Mt Kearsarge, NH

We looked at the weather last night and decided we wouldnt get better conditions in mid March. The snow was packed down really nicely.  We road walked to the gate and up to the trail junction in microspikes. Temps were mid-upper 40's.  Grayson loved it, met a couple of dogs along the way. Bagged his first official summit and did his first 1000 foot climb. He is most definitely a trail dog and loves being in the woods. He definitely is much less distracted. We ended up doing 3.9 miles on top of the 3.7 Grayson and I did on the Rail Trail last night so he is definitely pooped. We could not have had a better day to start our spring hiking season.

Summit Mt Kearsarge 2,936 ft
Mt Washington in the distance

The White Mtns of New Hampshire and the Appalachian Trail

Mt Kearsarge, NH 

Grayson

Operation Slackattack

Grafton Loop Trail, Maine

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Our plan was to drive up to Grafton Notch and walk to Baldpate LeanTo and hang out for part of the afternoon. As we drove through Franconia Notch, the rain started. It poured until we got to Grafton Notch. It stopped raining and we waited. We finally decided to start walking and ended up doing about 4 miles of night hiking. We set up quickly when we got to the Lean To and camped away from the shelter. We met 4 Thruhikers as they were having breakfast at the Lean To. We headed out and climbed Baldpate and got wonderful views. I had always remembered this climb as being very fun. The summit is where we took our turn onto the Grafton Loop Trail. The trail was overgrown and very remote, or atleast ot felt that way. We saw 3 people total, but not until later in the day. The climbs were long and plenty. This is a fun section of remote trail. Many folks still do not really know much about it. There were lots of little swimming holes and I took advantage of one. The water was very cold but refreshing. We pushed on to Stewarts Campsite which is really just a small cleared out area with a couple of logs. There was no water at this spot so we had to camel up earlier in the afternoon when we knew we would push on.  The night was quiet and we were in bed before dark. We woke to clouds and it started raining as soon as we put our packs on. We would be going over Puzzle Mtn in some nasty weather. We got to the summit and notcied some small ice pellets. It was hard to see any blazes at the top as the trail snakes around on the top in an open rock walk. It would have been beautiful, had it not been raining. We decided to get to the road and hitch back to the car. Wak was not feeling the best due to dehydration. When we got to the lot, we could see Puzzle Mtn starting to become cloud free. We eneded up deciding to save the rest of the GLT for next spring. We have planned on hiking the final section over Sunday River, Stowe and Old Speck in 2013.

Hiking Fever

So we have Spring underway here in New England. There is still plenty of snow and the trails have over 3 feet of snow covering them in The Whites. You also have a hiker itching to get out and hike. We did some snowshoeing this year and loved it. It deifnitely is much different winter hiking than down south.  I have a feeling the snow will stick around here for quite awhile with the continued cold temperatures. Our hiking schedule is dictated by Grayson's level of activity. We have been into Beaver Brooks State Park with him and he really seems to enjoy the woods. He will be starting Puppy Kindergarten in April. I think out first test on the trail will come Memorial Weekend. I am thinking of packing up and doing the Monadnock Sunapee Greenway Trail for our first hike of the season. We will definitely get him out on the Zealand Falls Trail to Ethan Pond as a great starter as well when the snow melts down and the roads re-open. We have lots of lower elevation hikes to get Grayson introduced niely. We are using Musher's Secret paw wax for ice and rocks. Im definitely holding off on any sort of pack for him til he is close to full size. For now, I will be carrying his food and gear. I did get him the Granite Gear Dog Jacket. It is lined with fleece for cold temps. He will definitely grow into it. Going to go somewhere close by this Sunday to get more trail time with the pup. Have a good week. Below are some pictures from some of our hiking adventures this winter.

Mt Tecumseh Trail January 2013

Mt Tecumseh 2013

Near the summit of Tecumseh

19 Mile Brook Trail to Carter Notch Hut

Carter Notch January 2013

Sunset over Carter Notch Temperature was -10

Carter Notch Hut

Walking across a frozen Carter Pond

Working it out

a gift from out pal Johnny Thunder

Fun Times as always!!

Introducing Grayson

We would like to welcome Grayson to our family. He is a Labrador/ Golden Retriever mix puppy. We got him in February 23. He weighed 21 pounds at 14 weeks so he will be a big boy. As of his four month mark, he is close to 30 pounds. His name is from one of our favorite spots in the south on the Appalachian Trail, the Grayson Highlands.  We have taken him hiking a few times at Bear Brook State Park. He climbed Catamount Hill and Cascade Brook twice and is doing well on the trail. There is very little to distract him right now, but Spring will bring all sorts of new things. We are going to take him hiking with us as soon as a good amount of snow melts, which looks to be quite awhile. We are looking at lower elevation trails to start him on such as the Monadnock/ Sunapee Greenway Trail as a potential long weekender later in April or early May. Anyway, here he is.

Winter 13, Carter Hut

Went on our first overnight winter hike on the 19 Mile Brook Trail to Carter Notch Hut. SNowshoeing is great, I love it. It was really really cold on this hike. We slept in the bunkhouse and it was down to -10 degrees. We ended up getting 4-5 inches of snow overnight so snowshoeing was extra fun with fresh trail.
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