#43 Cascade Mountain and #44 Porter Mountain, New York

To round out February break on a high note, Lindsey and I traveled over to the Adirondacks to grab her first two high peaks.  As we got a fairly late start on the day, we decided to do Cascade and Porter, a short 6.2 mile hike that gains you to 4,000 peaks.  We hit the trail at 1pm on a cloudless, sunny, and killer day over in the high country.

After about 2 miles, the trail gives way to a vista overlooking Mt. Marcy and Mt. Algonguin as well as Mt. Whiteface off in the distance.  I couldn't resist snapping a few shots.

About a tenth of a mile after this vista we came upon the trail split.  We opted to head left first, for the .3 mile push up to Cascade.  About halfway into the final push the snow ends and gives way to pure rock so we ditched the snowshoes and got suited up head to toe in our warmest layers.  The wind at the top was whipping and it was teeth-shatteringly cold.  However, the views were absolutely worth it.  I've never had a day this clear in the Adirondacks.  We could see the entire Great Range leading up to Mt. Marcy, we could see Whiteface clear as day, and we could even see all the way across the lake to Camel's Hump and Mansfield in Vermont.  It was unreal.  We wanted to stay as long as possible to soak it all up, but it was ridiculously cold so we headed back down the trail split and took the .7 mile trail over to Mt. Porter.

 

It was a nice easy walk over to Porter without too many sustained climbs.  The views from Porter weren't quite as good as they were from Cascade, but we were a bit more protected by the trees and it wasn't quite as windy.  We snapped a few more pictures, soaked up the sunshine, and made our way back down.

We finished at about 3:45pm, having bagged another two ADK high peaks in just 6.2 miles!  I understand why this hike is listed as one of the easiest in the high peaks, and am glad that I saved it for winter!

#41 Mount Lafayette and #42 Mount Lincoln

As February break wore on, I was dying to get over to the White Mountains.  I was sick of waiting for a clear, perfect weather day (which often never comes when you are waiting for it), so I headed out of town on a Saturday morning and over to the Franconia Notch.  I hit the trail a few minutes after 10am and started banging my way up the trail toward Mt. Lafayette.  The trail continues 2.9 miles until the Greenleaf hut.  At this point, the trail had already started peaking out of the trees and I could tell it was going to be incredibly windy at the top.  I bundled up with virtually every layer I had with my and started heading up the final 1.1 miles to the summit on the exposed ridge.

As the ridge became more and more exposed and the rocks became icier and icier, I wondered about putting on my microspikes.  However, it was so cold that I didn't dare take my gloves off so I decided to stick with my boots.  Fortunately the tough grip of the soles did the trick over the ice.

I made it to the top of Lafayette at 11:45am and snapped a few pictures of the Pemigewasset wilderness and Mt. Washington just beyond it.  It was also quite a site to be looking down upon Cannon Mountain across the way.  Cannon Mountain, a 4,000 footer, was dwarfed by the summit of Lafayette and I was looking nearly 1,200 feet down at it.  Quite interesting.

After a very short stay on the summit of Lafayette I continued along the cold and windy ridge to Mt. Lincoln.  Although I was properly dressed and prepared for the elements, this was probably the coldest and windiest conditions I had ever been exposed to.  Quite a rush!  I made it quite quickly to Lincoln, paused briefly to take it all in, and then kept going along the ridge for the final mile.  

At the trail split with the Falling Waters trail, where most people take down to get back to their cars, I took a moment to consider my initial plan.  I had aimed to get over to Mt. Liberty and Mt. Flume as well to round out the full ridge hike.  However, it was 12:30pm, adding those to peaks would add an additional 7 miles onto the hike, and the trail appeared as though it hadn't been traveled on in weeks.  The trail wasn't even visible in spots, and was completely snow covered and was in 4-5 foot snow drifts in parts.  Though it was hard to make this decision, I opted to skip Liberty and Flume and head back down the falling waters trail.  Here are a few pictures from Little Haystack, the secondary peak at the trail split.

Although disappointed to have not conquered the full Franconia Ridge, I was still satisfied at having grabbed two more 4,000 footers for my list, and at having braved some of the worst winter weather conditions of my life.  Thankfully it wasn't snowing! 

#39 Mount Esther and #40 Whiteface Mountain, New York

On the second day of my February vacation, Matt and I scooted on over the Adirondacks.  I had been really looking forward to getting out into the mountains over break and this was a perfect day to do it.  It was warm, sunny, and gorgeous!  We parked at the Atmospheric Sciences Research Center and headed up the trail toward Whiteface Mountain.  After a quick, steep ascent of Marble Mountain in .9 miles, we headed along the ridge toward Whiteface.

About 1.5 miles from the summit we took a side trail on the right to Mt. Esther.  Esther was about a mile away and offered a view back toward Whiteface and some of the high peaks off in the distance, but otherwise it was not a very clear summit.  But again, another peaked bagged.

We backtracked down Esther to the trail and headed up toward Whiteface.  The trail briefly crosses a ski trail and the auto road and then continues up.  The trail spills out on the auto road near the top and instead of continuing up the icy trail to the summit, we elected to take the auto road around the other side of the mountain to the summit.  The auto road ends at a weird castle-like structure with steps and railings ascending the final 200ft.  It was covered in ice, and it was harrowing.  However, made it to the top, and the views were absolutely worth it!  10 miles, two 4,000 footers, and another killer day in the mountains!

#36 Cannon Mountain, #37 North Kinsman Mountain, and #38 south Kinsman Mountain, New Hampshire

It was a little late in the season, but in mid-October it seemed like a final hike of fall was in order.  It started with a direct ascent of Cannon Mountain from the Tramway parking lot.  We avoided the overcrowded summit, took some pictures of the beautiful Franconia Ridge from a lookout vista, and continued along our way to North Kinsman Mountain.

Although I had remembered reading about the Cannonballs, I had forgotten to account for them in our proposed hike plan.  They were a bit exhausting.  I believe there were three of them in all, each one seemingly like ridge that we had to climb up and over.  When we finally made it over the North Kinsman, we were relieved by the smooth terrain from their to South Kinsman.  North Kinsman had a vista looking east to the Franconia Ridge, while South Kinsman had a bald summit with awesome views.

While we had originally planned to backtrack over the Cannonballs to a side trail down the side of Cannon mountain back to the car, we decided to call some friends for a lift while on South Kinsman.  We headed back over North Kinsman and down a nice, gradual four mile side trail to the west side of the ridge.  Three more 4,000 footers in the bag, and a wonderful 12+ mile hike to round out the fall.

I hiked Cannon again with a group of people on a cold, COLD early winter day in late November.  Although it wasn't even technically winter yet, I considered it my first winter 4,000 footer of the season.  This was a hike of Cannon via the Lonesome Lake trail.  The views of the Franconia Ridge were nice and clear from the top

#29 North Twin Mountain, #30 South Twin Mountain, #31 Galehead Mountain, #32 West Bond Mountain, #33 Mount Bond, #34 Bondcliffs, and #35 Zealand Mountain, New Hampshire

As a sort of "last hurrah" of the summer, I decided to throw in a long ridge hike in the Pemigewasset Wilderness of New Hampshire.  I left Burlington around 6:30am on a Sunday in late August of 2013 and parked at the trailhead of North Twin mountain.  The trail heads up to North Twin in about 4 miles, but not before crossing over a beautiful river three times.  The views were incredible.  Looking to the northeast was the Presidential range, and to the southwest was the Franconia Ridge.  Absolutely killer.

 

From the top of North Twin I headed along the ridge to South Twin, which is a few hundred feet higher in elevation.  The views from here were even more spectacular, though it was more crowded than North Twin, which had only one other hiker.  The hike I had planned, which was 21 miles and five 4,000 footers, did not include Galehead mountain, which was just over a mile from South Twin, via the Galehead hut.  Seeing as it would only add about 2.4 or so miles onto my day, I decided to go for it.  I didn't realize, however, that the trail would drop over 1,200 feet in .8 miles!  Coming back up was a challenge.  Galehead mountain offered zero views from the summit, but there was a vista on the way up that looked back toward South Twin.

Once back on top of South Twin, I headed south along the ridge toward the Bonds.  The trail comes out of the trees at Mt. Guyot, which is not itself a separate 4,000 footer due to its lack of prominence.  However, I headed over Mt. Guyot and continued toward the Bonds.  I took the trail split and headed west to tag West Bond, which offered really killer views looking back toward the Bondcliffs.  I backtracked the mile back to the main trail, continued to Mt. Bond, and after a very brief stay due to limited views, I finished the trail over to the Bondcliffs.  The Bondcliffs offered arguably the greatest views of the day.  It was so clear at this point, and I had amazing views of the entire Presidential range as well as the Franconia Ridge.  It was amazing.

By this point in the day, I had gone about 15 miles and it was hot.  I had about 8 or 9 miles to get back to my car and I was nearly out of water.  I had my purification pump, but no water sources to be had up on the ridge.  In any event, I headed back over Mt. Bond and on to Mt. Guyot, where there was a trial split heading east to Mt. Zealand.  Although I had been told Zealand offers very little in the way of views, I felt like I had to tag it while I was up there.  So I took the trail a little over a mile to Mt. Zealand.  The summit was just a pile of rocks in the middle of a bunch of trees but hey, another peak bagged.

I was pretty dehydrated as I backtracked to the ridge trail and up to South Twin.  I knew there were some water sources on the way down from North Twin, so I just had to make it there it one piece.  I feel like I was a bit delirious at this point, but I trudged over South Twin, on to North Twin, and let gravity do its job taking me down the trail to the water source.  I pumped bottle after bottle of water and took it all down.  Once I let it settle a bit, I started to feel a lot better.  I finished off the last three or so miles, met some great people and had some great hiking conversations on the way out, and back to my car.  The mileage ended up being, ironically, 26.2 miles, so I essentially did a marathon on the mountains!  Another great day to be alive!