The White Mountains of New Hampshire are big and wild. And, that’s why I loved it there… While in New Hampshire, we stayed at a campground right outside of the town of North Conway. North Conway has a great outdoorsy town vibe. We counted more than five outdoors stores for the 2,500 people that live there. There are about five ski resorts less than an hour from town (one right in town) and big backcountry skiing right around the corner with areas like Mount Washington. There are several climbing areas nearby including Cathedral Ledge, which is a couple minutes outside of town. Hiking parking lots are everywhere on the outskirts of town. Can you tell I really loved this place? Jamie liked it there too but is not feeling it as a place she could live (there’s no Target here for goodness sake).
On our first full day in New Hampshire, we went to explore the town and try to sneak in a hike after homeschooling. We hit Moat Mountain brewery before walking around town and stopping at several outdoors stores. IME was my favorite store in town. They even had a consignment shop in their basement packed full of old outdoor gear and clothes. That is dangerous for me after visiting a brewery. Luckily, I remembered that we live in a tiny “house” with really tight storage that is already pretty much full. We tried to hike to a waterfall right outside of town, but the lot was full so we explored Cathedral Ledge instead. We drove to the top and saw several folks climbing. I hiked up into the woods to check the cliffs out from the base and met several cool folks climbing. They told me about the local climbing areas and give me some advice on where I could take Jamie and kids if I could talk them in to climbing this week.
The next day, we headed up into the mountains to do some hiking. We parked at Pinkham Notch at the base of Mount Washington and did a few short hikes to Lost Pond and Glen Ellis falls. Both were great. As we were hiking, we could see the summit of Washington above and it looked huge, really huge. I really wanted to climb Mount Washington while we were in New Hampshire, but there had been 50+mph winds on the summit with wind chills below freezing and on and off rain (and even a little snow) for the past two days. Not great hiking conditions for August. We were supposed to leave the next day, so it was not looking promising. Luckily, Jamie was down with extending our stay in New Hampshire a day as the summit conditions were supposed to get better. Man, I love that woman!
That night, I slept like I had an early morning flight the next day. I wanted to get an early start hiking up the mountain and didn’t want to oversleep, so I made sure to wake up plenty of times to check my watch. I finally decided to just get out of bed around 6:00 to have Jamie drive me to the trailhead. The kids slept in. The hike up Mount Washington was my favorite hike to date. It was mostly hiking over rocks, had plenty of sections involving scrambling (where you have to use your hands), and spent a good chunk of time above treeline. The hike up Tuckerman’s Ravine was only 4.2 miles but gained about 4,200 feet in elevation. If you don’t hike much, just believe me when I say that is steep! It was a huge and rewarding climb with blue skies, sunshine and temps in the 50s. It was perfect weather, until I reached the summit. It was quickly engulfed in the clouds and it got cold and windy real quick. I climbed all that way and missed the views – oh well. It got bright and sunny again on my hike down Lion’s Head trail. Apparently, that is typical for Mount Washington, “Home of the World’s Worst Weather”.
Jamie and the kids reached the summit of Mount Washington later that day. They took the leisurely route up on a shuttle. Of course they had bright sunny skies where they could see forever in every direction when they got there. You see, there is more than one way up Mount Washington. You can hike it, drive it (unless you have a monster truck full of camping gear), take a shuttle, or even take a steam train up a cog railroad. That makes for a lively summit. The key to avoiding the lines at the summit sign is to get up there early. Luckily, I started so early because I thought it would take me 4-5 hours to summit but it only took a little under three, so I had it pretty good up there that early in the morning.
Mount Washington is a serious mountain that probably doesn’t get the respect it deserves – maybe because it is in the east? Four people have died on it in the past couple of months. Experience is the most important tool for keeping safe while climbing up mountains. Each time you get up in the mountains, you learn something new. So, on a mountain this lively, there was plenty to learn. Here are some of the things I learned from fellow hikers contrary to conventional mountain wisdom:
- You can drink straight out of a creek because cold water is refreshing and clean. Little kids love having creek water as well. Luckily, Giardia has an incubation period of a couple days, so if anything goes bad, at least you will be off the mountain.
- Forget the ten essentials. I saw some fellow hikers headed up the mountain in jorts and a cotton tee with just a bottle of Dasani water. Fast and light – no unnecessary weight. If your bottle of Dasani runs out, just get some creek water. Who needs a pack with 20 pounds of gear?
- Maps are old fashioned and overrated because you can just ask other hikers which way to go. A group asked me where Lake of the Clouds was along the way. I pulled out the map, showed them that it was a little over a mile away and was at about 5,200 ft elevation, and we were currently at 4,000 ft. They said, “Oh a mile is not too far. So, is that downhill from here?”… “Huh?”…
- Getting up and off a mountain early is overly cautious and unnecessary. I stopped half way down the mountain and ate lunch and chilled for a while since Jamie and the kids weren’t picking me up until later in the afternoon. I got going again and met a guy looking beat walking up the trail. He asked how much further because he was hoping to get up to the summit “by four or five o’clock”. It was 2:30 and he was about a third of the way up. I told him I did the whole thing in about three hours, so he should be good. I probably shouldn’t have said that but he had a bottle of Dasani and long jeans so I figured he was golden.
- As much as I want to criticize a cafeteria and gift shop at the summit of a mountain like Washington, they have coffee. That is pretty awesome when the weather turns and it gets cold… or when your bottle of Dasani runs out.
Disclaimer: All that stuff above is crap, except summit coffee. Stick with conventional mountain wisdom.
Cool stuff y’all!