Taking Flight

The four thousand footers were out for this weekend due to high winds, so that meant finishing up the White Mountains or continuing on the Maine high peaks was a non-starter. I really needed to get out for a hike, though. I haven't hiked in a couple weeks, and I am nowhere near prime hiking shape. An individual recently created a hiking patch for the Winter Ossipees, so I decided to start working on that this weekend. I had an ambitious plan for this hike; I wanted to summit four peaks: Roberts, Faraway, Turtleback, and Bald Knob. Of the ten Ossipee peaks needed for the patch, five of them lie within the Castle in the Clouds area in New Hampshire. My girlfriend Dragonfly and I already hiked all the Castle in the Clouds peaks last spring, so I had some familiarity with the area. The two most popular peaks in that area are Shaw and Roberts, both of which offer great views without only a mildly strenuous hike. After the equipment difficulties I had last hike on the Bigelows, I had to ...

This weekend it was time to tackle another couple Maine peaks, the Bigelows. This was actually the second time that I had hiked the Bigelows. The first time I did so was back in August 2018. At that time I hiked with a casual hiking group. However, there is nothing casual about the Bigelows. The Stratton Brook Trailhead for the Bigelows. Many of the hikers who were on that hike were not prepared for just how strenuous the Bigelows can be. Several hikers turned back early, but many of the ones who did not turn back were unready for what was coming. There is a very steep section of the Bigelows which is right below the col, and the unprepared hikers were asking for a break every three steps. I wanted to summit before Christmas, so a couple other in-shape hikers and I broke off and climbed up to the col ourselves, waiting for the group after we got there. It took about half an hour for them to reach us. The entire experience taught me a valuable lesson about group hikes - make sure they a...

 My quest to complete the winter four thousand footers in NH is temporarily on hold until the weather lines up perfectly, so today I decided to expand my winter peaks and start hiking some Maine four thousand footers instead. The last time I decided to hike the Maine four thousands (for my all season list), I started with Saddleback and its Horn, and I completed that list, so I decided not to mess with what worked. I opted to start with Saddleback again. Unfortunately, the day did not get off to an auspicious start. I wasn't feeling great last night and didn't sleep all that well, so I wasn't as rested as I would have liked to be. The good news is that it got me up early so that I could get an early start, which is important because the Maine four thousand footers are all long drives. Funny enough, even though I live in Maine, the NH four thousands are much closer to me than the Maine four thousands are, on account of just how friggin' big a state Maine is. It's act...

I didn't get a chance to get a hike in this past weekend, so I thought I would put up a blog post about a hike I did a month ago. The hike was to Owl's Head, which is probably the most remote mountain in the White Mountains. I had been looking forward to this hike because it was a chance for a few firsts for me. It was my first chance to do a winter backpacking trip with a tent, and it was my first chance to test out a new backpack I got for Christmas, the Xenith 105. The Xenith 105 is the largest backpack that Osprey (the most popular backpack manufacturer) makes, and it is one of the largest packs that you can buy, period. In fact, it's the largest that I have seen. Its true purpose is for long-term expeditions. Why did I need it? My winter sleeping bag wouldn't fit in my current largest pack, the Atmos 65, without taking up half the pack! Thus, I needed a bigger pack just to carry the sleeping bag, which is massive. The Xenith seemed to be just what the doctor ordere...

For this hike, I was supposed to hike with my friend Sylvia and a friend of hers. However, the weather reports were showing extremely cold conditions for this day. Mountain Forecast had wind chills of -20 to -30 degrees at the summit. Sylvia wisely decided that discretion is the better part of valor and backed out. I considered backing out as well, but I had hiked Cabot before, and one thing I knew about Cabot is that it's in tree cover for the entire hike. That means no views, but it also means no wind. I figured that if the trees were blocking the wind, then they would also block the wind chill, and I would only have to deal with the temperatures. The temperatures were cold, in the single digits, but that's well within expectations for a winter hike. Cabot is the northernmost 4000 footer in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. It's an uninteresting mountain with the lack of views, but I had to finish it if I wanted to finish my list of winter 4000 footers. I had an inter...

 I always knew that completing the New Hampshire 48 (all the 4000 footers in NH) during winter was going to be a challenge. There were going to be backpacking trips involved for places like the Bonds and Owl's Head. There were going to be tough conditions above tree line for a number of peaks. However, the mountain that always stood foremost in my mind was Mt. Washington. It is the tallest mountain in New England, standing over 6000 feet. Three weather systems converge on top of the mountain, which is why its weather is infamously bad. I knew that there were very few days in an average winter when Mt. Washington was climbable. If I got a chance at one, I had to grab it. Thus, when I saw that January 9 was forecast to have temperatures in the 20s and winds no worse than 30 mph at the Washington summit, I knew I had to take my chance. For most anywhere else, those would be pretty crappy conditions, but for Mt. Washington that's about as good as it gets, especially in winter. Mt. ...

Hi there, and welcome to my hiking blog! My name is Hawk, and let me tell you a little about myself. I live in Maine, and I do most of my hiking in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. I started hiking seriously in 2017, and in the time since then I have hiked every 4000 foot mountain in New England, many of them multiple times. I have also hiked every mountain on New Hampshire's 52 With a View list (I actually ended up hiking 57 because they changed the list when I was halfway finished), as well as the entire Belknap Range and most of the Osceola range. Currently I am working on finishing up hiking all forty-eight 4000 foot mountains in New Hampshire in winter, a quest which I am four peaks away from finishing. I have done quite a bit of backpacking over the past few years as well. My first backpacking experience was thru-hiking the Long Trail in Vermont, starting at the southern border and finishing up at the Canadian border in the north. That took me three weeks to do. Since th...