Hiking in the White Mountains: Happy Dood Year . . . Mount Carrigain

Date of Hike: 1/1/21

Sawyer River Road & Signal Ridge Trail: 14.0 miles / 4,400' elevation gained

Trip Report:

- After a year of compiling miles and elevation gain in the mountains (2,340 / 878,684') I am looking forward to getting back to my normal routine in 2021, hopefully by the summer as the pandemic starts to trend in the right direction. So it's back to trip reports and pics, complete with odd grammar mistakes!

- For the first day of the new year, Sarge and I planned a hike of the Prince of the Wilderness, Mount Carrigain. Joining us were a few of my trail running friends and their dogs for the easy mid-fall conditions hike of Sawyer River Road and Signal Ridge Trail. Conditions were really simple, from a dusting to just enough snow to bury the roots and rocks along the steeps and switchbacks with only a few icy spots that required care. My studded shoes worked to perfection for the entire fourteen miles.

- We got an early start to avoid the crowds, passing four people and another dog on the way up and having Signal Ridge and the summit tower all to ourselves. Views from the top were surprisingly good as the new snow from the day before made the Presidential Range gleam in vivid white while just a few days before it was a mix of snow and rock and pretty sad looking for winter.

- After spending about ten minutes on the tower taking pictures and relaxing we trail ran back down to Sawyer River Road passing by a dozen or so hikers before reaching the summer trailhead and sprinting the road back to the cars at the winter trailhead off Route 302.

- It was a nice and relatively quiet way to start 2021, hopefully there will be many more days like this!