Loop Hikes

Most of my backpacking trips this year have turned into guidebook chapters for Backpacking the White Mountain 4000 footers, instead of personal trip reports. But my latest backpacking trip through the Caribou-Speckled Wilderness doesn’t have what it takes to be a guidebook …

“These aren’t 20 mile per hour winds,” I told Eliot, as we started climbing the Crawford Path up to the Southern Presidential Range, just south of Mt Washington in New Hampshire. Our destination was Mount Pierce and Mt Jackson, two 4000 footers, …

Late autumn/early winter conditions are notoriously tricky to forecast in New Hampshire’s White Mountains and you need to be willing to modify or abort your trip plans when conditions on the ground don’t meet your expectations. I found myself in that situation …

Mt Flume and Mt Liberty are the two southernmost 4000 footers on the southern end of Franconia Ridge. Sometimes called “Fliberty”, they’re frequently hiked together in a loop since they’re only separated by a 1.2-mile walk along the top of the ridge. …

When people visit the White Mountains, the two geographic features they remember the most are the mountains and the notches, which are giant mountains passes that link different regions of the area together. When you drive down the narrow two-lane roads that …

Owl’s Head Mountain is one of the most remote 4000 footers in the White Mountains, deep in the heart of the Pemigewasset Wilderness. Feeling in need of a long hike, I decided to climb it but to take a roundabout route to …

The Passaconaway Slide Trail is an old “lost” trail that climbs an avalanche path to Mt Passaconaway, a 4000 footer in the Sandwich Range. While it’s no longer signed or listed in the White Mountain Guide, it is possible to find the …

Beth and I met at the Caps Ridge Trailhead at 6:00 am. We wanted an early start to hike our 13+ mile route (with 6300′ of elevation gain), up Mt Jefferson via the Caps Ridge Trail, down Sphinx Col, and back up …

Mt Whiteface is a 4000 footer in the Sandwich Range that’s usually climbed using the Blueberry Ledge Trail, then over to Mt Passaconaway via the Rollins Trail, and down via Dicey’s Mill Trail. I took a much different route on my last …

Jennings Peak (3440′) is a 52-with-a-View mountain in Waterville Valley at the top of Acteon Ridge. It has a great view of massive Sandwich Dome Mountain (shown above) which at 3993′ is just seven feet shy of being a 4000 footer. I …

Table Rock is a cliff that juts out into Dixville Notch, a picturesque mountain pass in New Hampshire’s north country. Bordered by Sanguinary Mountain to the north and Mt Gloriette, to the south, the sides of Dixville Notch are guarded by jagged …

Mt Pierce is the second four thousand footer you encounter when hiking north in the Presidential Range of the White Mountains. My buddy Ken and I climbed to the Appalachian Mountain Club’s Mizpah Hut located just below the summit, hiking up the …

Towering over 100 feet in height, the great Arethusa Falls is one of the most popular waterfalls in the White Mountains. Located in Crawford Notch, the trailhead is located off Rt 302 within easy reach of the other attractions along that scenic …

On Sunday I climbed Welch Mountain (2,605 ft) and Dickey Mountain (2,734 ft), both on the 52-with-a-View List, with a meetup.com group called the New England Hiking and Adventurer’s Group. This is a very active group of hikers, climbers and peakbaggers that …