February 2, 2008
The Groundhog must have seen his shadow, because there was a nasty, wintry mix on the way to the White Mountains today. I had a close call too. There was a snow plow going very slow with his hazards on. He wasn't even plowing. I guess he was on his way to do some plowing. I came to a straightaway and decided to pass him. As I began to pass, he decided it was time to take a left hand turn. I had one second to make up my mind: run into the plow or hit the brakes and aim for a snowbank. I chose the later. I hit the brakes, went into 180° spin and hit the snowbank. The driver immediately stopped, came out, and apologized. I told him not to worry about it. There was clearly no damage to my car, but it was half buried in the snowbank. Fortunately, he was driving a snowplow. He pushed the snow from in front of the car. Two other gentleman stopped to push me out. The whole ordeal took about 10 minutes, and I was back on the road.
As a result of the weather and snowplow incident, I was about 15 minutes late. With the weather the way it was, I wasn't the only one running behind. I'm taking a break from the 'Grid' today. With the bad weather, I figured it was a good day to stay in the woods, so this is a bushwhack hike heading up by Ed Robertson and Mitch (??). We started of from the base of the Cog Railway. We were glad we weren't heading up Mount Washington today. Besides Ed, Mitch and myself, there was Georg and Alex who I've hiked with before. I also had the chance to meet Ross, Mark, and Marianna. There was also a Dutch woman who I had the opportunity to hike with. Her name was difficult for me to pronounce so I never did learn to say it (never mind trying to spell it). Here's today's track.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
After a short road walk down Base Station Road, we put on our snowshoes.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Marianna and Mitch crossing a small bridge.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
We stayed on Boundary Line Trail for about a mile. This dumped us out on Jefferson Notch Road. The road is unplowed in winter, but well packed by the snowmobilers.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
We stayed on the road all the way up to Jefferson Notch.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
This was as high as we could go by way of road and trail. This is a much shorter hike in the summer because you can park here. But, we like to do things the hard way. Georg said, "What doesn't kill us, makes us strong." We headed into the woods. Based on Ed's previous experiencing hiking these mountains, we tried to stay north of the ridge to avoid the thick, gnarly spruce. We stayed low before making a southwest turn up the mountain.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
It didn't matter if I was first in line or last, I managed to find all the major spruce traps today.
Here I am waist deep in one.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
We followed the ridge the last few tenths of a mile before reaching the 3,727' summit of Mount Dartmouth.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
This mountain makes the list for New Hampshire's 100 highest, a list that I have finally decided to work on (although I haven't added a webpage for it yet). It's not as huge a task as it sounds since I am already doing the New England 100 highest. These two lists share 59 peaks. We checked the entry log in the cannister. The last time anyone was here was on November 3rd, making us the first to summit the mountain in '08. Left to right: Marianna, Ross, and Mark. Marianna is closing in on the New Hampshire 100 highest. I think she said this was #91.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Georg on the summit.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
We had enough time and energy to go after Millen Hill next. It is an official New England 3000 footer. Completing all the New England 3000 footers requires hundreds of bushwhacks. I'm not sure if I will ever be up for that challenge, but Mark is quickly nearing completion of this massive list. We could have gone across the ridge, but it would have been nasty. We dropped in elevation before cutting back up the mountain. Marianna had had enough for today, so she headed back with Mitch. Here's a blowup of the bushwhack part of today's track.
Based on my GPS, the group was getting a little off course. Ed and I were at the back of the pack.
"I think we have a mutiny on our hands," I said.
"As long as they turn to the left once they reach the col, we are all right," said Ed.
When the group started to turn right to continue up, I knew I needed to speak again.
"You are heading back up Dartmouth," I yelled.
Mark pulled out his GPS to verify. Sure enough, we needed to correct our course by 90 °. Once we turned we could make out Millen Hill. Unfortunately, we still managed to hit the thick, nasty spruce in the col that we had tried so hard to avoid. We pushed through the col where I managed to find no less than 3 spruce traps, one of which sucked me in up to my chest. Finally, we made one more push up to the top of the 3376' summit of Millen Hill.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
There was no way we were going back that way. We whacked our way down the mountain and then back to Jefferson Notch Road. After making our way down the road, we re-entered the woods on the Boundary Trail. I could tell by the quick pace that Georg was in the front. He is in such great shape and can really move. We emerged on the Base Station Road and headed back to Marshfield Station completing the hike about 5:00 pm.
| 
