Enjoying Fall in the Whites, Sept. 22-25

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JoeCedar

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Location
Keene, NY
The great weather and a new season were reasons for me to break away from the Adirondacks for a few days and visit the White Mountains to work on my fall list. Besides, it is never too early to begin preparing for winter. My base of operations was in Lincoln where good lodging and food are plentiful and tourists are absent between seasons.

Tues. Sept 22. I left home early to take advantage of a good hiking day, needing to check into the hotel around 6:00 p.m. I chose two hikes, Moosilauke and East Osceola & Osceola. For Moosi, I climbed the Beaver Brook trail which is steep for the first couple of miles and then levels out to reach the broad open summit (7.6 mi, 3160 ft ascent). For the Osceolas, I drove to the Greeley Ponds trailhead and climbed the also steep, rocky trail to East Osceola and then took the easy traverse and back to Osceola (7.6 mi, 3150 ft ascent).

Wed. Sept. 23. Temperature was 40º F when I got in the car, and the low tire pressure light came on. I checked the pressures which were OK and reset the indicator. I assume the control system was upset by the colder temperature. I liked it. I departed the Lincoln Woods trailhead for Owl’s Head. I chose to save time, distance, and water crossings with two well known bushwhack short cuts: Black Pond which is a 1.1 mile herdpath/bushwhack to Lincoln Brook, and 0.6 mi Brutus bushwhack which takes a different route up the mountain, avoiding the slide (total of 15.5 mi, 3100 ft ascent). For the latter, I appreciate the expert advice of Little Brown Mushroom (Steve) and Waynald (Wayne) who gave me directions I used last winter. After lunch and driving to the trailhead at the hairpin turn, I headed out to Hancock and South Hancock (9.8 mi, 2700 ft ascent) to finish the day. It is another nice trail for most of the route with a steep climb to Hancock and a steep, rocky descent from South Hancock. I followed the newly cut and flagged bypass. At that time the last 50 feet or so was not cut but was flagged and obvious.

Thurs. Sept. 24. A loop of North Tripyramid, Middle Tripyramid, Whiteface and Passaconaway was on the agenda (20.5 mi, 5500 ft ascent). This hike includes 3.4 miles of road walk along the Kancamagus Highway. The connector trail between the mountain ranges is the 3.3 mi Kate Sleeper trail which traverses a couple of peaks on the NE 100 Highest list, West and East Sleeper, not that I am working on that list. Besides being a beautiful and little-used trail, it has the largest blowdown area I have ever seen (has to be hundreds of acres, resulting from TS Irene). Except for the road walk, I saw four people all day.

Fri. Sept. 25. I started the last day with Tecumseh (5.0 mi, 2250 ft ascent). I am impressed by the rock steps work done on that trail—almost like a staircase for part of the way. I was unsure how I would do on day four, but once I got going there was no problem. After driving up I-93 to Franconia Notch, I started a loop hike of Mt Kinsman, South Kinsman (out and back), then over the Cannon Balls peaks to Cannon Mountain for the finish (12.5 mi, 4800 ft ascent). The summit of Cannon is not attractive (large platform/tower and ski area development), but it still felt good to be heading down hill and home. For the descent, I chose the Hi-Cannon trail which traverses the steep mountain side and somehow gets down through cliffs and ledges back to the trailhead. I rehydrated with a warm beer at the car, got some food at McDonalds in Littleton, and drove 3.5 hours home.

I expect many people would not consider this a fun trip, but I assure you it never felt like a death march. I enjoyed it all—the great weather, the beautiful mountain scenery and views, the endurance challenge, and the feeling of accomplishment.
 
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