*** This trip is now full ***
Explore Franconia Notch
4 Days/3 nights of day hiking the summits and exploring in and around Franconia Notch, one of the premier destination areas of the White Mountains. We will spend one night in the AMC Lonesome Lake Hut after hiking North and South Kinsman Mountain, then two nights in a very nice hostel. This trip is for advanced hikers. The itinerary also includes the classic Franconia Ridge Loop.
MountainSister3, Nimblefoot and I bushwhacked Olderbark Mountain and Plateau from the southern end of the Mink Hollow Trail. When we arrived at the trailhead parking there were a couple of other vehicles present, perhaps belonging to hunters.
We followed the trail for just a short distance from the parking area. A little past the “dollhouse” (the guest house on the private parcel on Mink Hollow) and before the significant creek crossing we turned left off of the trail. We had discussed heading for the col between Olderbark and the first sub-summit on the ridge south of Plateau, but elected a bearing more or less directly towards the Olderbark summit, perhaps missing a little to the north. Continue reading
We led a small group to the Hunter Mountain fire tower on the last day of calendar winter. For M, this counted towards his winter 3500 list. It was a beautiful day for a hike, sunny at times, cloudy at others, but always clear enough for great views from the rime encrusted tower.
We hiked Rocky via the slightly less traditional route of an out and back from Moon Haw Road. Passing over Balsam Cap in both directions was a nice addition, but Rocky was the prime objective for this hike because it was G’s 35th for her winter round. Continue reading
Our group of 6 bushwhacked North Dome and Sherrill mountains on a late winter day that featured a mix of sunshine and occasional flurries. The deep snow allowed for plenty of horseplay glissading down the snowshoe track that we repacked.
We hiked Windham High Peak on a sub-zero day. Fortunately it was very sunny with a nice snowshoe track and beautiful views. For D, it was his first winter high peak. Continue reading
A day after leading a hike for the Catskill 3500 club, we relaxed by hiking Leavitt (aka Southwest Hunter) and Hunter Mountain. Finding the can on Leavitt was a piece of cake with a nice track already worn along the main herd path on an old rail bed. It wasn’t really fair to call it a bush whack on this day.
Connie and Ed co-led a bushwhack of Fir and Big Indian mountains for the Catskill 3500 Club as part of their annual winter weekend. We had a large group of 12. A few inches of snow the day before made for great snowshoeing and picture postcard scenes despite the cloudy skies.
Three of us hiked Friday and Balsam Cap on a snowy winter day. Not every day can be a bluebird day, but there is something special about a bushwhack in softly falling snow.
I led our small group on a hike of Gray, Skylight and Marcy starting and ending at the Adirondack Loj. We did a loop of sorts via Lake Arnold / Feldspar up to Four Corners over Marcy and back to the Loj via Van Hoevenberg.
The weather was fantastic, although the trails were icy in spots above about 4000 feet. Continue reading
