mt mexico

Today's hike: 5.6 mi | 3 h | 1.9 mph

Maggie's boy and I took the Big Rock Cave trail over Mt Mexico, to the Whitin Brook trail, and then returned on the Cabin trail, to make a big, triangular loop. The elevation gain is about 1500 ft.

Last year, we walked up to Mt Mexico with the intent of checking out Big Rock Cave. We got swarmed with mosquitoes along the trail. It was so bad that we turned around. In contrast, there were almost no bugs out today, although the trail was quite wet in many spots.

The hike up to Mt Mexico is a perfectly ordinary one with no interesting views. We did hear a very large racket from a bunch of peepers off in the distance, but didn't see them.

This hike is rewarding once you get beyond the "peak" of Mt Mexico, and reach the Big Rock Cave. This is a fun jumble of huge rocks that form a little cave. Looks like you could do some rock climbing here.

Big Rock Cave

Side of Big Rock Cave

A big rock

At Big Rock Cave, the trail turns sharply left and downhill. At this point, we could hear the roar of rushing water. We soon came to a wide, rushing stream crossing. Maggie's boy bounded across over some large rocks. I walked far uphill and took the less dignified way, skootching my way across on a huge downed tree.

Whitin Brook is difficult to cross right now

Good signage after crossing Whitin Brook

The joke was on me; we soon came to another stream crossing. In all, there were four crossings of the Whitin Brook, back and forth over it. The trail makers really wanted you to get a good look at this feature. On the third crossing, I gave up, removed my boots, and walked across barefoot. The water is cold, but refreshing.

Even after the last crossing of the brook, we encountered a lot of water along the trail. We passed a large vernal pool, but didn't see any frogs there.

Mt Paugus in the distance

The Whitin Brook trail becomes pretty steep as you approach the Cabin trail. This steep part of the trail takes you through an area where many trees have been downed, as if a giant overturned a box of toothpicks (the remnants of Hurricane Sandy, apparently). You get a few obscured views of Mt Paugus as you head up the hill. Interesting slab, but looks like lots of sandy, rotten rock too. That could be a fun hike, too.

Finally, we reached the Cabin trail. From there on, it was mostly a downhill hike over dry leaves.

It was a beautiful day for a hike! We had cool temperatures, and blue skies interspersed with soft milky clouds.

spring snow on the boulder loop trail

Today's hike: 2.8 mi | 1.3 h | 2.1 mph

I took the loop clockwise today. It was surprisingly busy. I passed a couple of people and got passed by someone doing a very good pace with a dog.

Trail conditions are still a bit rough. Down low, I could easily avoid any snow or ice. This is a view as I headed up the trail, approaching the first significant snow.

trail on the way to the overlook

As I neared the first outlook, I saw someone ahead of me who appeared to be having trouble on the icy trail. At this point, I stopped to put on my microspikes.

Soon after passing the view, trail conditions improved so much that I had to remove the microspikes. Then they got worse again heading under the trees, and I put them back on. That happened a few times. I didn't want to damage the points on my spikes, so I removed them when the trail cleared up much.

view at the top with the overhanging cliff at right

Hard to say how soon the snow will be gone. There's some mud, too, but it's minor. It's not looking like we'll have much of a mud season, currently.

a fall leaf embedded in the spring snow

Mt Chocorua

Today's hike: 7.6 mi | 4.2 h | 1.8 mph

I hiked up the Champney Falls Trail off the Kanc to the top of Mt. Chocorua today, accompanied by a friend. This was my first hike in the Whites over a completely snow-covered trail, and it was probably as mild as it could be. The temperature at the parking lot was about 35 °F.

approach to summit of Mt Chocorua

The trail was completely covered in packed snow, so the going was very easy. I wore microspikes, which provided plenty of traction. I think it could probably be done bare-booted, but it would also probably be annoying and slow going.

Trail conditions are very good right now. There are just a few tricky bits. As you get into the switchbacks near the top, there are some short sections that are covered in thick ice. Also, once in a while I'd see a footstep where the snow had been completely scraped away to reveal a thick layer of glassy ice. None of this is a problem when using microspikes. With the forecast calling for rain this week, though, it wouldn't surprise me if the trail becomes much more slippery and difficult very soon.

The only slightly scary part occurs when you get to the top. Chocorua is very exposed, and I find it nerve-racking when the trail at the top goes clambering up and over some blocky rocks. It is definitely worth the effort, though!

view from top of Mt Chocorua to Carter Ledge

We got lucky today. It can be extremely windy at the top of Chocorua, which would make for a brutal windchill in the winter. However, there were just a few mild gusts at the top.

I just bought a brand new winter jacket at EMS, yesterday (yay, sale days!). I wore it on this trip. I only wore a long-sleeved shirt underneath, but even so, it turned out that I was overdressed. I hiked with my jacket unzipped for most of the trip, and even then I really felt too warm.

USGS survey marker at the top of Mt Chocorua

I ran into a bit of a problem about halfway up the trail. I started to feel some rubbing at the back of my left ankle, and I could tell that I was developing a blister. This happens to me a lot, far too often! Usually, I bring blister packs on my hikes, but I had forgotten to do so this time. I didn't want to turn around... I searched through my pack. I didn't have much extra stuff - a whistle, compass, emergency poncho in a mini-bag, etc. This was all packed into a plastic shopping bag from the grocery store. I thought about using the mini-bag that held the poncho as a makeshift bandage across my ankle, but was worried that it would shift around too much once I started moving again. My friend said "why not try the plastic bag?" Hm! I pulled off my boot and sock, and wrapped the bag around my foot and ankle, so the bag covered my foot starting from the arch and going all the way up my ankle. My friend helped me put the sock back on over the bag, which squeezed the bag in place. Then the boot went back on. It seems crazy, but this worked! I noticed that the bag stuck to my skin due to a bit of moisture, and it stopped the skin on my ankle from being rubbed directly. This might get too sweaty in the summer, but it was perfect for winter conditions.

This was my second hike to the top of Mt. Chocorua. I took the Liberty Trail last time. That approach to Chocorua seems steeper and more difficult than today's. The Champney Falls Trail has a mere 2,250 feet in elevation gain, as compared with the Liberty Trail's 2,700 foot gain.

Mt Monroe

Today's hike: 6 mi | 5 h |  1.2 mph

Today, I hiked up to Mt. Monroe, my 22nd 4000-footer.

someone left a pair of boots at the side of the trail!

The mountains in the Presidential Range are some of the taller 4000-footers, and I've been expecting the hikes to these peaks to be more difficult than my previous 4000-footers. However, this did not turn out to be the case. It's not an easy hike, but nothing to be intimidated by.

I took the Ammonoosuc Ravine Trail. Mt. Monroe is 5,372 ft high. The elevation gain for this hike is about 2,800 ft. The only real difficulty that I encountered was that the trail has some steep, slabby sections, and they were often wet. This was true despite the fact that it hasn't rained in several days. The wet areas were made extra slippery by a thin layer of dirt and sand, and I did slip a couple of times. I used my hands to help secure my position, here and there, along the way. I would not want to be on this trail soon after a rain, or while it was raining. The White Mountain Guide book recommends this as the best trail for getting to the AMC hut up near Mt Washington in bad weather, because it is in the woods most of the way. No thanks!

cascades at about 2.3 miles into the Ammonoosuc Trail

It was a warm fall day. It's early yet, and the trail only had a light sprinkling of autumn leaves. It being Sunday, the trail was fairly busy. I lost count of the number of hikers that I passed or who passed me; perhaps there were about 20 groups in total. This was far too much traffic for my liking, but other than that, it was a nearly ideal day for the hike.

After about 3 miles of hiking, you break through the trees, and the ascent becomes much less steep, hence easier. However, I still had to be careful ascending some wet slabby areas.

Ammonoosuc Ravine Trail on the approach to Lake of the Clouds AMC hut

It was not long before I got a glimpse of the "Lake of the Clouds" AMC hut. I'd read reports that it was not open after September 16. It was, indeed, boarded up.

At this point, my goal was clearly in sight - Mt. Monroe was a short, easy hike from the hut. Up until now, the day had been quiet and cool. As I ascended Mt. Monroe, the wind picked up, and I had to hang onto my hat for fear of losing it. Next time, I should remember to bring a keeper of some sort for the hat!

closing in on Mt. Monroe

Mt. Washington is in plain view once you get to the "Lake of the Clouds." Looking at it from Mt. Monroe, I was sorely tempted to head up there, and bag another 4000-footer. However, I decided against it. It will probably be more fun (i.e. less crowded) to hike there on a weekday, and I'm not in a rush.

Mt. Washington and the Lake of the Clouds as seen from Mt. Monroe

Mt Whiteface

Today's hike: 8.4 mi | 5.5 h | 1.5 mph

Today I hiked Mt Whiteface, my 21st 4000-footer! I went up via the Blueberry Ledge Trail, and returned the same way. According to the AMC White Mountain Guide, the Ferncroft parking lot where the hike starts is at 1,140 ft above sea level. Mt Whiteface is 4,019 ft tall, so the elevation change was 2979 ft. It didn't seem so steep, though.

It's a straightforward hike, but it is misleading to start. The trail is pretty flat for about the first mile, then trends up and eventually takes you over numerous stairs constructed from stone. Just when you are wondering whether you are really in the White Mountains, because this seems far too easy, you come to a sloping ledge with a steep drop-off. After circumventing that, the trail goes up several slabs and ledges that call for some rock-climbing moves (I needed my hands to get up the trail several times). It's fun, but I wouldn't want to do it in the rain.

This is a view of one of the steeper slabs, higher up on Whiteface. If you zoom in, you'll see pairs of holes running up diagonally to the right. Perhaps there was once a wooden ladder here. I went up this area at the far left. It's a slippery slope down at the bottom; I used the dead tree stump to pull myself up.

steep slab on Mt Whiteface

peaked mountain

Today's hike: 4.0 mi | 2 h | 2 mph

It snowed on and off during this hike. The trail had a light coating of 1-2 inches of snow. I climbed up the Middle Mountain Trail to about 1/2 mile below Middle Mountain, then took the Peaked Mountain Connector Trail to the top of Peaked Mountain. I descended via the Peaked Mountain Trail, which makes a nice loop.

The footing was not bad. Microspikes were sufficient. Snowshoes would have been overkill.

There was no sign that anyone had been out this morning. On the way back, I saw cross country ski tracks heading towards the Pudding Pond Trail. I also saw fresh turkey tracks crossing the Middle Mountain Trail and the Peaked Mountain Trail. I think it must have been the same flock of about 6 or 7 turkeys.

View from the top of Peaked Mountain this morning

boulder loop trail

Today's hike: 2.8 mi | 1.5 h | 1.9 mph

Went clockwise around the Boulder Loop Trail. This area is very nice, going through a few areas that are quiet and filled with big pines. It was kind of busy due to it being Saturday.

View of the Swift River and ledges beyond from the Covered Bridge at the parking area

a hike to the summit of White Ledge

Today's hike: 2 h | 3.4 mi | 1.7 mph with an elevation gain of about 1400 feet.

I hiked to the summit of White Ledge in Albany, NH, starting from the White Ledge campground. The gate is closed, but parking is possible just off the road. The trail is still completely covered in snow, and it's pretty deep, at least a foot in most places.

I used my Kahtoola microspikes the entire way. Some form of traction is really necessary, imho. The snow has a pretty good crust on top, so post-holing is rare. You are more likely to slip on the icy crust, instead. I'm guessing, but I think the trail is pretty solid because of previous hikers who have been along here and compressed the snow in the weeks past. I saw just one set of tracks on the trail, and met someone coming down off the mountain about halfway up. I suspect the trail is pretty well used in the winter, though.

Near the summit, the snow got a lot softer and I wound up post-holing more frequently. I would have been glad to have snowshoes, but the idea of bringing them all that way just to use them near the top seems silly.

The weather was pretty good on the way up, with some blue skies, and the sun peaking through clouds. The clouds thickened up as I reached the summit, and a few flakes of snow came floating down, resulting in a rather gloomy descent.

Here's a note for naturalists: I saw lots of snow fleas along the trail. It did warm up into the 40s this week, and today it was in the mid-30s. The snow fleas seemed to want to congregate in the boot holes left by the person in front of me... Interesting, I have no idea why.

Coming down off the summit of White Ledge

Mt Stanton

Today, I hiked up the Mount Stanton Trail, to the summit of Mt Stanton. The round trip distance was 3 miles, with an elevation gain of 1000 feet. It took a total of 2 hours, averaging 1.5 mph. This was very good, considering the trail conditions were pretty icy. I wore Kahtoola MICROspikes. I wouldn't have wanted to hike this trail without them, especially the steep bits.

It was below 20ºF, but it wasn't windy at all. Once I got started, I warmed up pretty quickly.

view of Attatash on the way to the summit of Mt Stanton

The trail conditions are packed ice and snow. I doubt you'll have fun if you don't bring some form of traction. Snowshoes are not a good choice here. A woman was coming down carrying snowshoes. She had removed them, and was using Yaktrax. She said she'd more or less slid down the steep parts of the trail above, but she hadn't wanted to use the snowshoes on the way down. Yaktrax are not really meant for steep terrain like this, though.

Despite the chill, and the clouds, it was a fun hike! The sun did peak through the clouds once in a while. I haven't done much winter hiking, but so far it seems straightforward.

snowshoeing up Middle Mountain Trail

Last night, it got unseasonably warm. Snow turned to rain. And then the skies cleared, and we got a beautiful, pleasant day for a change.

I went hiking up Middle Mountain Trail, where I've been snowshoeing before. The trail is pretty beaten down, and the rain has made the snow soft and a bit slushy. I started out without traction, then put on snowshoes as the trail steepened. This kind of snow might be best traversed with snowshoes rather than microspikes. With the latter, you may still be sliding on slippery snow.

view on the way up Middle Mountain Trail

The only difficulty I encountered was a significant ice bulge that covered the trail, about a mile in:

ice bulge covers the trail

Everyone seems to go right. You can grab the trees. I also grabbed an ice pocket down at the bottom. This is a steep section, so you don't want to lose your footing here. This was the only difficult part to the trail.

I hiked up to the intersection where you meet the Peaked Mountain Trail, then turned around. It's a half mile to Peaked Mountain from here, and 0.8 miles to Middle Mountain. Some other day...

Peaked Mountain - Middle Mountain Trail Connector

It doesn't get much better than this! Hiking back down was a lot easier than hiking up. 

View on the way down Middle Mountain Trail

The hike was a total of 2.4 miles. It took about an hour and 25 minutes, for a pace of about 1.7 mph.

Black Cap Mountain

Today, I hiked the Black Cap Mountain trail in the Green Hills Preserve. The last few days have been rainy. This fairly short hike seemed a safe bet.

The trailhead is located on the south side of Hurricane Mountain Rd, in Conway, NH. Hurricane Mountain Rd is reportedly not maintained in the winter. It's gated at some point in November, but I couldn't figure out when. It looks like you have to check with the forest service to find out if it's open, so do that if there's any doubt in your mind.

The hike is about 1.1 miles from the trailhead to the top of the mountain, with 650 ft of elevation change. There's a map of the trail, but you really don't need it. It's very well marked.

Conditions were good, although the trail was wetter than I expected. Mud and standing water could be found in places, but nothing that a good pair of hiking boots couldn't withstand.

Parts of the trail are slabby... and it probably would be less fun, and more slippery, in the rain.

slab along the trail

It took me about 30 minutes to reach the top. You can see Mt. Washington far off in the distance from here. There's snow up there right now.

View from the top of Black Cap Mountain. Mt Washington, in the distance, is covered in snow.

There's a memorial stone at the top. It reads "The Green Hills - Preserved by the Nature Conservancy  - through the generosity of - Anna B. Stearns - as a memorial to her mother and father - 1990". Thanks Anna!

The Green Hills with thanks to Anna B. Stearns

You can also see Whitehorse Ledge and Cathedral from the summit of Black Cap.

Whitehorse Ledge and Cathedral in the distance as viewed from Black Cap Mountain

I met a couple from Ontario at the top and chatted a short while. The hike down was nearly as easy as the hike up, with the whole trip taking about 1 hour. Nice day!

Mt Chocorua

Yesterday's hike: 5 h 30 min | 7.4 mi | 1.4 mph.

Mt Chocorua, at 3,490 feet, is not quite a 4000-footer. But in hiking up it, you experience an elevation change of about 2500 feet, similar to many of the 4000-footers. For example, the hike up Mt Osceola is only about 2000 feet.

Jim Liberty cabin is wrapped in chains to prevent the roof from flying off

Yesterday I did this hike via the Liberty Trail. I got nearly perfect weather for hiking: almost no wind, and crisp fall temperatures (35-40 F or so, I think).

The first 2 miles of the trail were not exciting. It was very muddy in spots, and completely covered in deep piles of leaves. But the top made up for it!

View from ledges just below the summit of Mt Chocrua

As you near the top, you get several breath-taking views, and pass over huge slabs of rock. Some of the trail is so slabby that it feels like you're rock-climbing. I'm glad I was only carrying a small pack. With a larger one, I probably would have been more nervous about some of the rock scrambling required to follow the trail.

Looks like an opportunity for some slabby rock climbing!

The trail doesn't actually go over the peak of Chocorua. It looks like you're supposed to just make your own trail up the last 50 feet. It's very exposed, so take each step carefully!

USGS marker at the summit

another look at the cross of questioning

Someone recently asked about the "cross of questioning" over at Crow Hill Ledges.

I passed by there recently. It is very faded in comparison to my last photo. I don't know what to make of that. I wonder why it was so clearly marked when I saw it. I don't think I'd notice it these days. Here's the way it looks now:

cross of questioning in 2015

taping stamps to an envelope

Several times a year, there's a charity that sends me a self-addressed stamped envelope - I guess they think that they can prompt me to send them money because of the free postage? I do sometimes give them money (not because of that!), but generally I do not. It may be silly, but I hate the idea of throwing away those unused stamps. So I cut the stamps off the envelope using a pair of scissors, and keep the stamps for reuse later on. I don't send out a lot of mail, so I don't see why I should bother with buying stamps when I can usually get away with reusing these free ones.

When I have a letter to send, I take a couple of strips of clear tape, and attach the stamps at the bottom and the top to my new envelope. I am careful to leave most of the stamp uncovered by tape, so that it's easy for the postal service to postmark the stamps (thereby invalidating them).

I've been doing this for many, many years without any problem. I've never had an envelope returned when doing this - until today!

Above you can see the envelope that was returned to me (FYI - before taking this photo, I had started peeling off the tape from the stamps, but then stopped because I thought this would make an interesting blog post. There was tape over the top of the stamps, and the stamps had not been abraded, when I originally mailed the letter). It is marked "RETURN FOR POSTAGE" and "Re-used Stamps". I figured someone at the post office was unfamiliar with the idea that it's okay to reuse a stamp as long as it has not been postmarked. So I went to the post office to clear things up. I thought that perhaps I had overdone it with the tape this time (a bit too much tape covering the stamps), and I was hoping someone would just cancel the postage for me at the counter.

Well, I was told that taping over stamps is "destroying government property," and it is absolutely not allowed. I explained that the stamps were not "reused" - they had not been used to send anything through the mail and were free of postmarks. Nope! Not allowed!

Yet for many, many years I've been getting away with this. I asked if it would be okay to glue the stamps on. They would neither confirm nor deny whether this was permitted; but at least they didn't say that this was "destroying government property."

I've been searching the internet to determine where the ruling is that you cannot tape stamps to an envelope. Rumors abound, but I have found no definitive answer. I still suspect that the real problem, in this case, was that the stamps were covered with too much tape. If I'd been more careful and exposed more of the stamp surface, this problem would never have occurred. The USPS apparently uses machines which scan the surface of the stamp to check whether it has been cancelled: http://pe.usps.com/text/csr/PS-281.htm:

Most stamps are coated with a substance that may be detected by cancellation machines which verify that postage is affixed. These machines reject letters on which a stamp cannot be detected.

So yeah, I suspect that you can just get away with taping over stamps, provided you leave most of the stamp surface uncovered. But from now on, I'll use glue.

waumbek

Yesterday's hike: 4 h 5 min | 7.2 mi | 1.7 mph.

I hiked my twentieth 4000-footer, Mt Waumbek!

There's not much exciting about this hike, except for the fact that it's got to be the easiest trail I've taken to a 4000-footer so far. No struggle to get yourself over giant boulders at the top, and as you near the peak it doesn't get significantly steeper. Probably a good thing, since I'm severely out of training.

It does have some fun features. Near the start, you pass what appears to be an old well:

On the way to the summit of Mt Waumbek, you cross Mt Starr King. Right near the summit cairn for the latter is a USGS survey marker:

There's a cool fireplace along the trail, also near the summit of Mt Starr King:

You also get the best views here:

The summit of Mt Waumbek is, well, a bit understated, shall we say?

Tank 254

Total miles: 86136. Trip miles: 207.4. Gallons: 5.070. Price per gallon: $3.819. Screen mileage: 46.3. Tank mileage: 40.9 mpg.

Tank 253

Total miles: 85929. Trip miles: 422.8. Gallons: 7.518. Price per gallon: $4.039. Screen mileage: 47.4. Tank mileage: 56.2 mpg. The pump was faulty and I'm pretty sure the tank didn't fill up, which is why the tank mileage is incorrectly high.

Tank 252

Total miles: 85506. Trip miles: 362.4. Gallons: 8.044. Price per gallon: $3.799. Screen mileage: 48.9. Tank mileage: 45.1 mpg.

Tank 251

Total miles: 85144. Trip miles: 416.4. Gallons: 9.003. Price per gallon: $3.499. Screen mileage: 53.3. Tank mileage: 46.2 mpg.

Tank 250

Total miles: 84727. Trip miles: 452.5. Gallons: 8.305. Price per gallon: $3.479. Screen mileage: 52.1. Tank mileage: 54.5 mpg.