White Mountains of NH

“Did what has become an annual anniversary hike with my wife.

Left the kids with Granpy and Grammy. Drove straight up to Twin Mountain NH. Stayed in a fun little B & B. Run by a kooky Swiss/German couple.

Had a nice dinner at a swiss restuarant (we both got veal dishes). Went back to the B & B and sat in the hot tub. Got up at 6:00am. Big brekafast, Muesli, eggs, 3 kinds of b-fast meat, coffe cake, rosti potatoes. Between dinner and breakfast I gained an extra 7 pounds to haul up the trail.

Headed up Webster Cliffs at 9:00a.m. The trail doesn't go up the cliffs, but goes up the ridge and brings you out above the cliffs. Gained 1850 feet in 1.8 miles. Fantastic views up and down Crawford Notch. Had lunch in a shady spot in the woods before the peak (the sun was hot and we needed the break).

From Webster Peak (3,910 ft)over to Mt. Jackson (4032 feet) was a nice walk. About 1.4 miles. Took about 50 minutes. Relatively flat, through some open areas. Had a break on top of Jackson, ate an orange. Until that point hadn't seen very many people, but there were probably more than a dozen on Jackson. Grey jays on Jackson wre landing on people's hands and eating food. My wife was napping, so for a joke I put some GORP on her eyeballs and let the grey jay peck it off. Woke her up in a hurry (happy anniversary honey!)

Right before Jackson we had gotten to within 5 feet of a Spruce Grouse. Just stood there looking at us.

Left Jackson and motored on over to the Mizpah springs hut. Built in 1964 it sleeps about 60. Got there at 4:00, claimed our bunks, washed our faces and sat in the sun until dinner. COvered about 6.4 miles. That night the stars were awesome. No light pollution except for the AURORA BOREALIS!!!!! First time I had seen it!

After a pancake breakfast, we started from the hut at 8:15 and went up Pierce (Clinton)(4300) and then bounced over the ridge to the top of Eisenhower (4780). We were there by 10:15. Beautiful day. A little warm, but a nice breeze on the ridges. Clear, sunny. Awesome hiking towards Monroe and Washington, with them just looming above. Great views in all directions.

We sat on Eisenhower for a snack and then went off the other side of the cone and down the Edmands Path. My wife's knees slowed her up quite a bit, so we had lunch in the woods and got back to the car around 2:00. About 6 miles.

Then we drove home.

PS: I did not put GORP on my wife's eyeballs.”

“You done seen da lights!!!

Way Kewl!”

“wooooowwww, cool beans! sounds like a great anniversary. GORP on the ol' eyeballs, i'll have to stash that in my torture file! mmm, pancakes...it seems like they make the best pancakes around the Whites...

and by the way...do you know about the winters up there? actually, i guess it will really be fall. i'll be there Thanksgiving week, and am hoping there will be some snow!”

“Lyra --

Novemeber on the trail can have more ice than snow . . .depending on when you are going.

All of the little "seeps" . . .little trickles of water than you find running across the trail, or down the middle of the trail , or gurgling beside the trail are FROZEN by late October. So the footing begins to get a little more sketchy.

Nothing huge. Just need careful foot placement. Much beyond mid to late November, and most years you would start to see some permanent snow accumulation.

Two great sites:

http://www.viewsfromthetop.com/

This site has folks writing in trail conditions. It is most helpful right before you go. IN the colder months, even if you don't see the hike you are contemplating, you can at least get an indea of whether or not people feel crampons are needed.

2. http://www.mountwashington.org/cam/northeast/index.html

The is the MT. Washington observatory site. a) camera on top that I look at every morning b) find the "Backcountry Trail Conditions" report. In the winter this gives snow depth and equipments recomendations.”

“cool, thanks! i'll check-it-check-it out :-)”

“Sounds like a wonderful weekend lee. Thanks for sharing. I LOVE the Whites and will be there in early October.

Lyra - I was in the Whites last October when they got 4-12 inches of snow. The foliage was also at peak and it was fabulous. If you're interested I have pics of that week in 2 of my webshots albums.

In addition to the 2 neat sites that lee pointed out, you might be interested in peaking at Dave Metksy's White Mt Server site.”

“What a fantastic way to spend your anniversary! :-) Very cool trip report!”

“Lee and Pennsy listed 3 of my favorite web sites for the Whites. The other two in my top five are:

http://appalachia.outdoors.org/bbs/categories.cfm?catid=3&zb=8221357" target="_blank"> The AMC site/ (I've given the link to one of their discussion boards)

and Mohammed Elozy's Site (which includes lots of tril suggestions for different peaks) and which has a small discussion board where he thoughtfully adresses people's questions:


http://home.earthlink.net/~ellozy/index.html" target="_blank"> peakbagging site This is useful even if you aren't out to bag peaks.”

“What a great way to spend your anniversary!”

“awesome! The couple that plays together, you know...
;)

I'll kick your a$$, Lee, if Dare stashes that GORP trick in his "torture file", as Lyra phrased it.

Hmmm...Anniversery hikin' sounds nice. I think its been almost 6 months.
*lightbulb*”

“yepper, i crammed it in ye olde torture file...it's getting pretty bulky!

thank you guys, Pennsy and Ped! all that stuff will come in very handy. and those pictures kick all forms of ass, Pennsy!! snow in October, woo hoo :-)”