Taking Flight

My winter adventures continued this week with a tough decision to make. Did I want to go to attempt Sugarloaf and Spaulding in northern Maine for my Winter 67, or did I want to continue to work on the Appalachian Trail in New Hampshire? I don't feel ready for the sheer exertion of the Maine hike, and I am worried about how little daylight there is right now, so I decided to keep hiking in New Hampshire to build my legs back up. Maybe I will go after Sugarloaf over February break. Dragonfly and I looked at the various paths available up Moriah, and I decided on the Carter-Moriah Trail. This was for several reasons. First, I had never done it before, so it would give me the chance to try something new. Second, it seemed like the most direct route to where I wanted to go. Third, there were recent trail reports about it. Those trail reports said that the trail was better hiked in spikes rather than snowshoes, so that was music to my ears. I did strap the snowshoes to my pack, though, a...

Part of winter vacation is getting the chance to hike in the snow! With school having gotten out Wednesday, Thursday seemed like the perfect day to hike. The question was where to hike to? I thought about attacking Sugarloaf and Spaulding, or maybe Abraham, in northern Maine, but those all involved logistical issues that I wasn't quite ready to tackle. In general, the difficulty of a hike doesn't intimidate me. However, logistical difficulties do. Finding parking, trail information, road closures, and so on is stressful. Thus, I decided to fall back on a hike that was a tough climb, but also simple logistically: Mt. Washington. "But wait, Hawk," you might be saying, "your title says Mt. Monroe." We'll get to that. I packed my winter gear the night before my hike. As usual, I packed heavy, making sure that I had my bivy, sleeping bag, and sleeping pad, in case I got into trouble. I am finding snacks to be a difficult issue in the winter, because my proven...

Every previous time that I have hiked the Carters, I have felt too exhausted to take the long way around Mt Hight, and instead I have gone directly up and over Carter Dome. I didn't think this was an issue, as Mt Hight is not on the New Hampshire 48 or the 52 With a View lists. However, it turns out that there is one place where you do have to get it; the Appalachian Trail goes over it. Thus, I planned a hiking trip for little reason other than to get Mt Hight and connect that part of the AT to what I had already done. My hiking trips are fewer and farther between than they used to be, so I wanted to get out for a hike anyway when I had some time over Thanksgiving break. I decided to hike the day before Thanksgiving, stay at the Carter Notch Hut, and then hike out over the Wildcats on Thanksgiving morning. To do this, I would need logistical support (namely a car spot), and Dragonfly took time out of her schedule to offer that support, which I greatly appreciated. I dropped my car ...