March 15, 2008
Three Weeks. That's how long it has been since my last hike. For someone who loves hiking that is like an eternity. I'll go hiking in nearly any type of weather; but last Saturday we had freezing rain all day, and the Saturday before we had a whooper of a snowstorm. So I am more than ready to get back out there. The weather was overcast all day, making this a great day for a viewless bushwhack hike. I met Ed Robertson and company at the covered bridge in Stark, N.H. This will be my first hike of the year outside of the White Mountains. We are going after two peaks today. Long Mountain (West Peak) and Long Mountain (Middle Peak), both of which are on the New Hampshire 100 highest list. We were a group of six which also included David Ross, Mark Rolenson, Damon Ritter, and Al Dwyer. This was my first time hiking with Al. We carpooled up to Christine Lake. Here's today's track.
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Someone, not from our group, was parked on Christine Lake.
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We started off on a snowmobile trail. After a few minutes we came to a snowmobile intersection.
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We continued on the snowmobile trail before coming to this old wreck.
Mark got inside and pretended to drive.
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Time to put on snowshoes and start the bushwhack.
Ed made a comment that I was part of the next generation of hikers. At 37, I was the 'young guy' in the group. It was nice to be called young. I think I have found the secret of staying young: Always have friends that are older than you.
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After a while of bushwhacking, we stumbled across the Cohos Trail, New Hampshire's longest hiking trail. We followed it for a couple tenths of mile until it no longer was going in the direction we wanted.
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We began bushwhacking again when Mark lead us right to this old logging road.
It was heading in the right direction. Sweet!
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We followed it about 10-15 minutes when it started to bend to the south. We trudged off into the woods again. Then we were up for the steepest part of the climb. Although steep, we managed to stay free of anything really thick. We made it up to the ridge which we followed to the 3661' summit of West Peak. It was some work getting into the cannister, but Ed managed to melt some of the ice with a lighter. Ed took my picture.
We had found a fairly easy route to the top, but apparently another hiker had more difficulty. One of the entries in the log read: "I don't know what day God created Long Mountain,
but I wish He had rested that day too."
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After a break, we headed off to Middle Peak. 
Dave and Al heading across a small pond.
There was definitely an advantage of doing this in winter.
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Next we reached the Middle Peak which at 3661' was the exact elevation of West Peak.
Here's Ed at the summit after melting away the ice around the plug.
Note: Another foot or so of snow and the cannister, which would normally be chest high, would be buried.
According to the log, the last time anyone bagged these peaks was September of last year.
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While we were taking a break at the summit Mark noticed a lot of our last names started with 'R'.
"With Rolenson, Robertson, and Ross, the letter 'R' is well represented," said Mark.
"And Rathbun," I added.
"And Ritter," added Damon.
That was 5 out of 6. We all looked at Al.
"Uh oh! My last name is Dwyer," said Al.
"Who invited him?" we all joked.
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We returned over the same route with one exception. As we neared the end of the hike, Damon had an idea for a shortcut. Ed thought it would be quicker to return over the same route. David, Al, and Mark decided to side with Damon. Since Ed was by himself I decided to go with him.
"Eric, I'm disappointed. Where is your adventure?" asked Mark.
"Ed sends out the emails for these hikes. I want to stay on his good side," I replied.
Ed and I pushed as hard as we could, but Damon's shortcut paid off. They beat us back to Cristine Lake. ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Spring is just 5 days away, so this will probably be my last winter hike of the season.
Of course, winter conditions in the mountains will exist for another 1-2 months.
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