Mt. Tripyramid (North Peak)

With a free Saturday to myself and no real plan in place, I once again found myself making the drive up to the Kancamagus Highway for a short day hike.  I choose Mt. Tripyramid's North Peak.  The trail was the Pine Bend Brooke trail.  The trailhead was directly off of the road, no pull in parking area, which left me a bit nervous about leaving my car in this position.  I was assured that this is common practice up on the Kancamagus by a hiker I encountered on the way down the mountain. The first two miles of the trail were extremely well blazed in yellow and relatively flat and moderate.

At about 2 miles in, the trail took a turn directly up the stream bed and the slope of the mountain.  I've never encountered this before. Unfortunetly, the pic above dosen't illustrate that very well.  It turned out to be pretty steep the rest of the way up.  Again, much like Chocorua, the upper sections of the trail were very snowy and icy, causing me to go to my crampons for the rest of the trip up the mountain.  I could have used snow shoes in some sections, and I even saw a couple hikers with them on.

Although the Pine Bend Brooke trail is beautiful and challenging, it doesn't offer many views at all.  One doesn't even catch a glimpse of North Tripyramid until you hit the top of the ridge running from Scaur Peak up to the north peak.  I did manage, however, to snap this particularly nice shot of Mt. Washington that closely resembles a painting with the many shades of colors visible in the clouds and haze.  Many 4,000ft's in the White Mountains do not have great views if any at all. Many, like North Tripyramid, are wooded summits.  This makes for some great quiet and serene hiking which I love.  I did see a few folks, but compared to Mt. Chocorua it is much less hiked.


The wooded summit of Mt. Tripyramid's north peak...

  










Trails off of the Kancamagus Highway are going to be somewhat popular, but I do have the feeling that this particular section is not.  It's such a great little section to hike.  For the hardcore day hiker Mt. Tripyramid has two other peaks, South and Middle that can be obtained easily in one day.  I was told that the col between North and Middle peaks was in especially bad condition due to the soft snow and ice.  An interesting fact is that although the South Peak stands at 4,100ft it is not listed on New Hampshire's 4,000 footer list because of the technicality that distinguishes whether a 4,000 footer is a true summit.  That being that it is less than 200ft above the col on the ridge from Middle Tripyramid.  The Middle peak is listed on the 4,000 footer list at 4,140ft.

For some reason I'm obsessed with photographing trail signs....

Again, the beautiful Sandwich Range Wilderness.  It features a handful of rugged steep peaks barely over 4,000ft, great history, accessibility via main routes, and it less hiked than most regions in the White Mountains. It makes for some great hiking for folks who like to be alone.  Like me.

Of course no good day hike is complete without stopping for a few frosty ones right off of rt.16 at the Whittier House in West Ossipee. This place has kick ass food, good beer and a wooden bear.

Mt. Chocorua ("shuh-cor'-wuh")

What happened to the 5,000ft club?, your saying right now.  The answer is, I had the old ball and chain (my lovely fiancee) with me on this one.

I've been up Mt. Chocorua before via the Piper trail, but it is such a great hike, and relatively short and moderate. It's also in the southern White Mountains, in the Sandwich range, making it a bit shorter of a drive to get to from Massachusetts.  Standing at 3,490ft, it's the eastern most peak of the range.  It does feel like a 4,000ft'er though.


It was my girl's birthday weekend and she wanted a special northern getaway type vacation.  She likes to hike a bit too, so she agreed to do an "easy" one.  After, we were to max and relax at an inn and spa in Jackson, NH.

An interesting thing happened when arriving at the trailhead just off the Kancamagus highway.  The trail we wanted to use, the Champney Brooke trail, had been blocked off due to a small bridge being damaged. The stream was just alive enough to make it a tough crossing.  We did end up going over the bridge after all, being the rebels that we are.

Mt. Chocorua is slowly becoming one of my favorite mountains.  It's rich native American history and beautiful location make it a really special mountain.  The view from Chocorua Lake is especially beautiful. 

The trail was very wet and mucky, and once we got up into some elevation we hit some snow and, more notably, some heavy ice.  I brought some crampons and my girl brought some microspikes, but she forgot them in the car. To be honest I really didn't think we'd need them and was surprised by the adverse conditions.  Being the gentlemen that I am, I outfitted her with the crampons and took chances bare-boot. It proved to be a good decision because once up above 3,000ft the ice really became a factor.  Unfortunately I didn't take any pics of the rather rough conditions high up.  Of course, nearing the summit the snow had been melted by the exposed sunlight.


Mt. Chocorua is unmistakable in the skyline.  It's conned summit has a very distinct look.  Driving up rt.16 it is the first major, noticeable peak. It is technically in the town of Tamworth, NH, but the lake is in a cute little village called Chocorua Village.  Surprisingly exposed, the last .5mi or so involves a bit of scrambling, and is certainly a fun little climb.  The summit is a very small area of rock that probably can accommodate 7 people at most.  The views are excellent...completely exposed and panoramic.

The one glaring downside to Chocorua is that it's so darned popular for many of the reasons I've stated above.  Both times I've been to the summit it's been annoyingly crowded.  Overall, the views are some of the best around.

On the descent we decided to take a little side trail called the Champney Falls trail.  It passed by some impressive falls as well as an impressive group with similar tee-shirts out for a day hike of Chocorua with the similar ideas we'd had..."We'll go and climb an easy mountain today. How about Mt. Chocorua."  I learned another valuable lesson. Even in a nice springy early May day, up in the mountains you'll find some adverse conditions and you'd better be prepared for them.  We guessed the large group with sneakers and sandals won't even sniff the summit.


The falls, by the way, we beautiful.

Next post: Mt. Tripyrimad (North Peak)

Mt. Lafayette

I have long planned on 2011 being a big hiking year, enough to match my first year hiking of which I have yet to duplicate...that was 2007.  

It's all about the preparation for the 5th annual "Big Hike."  To train for this 3rd attempt at the Mahousac region in NH and ME I have decided that I will attempt a run at all the 5,000ft'ers in NH in spring and early summer leading up to July 4th weekend.  To start with, I attempted a summit of Mt. Lafayette on an unusually warm day in early February.

Mt. Lafayette and the "Franconias" are just north of Lincoln, NH in Franconia Notch State Park.  It's a three headed beast with Mt. Lafayette standing at 5,260ft.  The other two peaks are Mt. Lincoln at 5,089ft and Little Haystack Mt. at 4,760.  This day I climbed just Mt. Lafayette (I had already been up Lincoln and Lil' Haystack) via the Old Bridle Path, an insanely popular trail that provides the quickest way to the summit. Here's an early pic of things to come on my hike. The Franconias are unmistakable in appearance.

The first half of the hike was easy.  I brought some snowshoes and crampons, but didn't need them as the snow was so packed down it actually made it an easier hike due to not having to negotiate rocks, roots and the such.  It many ways it is a very long hike.  Once you get up to the 4,000ft range, as you can see by the pic above, there is still a very long ways to go over the ridge line.  Tree line is at about 4,700.

Like I said it was an unusual winter day.  It was 45 by 10:00am, hazy, scattered sun and clouds...beautiful.

The trail conditions were really good.  The packed down snow made it really easy.  Although once at high elevation the snow got a bit deeper and harder to negotiate, prompting me to pull out my crampons.

The summit in view just after Greenleaf Hut.

So, I learn stuff every time I go out for a trip.  Once I hit tree line and into some alpine type stuff the wind picked up and it got cold.  Although prepared as far as gear in my pack, I fumbled around putting it on in the wind.  Lesson learned is prepare for the alpine zones and the summit ahead of time.

Dig it...

I got off the summit just as the clouds started to cover that sucker.  I chilled out at Greenleaf hut, had a butt, and headed down.

That was the second time I climbed Mt. Lafayette.

Next post: Mt. Chocorua "shuh-cor'-wuh"