"Passaconaway in the Spring"

March 26-27, 2005 White Mountains (Mt. Passaconaway)

The start of spring and an outstanding weather forecast drove me to the White Mountains to bag Mt. Passaconaway this weekend.  Temperatures reached the mid-30's at the summit, and overnight at the base of the mountain, it only got down to 15 degrees.   What's just as nice is that there wasn't a single cloud in the sky during the entire trip!   My sunglasses never left my face as a result of the high and bright sun reflecting brilliantly over the thick blanket of snow which still covers the ground. 

I left the trailhead around 9am, and made great time along the Oliverian Brook trail.  The trail remained relatively flat for the first 2 miles, at which point I reached the Passaconaway Cut-Off trail, the next section of my hike.  It only took 40 minutes to get to this point, which isn't bad considering I was carrying a backpack full of winter gear (~40 lbs.).  

The Passaconaway Cut-Off trail is 1.7 miles long, and unlike the trail before, it's a moderate ascent to the next junction.  Along the way, there were great views of the brilliantly white, snow-capped peak of Mt. Washington.  I reached the Square Ledge trail and followed it to the summit.  Some stretches of the trail were very steep, but were still doable without the aid of snowshoes or crampons.  In fact, I had bare-booted it the entire trip. 

I reached the viewpoint near the summit and was treated to incredible views to the west.  The visibility was absolutely outstanding!  Before me, I could see several of the peaks I had already climbed, like North and Middle Tripyramid, North and South Hancock, Osceola and East Osceola, Whiteface, Flume, and Liberty.  The 4-thousand footers in sight that I had NOT climbed were clearly in the minority.  Wow!  I reflected back at how I've knocked out most of the mountains here in the southern part of the Whites, and a few dozen feet behind me was the true summit of this mountain, and it would be my 22nd of the 48 peaks over 4k'.   I'm not at the halfway point yet, but it's becoming obvious that there are less and less to choose from as I'm working towards my goal of climbing them all. 

I tagged the true summit, and then made my way back down the way I had came.  I had scoped out a good campsite earlier that day along the Oliverian Brook trail, and looked forward to setting up, eating and going to bed.  Along the way, I ran into a huge pile of moose poop on the trail that wasn't there when I had hiked up.   Several other equally large piles were nearby along side of the trail, along with huge moose tracks in the snow.  I wondered if it had been hours or just minutes when the moose had crossed by and kept an eye out.  I never saw it though.

I reached the area where I wanted to camp and stepped off the trail to go down a small hill to get to it.  My leg post-holed several feet down, nearly to my groin.  Yep, the snow is still super deep, despite the warmer temps at the lower elevations.  After trudging a safe distance from the trail, I packed down and leveled a square section of snow for my tent and set it up.  I then boiled water and feasted on chicken with noodles and gravy. 

As the sun went down, the noise level seemed to go up.  Barred owls could be heard hooting in the distance, and they'd continue to do so through the night.  It was really cool to hear!  At one point, I tried calling back in hopes of luring them in closer.  They didn't seem interested though. 

I awoke at 4am, and heard more of the owl calls.  I decided to get out of my sleeping bag and get an early jump on things.  After making coffee and eating a peanut butter bagel, I packed up and was off. 

This trip was great, and I'm enjoying the snow and winter-like setting while I can.  The sun is rising higher in the sky each day, and it's bringing the temperatures up along with it.  It won't be long before the snow is melted and the ground beneath it is revealed.  As much as I love winter, I must admit that I look forward to being able to hike farther and faster during the longer and warmer days which are right around the corner.