Blue Job 4/25/2009

Today Shelby is coming with me on a small hike. It's another beautiful day and Shelby can tag along. We decided that we're sick of driving for hiking so we made the short trip to a new peak for us. Blue Job Mountain is a small peak of only 1,356' located near Rochester, NH. It's actually a firetower peak.

This is a great little peak that I'm sure we'll hike again when we have kids. It's only a little over a mile and is an interesting walk with a few views and 360 degree views from the firetower which is active.

Belknap Loop 9 Peaks 4/24/2009

So today I had it in my head that I was going to try to get as many of the Belknap peaks that I could get in a single trip. I also wanted to hit Mt. Major again as it's such a great mountain with a lot of trails I thought I could try a new trail to the top. I decided to hike up and take the Bay View Trail to the summit of Mt. Major. I took the Beaver Pond Trail and the Boulder Loop trail to connect to the Bay View Trail. The trailhead is relatively obscure but about 20' in from the beginning there's a sign so you know your on the right path.

The trail was basically a herd path and then you could see where it turned up an old skidder trail. I hiked until I completely lost the trail. I took the path that seemed most traveled but I couldn't tell if I was on the trail or not. I made my way up until I found the natural rock cave that is noted on my map.

The trail made itself known again and shortly disappeared. I decided to bushwack north and up and see where it took me and I found myself right at the summit in no time. There were a series of great views from the bushwack and I think I actually may have connected on to the Express Rt as well.

I sat in the hut at the Summit of Major for 5 minutes or so and met some folks from Rollinsford, NH and Hampton, NH. Rollinsford borders my town via the Salmon Falls River. I headed down the back side of Mt. Major and connected onto the Quarry Spur and Quarry Trails to the Summit of Straightback North. 2 peaks down, ?? to go.

I headed down the Quarry trail until I reached an area that had been recently logged. I guessed where the trail went and went with my gut for 20 minutes or so constantly checking my map and compass and eventually ending up where I needed to be at the East Quarry Summit where the path became known again.

I kept right on truckin' and eventually hit the West Quarry Summit. This is my first new peak for the day that is actually on the Belknap list. So far, there were signs at all the summits which was great. It's nice to know you've made it where you wanted to go.

I continued on the Quarry trail where I soon came across the "Cliffs of Death". There's a sign here that tells you that if you are older, or have lost flexibility or if it's wet, to take an alternate path. I took a picture of the sign.

I decided to check out the cliffs of death and I didn't realize it 10 minutes later when I was down them. I didn't see what the big deal of the cliffs was as there was very little if any exposure. At the bottom however, there was some old Quarry equipment and a little sign explaining the area.

A few minutes later, I was on the top of Mt. Rand where I ate an apple and sat down for a minute. I hadn't really taken a break today except for the Summit of Mt. Major. The wooded summit had no view, but it was nice to be in the shade as the sun had taken a bit out of me. As you can tell by the picture, I had worked up a pretty good sweat by this point.

After taking my break, I took off for Mt. Klem where I soon reached the summit and there was no sign. The first summit of the day with no sign. I met a group of people at the top eating lunch who had bagged this peak before and confirmed for me that I had made the summit.

The group was concerned that I was hiking alone and asked me if I had a cell phone. I said I did as well as my GPS, my map, my compass and I thanked them for their concern and headed off for Mt. Mack.

This was an enjoyable piece of the trail as there was a tenth of a mile or so where the views opened up and I was able to see a bit. It almost felt like I was on alpine grass but not quite. I soon made the Summit of Mt. Mack and made my way on to Mt. Anna. The red trail between Mt. Mack and Anna seems like it goes on for quite a while. It dips quite a ways into the Valley and works it's way back up in elevation again. This was the toughest part of the hike as it was the longest distance I would travel today between peaks. Anna however, also, had no sign. I ate a peanut butter and jelly sandwich really quick but the bugs drove me away. Not normal bugs but large hovering bugs that were far too annoying to hang around in.

I headed off towards Straightback South. I have done this peak before but it would be my 9th and final peak of the day. This section of trail was great with fairly open views and it went fairly slowly for me. I could feel some cramping in my right Hamstring so I walked fairly slowly. I stopped at the top for a second and headed down to the parking lot Via the Straightback/Major Link and the Brook and Main Trails. The Brook and Main Trails had significantly more people on them. Major is a very popular Mountain and with a beautiful day like today, people are to be expected. I could not understand however how someone can "hike" and smoke a cigar at the same time.

All in all a great day. There was the history of the old Quarry and my first time really winging it on the trail with a map and compass. I wouldn't say that this technically involved any bushwacking but the map and compass really helped and was necessary today. Also you could see quite a few old rock walls on the trip which indicates that this land was likely once used for something. Maybe the quarry, maybe farmland, I'm not sure.

Now I have only 2 Belknap peaks left before I can put in for my patch. This will likely be the first list that I complete. Albeit a small list, it's one of the more fun lists around.

Rowe, Gunstock & Belknap 4/20/2009

I haven't been hiking in a while, mostly because I'm sick of the snow and that I really just don't want to deal with the snow anymore. I really wanted to go hiking today as I really had nothing better to do so I decided to try to hit a few of the Belknap range peaks as I figured if any mountains were mostly snow free, these would be. I have 2 of the 12 county peaks and I am looking to knock off at least 3 more today.

I started out at the Gunstock Ski area parking with the intent on bagging Mt. Rowe first. My map does not show Rowe, but I looked around for a trailhead and couldn't find one. The mountain really isn't that far and you can see a trail to it from the base up the powerlines. I'm not sure if i'm allowed to hike the powerline but I couldn't find a trail so I decided that I figured the mountain wouldn't care and went for it.

I hiked the powerline about 3/4 of the way and there were a few spur paths off the right of the powerline. I didn't know where they went but they didn't look like ski trails so I decided to take one in hopes it would lead me to the trail. It didn't but it led me to a road which went directly to the summit. Turns out that in speaking with someone later this was likely the trail up.

From here, I found blazes which led off into the woods, purple, and white. I followed them until I found this view.

After a few minutes of following the purple and white blazes they split apart from each other. Looking at my map, the trail was in white so I followed the white trail. The purple one wasn't even on my map. The white trail eventually met a ski trail which it followed the rest of the way to the summit of Gunstock. I played around with my new camera a bit today so some of the pictures came out a bit dark or overlighted but I still got a few decent ones.

I took to the woods again on the Brook Trail which is a yellow blazed trail which links the Gunstock witht he trails that lead over to the summit of Belknap Mtn. The county High point for Belknap County in New Hampshire. I would hit the Saddle trail soon and then the Blue Trail and hit Mt. Belknap. The summit itself is wooded but there's an old fire tower that you can get into to see 360 degree views.

This is a view from the fire tower. I had my lighting settings a little off but I'm working on it I promise.

I took the blue trail back to the Brook trail and followed it all the way back down to my car. I figure this trip at 5.0 miles and about 2.100' but i'm not sure. Those are the numbers I'm using but there's really now way to tell as there's no book for this area.