Mount Waumbek

Last weekend of September. This weekend is surprisingly warm. High is 23C (78F) at the end of September! It might be the last warm weekend of the year. The previous weekend's high was 8C (46F), so it is a pleasant surprise! Especially good for a cold sensitive person like me. 

This warm day we went hiking to Mount Waumbek, New Hampshire. 

Distance: 11.5 km (7.13 miles)
Elevation change: 2749 feet
Type: Out and back
Trail: Killkenny ridge trail

Again as usual we left Boston at 4 a.m. in the dark. Then we ate breakfast at the trailhead and started hiking. Surprisingly we found that already full of fall colors arrived. Yellow yellow yellow. It was like a room of yellow curtain and yellow carpet. This was a very lucky day to be able to see autumn colors with warm temperature. Also I am grateful that here in New England it is safe to hike without wildfires. 

Fall colors!

Trail is simple. No junction until the summit and just uphill. This mountain is a little different from other mountains inthe Whites. The density of trees are a bit lower. Because of that the forest is light and sunshine came throughout the forest. The mourning sun light was warm and shined the yellow color more vivid. It was very pretty. Another nice thing was there were many chipmunks in the forest. They occasionally made noise by climbing trees and dropping acorns, etc. That was really pleasant sounds in the forest. One chipmunk I saw funny was that his both cheek pouches were so full and also having an acorn in his mouth. Greedy chipmunk was cute! 

The view from top was not really perfect because it was very hazy, but I enjoyed the napping on the summit area. The small flat area had full of sun and it was so warm!

One more cute stuff was....doggies. We saw more than 7 dogs hiking on this trail. They were huffing and puffing but looked like they were very happy hiking. I had a chance to pet some of them. Cute!

Kayaking@Powder Mill Pond

Recently my foot skin was removed (just a small portion), because I exercise at home with barefoot. Obviously the workout was too intense for barefoot. Jumping lunges, jumping squats made the skin removed. It made walk a little hurt. Basically it was similar to having blisters. Due to the situation we went kayaking instead of hiking. 

Powder Mill Pond, Hillsborough County, Southern New Hampshire
Pond and River, Out and Back 
Distance: 7.5 miles
Paddling time: 2.5 hours

Powder Mill. Why Powder Mill? I looked it up, but there was no information on Google. My guess is that there was a powder mill factory or something around there. Now Powder Mill Pond serves public water source, which means water is clean and clear. 

Launching area

There were no many people paddling, actually only a couple of kayakers who were fishing. This pond is more famous for fishing. You maybe able to see a fishing kayak on the above picture. Good thing is that no motorboats were there. Motorboats makes kayakers less peaceful. I prefer calm paddling. Here I enjoyed calm and quiet water. Even more quiet area was the river section connected to the pond. On the river trees were very green and the reflection made the river look like green carpet. It was pretty.  

GREEN!

We started kayaking with another group of fishing kayakers at the same time and we finished at the same time. It was a nice afternoon. 

Carter Dome Backpacking in New Hampshire

Another 4000 footer in New Hampshire!

Overnight backpacking
Type: loop with a spur
Distance: 11.53 miles (18.6 km)
Elevation Gain: 3,281 feet (1000 meters)

Summit in the loop: Carter Dome (4826 feet high, 1471 meter high)

near trailhead

This time we went backpacking focusing on Carter Dome (4826 feet). Trailhead is on the dirt road near Prospect Farm, near highway16. First we started ascending wildcat river trail. The first portion is in the nice forest. At mile 3.5, there is an unofficial tent site. It is a very big site with a fire ring. Good to know for the future trip. 

Soon after that, we reached the Carter Notch Hut. Of course this summer the hut is closed due to pandemic. However, a caretaker was still there (actually she was on the roof reading a book, nice) and still some snacks were sold. Some bars were at the window and if you want to buy it you can put cash into a bin. 

Owl on the guard

If it was open it looked really cozy hut. There is a main hut building and there is another building for beds. As you can see in the right picture, each small room has 4 bunk beds. It is nice not the giant room with 20 beds, but multiple small rooms with only 4 beds. If your party is 4, it is like a private room. Currently the rooms were locked. Cutely, an owl was guarding!

Carter Dome over the pond

From the hut the Carter Dome looked pretty. The summit is over the pond. As you can imagine, 1600 feet elevation gain in 1 mile.....Steep! Especially with a overnight backpack. Between hut and the top, there is small spur trail to the view. This is a must to check out, because there is not a nice view on the summit, in fact.

pond and the hut down there

The picture in the right is just 0.2 mile from the hut. You can see the huts and pond way down there. Only 0.2 mile of climb. You can tell how steep the trail is. However, it is indeed a nice view: rewarding climb. Here we saw a hiker with a doggy. It was a black pomeranian. Wow. I always thought pomeranian is a spoiled dog always inside where A/C is on in summer. I learned that they can do strenuous hikes on a hot day. 

raspberries

After Carter dome, we descended via Rainbow trail. This trail is not popular, so not well maintained. However we got bonus. A lot of raspberries. Tasty! We ate a lot of them like bears. After rainbow trail we took wild river trail to backcountry campsites, Perkins Notch Tentsite. Tentsite, but just some flat areas with nothing. We had relaxed evening time at the site with campfire.  

The next day we hiked out by only 4 mile walk.
It was a nice weekend.