WeRmudfun
New member
As I was writing this TR, I received an email from Hiker Ed stating that due to the fact that Croydon is unavailable to the public, patches and certificates will be issued to anyone completing the list with the exclusion of Croydon. If Croydon ever does become available again we have every intention of going to visit it.
Black Mountain in Jackson was #92 on the NH Fire Tower List of the 92 obtainable towers that are standing, once stood or were proposed. It feels funny typing that statement for the last time. It has been an incredible journey where we have met many new friends and learned a lot of NH history. It has taken us to peaks that we never knew about and taught us how much we were capable of doing such as bushwhacking. NH is one beautiful state!
For Black Mountain we parked at the trailhead for the Black Mountain Ski Trail. After crossing private property that welcomes Hikers, we found ourselves on the trail. Getting lost on this trail would require a lot of effort. The trail is very wide and very evident. It is a steady up and one of the things we thought about hiking up it is we have to give the skiers that hike this with all their gear plus their skis and boots a lot of credit. We did it just to get the fire tower peak and the fact that it is on 52WAV was a bonus, but to keep hiking it just to ski down...power to them.
The trail itself was cut in back in 1934 by the CCC which makes it one of the oldest ski areas in NH. This is not the same area of the mountain where the other lift served ski area is.
We did find two old cellar holes off to the side the trail. The deeper one had two large trees growing out of it and judging by the size of the trees, that was one old cellar hole. Other than that it was pretty much just a hike up a ski trail to the cabin. Some of the trail was dry other areas were muddy and the water crossings can all be walked over.
The cabin was nice, it can be rented for $20 a day and has 8 bunks, so you can get a small crowd of friends in there with you. There is also an outhouse off to the left as you approach the cabin. The cabin was also built by the CCC back in the 1930's, but was rebuilt in 1992. We had read somewhere that there was no trail from the cabin to the summit. That must have been a very old statement, because there is a well worn path to the summit. It takes another 0.4 miles to reach the summit. The views are limited for saying this mountain is on 52WAV. There is a lot of blowdowns on the summit which made locating artifacts a bit of a challenge, but we did find some.
We both felt a great feeling of accomplishment as we stood on that summit. This was a fulfilling quest and we recommend it to anyone looking for a sense of adventure with a history lesson to boot. We wanted to finish before the heavy snows started to fly and we did just that. We are far from done though, we have a long list of adventures we still want to go and explore.
Black Mountain in Jackson was #92 on the NH Fire Tower List of the 92 obtainable towers that are standing, once stood or were proposed. It feels funny typing that statement for the last time. It has been an incredible journey where we have met many new friends and learned a lot of NH history. It has taken us to peaks that we never knew about and taught us how much we were capable of doing such as bushwhacking. NH is one beautiful state!
For Black Mountain we parked at the trailhead for the Black Mountain Ski Trail. After crossing private property that welcomes Hikers, we found ourselves on the trail. Getting lost on this trail would require a lot of effort. The trail is very wide and very evident. It is a steady up and one of the things we thought about hiking up it is we have to give the skiers that hike this with all their gear plus their skis and boots a lot of credit. We did it just to get the fire tower peak and the fact that it is on 52WAV was a bonus, but to keep hiking it just to ski down...power to them.
The trail itself was cut in back in 1934 by the CCC which makes it one of the oldest ski areas in NH. This is not the same area of the mountain where the other lift served ski area is.
We did find two old cellar holes off to the side the trail. The deeper one had two large trees growing out of it and judging by the size of the trees, that was one old cellar hole. Other than that it was pretty much just a hike up a ski trail to the cabin. Some of the trail was dry other areas were muddy and the water crossings can all be walked over.
The cabin was nice, it can be rented for $20 a day and has 8 bunks, so you can get a small crowd of friends in there with you. There is also an outhouse off to the left as you approach the cabin. The cabin was also built by the CCC back in the 1930's, but was rebuilt in 1992. We had read somewhere that there was no trail from the cabin to the summit. That must have been a very old statement, because there is a well worn path to the summit. It takes another 0.4 miles to reach the summit. The views are limited for saying this mountain is on 52WAV. There is a lot of blowdowns on the summit which made locating artifacts a bit of a challenge, but we did find some.
We both felt a great feeling of accomplishment as we stood on that summit. This was a fulfilling quest and we recommend it to anyone looking for a sense of adventure with a history lesson to boot. We wanted to finish before the heavy snows started to fly and we did just that. We are far from done though, we have a long list of adventures we still want to go and explore.
