Sunday May 29, 2005

Mt Crescent

Today we did our first hike in a little over 2 months. Just after our last hike in March, Geri hurt her ankle playing soccer. Between healing time, work trips, and the weather we had not had a chance to get out. Today we decided to tackle one of the peaks on the Y-Alpine list.

This is the route we took today. We did the loop clockwise.

Directions to the trailhead: From Twin Mountain take Rte 115 East to Rte 2. Follow Rte 2 East, past the Water Wheel (good breakfast spot). Continue to the top of the long hill in Randolph,which is 3.9 miles past Lowes store on your left. Take a left at the top of the hill onto Randolph Hill Rd, just past the scenic outlook. Follow this for 1.9 miles and park on the right by the trailhead sign across the street from 393/395 Randolph Hill Rd.

Time to summit: @ 1:45

This is the profile of the hike.

A 3-D view of our hike to the summit.

We started the weekend by heading to Twin Mountain Saturday afternoon. We stayed at the Twin Mountain RV park which has a good view of Peak Above the Nuble.

Behind the campground is a large river with a good view of Mt Washington. Notice the snow!

Walking along the river we came upon a beaver pond and found the owner out and about having his dinner.

We watched him for several minutes as he dove to the bottom, bringing up a stick to chew on.

Okay - Sun morning - time to go hiking. Here is the start of the hike where there is parking for 2 cars.

We ascended the Mt Crescent trail to the Carlton Notch trail to the Crescent Ridge trail.

The trail follows and old logging road to start, crossing newer ones, but is very well marked with red paint and white signs.

Soon we came to a fenced off area marking a water reservoir.

Geri liked the character of this old tree.

The flowers are out in full bloom!

Areas that were logged in the past have not fully grwon in, so you are in and out of the trees while hiking.

More flowers.

Still more - many colors.

Just under an hour we reached the ridge and headed right to the peak. (left would take you to Mt Randolph in 1.3 miles, also on the Y list)

The trail should have been renamed the moose dropping trail.

It has droppings of all sizes very often.

The summit of Mt Crescent came into view shortly.

Geri crossing a stream on the ridge. Although we started out under cloudy skys, the sun came out when we were on the ridge.

Geri found a patch of snow to cool off on.

The view to the North was spectacular - a pleasant suprise from a short summit.

The bird on top of the tree had the best view, and was singing his song to us.

Lots of moss covered rocks on the summit.

Looking South Geri eyes Mt Adams where we hope to hike on Monday with Sherpa John and Sarah.

The flowers were even in yellow.

Our first snake of the year.

As we approached our car at the end of the hike we heard a dog barking at us from the woods. A few minutes later he came running down the road wanting to play.

After seeing poop all day we finally got to see a moose!!!

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