August 20, 2009
The weather forecast for this weekend was deteriorating quickly. That meant I had to get out before the bad weather came. I go over to the White Mountains in New Hampshire so often, yet sometimes I forget that 6% of the Whites Mountains National Forest spills over into Maine. After work I decided to go hike the eastern most mountain in the WMNF, Albany Mountain. I have hiked it several times before, but it has been several years, and it was before I started my journal so I never documented it.
When I had been here before, there were some beaver dams that had flooded one of the trails. It looks like those busy beavers still have part of the trail closed
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I took Madison along, and we hit the trail just before 5:00 p.m., not exactly an early start.
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It started off easy enough.
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But this was the Whites. It didn't stay like that long. The typical rocks and roots of the Whites quickly became apparent. I then came to a stagnant bog. It wasn't the beaver dam. It quickly became apparent that if I wanted to hike, I would be getting my feet wet. I went in up to my knees. Then a hole caused me to go in up to my thighs. I continued wading across until I reached the other side. Well that was gross! A few minutes later I came to a junction. I would be doing a loop. I stayed on the Albany Notch Trail.
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Then I came to a giant beaver dam. I decided to take a dam picture.
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Then I decided to take a dam video. To see the dam clip click here.
I managed to find my way to the other side. I took another dam picture. Looks like these busy beavers have built a whole multi-level dam complex.
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I finished the dam tour and searched around for the trail on the other side. It took a few minutes but I found it. A few minutes later I was at another intersection. I had come in once before via Keewaydin Lake.
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I briefly came out of the woods onto some ledges.
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As I neared the summit, I had a nice but limited view to the east.
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I found a small snack along the way.
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Madison on the 1930' summit of Albany Mountain.
This mountain is just a baby compared to most of the mountains in the Whites.
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I would say that the trail official ends at the summit, but there are some cairns that will take you a little further. I had a couple views to the west. The blue skies that I had when I left work were now gray. On a clear day I probably could have identified the Presidential Range. As it was, the only peak I could positively identify was Kearsarge North.
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Self-photo
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Time to head back to the summit.
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I took the direct route back down. That meant I got to skip trying to fight my way back through the beaver dams, but that I still had to go knee deep through the bog. I got back to the truck at 7:00. I estimate that this hike was about 5 miles. I then drove down to Crocker Pond Campground. There was a one mile section of trail that I had never hiked. I had about an hour before it would be dark, plenty of time. But being late in the day, the flash from my camera made it look darker than it really was.
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This trail started off easy as well.
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I walked by Crocker Pond
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I was expecting a flat walk the whole way, but I did have one hill to go up and over. A few minutes later the trail dead ended at Round Pond
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Of course Madison went for a swim. If you look at the AMC (Appalachian Mountain Club) map of the Whites, this spot is somewhat unique. Although there was at least one renegade trail off of this trail, this spot was as far east that you can hike in the White Mountains National Forest on an AMC trail. I returned over the same route. This little trail took about 40-45 minutes roundtrip.
Here's the track from my two small hikes.
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I'm glad I was able to get this hike in. The weather for the weekend is looking even worse.
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