Morning Hikes, 7/13-7/18/22

For a week my schedule worked out such that I was only able to do a series of short but rewarding morning hikes.

Mt. Tripyramid in the distance from the first view ledge on Welch Mountain.

Looking across to Sandwich Dome.

Peaked Hill from the shore of Peaked Hill Pond. Back at the trailhead I ran into uber-hiker Philip Carcia, who was nearly one-third of the way through his attempt to hike all the trails in the AMC White Mountain Guide in this single summer season!

Rocks and ledges on Pine Brook, along the East Pond Trail.

On a hazy, sticky morning I climbed partway up East Osceola to the big trailside slab at 3300 ft. The waterbars on Greeley Ponds Trail were looking good. Thanks go to adopter NHAndy...but can't you do something about those roots?😉

When I came to this jumble of rocks not far above Mad River Notch, I thought, this reminds me of the Mount Osceola Trail (from Tripoli Road). Then I remembered...this is the Mount Osceola Trail.

East Osceola's version of Clam Rock.

The East Osceola approach we know and love.

A clear path leads a few yards left to the base of the massive slab that is the most open remaining part of a slide that fell in 1891 or 1892. The pitch of this slab approaches a near-technical 45 degrees. In 1893 William Morse Cole made a harrowing ascent of the new slide and spent the night on the summit of Mt. Osceola. His account of the trip, “Alone on Osceola,” was published in New England Monthly magazine in 1895. Cole was a longtime professor of Economics at Harvard University, and a prolific author in the field of accounting. I wondered if he was referring to this slab when he wrote,  “Now and then I came to a pitch so sharp and smooth that I could not cling, even though I lay flat and pressed hard with both feet and hands.”

On grippy rock, I made my way out to a seat on the sloping shelf at the base of the slab (not recommended if wet!).

I hung out here for a while in the hazy sun.

Looking back across.

Clusters of meadowsweet, a frequent colonizer of slides, cling to various crevices in the rock.

I went a little higher on this chaotic pitch of the trail.

With a short bushwhack I gained a side perspective on the slab....

...and a hazy view out to the Tripyramids, with Mt. Passaconaway peering over in back. I made it back to the trailhead just in time to beat the incoming rain.