Backpacking & Trekking

4k Footers Greely Pond Hiking Little Haystack Loverens Mill Cedar Swamp Mt. Hancock Mt. Jackson Mt. Osceola Mt. Tecumseh Mt. Tripyramid Mt. Webster New Hampshire United States White Mountains

Upper Greely Pond

This hike was part of the three days of hiking I completed this past Labor Day weekend. I wasn’t actually planning to visit Greely Pond. In fact, I was on the trail to hike Mount Osceola (I’ll post that next). However it was only a short, 0.3 mile detour to Upper Greely Pond, so I decided to go for it.

The trail leading to Upper Greely Pond was simple enough, though it did require walking over log bridges and crossing streams along the way. Mount Osceola’s East peak soars above the pond and is where I was headed next.

The two ponds, Upper and Lower Greely Pond (I only visited the Upper pond) are nestled inside Mad River Notch. The Greely Pond Trail actually leads all the way across to Waterville Valley, about 3 miles away.

Mount Hancock (North and South Peaks)

Mount Hancock (4,420′) was once one of the most inaccessible mountains in the White Mountains. It was remote, void of any trails, and was devastated by logging. It’s now full of life and is one incredible hike! I hiked this mountain as part of my Labor Day hiking marathon. The trail head is located off the Kancamangus Highway, just past the Greely Ponds trail, labeled the Hancock Notch Trail.

The first part of the hike, crossing mostly flat ground, was as easy as the hike up the North peak was difficult. The sound of cars along the Kancamangus Highway disappeared more quickly than I imagined they would. After 1.7 miles, I reached the trail junction of the Hancock Notch Trail and the Cedar Brook Trail. From there I traveled along the Cedar Brook Trail for 0.7 miles over slightly more rugged terrain to the junction where the Hancock Loop Trail branches off to the right. Another 1.1 miles and I reached the Hancock Loop Junction. From here on, the trails were nothing short of difficult. Just before reaching the loop junction, I passed a group of hikers on their way back who told me I should take the North peak up and the South peak down, because the rock was a lot more loose on the South peak. I had planned to take the North peak anyway, but it was nice to know a group of people survived the same route I planned on taking.

As I headed towards the North peak, I noticed in the distance a huge rock slide in the shape of a V on the mountain in front of me. I later learned (on my hike up Mount Osceola) that this was a distinguishable feature of Mount Hancock that made it easy to identify from a distance. In the back of my mind, I hoped that wasn’t the trail up the mountain.

After crossing a dry river bed, the trail became more and more difficult. The most difficult and steep part was a 1/2 mile section of the hike which climbs over 1,000 ft in elevation. There are several sections of the trail that have enough trees cut to give you a taste of the view at the top. And the view at the top of North peak was incredible. Mount Osceola and Carrigain are clearly visible from here. I didn’t know it at the time, but I would be climbing Mount Osceola the following day!

After a short 20 minute break, I traveled across the mountain to the South peak (4,274′), 1.4 miles away, over very easy ground (a relief after hiking North peak!). It was quite amazing how clean and untouched everything was along the trail at the top of the mountain — it was almost fairy-tale like. When I arrived at South peak, there were nice views to the East and North, though nothing quite as panoramic as the outlook on North peak. As I descended back down to the loop junction, I could see the side of Hancock I climbed earlier, as well as the distinguishable “V” rock slide. Maybe it was just my imagination, but the decent down South peak seemed very short and not nearly as difficult as ascent up North peak. From here, I hiked back to the parking lot the way I came.

Date of Hike
2007/09/02

Hiking Time (including breaks)
Parking Lot to North peak: 2 hours
North peak to South peak: 40 minutes
South peak to Parking Lot: 1 hour 40 minutes

Hiking Distance
Round Trip: 9.4 miles

Little Haystack via Falling Waters Trail

Little Haystack (4,840′) is a part of the Franconia Range in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. I hiked to this peak with my sister Meera and my brother-in-law Thea.

We started the hike from the Old Bridle Path parking lot, which is located off I-93N. The exit is marked “Trail Head – Old Bridle Path”. From there, we took the Falling Waters Trail to the peak of Little Haystack. The trail varied between being easy and difficult and we passed several waterfalls along the way. I was disgusted by how inconsiderate some people are, leaving a bag of trash under a rock along the trail. I later regretted not taking the bag back to the parking lot with me when I realized I could have done something to help protect the environment.

Since I am someone who is often bothered by the knowledge of germs, I was taken aback when I noticed how every tree that was positioned in the right place to assist people along the trail, was soaked with oil from the many hands that had come in contact with it. I avoided these trees at all cost for the rest of the hike, as well as on my other hikes.

Trail Map

When we arrived at the top of Little Haystack, above the alpine zone and above the tree line, the temperature dropped dramatically. It was about 85 degrees when we started the hike and at the top, with the fierce wind, it was around 30 degrees! Everyone was wearing winter hats and winter clothes. I was freezing, but I was happy I remembered to bring a sweatshirt! The other two peaks, Mount Lincoln and Mount Lafayette, are both visible from the top of Little Haystack. You could even see the parking lot where we started. Due to the cold weather, we decided not to hike any further and went back down the Falling Waters Trail the way we came.

Date of Hike
2007/09/01

Hiking Time (including breaks)
Ascend time: 2.5 hours
Descend time: 1.5 hours

Hiking Distance
Round Trip: 7 miles

April Camping Trip

I went camping in the white mountains over the weekend. My dad and I drove up together, however we didn’t camp in the same place; I camped by the river (1/2 a mile through the forest) and he stayed in the hut. I camped in the same area near the river almost exactly two years earlier with Thea and Ravi. The weekend forecast called for rain, so I made sure I came prepared. I love roughing it as much as possible, so I used birch bark to start my fire instead of newspaper. It’s amazing how well it burns, even when wet. Even though I brought my laptop with me, I decided to leave it in the car instead of risking getting it wet. I did, however, manage to respond to email questions about my eBay auctions using my Blackberry — reception wasn’t great, but I was able to do what I needed every time I got a 2 minute window of reception.

Due to the Nor’easter we had a few weeks ago, there were lots of trees that were blown over. It was pretty wild — seeing huge trees toppled over in the middle of the forest, as if a giant came by an pushed them over. The trees certainly helped with finding my way back to the hut, as they were very easy spot landmarks! My dad found a really weird foam donut created by the water in the stream. I posted a video of it on YouTube.

It felt so good to walk around barefoot on the rocks and in the mud. For Saturday night, I decided to carry four logs down from my Dad’s dry wood stash. Everything was so wet that I had to constantly be feeding the fire to keep it going. I figured the effort I put into carrying the logs down canceled out the hard work required to constantly feed the fire, so technically I was still roughing it. :) That night, I heard a big splash in the river, like someone throwing a softball size stone into the water. After staring into the darkness for several minutes at the shape of a big animal moving through the water, I finally concluded it was a beaver and I had no reason to worry. The following morning the beaver was still out there, swimming around and cleaning himself off. I’m still not entirely sure how the hell he could make such a loud splashing sound… it didn’t sound like his tail!

Sunday morning, I managed to hit myself in the knee with my hatchet while cutting down the trunk of a birch tree to use for a morning fire. Luckily it was nothing serious, but it made me realize I need to be more careful with my body. I have a long life to live and the more damage I do to my body now, the lower my quality of life will be as I get older. If I did some serious damage to my knee(s) now, it would effect me for the rest of my life.

It drizzled on and off the whole weekend, however it was mostly warm and cloudy on Saturday (I even saw a hint of blue sky!). Sunday morning it started to rain consistently, which wasn’t so bad since we left by noon. Overall, I had an awesome time. Each time I go camping, I seem to realize more and more how much I miss nature. The air smells to clean and life feels so natural. I made the decision to try and sell two of my three rental properties. I’m also going to try to make the time to go camping once a month, April – September.

September Camping Trip

I had planned to spend all day Saturday mountain biking, however when I missed my exit and took the next exit to turn around, I decided to go exploring and find out where the road went. That decision turned into an 8 hour detour!

I took Exit 40, RT 302E, off of I-93S, all the way over to RT 16N, up through Jackson, Gorham, Berlin, Milan, Errol, passing Umbagog Lake, and through the rest of Coos County. I decided to keep going and crossed over into Maine, where there were plenty of very long, very hilly, very steep roads.

I had started driving at 11am and by 3pm, I decided it was time to look at the map and figure out where I was. I really did not want to take the same road back, so I decided to take RT 17S. By chance, I found an unmarked lookout area and took some nice photos of Rangeley Lake:

I then passed by Coo’s Canyon and had to get out and take some pictures:

Then passed through Mexico, Maine where they acknowledge, and apparently are proud of their connection to the country of Mexico. All of the city signs were designed with Mexican art work. I then passed this huge pivot irrigation system, something rarely seen around here:

I then took RT 2E to RT 5S, and then back on to RT 2E all the way to Lancaster, NH. I then hopped onto RT 135E back to the campsite.

Saturday evening I spent by the fire, started with my magnesium fire starter, just as I started the fire on Friday night. It’s certainly a lot harder than you’d think, but I was determined to start a fire without matches or fire starter logs to simulate an actual survival situation. It must have taken me over an hour to start the fire on Friday because almost everything I could find was damp and not dry. I also took advantage of the fact that I was alone and started learning to play the harmonica.

Backpacking & Trekking

Upper Greely Pond

Mount Hancock (North and South Peaks)

Little Haystack via Falling Waters Trail

April Camping Trip

September Camping Trip

Where in the world is Raam?

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