EARLY JANUARY OUTINGS

KINSMAN NOTCH: 1/1/14

Enjoyed some fine snowshoeing on New Year's afternoon with our good friends Harry and Barb Cunningham. First we 'shoed 0.4 mi. up the Beaver Brook Trail to the first snow-blanketed cascade.

Descending on Beaver Brook Trail with Dilly Cliffs in the distance.

Then we headed out onto frozen Beaver Pond, with a view up to the Beaver Brook ravine and an impressive craggy knob.

Snowshoeing back towards Mt. Waternomee and Mt. Jim. A very neat place in winter!

ELBOW POND: 1/5/14

On a Sunday morning Carol and I snowshoed out the snowmobile trail (once the bed of the Gordon Pond logging railroad) to 55-acre Elbow Pond. There was probably two feet of powder in the woods and nearly that much in places out on the pond. Here some skiers make their way across the northern half of the pond with Mt. Cushman in the background.

Carol takes in the view across the vast snowy expanse of the pond to the Blue Ridge and Mt. Waternomee.

Zoom on the Blue Ridge, showing an old slide on the slope of Mount Braley.

HURRICANE MOUNTAIN: 1/7/14

After a morning meeting in Plymouth, I drove up to Glencliff for a snowshoe hike up Hurricane Mountain on a bitterly cold and windy afternoon, with temps in the single digits. Hurricane Mountain (3015 ft.) is a small eminence on the long south ridge of Mt. Moosilauke. The Dartmouth Outing Club's lightly-used Hurricane Trail passes over the ridgecrest just north of Hurricane's summit. Of special historical significance, the western slope of Hurricane was part of the E. Bertram Pike Tract, the first land parcel acquired for the White Mountain National Forest, 100 years ago on January 2, 1914. 

As you follow the Glencliff Trail along the edge of a field (this scenic and unique section is part of the Benton State Forest), there's a view of the south ridge ahead.

From the top of the upper field you get a view of (L to R) Mt. Mist, Piermont Mountain and Webster Slide Mountain.

Neat signage at the Glencliff/Hurricane junction.

The middle section of the climb to Hurricane passes through an extensive area of open hardwoods. Snow cover was very thin here, quite a contrast to the deep snow up at Elbow Pond.

The orange-black-orange blaze of the DOC.

Nearing the crest of the ridge.

Trail corridor along the broad ridgecrest - wild up here, with deeper snow.

I bushwhacked to a ledge tucked amidst the scrub on the south side of the trail. I'd been to this once before on a spring hike, but was driven off by a thunderstorm.

From the ledge, I had a mini-view south of Chokecherry Hill, just down the ridge, and Carr Mountain, with its eastern spur jutting out to the L.

I then whacked up to the densely wooded summit bump of Hurricane. Nearby I found a glimpse up to the South Peak of Moosilauke, but the photos didn't come out.

An old trailside sign marking the boundary between the WMNF and the Dartmouth College Moosilauke tract.

I enjoyed some decent snowshoeing up on the ridge.

Descending in late afternoon sun. Hurricane is a nice little snowshoe jaunt off the beaten track, 4.2 mi. round trip with 1500 ft. of elevation gain.