2012 Trip Reports

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2012	Mountains	Trails	Miles	Elevation Gain
1/7/12	Owl's Head	Lincoln Woods, Black Pond, Bushwhack, Lincoln Brook, Owl's Head Path	18.5	3,500 feet
1/8/12	North Kinsman & South Kinsman	Lonesome Lake, Fishin' Jimmy, Kinsman Ridge	10.0	3,800 feet
1/14/12	Osceola's & Hancock's	Greeley Ponds, Mount Osceola Trail / Hancock Notch, Cedar Brook, Hancock Loop	17.4	6,000 feet
1/15/12	Liberty & Flume	Bike Path, Basin Bushwhack, Liberty Spring, Franconia Ridge	8.8	4,050 feet
1/16/12	Jackson	Webster-Jackson	5.2	2,200 feet
1/21/12	Moriah	Carter-Moriah	9.0	3,550 feet
1/22/12	Monroe, Eisenhower, Pierce	Ammonoosuc Ravine, Crawford Path, Monroe Loop, Eisenhower Loop, Webster-Cliff	10.0	3,600 feet
1/28/12	Zealand	Zealand Road, Zealand Trail, Twinway	18.6	2,850 feet
1/29/12	Isolation	Rocky Branch, Engine Hill Bushwhack, Isolation Trail, Davis Path	12.8	3,350 feet
2/3/12	Lafayette & Lincoln	Old Bridle Path, Greenleaf, Franconia Ridge, Falling Waters	8.9	3,900 feet
2/4/12	North Twin, South Twin, & Galehead	Herd Path, North Twin, North Twin Spur, Twinway, Frost, Garfield Ridge, Gale River, Gale River Road	16.0	4,500 feet
2/18/12	North Kinsman & South Kinsman	Lonesome Lake, Fishin' Jimmy, Kinsman Ridge	10.0	3,800 feet
2/19/12	Owl's Head	Lincoln Woods, Black Pond, Bushwhack, Lincoln Brook, Brutus Bushwhack, Owl's Head Path	18.0	3,250 feet
2/26/12	Galehead	Gale River Road, Gale River Trail, Garfield Ridge, Frost Trail	14.0	2,600 feet
3/5/12	Tom & Field	Avalon, A-Z, Mount Tom Spur, Willey Range	7.3	2,500 feet
-	-	27 "Official" 4,000 footers	184.5	53,450

Mount Tom and Field

Date of Hike: 3/5/12

Avalon Trail: 1.3 miles
A-Z Trail: 1.0 miles
Mount Tom Spur: 1.2 miles
Willey Range Trail: 1.0 miles
Avalon Trail: 2.8 miles
Total Miles: 7.3 (2,500 elevation gain)

Trip Report:
- Originally Monday looked promising enough for some great views to do a long out and back of the Bonds, however the weather changed to in the clouds and wind chills well below zero with high wind gusts above treeline so we were forced to stay below treeline and headed over to Crawford Notch to hike in the Willey Range.
- About four to six inches of fresh snow fell in Crawford Notch the night before making for a beautiful hike in the woods up the Avalon and A-Z Trails.
- We only saw two other hikers heading up as we gained the ridge near the Mount Tom Spur Trail where we were greeted by a curious Pine Martin who then ran up ahead of us along the trail up to Mount Tom's summit.
-  It was cold on Mount Tom's summit so we headed down quickly and the headed over to Mount Field.  The hike in the winter along the Willey Range Trail is one of the prettiest below treeline hikes through snow covered trees with a very gradual ascent up to Mount Field.
- Our original plan was to head over to Mount Willey and come back over to Mount Field and drop down the Avalon Trail but when we reached the summit of Mount Field I had had enough of winter hiking for 2012 so I turned to Alton and said "F this, time for me to head to Florida!"
- So we turned around and zoomed down the Avalon Trail back to the Highland Center in about 45 minutes and warmed up before heading back south.
- It was a fun winter hiking even with the lack of big snowfall, hopefully next year there will be a ton of snow and wild trail-breaking!

Pictures: Click here for all pictures

 Hiking up the A-Z Trail

 Willey Range Trail

 Willey Range Trail

 Mount Avalon

Crawford Notch Scenic Railway at the Highland Center

Galehead...again??!!

Date of Hike: 2/26/12

Gale River Road: 1.6 miles
Gale River Trail: 4.1 miles
Garfield Ridge Trail: 0.8 miles
Frost Trail: 0.5
Backtrack: 7.0 miles
Total Miles: 14.0 (Elevation gain 2,600 feet)
Click here for trail descriptions

Trip Report:
- I tagged along for another hike in someone else's quest for their 48 - 4,000 footers.  Today it was Kenny who needed Galehead after being turned around just few tenths of a mile from the summit last winter.  Alton and Kenny's son Max were along for the hike as well.
- Luckily this winter has been very easy to bag any summit on the list even after Friday's snow storm which was minor league by mountain standards.
- The trail had been broken out the day before so unfortunately we didn't get to add any fun to what is generally considered a very easy but very boring hike.  The Gale River Trail no longer has two river crossings because of the trail relocation after Hurricane Irene and I'm pretty sure this adds a tenth of a mile or more to the hike, I preferred the water crossings, made it interesting!
- It finally looked like winter in the mountains and parts of the Garfield Ridge Trail leading up to Galehead Hut had some decent snow drifts but still snowshoes were not a necessity.
- Views from Galehead Hut up to the Twin Range and down into the Pemigewasset Wilderness were perfect as there were no clouds in the sky.
- The hike up to Galehead was pretty easy, we didn't put on snowshoes although if I was solo hiking I would have put them on but with four of us we beat down the trail and broke it out solid.
- The Hike out was the usual trudge downhill, the last section of the Gale River Trail seems to go on forever, however the road walk went by quickly.
- It was another nice hike in the White Mountains although I'm in need for a 12 hour 25 plus mile suffer-fest ASAP!

Pictures: click here for all pictures

 Gale River Road

 Gale River Trail

 Galehead Hut and South Twin as seen from the Frost Trail Outlook

Frost Trail