Three Mountain Loop

日本語は英語の後にあります。

In March New England is still covered with snow, especially in the mountains. March hikes are still considered winter hikes in here.

In mid-March Mr.N and I went hiking in Belknap mountain area. It was a 4-mile loop covering three summits: Piper mountain, Belknap mountain, and Gunstock mountain. 

On Saturday morning we left Boston around 8 a.m. The destination, Belknap mountain range is in Gilord, New Hampshire. We always stop by Starbucks in NH. I have already become a "Duchess" at the Starbucks on Yelp (you regularly check into the same place on Yelp, you will become a regular. Among regulars, the most frequent and most checked in person will be Duchess or Duke). 

We arrived at the trailhead around 10:30 a.m. Already more than 15 cars were parked along the road. Oh wow. That's popular? Luckily there was a spot. I didn't know that Belknap was a popular spot. Two people were at the trailhead and they were wearing cross-country skies. It seems that cross-country skiing was possible there. 

The first mountain we headed for was Piper Mountain. Actually Piper mountain is not on the loop, there is a small detour about 0.3 mile. We found the top of Piper mountain was like this. 

The weather forecast was cloudy, but I saw blue sky.  The blue sky with clouds were pretty here with snow. So I took a picture. Bonus was nobody was there. I always like quiet trails rather than busy trails. Considering the number of cars at the trailhead, it was surprising. There are many other small trails, maybe people spreaded out.

Well, it was not a mountain top I suspected. I thought that there would be open view. Oh well. Still good to see blue sky.  I hope that I would see view at Belknap mountain top. 

We continued on the trail. Soon after we left Piper mountain, first time we saw hikers on that day. A group of 4-5 people with a dog passed by. The doggy was very cute. He carried a big log. He found us and put the log on the ground and saw for seconds and carried the log again and continued walking. It looks like the log was treasure for him. So cute!

Then we headed for Belknap mountains. There is a fire tower on the top and we climbed it. It is common in New England having a fire tower at the top, and there are views only from fire tower. Belknap was not an exception. It was in the trees at the bottom of fire tower, but there was views from the fire tower (pictures below).

Saw snowing to mountain in the distance

Frozen Lake

I was able to see the lines of clouds and mountain range in the distance in Vermont, and frozen lakes. It was great view, but it was sooooooooo windy at the tower. My hut was almost blew away. So I started walking to the next mountain. 

Gunstock mountain is different from other two. The other side of the Gunstock mountain is down skiing area. So when I reached the top, I saw many people who came up to the top with lift. There were many kids with nice ski wears, and got hot chocolate at the cabin.

I thought, "Wow. They are so spoiled." 

Good thing was there was a cabin  and we could sit inside and had lunch we brought. Egg sandwiches and apples. Spoiled kids were getting hot chocolates and chocolate bars. The view from the balcony of the cabin was nice, however, there was a lift and it was not possible to take a picture of the view without including the lift. I don't like taking wilderness pictures with artificial stuff. So I started to go down. 

At the trailhead, only 5 cars were still parked. While we were taking of gators and stuff, one car came and parked. A dog got off from the car. The doggy was super excited. She came to me and wagged tail. I petted her. Soooooo cute. It would be nice to hike with doggies. 

It was short and nice hike. 

３月のニューイングランドはまだまだ冬の真っ只中。３月の半ばにベルクナップエリアへハイキングへ行った。３つの山をハイクできるルートだ。パイパー山、ベルクナップ山、そしてガンストック山。

まず行く途中でスターバックスでコーヒーを飲み、１０時半にトレイルヘッドに到着。すでに１５台ほどの車が駐車している。こんなに人気があるトレイルとは知らなかった。

まずはパイパー山を目指してハイク開始。実はパイパー山はループから少し外れているので寄り道すればパイパー山の頂上へ行ける。寄り道分は約０、５キロなので大したことはない。しかし頂上には特にひらけた景色などはなかった（汗　写真の１枚目が頂上だ。うーむ。まあ青空と綺麗な雪の森林が見れたからいっか。

そして次はベルクナップ山。ベルクナップ山へ向かう途中で犬を連れたグループに会った。犬は木の棒を咥えながら嬉ししそうに歩いている。かわいいー。

そしてベルクナップ山の頂上からは壮大な景色を見ることができた。写真２枚目と３枚目にあるように巨大な凍りついた湖が眼下にある。こんなに大きな湖が完全に凍るとは。。すごい景色だ。しかし風もすごい。頂上に１０分以上いることは風が強すぎて無理だったので次の山を目指しまたハイク開始。

ガンストック山は他の２つの山とは全く違う。というのもここはスキー場だからだ。ガンストックの頂上までリフトが上がってきていて、スキーヤー達がダウンヒルスキーをしている。たくさんの子供がスキーをしている。恵まれた子供達やなー、私はスキーに連れて行ってもらったことなどなかったな、と少し被害妄想が入りつつ、頂上にあるスキーヤー用のキャビンに入り持参したサンドイッチを食べた（注：何も購入しなくとも入って休憩したり食べたりするのは自由なキャビン）。風のないところでランチを頬張れたのはよかった。そしてトレイルヘッドまでずっと下り。

トレイルヘッドに戻って来ると車は５台ほどになっていた。新たに１台車がやってきて止まり、犬が降りてきた！そして私のところに来て尻尾を振っているのでなでなでした。かわいい！

短かったがなかなか楽しいハイクだった。