alspal
New member
I'm working my way through the New Hampshire fire tower list. This was #22.
I headed out at 4am for the 2+ hour drive to Lyme. The temp in Hanover was 9 degrees when I rolled through. The drive took a little less time than expected so I headed out for a three mile road run as the sky slowly brightened. After a quick change into my Dion Snowshoes I was off.
I decided to ascend via the Lambert Ridge trail and was not sure if I'd do an out/back or make a loop of it. The running was pretty good in the early going, but avoiding the post-holes wasn't easy. I hit a nice open area on the ridge just as the sun came up. What a beautiful morning!
The running remained pretty good after clearing some of the ledges. It looked like only 2 or 3 people had been out since the last snow. Someone wrote "congratulations" in big letters in the snow and also did a nice stick figure drawing.
Soon after the running became more power-hiking with running mixed in when it wasn't quite so steep. The last pitch up to Smarts (after meeting up with the Ranger trail) was better packed, but also very steep. There was no ice so I kept motoring along.
I hit the top in 1:15:40 and quickly ascended the tower. The wind was blowing pretty strongly so I was back down again and running within just under 5 minutes of reaching the top.
I was a little worried about the run down as the Ranger trail was unbroken. I took out the map and decided that, since it saved me about .6 miles and also kept me from having to climb the ridge, it was worth the extra effort to break the trail. Heck the snow wasn't THAT deep.
The descent to the Ranger trail went by easily, I bounded down along the edge of the trail. The steep first pitch down Ranger was also a lot of fun. My main concern as I got further down was that I didn't see any blazes. I ended up NEVER seeing a blaze the whole way down. I wasn't too worried, I had my map and compass and for the most part it was pretty obvious where the trail was. There was one kind of sketchy section where I thought that maybe I had wandered down a streambed, but it turned out to be the correct way.
The descent took me 47:48 for a total time of 2:07:25. The Ranger trail was definitely a lot of fun to barrell down. I was back in my car by 9am and off to hit the Uncanoonucs.
I headed out at 4am for the 2+ hour drive to Lyme. The temp in Hanover was 9 degrees when I rolled through. The drive took a little less time than expected so I headed out for a three mile road run as the sky slowly brightened. After a quick change into my Dion Snowshoes I was off.
I decided to ascend via the Lambert Ridge trail and was not sure if I'd do an out/back or make a loop of it. The running was pretty good in the early going, but avoiding the post-holes wasn't easy. I hit a nice open area on the ridge just as the sun came up. What a beautiful morning!
The running remained pretty good after clearing some of the ledges. It looked like only 2 or 3 people had been out since the last snow. Someone wrote "congratulations" in big letters in the snow and also did a nice stick figure drawing.
Soon after the running became more power-hiking with running mixed in when it wasn't quite so steep. The last pitch up to Smarts (after meeting up with the Ranger trail) was better packed, but also very steep. There was no ice so I kept motoring along.
I hit the top in 1:15:40 and quickly ascended the tower. The wind was blowing pretty strongly so I was back down again and running within just under 5 minutes of reaching the top.
I was a little worried about the run down as the Ranger trail was unbroken. I took out the map and decided that, since it saved me about .6 miles and also kept me from having to climb the ridge, it was worth the extra effort to break the trail. Heck the snow wasn't THAT deep.
The descent to the Ranger trail went by easily, I bounded down along the edge of the trail. The steep first pitch down Ranger was also a lot of fun. My main concern as I got further down was that I didn't see any blazes. I ended up NEVER seeing a blaze the whole way down. I wasn't too worried, I had my map and compass and for the most part it was pretty obvious where the trail was. There was one kind of sketchy section where I thought that maybe I had wandered down a streambed, but it turned out to be the correct way.
The descent took me 47:48 for a total time of 2:07:25. The Ranger trail was definitely a lot of fun to barrell down. I was back in my car by 9am and off to hit the Uncanoonucs.
