Pawtuckaway 4/19/2010

I needed to get out hiking again so I decided I would head to Pawtuckaway State Park. South Pawtuckaway is on the New Hampshire Fire Towers list plus it would be a good distance hike for me to start getting back into shape a bit. I paid the Iron ranger at about 10AM and was on my way. I hiked the Mountain View Trail which was pretty well maintained with no blowdowns or anything and I reached the Summit 3 miles later.

I looked at my new watch which was made by Tech 4.O which shows altitude, calories burned, heart rate, barometric pressure as well as a whole host of other things. The altitude reading read 1345'. This summit is only 908' so I re-adjusted the altitude which I had never done before. The readings proved to be correct for the rest of the day.

I went to the top of the fire tower which was quite windy but more enjoyable than being on the summit due to the large numbers of flies in the air. There are views from all directions once at the top of the stairs for the fire tower. I stayed for a bit and continued on towards Round Pond. The trail was pretty well maintained the entire way except for a few washouts where you can see the rain washed away pieces of trail.
I made it to round pond which doesn't appear to be round. None of them really seem to be round but oh well. I scared off a few ducks walking along the edge. I sat here briefly only for a moment to eat my pb&j and I hiked the Round Pond Trail back to my car. The Round Pond Trail is mostly an old road that appears to still be maintained. I figure the hike to be about 9.0 miles with about 1700' of elevation gain but my elevation and mileage could be wrong. I'm going by the altimeter which I readjusted and it is constantly adjusting itself so chances are it's not 100% accurate. Also the mileages in the park seem off with their math. One sign will say 3 miles while the next will say 2.7 it's really not accurate within the park.

Next time I'm here I'll hopefully hit north peak and the boulderfields.