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.