Hiking in the White Mountains: Snow

Showing posts with label Snow. Show all posts

Brutal Day Breaking Trail, Just the Way I Like It . . . Mount Carrigain

Date of Hike: 2/18/17

Sawyer River Road: 2.0 miles / Signal Ridge Trail: 10 miles / Sawyer River Road: 2.0 miles
Total Miles: 14.0 (4,500 feet elevation gained)

Trip Report:
- I wanted to break some trail on Saturday, and boy did I get my wish! When I arrived at the parking lot at the end of Sawyer River Road there was only one car there, I thought surely there would be other people hiking Mount Carrigain as it was such a beautiful day, and there was, exactly one other!
- I ran into him along the flats of the Signal Ridge Trail just past the old Carrigain Notch Trail junction on the abandoned Pre-Irene stretch. I thanked him for breaking out the first section and scooted on ahead.
- From here the trail starts to gain elevation and eventually becomes steep as it traverses along a side hill that gets drifted in. This stretch was very slow, one to two feet of snow with drifts up to four feet deep, needless to say it was very tiring. After this the steepness levels off but the snow depth kept increasing, every step was now through two feet of heavy wet snow with higher drifts. With temperatures in the high thirties I got what is called a free car wash from the pine branches that are usually above the trail but now chest and face high because of the significant snow depths, I was drenched!
- Signal Ridge Trail is known for its switchbacks before popping out on Signal Ridge, having been on this trail over a dozen times I usually know how many there are but today I forgot the last one, and it felt like a punch in the gut as I was exhausted, it was demoralizing.
- Eventually I made it to Signal Ridge and was pumped, from here on out I figured it would be easier hiking once dropping back into the woods and circling on up to the summit tower, well I couldn't have been more wrong. The last half mile was beyond brutal, every step felt like sinking into freshly mixed concrete, and to make things worse my knee injury from MMD 50K came back out of nowhere, what usually takes ten minutes took forty...but I made it!
- I wobbled up the tower snapped a few pics and started back down, my knee hurt but wasn't getting any worse so I made good time getting back below the free car wash section where I was finally able to put dry layers on without getting drenched again. The hike out was relatively uneventful and went much better than expected, with the exception of sinking in a little bit with each step since it was so warm out and the snow was too soft, it still felt like a mini trail break, luckily it was flat and slightly downhill.
- Once I hit Sawyer River Road I enjoyed the packed out two miles of snow from the snowmobiles and shuffled my way back to the car.
- It had been a few years since I experienced a hike in snow depths like this and I loved every second of it!

Signal Ridge Trailhead, one more dump and this sign will almost be buried

Following the tracks left by the nice hiker who broke out the flats, thanks you!

Unbroken

Doesn't look bad but every step through here you'd sink down two feet!

More rough stuff!

Leaving my tracks

Finally, Signal Ridge

Vose Spur

Carrigian Notch and Mount Lowell

Summit is in sight, so close yet so far

Signal Ridge and Mount Carrigain's summit

The tower, no more breaking trail!!!!

Signal Ridge, AKA Burnt Hat Ridge

Presi's in vivid white off in the distance

Pemi Wilderness

Hancock Range

Hiking back across Signal Ridge

Back through the mornings tracks

Almost back to the flats of the Signal Ridge Trail

Old section of the Signal Ridge Trail

Sun slowly fading away

The home stretch

Calm Before The Storm . . . Isolation

Date of Hike: 12/11/16

Rocky Branch Trail: 2.9 miles / Engine Hill Bushwhack: 1.6 miles / Isolation Trail: 1.3 miles / Davis Path: 1.6 miles / Isolation Trail: 1.3 miles / Engine Hill Bushwhack: 1.4 miles / Rocky Branch Trail: 2.9 miles
Total Miles: 13.1 (3,500 feet elevation gained) Garmin Forerunner 910XT

Trip Report:
- December is already off to a much better start hiking wise than just a year ago, and with a storm on the way over Sunday night through Monday afternoon conditions will be outstanding for snowshoe hiking throughout the 4,000 footers of the White Mountains. Basically, come Tuesday morning it'll be time for some tough/fun trail breaking, something that was sorely missed last winter.
- Before the storm came in I drove through Pinkham Notch to get a morning hike into the Engine Hill Birch glades. My original plan was to just roam around and explore the glades and turn around, but when I reached the split for the glade whack there was a nice track already laid out so I decided to follow that for awhile.
- Last April I ventured through the glades doing a little exploring and was hoping to go a little higher this time to see if there were more glades. Luckily enough, the tracks I was following went higher than my April route and before long I ran into a nice group of six who were leading the way. After talking to them for a moment the group continued on and I cut through the woods but unfortunately there were no extra glades to be found. When I reached a drainage I descended to a glade I was familiar with and angled my way down to the Isolation Trail. The whack portion of the hike had the best snow conditions of the day and made for a nice snowshoe hike.
- Once back on the trail it is a pretty easy two-and-a-halfish miles to the summit. The trail never gets steep so it's not too much of a grind. However, there still was not enough snow to submerge all parts of the trail and I was punching through some frozen mud and water spots before and after the last water crossing of the Rocky Branch, my trail running snowshoes took a beating until getting above 3,500 feet.
- The last mile is along the Davis Path and there was plenty of snow up there and I was able to get back into a nice grove all the way to the summit where I had some decent views, albeit Washington was socked in. I could definitely tell a storm was slowly making its way over the mountains so after taking a few pictures I scooted my way back down Davis Path and Isolation Trail. I ran into the group again just past the primitive tentsite a few tenths of a mile below Davis Path and briefly chatted with Steve 'Spot' and John "C', nice to see you and your group out there.
- When I jumped on the Engine Hill Bushwhack I veered off my previous tracks at the drainage and stayed on a more familiar line for a couple tenths of a mile with the intention of dropping to a lower glade following it until intersecting the previous track about a quarter mile from the Rocky Branch Trail. However, I misfired and angled just a bit higher and missed the start of those glades (see image below to see what I was aiming for). Once I knew I missed my entry point I angled back uphill and hooked onto the groups tracks a half mile from the Rocky Branch Trail.
- From here I motored back to the trail and descended to the Rocky Branch parking lot making it out around 1:45PM and home by 2PM.
- Now bring on the snow :)

After a steady two mile climb the Rocky Branch Trail pops out along the shoulder of a hill. From here the trail has gentle rolling grades for the next mile to the Engine Hill Bushwhack split

Heading through the whack portion of the hike. After tomorrow's storm the remaining underbrush will be completely buried making this spot even more beautiful

Along the way I went for a little side trip to a glade just out of view and then dropped back down to the groups tracks

Making my way through the glades

Heading up the Isolation Trail (East)

Always love this little spot, it's right before the primitive tentsite, the pine is always blasted with windswept snow

Rolling along the Davis Path

This spot always gets drifted in, luckily it's very short!

Making my way to the summit

Mount Isolation's summit

What a view! Pano of Eisenhower through Bootty Spur

Heading back down the Davis Path

One last little up on the Davis Path before dropping back down Isolation Trail

Unbroken glades. It's a lot of fun to wander through here :)

Making some tracks!

On the way out I spot this unique tree which I had never noticed before.

Bushwhack part of the hike. Top blue route is the hike in, the lower blue route is the hike out, and the yellow is the glades I wanted to hit but I didn't veer to the right when I was supposed to so I just angled my way back to the original route.

Now it's time for some fun! The yellow route is from April, on the way out I stayed to the trail, notice how out of the way it goes...all the way off screen! The purple route is a route Whitney and I followed in 2015, not one of my favorites, went low too fast and missed some kick ass glades. The White and Red are two of my more favorite lines and both hit some nice glades. Blue route was from today, notice it went higher, just where I wanted to go but no extra glades up there.

Map of a route (Jan. 2016) to show perspective on the trail and whack parts

Winter Shows Up Fashionably Late . . . Mount Moriah

Date of Hike: 12/30/15

Mount Carter Drive & abandoned Stony Brook Trail: 1.2 miles / Stony Brook Trail: 2.3 miles / Carter - Moriah Trail: 2. 8 miles / Stony Brook Trail: 2.3 miles / Abondoned Stony Brook Trail & Mount Carter Drive: 1.2 miles
Total Miles: 9.8 miles (3,188 feet elevation gained) Garmin Forerunner 910XT

Trip Report:
- It took awhile but winter conditions finally returned to the White Mountains. Tuesday brought a snow storm totalling six to nine inches in the Pinkham Notch area. Whitney, Kyle, Tony and his dog, Duke, decided to break trail up to my neighbor, Mount Moriah.
- We got an early start around 7AM and were shocked to see another car at the Stony Brook trailhead, we bypassed the start of the trail and hiked up Mount Carter Drive to the old trailhead where we strapped on our snowshoes. The first two miles of the ascent and the last mile and a half were decent snowshoe conditions, while there was a half mile stretch or so of some rocks hiding underneath the snow making for slow going. Hopefully it will snow again soon, about six more inches and the whole trail will be good to go from now until spring.
- After about a combined mile on the road and the old trail we rejoined the most recent reroute (from the late 80's or early 90's). We saw a couple of boot prints on the trail and then soon we passed by a tent just off trail from the hikers who car we spotted at the trailhead, they drove up late last night and hiked about a mile and a half in set up camp.
- From here we broke trail up to the summit, the snow depths were not really deep so it was easy breaking, the only negative were the hidden rocks under the snow which slowed us down the last mile up to the ridge.
- The real fun part of this hike is from the Stony Brook / Carter - Moriah Trail junction. The trail curves its way up to the summit over a few open ledges and a semi open alpine meadow with great views. There was enough snow up on the ridge that almost all the roots and rocks were buried making for a pleasant hike up to the top.
- We didn't stay long at the summit since Kyle, Whitney, and myself had to get back down and go to work. Other than my snowshoes falling apart (new screws popped off of the crampons), the descent was uneventful and fun. We ran into several people, including Hiker Ed, who like us took the "shortcut" from the old trailhead.
- It was a nice early morning hike up Mount Moriah in the snow, another decent snowfall is needed but we'll take what we can get after the lack of snow over the past month.