She wasn't slow at all! We only stopped for a couple breaks, mostly very short ones to catch our breath and let our heart rates come back down a bit, and one longer one during which I tried to entice what I thought were Gray Jays to come have a snack, but I now doubt that they were Gray Jays due to their skiddishness.
After climbing for just under 2 hours, Martha found herself above treeline for the first time. I pointed out the makeup of the forest as we went up, first from mixed hardwood/softwood, indicating a relatively young forest, then to all softwood which indicated a more mature one, then to increasingly stubby spruces, until they became waist-high and we were effectively above tree-line. The summit featured only alpine grasses and rocks.
We were far from alone on the summit, this mountain being a popular destination. Among the throngs of day-hikers were a mix of both north-bound and south-bound Appalachian Trail thru-hikers. We stayed on the summit for nearly an hour, having our lunch just under the summit pile, and then I walked around a bit taking some more pictures.
To descend, I chose to do a loop via the Carriage Road and Snapper trails. I prefer loops due to the varied scenery, and as rocky descents can kill your knees, I figured something called the "carriage road" (which used to be a literal carriage road) would be very gentle. Well, it was certainly never steep, but decades of erosion have left nothing but a scree field of fist-to-head sized loose rocks, perfect for turning ankles. Martha was having some difficulty here as she has yet to really build up her "trail legs" and sense of balance on that stuff, something that takes time and experience, so I at least gave her my trekking poles. "Training wheels!" I said as I handed them to her. I think they helped.
We finally met the junction where the Snapper Trail branches off, which was a more typical New England woods trail, and we made up quite a bit of time from that point forward. We arrived back at the car about 5 hours after we'd left, beating the book time by 55 minutes even after spending an hour on top. Not bad for Martha's first big hike, I'd say!
I'll let her comment, but I was pleasant surprised and pleased to hear that her soreness over the next two days was minimal, mostly felt when going down stairs. Although the hiking season is winding down rapidly around here (I figure we have 2 months left) and most of the weekends in the next two months are already spoken for, I hope to get her out at least one more time this year, if she's willing :)
Pictures of the hike may be found here.
Mileage: 7.4 miles
Elevation: 4,802 feet
Vertical gain: 2,450 feet
Companions: Martha McCahill
Weather: Warm, somewhat humid, somewhat hazy.
As my weekends have been filling up with social events and things, I've resorted to taking days off from work in order to get in my fill of hiking. I have the hiking bug seriously bad right now! This time, I wanted to know if Martha would care to join me for a 4,000 footer, so I tried to chose one that I thought she was capable of doing, given that she's rather new at this. For various reasons, mostly the relatively moderate elevation gain and lack of steepness, as well as the amazing panorama that awaits you on top to make it all worth the effort, I chose Mt. Moosilauke. She enthousiastically agreed :)
The Gorge Brook trail up was really quite lovely. It started up alongside Gorge Brook with minimal steepness, crossing it via some log bridges a couple of times, before veering off at the 3,300 foot mark up the side of a ravine. The trail here still never got particularly steep, and where it did there were actually a few switchbacks installed and some rough rock steps to aid us. The Dartmouth Outing Club must have a different philosophy than the AMC, though I hear that the Beaver Brook trail which descends to the North (and is part of the AT) is more typical, steep, sketchy boulders.
I allowed Martha to lead in order to set her own pace, and to be honest, had I been alone I probably would have arrived at the summit perhaps only 10 minutes sooner. She wasn't slow at all! We only stopped for a couple breaks, mostly very short ones to catch our breath and let our heart rates come back down a bit, and one longer one during which I tried to entice what I thought were Gray Jays to come have a snack, but I now doubt that they were Gray Jays due to their skiddishness.
After climbing for just under 2 hours, Martha found herself above treeline for the first time. I pointed out the makeup of the forest as we went up, first from mixed hardwood/softwood, indicating a relatively young forest, then to all softwood which indicated a more mature one, then to increasingly stubby spruces, until they became waist-high and we were effectively above tree-line. The summit featured only alpine grasses and rocks.
We were far from alone on the summit, this mountain being a popular destination. Among the throngs of day-hikers were a mix of both north-bound and south-bound Appalachian Trail thru-hikers. We stayed on the summit for nearly an hour, having our lunch just under the summit pile, and then I walked around a bit taking some more pictures.
To descend, I chose to do a loop via the Carriage Road and Snapper trails. I prefer loops due to the varied scenery, and as rocky descents can kill your knees, I figured something called the "carriage road" (which used to be a literal carriage road) would be very gentle. Well, it was certainly never steep, but decades of erosion have left nothing but a scree field of fist-to-head sized loose rocks, perfect for turning ankles. Martha was having some difficulty here as she has yet to really build up her "trail legs" and sense of balance on that stuff, something that takes time and experience, so I at least gave her my trekking poles. "Training wheels!" I said as I handed them to her. I think they helped.
We finally met the junction where the Snapper Trail branches off, which was a more typical New England woods trail, and we made up quite a bit of time from that point forward. We arrived back at the car about 5 hours after we'd left, beating the book time by 55 minutes even after spending an hour on top. Not bad for Martha's first big hike, I'd say!
I'll let her comment, but I was pleasant surprised and pleased to hear that her soreness over the next two days was minimal, mostly felt when going down stairs. Although the hiking season is winding down rapidly around here (I figure we have 2 months left) and most of the weekends in the next two months are already spoken for, I hope to get her out at least one more time this year, if she's willing :)
Pictures of the hike may be found here.