Mt Roberts (2/1/25)

This is the account of my hike of Mt. Jackson. Wait a minute, that's not right. Let's start again. This is the account of my attempted hike of Mt. Jackson, that eventually became my hike of Mt. Roberts. Mt. Jackson, a four thousand footer in the Whites, was the mountain that I wanted to hike today. However, a snowstorm blew in during the morning and made the roads crappy. I probably could have gone, but I saw no reason to take chances. Thus, I sat tight and waited in my apartment until the snow stopped. That took a while. By the time the snow stopped, it was early afternoon, and Mt. Jackson was off the table. I needed a backup plan.

I was going to go see Dragonfly anyway after I hiked, so a hike that would bring me closer to her would be best. I could have done something in the Belknaps, but I like the Ossipees better. Thus, I opted to go for Mt. Roberts, which would be about 2.6 miles in, and obviously the same back out, making for a hike of just over 5 miles.

Of course, my pack was loaded with winter gear for taking on Mt. Jackson, and I didn't feel like taking it out, so I had way too much equipment for the easier Mt. Roberts. I looked like I was going on an expedition, when in fact I was doing a five mile day hike of a relatively easy mountain. The locals must have all thought I was nuts. If they had seen what was in my pack, they would have been sure I was nuts. I had all my above tree line gear like a balaclava and goggles in my pack.

When I arrived in the parking lot, it was pretty cold, colder than I had been expecting. With the freshly fallen snow, I strapped on my snowshoes at the trailhead. That was a mistake. There wasn't enough snow to justify snowshoes, and the rocks battered my snowshoes all day. That was not an ideal outcome.

The snow was not very deep at the trailhead, and even less deep later on.

As I climbed, I saw a number of people descending. I later realized that I was the last person to start up the trail that day. I wasn't concerned, though. I knew that I could knock out 5.2 miles pretty easily, especially when the elevation isn't killer.

Unfortunately, I got off to a bit of a rough start. I haven't used snowshoes in a long time, and I was having a hard time getting adjusted to them. My stride wasn't correct, I wasn't fastening them right, and overall I was struggling a bit with them. Once I got everything ironed out, the hike went a lot more smoothly, and by the time I was descending, I was really moving with them.

One person that I met on the way up wanted to stop and chat, so I turned off the music I was listening to and chatted with him. He thanked me for wearing snowshoes to help stamp down the trail. I chose not to mention to him how much I was regretting wearing the snowshoes. He seemed like a nice guy, and I suspect he might have been a trail volunteer.

A little while later, I ran into an interesting sight. There was a young woman hiking down with her dog. Her dog was wearing a full snowsuit and goggles. It was cold, but I thought the entire thing looked a bit overkill. I'm not a dog expert, though. That's Dragonfly's department, and she said that it depends on the type of dog and how well-suited to the cold they are.

As you near the top of Mt. Roberts, you go through a pretty cool tree tunnel.

After I summited the mountain, I turned right around and headed back down.

Hawk on top of Mt. Roberts, as you can probably tell.

The trip down was quick, and I made good time in my snowshoes. I passed one other group, so I wasn't the last person to finish hiking on the day. Once I got back in my car, it was a quick 45 minute drive to Dragonfly's house, where there were burgers awaiting for dinner. All's well that ends well, and always remember, you can't take flight until you spread your wings.