una_dogger
Well-known member
Stats: N Percy 3430' and S Percy 3234'
Trails: Percy Peaks Trail, N Percy Trail, S Percy herdpath, Cohos Trail/Percy Loop Trail, Nash Stream Rd walk.
Distance: 6.25 miles, ~3000 gain
Y Alpine 75 & 76/100
Today we decided to head to the Great North Woods and hike North and South Percy Peaks. Having a permanent basecamp in the Whites has opened the door on exploring off the beaten path hikes and lesser visited peaks. We drove North on Rt 3 out of Twin Mountain through the country towns of Whitefield, Lancaster and Northumberland. Once out of the White Mountain Region, the NH landscape takes on a more agricultural feel. Two very large peaks stood prominently from the farmland, one 3/4 bare rock, the other heavily forested with some open slides. The Percy's!!! Our destination in the Nash Stream Wilderness Area. At first glimpse, I couldn't wait to get up there!
We arrived at the trailhead at the leisurely, late sunday hour of 11:30.
We crossed a very sturdy new bridge, and headed up the Percy Peaks trail. The trail is well graded and has undergone extensive work this summer. We soon began following an impressive slide coming off North Percy. A small rope tow assists the hiker up a small shelf, its really not necessary, but it makes for a fun picture. The trail winds its way up to a heavily forested col between the two peaks. Here it meets the Cohos Trail.
We opted to head for North Percy first, because there were some ominous dark clouds moving in, and the trail up the peak follows steep open slab, slippery when wet!
The climb up to North Percy is very dramatic. The rock faces drop away at a sharp angle and a bad step could be, well, very bad. For those who know the Percy's from long ago, this is a "new" trail that enters the slab at the very top of the former trail, that was laid out by rock climbers Robert and Miriam Underhill, and is written to be "extremely exhilarating" and "dangerous in wet weather". However, we later learned from from reading the trail register on South Percy, that the older "trail from the West" is still regularly used, by some hearty grid seeking peakbaggers that we are familiar with here in the 4K Whites. Rock on, Gridiots! Hardcore!
North Percy reminded me of the Baldfaces in its terrain. Steep open slab with alot of exposure, great views, and very grippy rock punctuated by lawns of black lichen that looks very slippery when wet. As beautiful and dramatic as it is, I must admit that this is not my favorite terrain and I kept my head down and bolted to the top, eager to summit and descend before any rainfall while MichaelJ oohed and ahhed and Terra came startlingly close to every drop off that she could.
After a brief summit stop, with the clouds ever condensing overhead, we checked out the amazing views of the Mahoosucs, The Kilkenny Range, The Presidentials, The Carter Range, and nearby peaks that we couldn't identify but would like to someday hike. A raindrop hit my shoulder and I promptly announced to MichaelJ that we were heading down, and very quickly, I did. Fortunately, only a few raindrops fell.
Back at the Cohos Trail, we backtracked to the S Percy herdpath. A funky fork in the trail is nicely marked and we took the right branch up South Percy. A wonderful green herdpath, it goes pretty much straight up through thick woods to a fairly open summit. A small mason jar hangs on a little spruce, and we spent about a half hour enjoying the view back toward N Percy, and recognized probably 75% of the names we read, dating back to 1994, as folks we know and/or have hiked with. How great is that?
Up on the summit of South Percy, Terra learned that blueberries were edible. First she saw us eating them. Then she put a whole branchful in her mouth. The next mouthful was just berries, no branches, but there were plenty of green ones. For her third mouthful, she carefully selected *only* ripe blueberries. As we headed down the trail, she scouted blueberry bushes for ripe berries. "We have created a monster" I said, and we laughed, but were also pretty impressed at how quickly animals learn things, especially when it comes to things that can be eaten.
We rejoined the Cohos Trail, and followed it to where it joins with the Percy Loop Trail. The next half mile or so we wrapped around the eastern edge of N Percy, through woods that were very similar to the Weeks section of the Kilkenny's but much lighter travelled. This was probably my favorite part of the trail, but unfortunatley my camera batteries ran out on N Percy, and I have no pictures to share. The trail dropped through a small ravine and past a campsite, and then entered a beautiful birch glade and travelled along an old narrow and very well graded logging road for the next mile or so. A few more turns in the trail, and we were heading toward Nash Stream Road again. We popped out on Nash Stream Rd near Long Mountain Brook, and turned south and walked 1.2 quiet miles back to our car.
A GREAT day out in the woods with MichaelJ and Terra, and my last hike as a 42 year old.
Some pics:
Long slide
Trail alongside
Terra warns this is a dry trail, bring dog water
Beginnings of the slab on N Percy
Terra leads the way
MichaelJ Oohs and Aahhs
Beautiful view
South Percy from North
MichaelJ has some excellent pics from the rest of this hike and will be sharing soon.....
Trails: Percy Peaks Trail, N Percy Trail, S Percy herdpath, Cohos Trail/Percy Loop Trail, Nash Stream Rd walk.
Distance: 6.25 miles, ~3000 gain
Y Alpine 75 & 76/100
Today we decided to head to the Great North Woods and hike North and South Percy Peaks. Having a permanent basecamp in the Whites has opened the door on exploring off the beaten path hikes and lesser visited peaks. We drove North on Rt 3 out of Twin Mountain through the country towns of Whitefield, Lancaster and Northumberland. Once out of the White Mountain Region, the NH landscape takes on a more agricultural feel. Two very large peaks stood prominently from the farmland, one 3/4 bare rock, the other heavily forested with some open slides. The Percy's!!! Our destination in the Nash Stream Wilderness Area. At first glimpse, I couldn't wait to get up there!
We arrived at the trailhead at the leisurely, late sunday hour of 11:30.
We crossed a very sturdy new bridge, and headed up the Percy Peaks trail. The trail is well graded and has undergone extensive work this summer. We soon began following an impressive slide coming off North Percy. A small rope tow assists the hiker up a small shelf, its really not necessary, but it makes for a fun picture. The trail winds its way up to a heavily forested col between the two peaks. Here it meets the Cohos Trail. We opted to head for North Percy first, because there were some ominous dark clouds moving in, and the trail up the peak follows steep open slab, slippery when wet!
The climb up to North Percy is very dramatic. The rock faces drop away at a sharp angle and a bad step could be, well, very bad. For those who know the Percy's from long ago, this is a "new" trail that enters the slab at the very top of the former trail, that was laid out by rock climbers Robert and Miriam Underhill, and is written to be "extremely exhilarating" and "dangerous in wet weather". However, we later learned from from reading the trail register on South Percy, that the older "trail from the West" is still regularly used, by some hearty grid seeking peakbaggers that we are familiar with here in the 4K Whites. Rock on, Gridiots! Hardcore!
North Percy reminded me of the Baldfaces in its terrain. Steep open slab with alot of exposure, great views, and very grippy rock punctuated by lawns of black lichen that looks very slippery when wet. As beautiful and dramatic as it is, I must admit that this is not my favorite terrain and I kept my head down and bolted to the top, eager to summit and descend before any rainfall while MichaelJ oohed and ahhed and Terra came startlingly close to every drop off that she could.
After a brief summit stop, with the clouds ever condensing overhead, we checked out the amazing views of the Mahoosucs, The Kilkenny Range, The Presidentials, The Carter Range, and nearby peaks that we couldn't identify but would like to someday hike. A raindrop hit my shoulder and I promptly announced to MichaelJ that we were heading down, and very quickly, I did. Fortunately, only a few raindrops fell.
Back at the Cohos Trail, we backtracked to the S Percy herdpath. A funky fork in the trail is nicely marked and we took the right branch up South Percy. A wonderful green herdpath, it goes pretty much straight up through thick woods to a fairly open summit. A small mason jar hangs on a little spruce, and we spent about a half hour enjoying the view back toward N Percy, and recognized probably 75% of the names we read, dating back to 1994, as folks we know and/or have hiked with. How great is that?
Up on the summit of South Percy, Terra learned that blueberries were edible. First she saw us eating them. Then she put a whole branchful in her mouth. The next mouthful was just berries, no branches, but there were plenty of green ones. For her third mouthful, she carefully selected *only* ripe blueberries. As we headed down the trail, she scouted blueberry bushes for ripe berries. "We have created a monster" I said, and we laughed, but were also pretty impressed at how quickly animals learn things, especially when it comes to things that can be eaten.
We rejoined the Cohos Trail, and followed it to where it joins with the Percy Loop Trail. The next half mile or so we wrapped around the eastern edge of N Percy, through woods that were very similar to the Weeks section of the Kilkenny's but much lighter travelled. This was probably my favorite part of the trail, but unfortunatley my camera batteries ran out on N Percy, and I have no pictures to share. The trail dropped through a small ravine and past a campsite, and then entered a beautiful birch glade and travelled along an old narrow and very well graded logging road for the next mile or so. A few more turns in the trail, and we were heading toward Nash Stream Road again. We popped out on Nash Stream Rd near Long Mountain Brook, and turned south and walked 1.2 quiet miles back to our car.
A GREAT day out in the woods with MichaelJ and Terra, and my last hike as a 42 year old.
Some pics:
Long slide
Trail alongside
Terra warns this is a dry trail, bring dog water
Beginnings of the slab on N Percy
Terra leads the way
MichaelJ Oohs and Aahhs
Beautiful view
South Percy from North
MichaelJ has some excellent pics from the rest of this hike and will be sharing soon.....
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