Last weekend I added another peak to my NH48 list by submitting Mount Moosilauke on a quick day hike. I haven’t been hiking much this spring due to my desire to get my house fixed up and put on the market sooner than later. I had heard that Moosilauke is one of the easier 4000 footers so I figured it would be a good warm up for the summer. They were right.
June 1, 2019: The Mount Moosilauke and South Peak Loop day hike.
Mount Moosilauke Summit
Some days you just need to hike and this was one of those days. I woke up early on a Saturday morning and drove to the White Mountains in NH for a simple day trip. While many would say 4 hours each way for a 7.2 mile hike is a little drastic, most hikers would agree it is a worthwhile trade off. I pulled in to the access road for the Moosilauke Lodge, parked, laced up my boots and hit the trail sometime around 11:00am.
The trail enters the woods just below the Moosilauke Lodge and, while I am thinking about it, that lodge looks like an awesome place to stay. It is owned and operated by Dartmouth College and staying there is very affordable.
As you may have heard, the NH48 is now the NH47. In February, Mount Tecumseh was demoted from being a 4000 footer. New surveys place it’s elevation at 3,995 feet instead of the 4,003 feet it was previously thought to be. But wait! I didn’t hike it in February. I hiked it in December so I hit the summit before it officially shrank so I am adding this to my NH 4000 footers list and you can’t stop me.
December 8th, 2018: A daytrip up Mount Tecumseh.
Mount Tecumseh Summit
The day started in the parking lot of Waterville Valley Ski Area in the mid-morning. I decided to bag a quick peak since I was out at a party the night before and was really feeling it when I woke. The Mt Tecumseh Trail is the quickest way to the top of a 4000 footer 3,995 footer so it worked perfectly for my needs. The trail starts on the right-hand side of the parking lot when you are walking up towards the ski area and from there just winds it’s way up the “lookers right” of the ski area.
Batona Trail through the Pine Barrens in Wharton State Forest
I took a trip to New Jersey to check out the Pine Barrens in Wharton State park. This was a quick overnight trip that should be suitable for novice backpackers but is also a fun night out in the woods for anyone who just wants to get away.
The Dirt:
Length: 15 miles (approximately 7.5 miles per day)
Many people have a goal to do all of the NH 4000 footers at some point in their lives. I never really shared that desire until this year. Unfortunately, you need to document the dates you hiked to each summit so many of the peaks I have hiked in the past will need to be completed again so I can set a date for each peak. This trip will allow me to bag three more peaks: South Kinsman, North Kinsman and Cannon Mountain.
The hike, at only 11-12 miles could be done as a day trip but I chose to do this as an overnight backpacking weekend, staying at Kinsman Pond. With a total elevation gain of 4500 feet, it still can be a bit of a challenge for some so don’t let the short length fool you into thinking this is a beginner hike. If you do this as an overnight, the mileage is roughly 6 miles for each day.
I purchased the Outdoor Research Deviator vest and hoody because I had been hearing a lot of great things about them. If you haven’t heard about them yet, here are a few highlights:
The front of the coat has a thin insulated layer made of Polartec® Alpha® insulation which should remain breathable and dry even when you are sweating during your adventures. The back, hood and sleeves (obviously the vest doesn’t have sleeves) are made of Polartec® Power Grid™ for enhanced airflow, breathability and comfort. It has won numerous awards including “Editors Choice” from Backpacker magazine and “Gear of the Year” from Men’s Journal and Runners World. Continue reading “Outdoor Research Deviator Hoody and Vest Sizing and Initial Review”
Well, the whole point of this blog was to lay out a bunch of itineraries and follow up with the description of the hike after I completed it. All good plans require execution and I failed to do that. The good news is that I hiked a lot this summer. The bad news is that I didn’t write accounts of my trips and didn’t take notes to refer back to.
Today is a new day.
Over the next few weeks I will try to post some of the itineraries I hiked this summer and will include a few pictures from the hikes. I will write brief notes at the end of each since a true trail report wouldn’t be accurate at this point. I will also try to get my butt in gear and do it right for my next few trips.
Thanks for being patient with me while I figure this out.
If I was smart, I would have done this post when everything was fresh in my mind. Instead, I was lazy and here we are over a month later and I am just sitting down to start writing up a trip report. On Memorial Day weekend, May 25-27, 2018, I decided to backpack the loop around Cape Chignecto, Nova Scotia. This is a brief summary of the trip:
Day 1:
I woke up in the backseat of my car to the sound of rain tapping on the windows. Looking out, I was about to see my first views of the Bay of Fundy which would become the backdrop of my next few days. When checking the weather the night before, it appeared like there would be some clearing during the day and then the rain would come back at night so I wasn’t in any rush to get wet right away. If I planned this right, I should be able to get to camp in the window of no rain.
I made my way across the parking lot to check in at the ranger station. The staff was helpful and they gave me a photocopy of a map as well as the tide information. Just so you know, you will need to check in with them before you head out on your trip. If you are planning a trip to Cape Chignecto, I also wrote a post to help with that as well.
The first decision you have to make is whether to take the trail or the beach route. If the tide is on your side, the walk up the beach will save you about .7 miles and the climb over a hill. I didn’t go over the hill on the way out or the way back so I can’t tell you if there are any views up there. After heading up the beach you will see a yellow sign and some spray paint on the rocks where you will turn right and head up a flight of stairs. At this point, you are officially on the trail.
Cape Chignecto Provincial Park sits on the Bay of Fundy in Nova Scotia, Canada. On it resides a 33 mile (53km) backpacking loop that I had my eye on for years. Looking at the pictures had me salivating at the beauty but the thought of such a long drive for a 3 day backpacking trip seemed excessive. As a point of reference, it is around a 13-15 hour drive from my house depending on traffic and pit stops. The other thing that seemed to hold me back was the lack of information about some aspects of the trip. In this post I will try to fill you in on a few things that may help you plan.
Let’s start at the beginning and go from there. First, there are three types of camping spots on the Cape. There are huts, backcountry sites and kayak sites. All three require a permit and permits are not free. As of this writing, the camp sites are $26.70 CAD while the huts are $59.40 CAD. I actually didn’t check if there are different prices for holidays so you will need to check that out. You can reserve your sites here.
Parking at the park is in a nice large lot by the welcome center and there is no fee for parking. That said, you are only allowed to park there overnight if you have a permit for that evening and have checked in. I hope you noticed the end of that last sentence. When you get to the park, you need to check in before you head out so don’t arrive before they are open and just start hiking. Also, you should let them when you are done at the welcome center as well. I would like to mention that the people working in the welcome center were AWESOME! They gave me a photocopy of a map with mileage on it, the tide chart for the weekend, and also information about the camp sites. Also, they were just really nice. Kudos to them!
Let’s talk about mileage. When I was planning my hike I wasn’t sure about the exact mileage of each segment because it seemed hard to find online. When I got there, it wasn’t much better since they gave me a map and that map didn’t match the signs in the park. Let’s just go with the map since it was a photocopy and would be easier to change the actual signs in the park so it is probably more accurate. The photocopy was not very clear to begin with and then spent a weekend in my pocket so I am not going to bother scanning it in here. Instead, I will just list in the data points on the map. So you can follow along, there is a map on the park brochure. You will notice the individual mileages don’t add up to 33 miles (53km) even on the map but I guarantee you will walk more than 33 after walking to every lookout and exploring every cove.
This is the first post on my new site, sweatyhiker.com. For the most part, this site will be centered around my adventures in hiking and backpacking as well as some reviews of products I try and use. Occasionally, there will be some random musings and nutritional things but I will probably post more of the nutritional stuff on my sister site, hikethin.com.
Let me get this out of the way now: I am not a writer. In fact, I am an IT guy which probably took any writing skills I had and threw them out the window. Living in a world of acronyms can do that to a guy. Hopefully as time passes, I will get better and you will enjoy the content here. I plan to keep the content light-hearted with some humor sprinkled in here and there. That said, I want my trail reviews to be accurate so people can plan their own itineraries inspired by the data found here.
Standard disclaimer: if you decide to use any itinerary on this site for your own adventure, you do so at your own risk. Conditions change, trails can be rerouted, and everyone’s abilities are different. It is your responsibility and your responsibility alone to confirm anything you read here and plan accordingly.
