It was a strange arrival because I didn't know anybody except for the champ of course. He gave some directions and I ending up having to trek in a little bit with my gear to get to the site. There I found about 10 folks spread out over 5 camp sites. A central site was determined and that was where everybody hung out.
It was a raucous, New Hampshire crowd and they had all the amenities of camping; large kitchen sets and grills, nice fold up lawn chairs and an array of various flags hung about.
I was recently told by a friend that hanging flags around the campsite is not for patriotism, or an enthusiasm to display regalia, but a way to keep pests away from the campsite, specifically hippies.
We ate meat.
We played a weird game called ladder golf...ever hear of it?
We had a great nights camp, and I even broke out my guitar for awhile. That was an ordeal onto itself and I faced some adversity. All in all Barry and Greg were great to us and we had an incredible meal and a fun night courtesy of them.
The next morning it was down to business.
As it turned out the campsite was about 2 miles down rt. 112 and the Appalachian Trail, the trail that I intend to take on the the Bike Hike #5. It was a no brainer to go climb Mt. Moosilauke and use the Beaver Brooke Trail. With a good nights sleep and an early start, I made good time getting to the trail.
Mt. Moosilauke is the southwestern most 4,000ft'er in the White Mountains. At 4,802 it features an exposed summit with often very windy conditions. The Appalachian Trail runs right over it. The mountain and trails running over and around it are owned and maintained by the Dartmouth Outing Club (the oldest outing club in the United States) and as such the trails are always in great condition. For through-hikers it does have a lodge, The Moosilauke Ravine Lodge. This mountain along with Mt. Chicorua is rich with native american history. The name "Moosilauke" means 'bald' (moosi) 'place' (auke). Being close to and maintained in part by faculties of Dartmouth College, it is a very popular mountain. Although, I really don't mind seeing all the lovely, ivy league girls that frequent the mountain.
As far as hiking the mountain, you really couldn't ask for a better mountain. It really has everything you want; back-country campsites (AT shelter - Beaver Brooke Shelter), regular pay campsites, a lodge, and many trails ranging in various difficulties. I have climbed this mountain twice before and both times taken the Carriage Road trail, which is a very gradual and moderate route up the mountain. Being on the AT, it also has some really tough routes up. When you see a sign like this you know your getting your ass kicked.
And it was extremely tough. Within .5 miles I was climbing up a steep slope right along Beaver Brooke with the cascades getting more intense as I ascended. There were several very steep sections where I had to climb up wooden and steel steps drilled into the a rock face. One section in particular required a climp up (and down latter!) a rock face only with steel ladders about 150ft.
My route was the Beaver Brooke trail to the Asquam Ridge trail to the Benton trail and leading up to the summit.
I always have to get a bit nostalgic about the AT. It is sort of a pipe dream if mine to do a through-hike. I admire the scale of the trail and the efforts that were taken to construct it. I have been on many sections of it in Maine and New Hampshire and it always has some of the best and most challenging trails.
Beaver Brooke was really tough but once up on the ridge line on the Asquam Ridge trail, the going was a bit easier. There were no views to be had due to the weather. But once I got up to the Benton trail .4miles from the summit, I was awarded with some nice alpine scenery.
Since Moosilauke essentially means "bald place", you can imagine that it has some nice alpine sections. The area around the summit is completely exposed above tree line and does have some amazing panoramic views. I only caught some scattered views as the early morning fog was still blowing about the summit.
I have stated that I love trail signs and Mooseilauke has one of the most beautiful summit trail signs.
