The Peaks of Pawtuckaway

Last week I went from gung-ho about peakbagging to barely wanting to head out at all come Friday night.  Joining Hannah at Pawtuckaway on Saturday, April 7 was the perfect solution.

We had a rough idea of what we wanted to do: Reservation Road to North Mountain (1011'), maybe add in the tower on South (908'), and loop back to the car.  Speaking of rough, apologies for the unedited photos, lack of summary stats, and first draft-level language; I'm still working on finding blog writing time while my brain is still awake!

To get to our starting point, we followed Reservation Road down the hill past where it turns to dirt and parked near the first orange gate (also where the road hooks to the right).

Easiest of easy starts

There were several cars parked along the road and we prepared for a busier day than anticipated.  The trails starts on  what I assume was once a carriage road but quickly we reached the junction with North Mountain Trail and started with a brief, rocky climb.  

There is no snow up to North Mountain!  The trail is well marked with white blazes yet we still found ourselves accidentally wandering off between the sparse trees.  Grades are moderate and the terrain is more akin to that of the Ossipee Range trails than the Whites – more hard packed dirt and rock slabs than boulder-strewn.  It often reminded me of Mt Roberts but a little easier.

Between Ty and Titus, we seem to be in a calamity vortex that included our first porcupine encounter in quite some time.  Ty led as Titus followed her off trail, noses suspiciously angled upwards.  In a strange turn of events, she returned promptly when called and Titus had to be tracked down by his confused barks.  Yep, T’s first quilling L

The bizarreness continued but in a more productive way as we rounded everyone up and away from the languishing porky.  A couple was coming down the hill with their three dogs.  Lo and behold, they were veterinarians! And damn good ones; the guy, whose name I regret forgetting, calmly pulled T’s quills out (with his fingers no less!) and gave a quick recap of recommended aftercare before we continued on.  How Ty didn’t put herself in the middle of the interaction and what made T nip at the animal’s prickly backside more than once has stumped us both!

As we continued on, there were a couple of opportunities for hill views and the wind started to pick up.  We made it down to the old concrete blocks for a short break and Hannah made out better than I did getting the dogs to pose.  Tango has his “front paws up” mastered but won’t stay without constant rewarding just yet.

Between the base of the old tower and the pond, the trail went through patches of dense conifers and has some steep sections with lots of ice-glazed roots.  I was in Bogs and did alright but the party that let us go first was wearing micros and warned me to "be careful."  We enjoyed the alternating tree cover and spring vs. desperate last hold on winter conditions.

"Teach Titus bad things day"

Final drop down to the marsh

Down by the ponds, we wove around the marshes and boulders, somewhat following the trail but appeasing Ty’s exploratory nature. 

There's a reason Carolina Dogs are called "swamp dogs!"

Wallowing season

"Please pretend you love me for two seconds...." 

More neat rocks

Back on another carriage road temporarily, we opted to take South Mountain Trail up to the fire tower.  It seemed steeper than it should have felt and one of the pitches was straight dirt.  Makes me wonder how long before erosion has its way with the trail.

More of TybTangs leading young Titus astray.  They remind me of the archetypal neighborhood teens when someone's younger brother joins the gang.

The trail took some nice breaks, crossed a stream, and continued upwards, more gently towards the top.  Below the tower was nice and open but hosted a handful of people  so we walked over to the open slabs adjacent but devoid of other hikers.  Hannah put in a valiant effort to snap a photo of me with the dogs but I have uncooperative canines and a disappointing lack of understanding of how a real camera works.

Because one tower picture isn't enough

From the clearing just past the tower

From there we made our descent.  The woods were fairly open, I suppose allowing for lots of scent to travel because again Ty and Titus had their noses to the sky.  On that side was also the only place we encountered thick ice as it cascaded over roots.  Winter is barely hanging on!

We bottomed out and took Tower Road to Reservation Road to reach the cars.

I see a conversation of directions ;)

As much as I originally wanted to summit a 4K, Pawtuckaway was exactly what we needed.  I felt accomplished after the 8-point-something miles involving two smaller peaks, Ty got to run around like the crazy dingo she is, and it was another moderate but enjoyable challenge for Tango.  We love this park because there is so much to explore, especially during the off season when it's quieter and dogs are permitted on more of the trails. We plan to return for more time around the marshes and boulders because Ty absolutely loves them, although we may wait til the porcupines are not just coming out of hibernation!  It was a wonderful, strange trip with Hannah and her pups and I’m thrilled beyond words everyone had a fun time!

Trail Map from NH Parks: https://www.nhstateparks.org/uploads/pdf/Pawtuckaway-Trail-Map.pdf

Small hikes, big views: Pine Mountain

Chapel Rock

Howdy! This is our first post since the spring and we've mostly been visiting the Belknaps and a couple excellently short, bang-for-your-buck hikes in the Whites.  In doggy notes, Sage was adopted, we got to hike with Titus again, and Tango has been doing a couple sports for conditioning/strengthening while I search for a trainer to address Ty's excessively predatory behavior.  To make a long story short, here's a quick-ish write up of one of our hikes back in May that I think is definitely worth consideration!

Pine Mountain in Gorham, NH seems to be a well-kept secret.  While a surprising number of people arrived on the summit during our visit, the trails were quiet and I found very little literature on the interwebz about it. Other than the obscene amount of no see um's and other flying evil doers, it was an awesome hike!

A lollipop can be made of this summit from either Pinkham B or downtown Gorham in order to see all it has to offer but we did a short out-and-back from the former.  The Horton Center is a religious retreat that owns a large portion of the land the trails winds through and graciously allows hikers access.

Most of our hiking was up the dirt road to the center and it was pretty darn nice!  Where the trail departs the road is well signed and we were suddenly on a narrow trail in stark contrast to where we just were.  We tip toed on a handful of bog bridges but didn't gain much elevation before reaching the trail's junction.

On the trail:

Here's our sign

At the junction I failed to take a picture of, we opted to head straight up to the summit by taking a sharp right.  Going straight ahead would've brought us closer to the center's grounds and Chapel Rock (pictured above due to formatting).  Instead we got a nice view of it from the first viewpoint along a short, marked path off shooting from the trail.

First viewpoint, shortly off the trail and well marked

 We stopped at most of the marked viewpoints as we walked along.  The trail was enjoyably pretty through conifers, hemlock if I'm bold enough to guess.  Footing was very nice and easily navigable.  It was also a lower grade than the steepest parts of the road.

We took breaks due to the heat before and after the concrete remnants of an old summit tower and enjoyed the views from the ledgy section of trail that brought us to the south cliffs where many people could enjoy the views of 'the big mountains.'  From there we crept down the smooth rock face, attempting to do the loop part of the hike.  Despite seeing people come up from that direction, we just couldn't figure out where they had come from.  Not overly interested in asking nor the climb that we sensed was likely on the other end, we opted to simply head back the way we'd come.  It was certainly nice enough to repeat in reverse!

Decent signage, we just couldn't seem to get the map in our brains to work that day!

Arriving at the south cliffs.  Still some pockets of snow up high!

Gorgeous view of Pinkham Notch we don't often see!

And more views behind us!

Where to go?

Discussing the prospects

Exploring one possibility

The trail ladies say if it ain't the right way, we're moving on so hurry up!

I don't have much to report about the descent.  I bounced ideas off of Hannah about Ty's deer chasing, we watched the dogs' gaits for issues, and were slightly less attacked by bugs than on the way up.

Pine Mountain is foster pup approved!

Coming in at a fun-filled three miles, it was a perfect hike for the day since we were already up there and we elongated the duration by meandering.  If done as a loop it will be a bit more depending on which direction one comes from.  It's absolutely worth the views; I can't say enough about that!  Writing this well after the fact, I don't recall many water sources except in the shallow trench alongside the road and believe it or not, I did run out of water!  The grade and footing are very "active senior" and "recovering dog" friendly.  I've probably said that before about rockier trails but I speak the truth on this one!  I harbored a little nervousness about Ty in the less-traveled woods but it was truly a great hike for everyone.  We followed the signs and found it easy to get to our primary goal but I managed to confuse myself about the loop business.  Something to explore for next time!

Pine Mountain resources: 

WMNF trail description: https://www.fs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/stelprdb5365158.pdf

 1 Happy Hiker report: https://1happyhiker.blogspot.com/2013/09/a-little-loop-hike-to-pine-mountain.html

Section Hiker report from downtown Gorham: https://sectionhiker.com/a-winter-hike-up-pine-mountain/