alpinista
Active member
Without much time to take a long drive up toward Maine, AMSTony and I decided to do something local: the famed Welch-Dickey loop. What a luxury to wake up at a reasonable hour, meet at a reasonable hour, spend a reasonable three hours on a hike -- and be home at a reasonable hour! 
We hit the trailhead at 9:40 a.m. and opted to take the recommended counter-clockwise route that takes you first over Welch Mountain. It's a nice walk in the woods for the very first part of the hike, a few roots, rocks and such, but nothing arduous.
It doesn't take long to break out above treeline -- maybe 30 minutes, though it took us about 45 minutes because my office called soon after we took off. (Please don't flame me ... a cell phone is the only way I'm able to get out and hike, and still hold my job!)
I was blown away at the views and the terrain you get on this hike in relatively short time. We had perfect views of the Tripyramids, and the farther along we hiked, the farther we could see -- toward Franconia Notch, Cannon, the outline of the Cannon Balls, and the Kinsmans.
At the very first opening, I spied the top of Dickey and saw those smooth, nearly vertical ledges, and thought, yikes -- that's enough to give ya vertigo. But we kept plugging along, and as I suspected, the trail takes you up a reasonable route to the summits.
There were tons of ripe blueberries along the way. I was amazed at the evidence of the once-great ice age, the whirlpool divots in the rock where water collects, the striations throughout the rock, the ribbons of granite.
Given the proximity to Boston and the ease of this hike, I was surprised not to see as many people out as we did. We spotted maybe a dozen, until the very lower section below Dickey, where we passed by a group of about 15 young kids who looked to be from a church group.
This is a fabulous hike to introduce someone new to the mountains, or for just a quick-hit trip to the mountains.
This is now easily my absolute favorite hike. I hope to visit here many times. It may not be on any "official" lists, but it's now at the top of my list of fabuloso hikes.
You can see pix at: Alpinista's Webshots
We hit the trailhead at 9:40 a.m. and opted to take the recommended counter-clockwise route that takes you first over Welch Mountain. It's a nice walk in the woods for the very first part of the hike, a few roots, rocks and such, but nothing arduous.
It doesn't take long to break out above treeline -- maybe 30 minutes, though it took us about 45 minutes because my office called soon after we took off. (Please don't flame me ... a cell phone is the only way I'm able to get out and hike, and still hold my job!)
I was blown away at the views and the terrain you get on this hike in relatively short time. We had perfect views of the Tripyramids, and the farther along we hiked, the farther we could see -- toward Franconia Notch, Cannon, the outline of the Cannon Balls, and the Kinsmans.
At the very first opening, I spied the top of Dickey and saw those smooth, nearly vertical ledges, and thought, yikes -- that's enough to give ya vertigo. But we kept plugging along, and as I suspected, the trail takes you up a reasonable route to the summits.
There were tons of ripe blueberries along the way. I was amazed at the evidence of the once-great ice age, the whirlpool divots in the rock where water collects, the striations throughout the rock, the ribbons of granite.
Given the proximity to Boston and the ease of this hike, I was surprised not to see as many people out as we did. We spotted maybe a dozen, until the very lower section below Dickey, where we passed by a group of about 15 young kids who looked to be from a church group.
This is a fabulous hike to introduce someone new to the mountains, or for just a quick-hit trip to the mountains.
This is now easily my absolute favorite hike. I hope to visit here many times. It may not be on any "official" lists, but it's now at the top of my list of fabuloso hikes.
You can see pix at: Alpinista's Webshots
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