Wow, it's been since January since I've had the opportunity (and the emotional energy, to be honest) to update the ol' blog. We have gone on some mini-adventures the first half of this year: a spring trip to Chincoteague, VA; Deep Creek and Cambridge, MD; and small visits to West Virginia and Pennsylvania. I hope to write mini-posts on those excursions at some point, but I am happy to report that we are currently back in New Hampshire! Yaaaaay! I'm just a little excited to be here 😉
We got up at 3:30am back at home, left at around 4:15 to make the trek north.
Honestly, we had a great trip up. Traffic on the George Washington Bridge in New York City was fine and we didn't experience any major slow downs, so we arrived here in New Hampshire at about 3pm. Being true to ourselves (and in desperate need of movement after being in a cramped car all day) we decided to go for a small hike.
Last fall I had hiked Snow's Mountain alone (see that post here) and didn't remember it being particularly long (around 3 miles) or strenuous (rated moderate although it claims to give you good "bang for your buck" so interpret that however you'd like) so we decided to give it a go even though there appeared to be an impending thunderstorm. The hike is located where we are staying (not anywhere remote) and although it was definitely threatening rain, didn't seem like too big a deal. Rhys, however, was not impressed by the faint rumbling of thunder. Still, we pressed on. The hike starts by walking up the chair lift area of an alpine ski jump slope before heading off into the woods. As we ascended, the sky above became increasingly dark and it began to pour. Distracted by the sudden downpour and a frightened child, we overshot our turn into the woods by about .4 and got absolutely drenched. It felt good though. Refreshing. Without any further threat of thunder or lightning, just rain, the boys began enjoying themselves and were running back down the hill to find the path into the woods that we had missed. Rhys even found a wild blueberry bush at the entrance to the woods and snagged a few before heading off into the forest.
The highlights of the hike were rainbows caused by the sun breaking through the clouds while rain was still steadily coming down, an adorable orange salamander, and a wonderful lookout over the valley. Walking to the hike and back from the house, and overshooting the entrance to the trail added some mileage to our hike, totaling around 7 or so miles, but it was well worth it.
Mt. Moosilauke 4,802 ft- 4,000 footer #5
The day after we arrived was forecasted to be one of the best weather days of the week. Family and friends kept asking about the weather hoping that we had escaped some of the horrible mid-90's high humidity from back home, but we were sad to report that the heatwave had followed us here. Even though it is "only" in the 80's here in New Hampshire, the house we stay in has no AC. Let that sink in for a minute.
Ahem, I digress. Rain was predicted for a lot of the upcoming week making many hikes too dangerous, so we decided to tackle a 4,000 footer. Mt. Moosilauke isn't considered terribly difficult or treacherous. In fact, some people's reviews (that I read) are rather low key (read: blasé) in regards to the summit and tend to grumble about overcast inhibiting their views. So our expectations were rather tempered. We decided to take a looped route that is the better part of 8 miles, up the steeper Gorge Brook trail to the summit and descend the Carriage Rd/Snapper trail back to Dartmouth's Ravine Lodge.
I am here to tell you that on a clear day the views are absolutely breathtaking. There were many, many viewpoints ascending the Gorge Brook trail, several areas close to the top that looked like summits themselves, and there was a rather dramatic approach to the actual summit. There is almost a field-like feeling to the mountaintop it is so vast. Both boys ran they were so excited. The wind whips across the mountain it is so exposed but on an otherwise hot and humid day it was more than welcome. The bonus was that we got to walk on the Appalachian Trail for a bit making our way down from the summit and over to the South Peak for another stunning view.
All in all, an all-around amazing experience.
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