North Pack Monadnock Mountain

End of March. It is spring on the calendar, however, it is still winter in the mountain in New England. Today Mr.N and I went hiking in the North Pack Monadnock area. 

First, we stopped by a coffee shop. Our favorite coffee place in Massachusetts, Haute Coffee in a town of Concord. Haute is an English word originated from French. Because French word doesn't pronounce h at the beginning, it is said "ohto"Anyway I love this place's pour over coffee and scone. Often people bring dogs and leave dogs at the entrance. At the entrance there are two water bowls for dogs. Today there was a saint bernard at the entrance! I got soooooooo excited. He was so cute. He was friendly. I pet him and he looked happy. He did a lot of hand shakes for me. Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww. So cute! Saint Bernard is a breed of large dogs originated in Italian and Swiss Alps. When I did Tour du Mont Blanc, I hiked through the area of Saint Bernard origin. Also there was a trail race called Saint Bernard. It is a rescue dog in the snowy Alps. It reminded me of the great memory of Tour du Mont Blanc. (The journals were posted in this blog from day1 to day10 starting at https://himebackpacker.blogspot.com/2019/01/tour-du-mont-blanc-day1.html).

At the trailhead

Then we arrived at the trailhead. Today we climbed via Ted's trail and hiked down via Carolyn's trail. The trailhead indicates two trails' names.

I don't know who the Ted and Crolyn are, but maybe a couple? It is just my imagination. Maybe they competed from each side of mountain to reach the top. I would root for Carolyn!

 

 

Anyway, the snow near the trailhead was relatively hard and only microspikes were enough. After 10 minutes of walk, there was a junction: we turned left to the Ted's trail. Ted's trail is along the creek. The snow is finally getting melted. It is nice to walk along the trail. 

At lower elevation, fresh snow is on the top, however, I felt the ice under the soft snow. Because it sometimes gets above and below freezing temperature (0C). Indeed, I saw several big ice. On the other hand, some portions at lower elevation are completely out of snow. This month, I feel every week is getting warmer in the mountain and little by little snow is shrinking. However, that is only at lower elevation now. As we climbed the mountain, snow got much softer without ice, the temperature got lower, and wind got stronger. Although it was cold, the scenery was much nicer. 

The evergreens have snow on the leaves and brunches. Nobody was on the trail. Snow forest was extremely quiet other than winds' sound. It was very pretty, so I took many pictures.

At the top there was some open vista, but it was too cold to sit down and relax. Mr.N was much more tolerant to cold, and he wanted to sit down, but I said I couldn't. I took out sandwich and ate while walking. Now it was downhill. When snow is soft, downhill is not difficult like icy trail. I could manage hiking plus eating. 

The first portion of Carolyn trail has some slope vista. The slope is full of snow covered tress. It was very pretty.  

Carolyn trail is not along the creek. I thought that the Ted's trail is more scenic. Creek scenery might be differently pretty in spring due to green trees and more water. 

On the way down, first time on the trail we saw a hiker. I looked at the hiker's face and I thought the hiker is a female. Later Mr.N thought that the hiker is a male. Secretly I think that I am right. 

I didn't have a high expectation (actually I have never had a high expectation for New England' hikes), but this one was actually unexpectedly pretty. Especially snow covered trees are beautiful and I liked it. 

３月末。暦の上では春だが、ニューイングランドではまだまだ冬。今日はNと

North Pack Monadnockにハイキングへ出かけた。

まずはマサチューセッツで一番のお気に入りのコーヒー店へ。オートコーヒーというカフェ。 ここのpour overコーヒーとスコーンは絶品なのだ。入り口には犬が！セイントバーナード ！すごくフレンドリー！なでなでするとお手を何回もしてくれた。かわいい！！！！ものすごくかわいい。セイントバーナードはイタリア・スイスアルプスのブリードで救助犬としても山で活躍する寒さに強い大型犬だ。そして賢い。セイントバーナードのワンコは去年行ったツアーデモンブランのハイキングを思い起こさせた。その時のブログは１日ごとにここに記録：

https://himebackpacker.blogspot.com/2019/01/tour-du-mont-blanc-day1.html

 

そしてトレイルヘッドへ。今日のトレイルは テッドトレイルとカロリントレイル。上りはテッド、下りはカロリンでループ　（一番上の写真）。テッドとカロリンは名前だが、誰かは知らない。

もしかしてカップルで山の頂上に登るのを競争したとか？だから二つのルートがある？ただの想像だが。。。

とにかく、歩き始める。テッドトレイルは川沿いに続く綺麗なトレイル。ようやく雪が溶け始めて来たため、クリークでは水が流れていた。トレイルの表面はソフトな雪だったがその下は硬いのが歩いているとよくわかる。ニューハンプシャーの冬の温度は非常に寒くなったりちょっとだけ０Cよりも高くなったりの繰り返しなので、雪が溶けてはまた凍るの繰り返し。そのため至る所に大きな氷の塊が見られた（写真３番目）。

ただ標高が高くなると雪はどんどんソフトになり氷はない。なぜなら山の頂上付近になると０C以上には冬はなかなかならないからだ。そして木々が雪に覆われたまま。その景色はとても美しいものだった（写真４番目と一番下）。 

帰りはカロリントレイルで。カロリントレイルからは斜面が見えて雪化粧をした木々の並びを見ることができた。目をみはる素晴らしい景色だと思う。

正直ここのトレイルにそんなに期待していなかったが、、、想像以上に綺麗だった！ほとんど人もいなく（我々の他には１人しかハイクしていなかった）、静かで良いハイクだった。