Appalachian Trail – David Kotz

Gile Mountain

Back in New England, briefly.

Four weekend hikes in a row – what a treat! This morning I met two friends just before sunrise to climb the tiny-but-beautiful Gile Mountain, here in Norwich. No, that’s not Norwich, England… this pretty little peak is in Norwich, New England. I happen to be back at Dartmouth for a long weekend, and took the opportunity to visit this local favorite: a short hike to an otherwise unremarkable bump in the rolling hills of Vermont, with a firetower that allows one to climb above the trees and enjoy a spectacular 360º view across the Upper Valley, the Connecticut River, and the route of the Appalachian Trail as it passes through Norwich, Hanover, and along the ridges past mounts Moose, Smarts, Cube, Mist, and culminating on the twin peaks of Mount Moosilauke.

Sunrise view from Gile Mountain. Mount Moosilauke is on the horizon at right.

Mount Cube

An early-summer outing to an old reliable.

One of my favorite, go-to hikes is Mount Cube, a pretty little bump along the Appalachian Trail north of my home in Lyme New Hampshire. Not quite 3,000′ in elevation, it nonetheless earns a spot on the “52 with a view” list of high peaks in New Hampshire because it has a delightful view to the west and northwest, from the Connecticut River valley in the foreground to the Green Mountains of Vermont in the background. Read on!

Moosilauke

Revisiting old friends at our beloved lodge.

It’s always a pleasure to return to Mount Moosilauke, and especially to Moosilauke Ravine Lodge. One of my best friends – from our student days in the Dartmouth Outing Club – was visiting from Australia. I joined a group of common friends at the Lodge on Friday evening for dinner and conversation. The evening was cool and the skies were clear as we watched the first stars appear in the late twilight of summer solstice. This morning, we stoked up on a hearty Lodge breakfast before striking out on the Gorge Brook trail for our ascent to the summit. The skies were sunny, with a light breeze and mild temperatures, a perfect day for a hike. Read on!

A stream on Snapper Trail, Mount Moosilauke.

Moosilauke in deep snow

In 42 years on Moosilauke I have *never* seen this much snow.

*my 135cm pole disappears in the powder – in places, it went deeper!*

I have never seen this much snow on Mount Moosilauke, in 42 years of hiking this mountain. Especially not in February. Well, maybe just once – in late March 2017, the first time I had to actually crawl a section of trail because the snow was so deep it nearly reached the branches of trees overhanging the trail. Today, the snow may have been slightly less deep – but with vastly more snow pillowed on the trees, causing them to bend over the trail. Today’s hike involved a lot more crouching and crawling. On the way up, I met hikers who had turned around, claiming the trail ahead was “impassable.” Read on!

Backside of Holts

Snowshoeing in fresh powder.

We’ve had cold weather and several beautiful snowfalls, in the past two weeks, so it was time to get outside. Tim and I headed up the Appalachian Trail, northbound from Goose Pond Road here in Lyme. Our target was a viewpoint on Holts Ledge, just past the top of the hill and just before reaching the top of Dartmouth Skiway.

Hiking the Appalachian Trail to Holts Ledge;
there is a faint sign of prior hikers’ tracks under the newest snowfall.

Mount Moriah

Summer hiking season begins!

Every year I am always a bit disappointed when winter-hiking season comes to an end, wishing I’d managed to find more opportunities to get out. But then, summer hiking season begins and it’s always exciting to see again just how beautiful the White Mountains can be in summer. This weekend – Memorial Day weekend – is sort of the unofficial start of summer for hiking, biking, boating, and more. So I set out to find a peak to climb: something I’d not visited in a long while, and hopefully not attracting hordes of Memorial Day tourists. I settled on Mount Moriah, in the Carter-Moriah range just across the valley from the Presidential Range. The last time I’d been over this peak was (gasp) the fall of 1983, nearly forty-one years earlier. Today, I took a different route and experienced one of the most beautiful trails of the Whites. Read on!

View from the ledges of the Carter-Moriah trail.

Viewpoints on Smarts Mountain

Smarts Mountain – from the north and from the the south.

An obscure entrance to the Appalachian Trail offers quick access to the trail where it crosses Jacobs Brook, and climbs Eastman Ledges on its way up Mount Cube. It’s a short walk, perhaps a quarter mile along the brook and then a half mile up the A.T. to the ledges. I had not been along this section of trail since I backpacked this segment in 2012, and had not driven to this access point since before the turn of the century. I’d been eager to return, so today I visited at the end of fall foliage and the beginning of deer season. I got some great photos of the cascades along Jacobs Brook and had a nice view of Smarts Mountain.

View of Smarts Mountain from Eastman Ledges on Mount Cube.

Then I drove back to Lyme and hopped up to one of its favorite viewpoints to look back at the same mountain. Read on!

Webster & Jackson

Failed parking leads to great experience.

Last weekend I was lucky to snag the last parking spot at the trailhead for the Osceola peaks, even at 7:30am on a Sunday morning. Today I could not find any parking near my desired trail, in the heart of the White Mountains of New Hampshire. I found a parking lot –distant but empty – for a roadside waterfall, and studied the map. I could walk back up the road (emphasis on UP!) or I could bushwhack alongside the waterfall and its brook and join the trail further up slope. It was super steep… but the route would avoid a roadwalk and save time, right? I decided to go for it; wow, was I in for a treat! Sometimes a little bad luck turns into an outstanding opportunity. Read on!

Flume cascades, above Crawford Notch (White Mountains, NH).

Bondcliff backpack

An abbreviated but beautiful overnight hiking trip.

We had planned this outing for months, and I was jealously guarding these dates on my calendar. Alex and Jeff and I were determined to make a four-day, three-night backpacking trip in the White Mountain National Forest (WMNF), here in New Hampshire. The weather had other plans, with heavy rain and strong thunderstorms in the forecast. We squeezed our trip into two days, and it all turned out well; read on!

Alex. David, and Jeff – ready to hit the trail. (Lincoln Woods, WMNF)

Mount Cube

Hot, humid, and muddy.

One of my favorite go-to hikes is to climb Mount Cube via the Rivendell Trail. Today, after three weeks of nearly non-stop rain, a friend and I planned an early start to avoid the forecast of hot/humid temperatures, and likely thunderstorms, later in the morning and afternoon. We arrived at the trailhead at 6:30 and climbed through the morning fog. The trail was extremely wet, requiring us to step over, around, or through many muddy patches, but the going was otherwise easy. We snatched brief views at the two outlooks along the way, but arrived on the summit in the clouds. After about 10 minutes, the clouds (really, fog) rose and allowed us a glimpse of neighboring smarts mountain.

It’s always a good day when one is out in the mountains.

Hike stats:
Distance: 4.1 miles
Time: 2h43
Gain: 1995′