Salty's Kearsarge Trip Reports

At my nephew's wedding the previous week, my oldest brother asked “so are you going to actually hike with us this year?” “Yep” says I, feeling a bit bad for all the invites I had gotten. And so a couple days later when Kearsarge on Sunday came up, I said “Yep,” knowing I'd be hiking Saturday too. Just as well that I didn't check the map for the Winslow side, seeing as I hadn't been up that way in some 30 years or so. I knew it was about a mile, I had forgotten it's about 1100 feet of gain. Ouch.

At least the drive was short, and after 9 hours of sleep, I groggily got up at 7, got ready and headed out. I arrived to find most every there or arriving. This might be a new record for me, seeing a couple of my brothers two weeks in a row. The newest addition to the family (my nephew's wife) had her brother and his girlfriend coming up, and we got a phone call that he was stopped at a barricade. We finally realized he was on the other side of the mountain. Oops. We waited with the bugs (thank you 100% DEET) and they arrived soon enough.

We started on up, and I was glad for the leisurely pace. I had forgotten how steep this sucker was, but as we passed under the power lines, I remembered how much steeper that was. A herd path in the tall grass followed that, which made me think I'd like to try that again sometime. As with any of our family outings, there was copious amounts of giving anyone involved lots of crap, to much laughter. I was discovering the niece-in-laws family was not much different from us. Perhaps a great dose of loving to laugh is part of what brought them together.

We moved along, and I was feeling my legs pretty well. Coming to the half way point evoked “crap, that's all we've covered?” but I certainly was enjoying the company. I don't see my family nearly enough, despite most of them are in New Hampshire. So much going on in my life always provides some excuse or another, but I'm trying to do better.



We came to a viewpoint that I remembered nothing of, and my brothers and me played What's That Peak. The oldest failed miserably with ID'ing Ragged to the west. #3 did pretty well, with myself missing a few, but filling in the blanks with a few more obscure peaks like Croydon and Grantham. Views were ok today, a bit hazy given the mid 70's forecast. We took a break, enjoying the warm sun. It's been a crappy spring, so this weather was more than welcome.

We carried on the short distance to the summit and hung out for a good while, getting a bunch of pictures and carrying on with endless jokes. The summit cairn will stand out in my mind for a good long while. Around 10:30 I decided I needed to head down, as we were supposed to go to a baby shower at 2:00, and I needed to get down, home, cleaned up, fed, and head out to Hopkinton. I bade everyone farewell, sad to leave, but I had a nice morning with them regardless.

I headed down the Barlow trail, because the grades would make descent quicker, and the hordes would be on the Winslow Trail, probably making it quicker to get down. This trail didn't exist the last time I was here, and I really liked it, starting with a ledge walk, and indeed providing nice grades. I still met plenty of pleasant folks heading up, and was down in the lot a bit short of an hour later. Besides the hike, another high point of the day was my wife wasn't feeling up to the baby shower, so I spent a pleasant day on the porch. Couldn't ask for a better day!

A sunny forecast, a need for some miles, a desire for something nearby. Kearsarge, why not. So a 10 minute drive to the parking lot and I was hitting the trail at 6:40. A lot of bare woods were showing, but conditions on the trail warranted microspikes from the get-go.

Up the trail, to the road, and then to the much awaited section where the road ends and the trail permanently resumed being a trail. I only remembered bits and pieces of being up here, but one key thing I forgot is this trail alternates between climbs and flat sections, just what I needed today.



And as such, I was able to keep moving at a steady pace, with very few breaks, so it was very pleasant, especially given that I was fairly out of shape. Coming to the clearing was quicker that I remembered, and with my peakfinder.org cheat sheet, it was easy to pick out Smarts Mtn (one of my favs), and of course, Cardigan was readily evident. The view towards the northwest was also nice.



I chugged along, doing more climbing, then the nice slab by Black Mountain. Snow levels were picking up.



I thought the climb to the parking lot was long and steep, but not so, and I came to that. The Lincoln Trail was (wisely) not broken out here, being a scramble, so Rollins up and down it would be. That also went by surprisingly fast, and I found myself alone on the summit. Sweeeet!

A quick break, then the camera and cheat sheet. I love that website, it makes finding the mountains (and ones you didn't realize) so easy, such as Smarts, Cube and Piermont.



And a shameless super zoom of Cardigan couldn't be passed up on.



Thanks to the cheat sheet, I discovered Clough and Jeffers next to Moosilauke.



Super-zoom is awesome. Here's Cannon.



And of course, Washington, with a small looking Monroe below to the left.



Here's a neat little composite. The Twins at left, the white top of Guyot just sticking up at center right, and the Bonds right of that, Scar Ridge (including the south slide) in front of them, and Plymouth Mountain the foreground.



Sunapee was easy to spot, but again with help, I found Stratton next to it.



Okemo (aka Ludlow Mtn) was showing up pretty well, too.



I spent a good long time up top, all by my lonesome, and finally decided it was time to return. Coming down the Rollins, I could hear snowmobiles, and they quickly grew louder. I didn't think they'd be able to make it up given the icy and puddly conditions, but that was no issue. I gave all three a nice smile and a friendly wave. Guess it was their turn to enjoy the summit to themselves. Once back on the Lincoln Trail, the trail was now getting soft in the growing warmth. I'd sink it a bit, and decided to switch to snowshoes. It was an effort and I was now reminded how out of shape I was, and that I still had a long way to go. Urf.

Once on the 2700' slabbing section, I was dieing. Lifting the shoes was like lifting 10 pound weights on the flat section, and I finally had to say screw it, postholes be damned. Those things were going to suck out what little energy I had, and fast. Back to the spikes, it actually wasn't too bad. I think I postholed maybe 5 times in total the whole way back, but I was still running out of steam. Every little uphill was brutal. Get to the clearing (a lovely climb there...), get to the road, get to the trail. Hallelujah, the car.

I checked the time. Holy crap! 5 hours total for 9.6 miles, and that includes a half hour up top. I wasn't expecting that, I didn't feel like I was that fast, but there it was. Hmm, if I hurried, I'd be home by noon. I was home by noon. “I had to turn around,” I said to my wife. “Hmmm? Really?” “Yeah, I had to turn around as soon as ran out of uphill to climb.” Great day, probably the finest day I've had on that mountain, especially given the clear views.

Finally decided this was a good occasion to take the family up Kearsarge. This would be interesting since Neesh has MS, a progressive disease, and this was about her limit last year. My daughter has fibromyalgia, so this would be a test for her too. As it turned out, Neesh was much the same as last year, some wonderful news, and Steph, while being a good deal slower than Neesh and in a lot of pain, conquered this puppy, too. And the kids loved it, and I got to show off a NH gem to visiting Tad, despite the crappy viewing conditions.

To me, this is a shot walk in the woods. To my wife and daughter, it was their version of climbing a 4k. Once again, hiking makes me so, so happy.

I’ve got vacation time to burn before the end of the year, was supposed to be taking the weekend off from hiking, but saw Friday was supposed to be sunny, sooooo, hey, what’s a little hike on Friday. I tried figuring out where to go, but it was quickly obvious what should be done, and she was very agreeable to this. A quick call confirmed they’d be open, so on Friday morning we took the nice (and short!) drive up to the gate, where it’s posted that this Sunday is the last day. Phew – close! The ranger said other than a couple of walkers on the road, the mountain was pretty much ours. Really? Can it be? You have read the title, right?

The drive up to the parking lot was as lovely as ever, with some great foliage. The forecast for the day had now turned to mostly cloudy, and I had thought there was some haze in the air, but driving past the viewpoints put that to bed quickly. The views were quite good.

We arrived at the lot where there were about 4 cars or so. OK, not exactly all ours, but a far cry from crowded. I threw on my pack, easily winning the largest pack of the day award (why bother unpacking anything?), microspikes jangling happily away on the back, being too lazy to even remove them. We set off, Neesh urging me to take the lead. Our pace wasn’t too bad, she was having no problems with the gain, just the jumble of rocks everywhere. We arrived at the viewpoint, I showed her the summit tower, and pointed down to the lot. “Wow, I walked all that way?” Soon, she was asking how far the summit was, which I could point to her, as her right leg was starting to make its dissatisfaction known. Trooper that she was she pushed on, stopping not once on the trip up.

The sounds of loud screaming kids were gaining in volume and annoyance to both of us. Oh yeah, I had forgotten there another side to this mountain, duh. Then they were everywhere, like return of the black flies. Ugh. Susan on hike-nh had said this is a good birth control mountain. I agree. We came to the final stretch, I could feel my danged eyes welling up again. Nuh-uh, not in public. I darted ahead to get a picture of her coming up the final bit, and gave her a big grin and a hug. “You summitted!” It had only taken about 35 minutes or so to come the half mile, what I considered to be a stellar pace considering.

We sat facing northward taking in the view. I pointed out mountains, including “our” mountain, Garfield, once I was sure that’s what it was. Visibility was quite good, with the Cannon cliffs clearly visible. It looked like the warm weather had taken care of a fair amount of snow on the high peaks. I couldn’t resist telling Neesh she just completed her first 52 With a View. “Uhhhhh, sure.” I then played the Climbed It Game. Point to nearly every major peak and just go “climbed it climbed it climbed it climbed it climbed it.” Another classic eye-rolling moment.

We sat for about 15 minutes and she was anxious to try out going downhill, which went uneventfully and quickly. For her. Clumsy ole me kept losing my balance. “Pick your rocks, Mike! (snicker snicker)” was a common refrain. Yes, she would fit right in with the rest of my hiking crowd. That’s all I need. Next thing you know she’ll want an account.

At the parking lot, she exclaimed “that was wimpy! I want to walk more!” “Stop bringing me up wimpy mountains!” OK, fine, I’m bringing her up Scar Ridge next week.

It’s not a trip report, it’s a story! Well, errr, a novel. It's hard to talk about the mechanics of a hike without the emotions that surround it, so here we go again.

_x000D_ _x000D_ My plan was for the viewless Scaur Peak given the weekend forecast, but as most of you know, Saturday was pretty nice. Unfortunately, I wasn’t, I was wiped. Sunday came with high clouds, and I felt like staying close to home. I've been wanting to get back to Kearsarge (the southern one) for some time, but had wanted to take the long way (around 4.4 miles to the summit) to really work for the great views. Well, the clouds came in before I knew it, and the views weren't going to be good, but still, I figured it'd be a fun day to get out and enjoy some quiet. We've moved my step-daughter's family in to our house, and this includes 5 and 7 year old girls. Yes, yes. Quiet is somehow more precious. Sadly, my wife wouldn't be so lucky (she can no longer hike). Must do husbandly duty to make up for it

_x000D_ _x000D_ I dug out my Sunapee-Ragged-Kearsarge Greenway map, and hurried off to the website to get the guide part, as I couldn't remember exactly where the trailhead was. Oops - that's no longer on there. Fortunately, they sell it at a bookstore in town that was open, and I was happy to provide some support to a small organization creating trails in lesser known areas. The guide was a nice addition, and I suspect I'll explore some more sections of this Greenway (disclaimer: no affiliation).

_x000D_ _x000D_ The trailhead is on Kearsarge Valley Rd. in Sutton, and I decided that instead of going up 89 to the next exit, I'd take North Rd instead. It turns to dirt pretty quick for a long while until Kearsarge High, but boy, what a pretty drive. A nice wide and shallow stream parallels the road for quite some ways. (to get to North Rd., take a left off of Exit 9 in Warner towards town, and it's the road on the left just after the Park n' Ride, next to the police station).

_x000D_ _x000D_ I found the trailhead as described easily enough, with no cars in the lot. In fact, short of someone coming to pick up anyone, I'm all but sure I was the only person all day on the first 4 miles of the trail. You would think it’s pretty popular, as it was immediately evident how well cared for this trail is. The pathway was very obvious and the first half-mile went quickly, coming out onto a logging road that leads down to the high school in the other direction. There were three major stream crossings on this road. One was a walk along a sliver of dirt that remained, the other was a moderate hop to the top of the drainage pipe, and the third one was bridged by two large, slick logs. Best crossed by going down the bank and around. The trail diverges from the road in about 1.5 miles, and it's clearly signed (thanks!). Beyond that, it returns to a very good trail, and it seemed apparent to me it was well thought out as far as the placement also.

_x000D_ _x000D_ On top of the first knob, there's a couple trails that go off from there. The guide says one goes to a former viewpoint (figured that was grown in), but they didn't say anything more than the trail name about the other one, which is a trail to a ledge. Ooo! Ledge! Views! Dump the pack, grab the camera, and run immediately into a huge pool. Some tricky grass mat hopping did the trick, and it was becoming clear this trail is not maintained. Not to be stopped, in maybe 0.2 miles I came to a field, where I could see the terrain dropped beyond, so I went through it, and it quickly became evident that there was a view at some point (young trees), but no more. Ah well, worth the try. I headed back, and suddenly realized I had done something very, very stupid. When I came out into the field, I didn't take notice where I'd entered. Uh oh. No pack, no compass, no GPS, no sun. There's a sharp easterly turn at this knob, so going too far north would not be good. A measure of panic actually set in as I headed off in the direction I thought I'd come from and found a downhill. No, it was flat where I came from. I kept following game trails, hoping to find where I'd plowed through and still couldn't find it. Stop. Calm down. Rule 1: Don't Panic. Yet the panic center of my brain kept screaming to be heard. Not seeing where I'd entered was dumb, not thinking things through was dumber. I suspect the total lack of anyone for 2 miles had an effect, not really a lot but it still feels isolated. A good look at the map and a moss check would've settled things. Stay on the ridge and go east. Alas, never entered my mind - another dumb mistake. It was only about 3 minutes before I found the trail, but too much went through my head in that time. I still don't get it. I've always been pretty comfortable in the woods, even before I got older and started piling on all the emergency supplies I now pile in my pack (clothing, food, cell phone, GPS, etc. etc.). I'm not reckless. Where the heck did this all come from? Am I experiencing Mid-Life Weirdness? All I can say is a large part of life to me is to take experiences and learn from them. This one definitely will fall into that category. Move on and get back to the fun bits.

_x000D_ _x000D_ After the knob, I got my first views of Kearsarge, Black Mountain, and a nice opening to the north. Oh yeah, the views stink. Heavy, heavy haze, and the clouds were obscuring the towers up top. But I was really enjoying the trip (sans the lost field), despite my love of views. Up around the second knob, I hit paydirt that I can't seem to find around home yet. Wild blueberries. Oh yummy yum yum of yumminess . After that, it's pretty much short steep sections followed by flat sections, very easy on my legs. It was nice not to have to stop and catch my breath as much as I’m used to. Before long, I could hear voices from the parking lot, which is skirted by the Lincoln Trail. I decided to go up Lincoln (steep) and go down the Rollins Trail (easy on the knees). There's some fun rock scrambling on the Lincoln trail, and shortly I summited, 2.5 hours after I left, surprisingly quick for me given the 2000 foot elevation gain. The haze was awful and the clouds were just above me. I couldn't see even see the Mink Hills behind my house, only some 10 miles away. The best views were towards Andover, but I’m not even sure Danbury was visible. Chatted with the Fire Warden in the tower for a short bit, and decided to leave quickly before any storms decided to materialize. The Rollins Trail was pretty wet in sections, but skirtable. I had to look around in the parking lot for the Lincoln trail and finally spotted it in the southwest corner.

_x000D_ _x000D_ Of course, the sun came out on the way down, and stayed out until I was nearly out. When I got to the second knoll, it was clear that the views had improved a fair bit also. I can now see myself taking the ½ trail up the first real clear day we get to get me danged views.

_x000D_ _x000D_ I was down in maybe 2 hours, which included a lunch break. I took I-89 home instead of North Rd., getting there in about 10 minutes. I had just barely sat and cracked open an extremely tasty beer when I started hearing thunder towards Kearsarge, which grew into a good size storm to the north. Phew!

Not sure which day. Lots of rime.

Notable because of mud first 1/2 mile and sheer ice 1/2 - 3/4. Spring is here!