Hiking in the White Mountains: January 2013

Owl's Head

Date of Hike: 1/27/13

Lincoln Woods Trail: 2.6 miles	Black Pond Trail: 0.8 miles	Bushwhack: 1.6 miles
Lincoln Brook Trail: 2.2 miles	Brutus Bushwhack / Owl's Head Path: 2.6 miles	Lincoln Brook Trail: 2.2 miles
Bushwhack: 1.6 miles	Black Pond Trail: 0.8 miles	Lincoln Woods Trail: 2.6 miles
Total Mils: Around 17.0		3,250 feet elevation gain

Trip Report:

- Sunday was much warmer...as it was at least five degrees at the Lincoln Woods Trailhead whenI arrived at 9 a.m.! I was shocked to see only four cars at the trailhead, I thought with the frigid temperatures and high wind there would be lots of activity at Lincoln Woods with hikers heading to Owl's Head.
- Owl's Head has become one of my favorite mountains because it's the most remote 4,000 footer and is always an adventure. I enjoy the summer approach more because I get to stay on the trails, which have a lot of history, gnarly water crossings, and a slide. In the winter the most commonly used route wisely avoids the gnarly water crossings and the slide by bushwhacking from black pond and bushwhacking again well before reaching the slide.
- I hiked a fast clip on the Lincoln Woods and the Black Pond Trails to stay warm. As I hiked all we heard was creaking of trees and fast wind gusts high above us.
- The bushwhack from Black Pond was well broken out and beaten down so the snowshoes stayed on our packs. The 'Black Pond Bushwhack' is always broken out differently every time I hike it, this time it went uphill more than it has the previous three times I have been on it. It's a nice hike through mostly open woods and only got thick as we descended a moderately steep hill to intersect the Lincoln Brook Trail.
- The two or so miles from the Black Pond Bushwhack to the Brutus Bushwhack was the coldest part of our day so I kept up a brisk hiking pace to not get too chilled.
- Within minutes I went from chilled to sweating as I went strait up a steep embankment and hooked a right onto an old skidder road where the hiking became gradual through some Birch trees up a well broken out path and more importantly completely out of the wind.
- When I reached a gully I banged a left and over the next few tenths of a mile I ascended steeply angling diagonally to the left through pine trees kicking in steps and grabbing branches through a chute-like smooth path left from the previous day's glissaders.
- Eventually the bushwhack becomes much easier and hooks onto the Owl's Head Path above the slide where unfortunately it again becomes very steep until it gains the ridge. I didn't hang around long on top, it was too cold and I was back in a spot where wind gusts were present so I booked it back down to lower elevations and temperatures above zero.
- I ran into the only two hikers I saw all day as I made my way down the Brutus Bushwhack. It was nice to see I wasn't the only fool coo-coo enough to think hiking the most remote 4,000 footer on a zero degree day equals fun!
- The hike out went quickly, I stayed relatively warm and made sure to keep hydrating and eating snacks. When I reached The Lincoln Woods Trail there was quite a few x-country skiers out and about. I also saw the WMNF service driving snow mobiles and an ATV loaded with hey for horses who were spending the night before moving out the junk left behind from the Black Brook bridge when it was removed in 2009.
- I made it back to the car at 2:50 p.m. and quickly changed into comfortable clothes before heading south. Eventhough it was cold, it was well worth the trip to see 'Owlie'!!

East Branch Suspension Bridge at Lincoln Woods

Black Pond

Owl's Head from Black Pond

Black Pond Bushwhack

Birch Glades on Owl's Head

Almost frozen over Lincoln Brook

Lincoln Woods Trail

Willey Range

Date of Hike: 1/26/13

Avalon Trail: 1.3 miles	A-Z Trail: 1.0 miles	Mount Tom Spur: 1.2 miles
Willey Range Trail: 3.7 miles	Avalon Trail: 2.8 miles	.
Total Miles: 10.0	.	3,250 feet elevation gain

Trip Report:

- As a brutal cold front lingered over the northeast I decided to still head up to the White Mountains and get in a quick hike below treeline that had some nice outlooks to take advantage of the great views.

- I decided on the Willey Range and started hiking on the Avalon Trail at 9 a.m. under a bluebird sky with temperatures struggling to reach zero degrees. Amazingly enough, within about five minutes I started to sweat and had to delayer.

- The Avalon and A-Z Trails gradually make their way up to the col between Mount Field and Mount Tom with some short steep bursts as it gains the ridge.

- Once I made it to the col I took a right and hiked 0.6 miles to the summit of Mount Tom. The Mount Tom Spur has a pretty cool 'Pencil Tree' forest at the beginning which looks incredible in the winter. I quickly made it to the summit area of Mount Tom where there are some decent views to the west over to the Pemi Wilderness and to the east of the Presidential Range. I snapped a few pics but was very cold so I changed into a dry layer and put on my fleece and fed a real fat Gray Jay before booking it back down to the Tom/Field Col and hooked onto the Willey Range Trail.

- The Willey Range Trail in the Summer is not very exciting, it's a trail in the woods with decent footing and easy and moderate grades. In the winter it is a whole different experience, it's a beautiful and magical hike in the snow. The trees are blasted with snow and on a sunny day the light shines through the woods and makes for one of the best in the woods winter hikes.

- I made good time to Mount Field and snapped a few pictures from the downlook before heading over to Mount Willey. This part of the hike was slow going for me, I forgot about the bump the trail goes over then down about a half mile from the true summit. At this point I hit a wall and didn't snap out of it until a hundred feet from the summit but was rewarded with phenomenal views from the outlook just past the summit.

- I took a bunch of pictures of the Presidential Range to the north before heading back over to Mount Field. The going was good even when the broken trail meandered off trail for a tenth of a mile. There were some pretty views into the Pemigewasset Wilderness to Carrigain Notch and a unique view of the backside of Mount Bond.

- The last section leading up to the summit of Mount Field is a real butt-kicker and wiped me out and I was so happy to reach the summit, snap a few pics before I banged a right onto the Avalon Trail.

- The Avalon Trail in the winter is another trail that is a hundred times more fun to hike. The snow covers all the root and rocks and because of its steepness you can book it down the trail and even butt slide if that is your thing.

- I made the quick side trek up the steep short burst to the summit of Mount Avalon. There were about eight other hikers on the summit and about a dozen just below us on an A.M.C. group hike so we didn't linger too long before heading back down.

- I blitzed through the last steep descent to the A-Z Trail junction and then cruised out to the Highland Center to the car, put the heat on full blast, and finally regained full feeling in my face by Franconia Notch.

- It was a cold but great day to be in the White Mountains!

Mount Field from the Highland Center

Winter Wonderland

Mount Tom Spur Trail

Mount Tom Summit Area

Willey Range Trail

North Twin

Mount Willey

Webster Cliff and the Presidential Range

Crawford Notch

Mount Washington

Willey Range Trail

Presidential Range

Crawford Brook

Crawford Notch Scenic Railroad

Mount Hale

Date of Hike: 1/19/13

Logging Roads: 1.7 miles	North Twin Trail: 1.0 miles	Mount Hale Trail (AKA Fire Warden's Trail): 2.5 miles
Hale Brook Trail: 2.2 miles	Zealand Road / Route 302: 2.6 miles	.
Total Miles: 10.0	.	2,000 feet elevation gain

Trip Report:

- The weather report for Saturday was a little iffy, calling for high winds so we decided to stay below treeline. Our original plans were to hike Hale and Zealand, spotting a car at the Zealand Road winter lot and heading over to Little River Road so we could hike up the abandoned Mount Hale Trail (Fire Warden's Trail). However, we got a late start and since we had to book it back to RI and back to Mr. Smackers the Golden Retriever we just decided to hike up Mount Hale.

- I was really excited to hike up the Fire Warden's Trail in the winter, I had been on it twice before but during the summer so I was looking forward to hiking through the Birch Glades.

- The hike into the Fire Warden's Trail is pretty easy, the only difficult thing about it is finding the beginning of the trail which can be found on the herd path bypass between the first and second water crossings on the North Twin Trail. All you have to do is find the sturdiest little tree in the middle of the path and bang a left up a ten foot embankment and BAM! you're on the old Mount Hale Trail.

- Right before we jumped on the old trail we passed a group heading to the Twins, they were having fun and ended up having better than expected weather for their hike and probably caught some good views!

- The Fire Warden's Trail was not broken out but luckily there were only six inches of light fluffy new snow on top of hard packed snow so it was pretty easy to stay on the trail. The only part that could get iffy is the last half mile when gaining the ridge as it can look like a maze if you're not paying attention.

- The trail is much more enjoyable than the Hale Brook Trail, it has easy grades and you pass through a beautiful patch of Birch glades before heading into a forest through a Pine Grove.

- Once at the top we took a snack break before booking it down the Hale Brook Trail passing by a couple of hikers on their way up to the summit.

- Next was the road walk back along the Zealand Road, this would have been the slog part of our hike if we did Zealand but it was a ton of fun and went by quickly!

- It was a fun little first hike of 2013 for me and we made it back to RI in time for Mr. Smackers to enjoy his dinner...dog food - YUM!!!