2008 Mountain Hikes of the Echo Shores "Over the Hill" Hikers


Hiking Journal 2008

by Beverly DiVaio

This is a journal I kept of a number of mountain hikes the Echo Shores Over-the-Hill Hikers embarked on during the spring, summer and fall of 2008.  A group of us, all Echo Shores neighbors, endeavored to hike up the twelve Belknap Range mountains needed to earn a "Belknap Range Hiker" patch from the Belknap County Sportsman Club.  We decided to call ourselves the "Echo Shores Over-the-Hill Hikers", which seemed appropriate since most of us are retired!  The journal includes input from all of us.

Click HERE to see the patch we each received for climbing all 12 mountains.

Click HERE to see photos of the Belknap Range mountains that were graciously provided to us by Dave Roberts, an avid hiker and photographer.  Dave created the Belknap Range trail map we used for our hikes.

We are always talking about new hikes to take. All friends and neighbors are welcome to join us on a hike, or suggest one. We occasionally try bike or kayak trips, too.

I've listed below each mountain we hiked, the date and who participated, along with some comments about the hike.  Also included in each section is a link you can click on to see a number of pictures we took during each hike.  You will note that a couple of our hikes, specifically Tuckerman's Ravine and Red Hill, were "extracurricular" hikes outside of the Belknap mountain range.


Mt. Major - Elevation 1,786 ft.

Date: 5-13-08

Hikers:  Paul and Eleanor Apholt, Richie and Beverly DiVaio, Don and Peggy Hughes, Jerry McCabe, Dan and Celeste Weberg

Comments: We hiked up the traditional trail and came down on the left side which connects to the snowmobile trail.  We saw the results of the spring fire in which 40 acres burned in April.  We saw orange "surveyor" tape left by the firemen in several areas.  The new growth was quickly covering the burned areas.  It looked like most trees were going to survive the fire.  Some portions of the climb up the main trail were pretty steep and rocky, but the descent on the left trail (through the burned area) was a bit easier.

Click HERE to see photos taken on this hike.


Tuckerman's Ravine - Elevation 2,300 ft.

Date: 5-30-08

Hikers:  Paul and Eleanor Apholt, Richie and Beverly DiVaio, Jerry McCabe, Dan and Celeste Weberg

Comments:  We started out at the AMC Center on Rt. 16.  There was plenty of parking.  The fire trail we hiked up was well used.  We walked on stones from bottom to top.  We passed some lean-to shelters that can be rented by the night from the AMC near Hermit Lake.  We ate lunch at the AMC Center at the base of the ravine, which is jokingly referred to as "Hojo's" because so many hikers eat lunch on the large attached deck.  We saw three skiers while looking up into Tuckerman's Ravine from the deck of Hojo's.  A ski speed record was made here over 50 years ago. The skiers have a very steep hike to make with their skis tied to their backpacks to make the trip down the head wall.  On the deck we met 73 year old retired nurse from MGH who outpaced us easily!  She had moved to Berlin to be near "her mountains".  We walked on a little snow near Hojo's.  Celeste and Dan found a great pizza barn for a late lunch.  For this group, we should have had lunch at Hojo's and then pizza at the barn!

Click HERE to see photos taken on this hike. 


Mt. Rowe - Elevation 1,690 ft., & Gunstock Mountain - Elevation 2,250 ft.

Date: 6-11-08

Hikers: Paul and Eleanor Apholt, Richie and Beverly DiVaio, Rick Buy, Jerry McCabe

Comments: We should have gone up the gravel road created for cell tower maintenance on Mount Rowe.  We knew that but we did some bushwhacking up the old tower trail instead!  When crossing over to Gunstock following the cross country ski trail we saw earthquake sensing equipment powered by solar cells.  We had lunch on top and spoke with 2 women who were hiking from Belknap to Mount Major.

Click HERE to see photos taken on this hike. 


Mt. Belknap - Elevation 2,382 ft.

Date: 7-11-08

Hikers: Paul and Eleanor Apholt, Richie and Beverly DiVaio, Don and Peggy Hughes, Jerry McCabe, Dan and Celeste Weberg

Comments: There is a fire tower at the top of Belknap, but the forest ranger was not there when we arrived.  We did not look for the small plane that crashed on the mountain many years ago, but I bet we will on another climb.  Nice views.  It was interesting to look down on the peak of Gunstock.

Click HERE to see photos taken on this hike. 


Red Hill (Center Harbor) - Elevation 2,029 ft.

Date: 9-5-08

Hikers: Paul and Eleanor Apholt, Richie and Beverly DiVaio, Don and Peggy Hughes, Jerry McCabe

Comments: There's a active fire tower atop Red Hill.  We learned about an available Fire Tower Patch from a forest ranger manning the tower, who also explained a lot about his job.  It was a hot, hazy, humid day.  We saw some toads near the bottom of the trail. Each time we saw another toad as we climbed, they grew larger in size.  I saw a small snake while taking a water break.  I gave it water and it drank it with a forked tongue.  The high humidity created a thick haze which limited the visibility from the fire tower.  Maybe we should do this hike again next year on a dry day so we can enjoy the panoramic view from the top of the tower.

Click HERE to see photos taken on this hike.


Straightback Mountain - Elevation 1,890 ft.

Date: 9-19-08

Hikers: Paul and Eleanor Apholt, Richie and Beverly DiVaio, Don and Peggy Hughes, Jerry McCabe, Dan and Celeste Weberg

Comments: This is the mountain that the Ferguson’s always climb for blueberry picking.  Great views.  Dan and Celeste found some interesting blueberries to eat, and now know what moose droppings look like!  Views were fantastic.  On the way up we walked past the trail intersection for Mt. Major and continued on until we saw the sign for Straightback at a fork in the trail, where we turned. 

Click HERE to see photos taken on this hike.


Piper Mountain - Elevation 2,044 ft. & Whiteface Mountain - Elevation 1,664 ft.

Date: 9-25-08

Hikers: Paul and Eleanor Apholt, Richie and Beverly DiVaio, Don Hughes, Jerry McCabe

Comments:  We started out by not finding the parking lot we were looking for, so the climb started just short of the parking lot we did find.  I think the trail head was near a culvert, or tiny bridge.  I loved the top of Piper - both the view and the "rock chairs and love seat".  From Piper we had difficulty finding the intersection to Whiteface, but we found our way to the peak.  Whiteface also had great views; however, there was a lot of litter left by some previous visitors that made Whiteface our least favorite mountain in the range.

The trip down from Whiteface back to the car was quite adventuresome.  We talked to several other hikers on the trail for directions, and all seemed well until we reached an intersection on the old jeep trail (paper road).  We started (unintentionally!) towards Gilmanton for a short time, then doubled back and tried another way for a while.  Don used his Garmin GPS which showed up as a car driving through the woods!  We came out across from a sign that said "Piper Trail" between two houses.  From that point on the hike reminded me of a Bing Crosby and Bob Hope "Road to" movie (to either Rio or Hong Kong) with a long, forced "march" by Don, Paul, and Richie back up Belknap Mountain Rd. and a very steep Carriage Rd.  to get the cars where we had started the hike.  Jerry, Eleanor and I were to stay behind with all the backpacks, but we slowly walked up Belknap Mountain Rd. to the intersection of Carriage Rd. where we waited for the others to return with the cars.  I wish I had gotten a photo of Eleanor and Jerry carrying the backpacks on a stick between them!  A construction worker in a pickup truck went by the three of us and turned around, asked us where we going and offered us a ride.  I will admit he tempted me with his offer!  We were all dead tired when we got home!

Click HERE to see photos taken on this hike.


Mt. Mack - Elevation 1,945 ft. & Mt. Klem - Elevation 2,001 ft.

Date: 10-05-08

Hikers: Paul and Eleanor Apholt, Richie and Beverly DiVaio, Don and Peggy Hughes, Jerry McCabe

Comments: Jerry and Paul did a pre-hike of these two mountains after our trip up Piper and Whiteface.  The walk near Round Pond was very pretty with beautiful fall foliage, and we saw two beaver lodges.  On Mack we saw a beautiful spot where the Boy Scouts camp, an antenna tower, and an old (dysfunctional) wind-powered electrical generator for radio equipment at the peak.  In lieu of the old wind-powered generator, solar panels now charge batteries to power the radio equipment.

Click HERE to see photos taken on this hike.


West Quarry Mountain - Elevation 1,894 ft. & Rand Mountain  - Elevation 1,883 ft.

Date: 10-17-08

Hikers: Paul and Eleanor Apholt, Richie and Beverly DiVaio, Don and Peggy Hughes, Jerry McCabe

Comments:  At West Quarry it was fun to see the cables and rods left behind from where the quarrying work done many years ago.  At one point we scampered up a rocky area with the help of Jerry’s rope railing. (Thanks Jerry!).  I read later that a piece of equipment that we didn’t wonder about at the time was actually something to hold the rocks steady as they were moved.  I picture it as a type of harness.  The vista from West Quarry was towards Vermont and showed range after range.  The stone walls that we followed part way up to the summit were the remains of sheep farms back as far as the Revolutionary war period.  Disappointingly, there was no view from the top of Rand.  However, we found a nice woodland grove for a lunch stop.  You can tell that we are really getting into this activity as each week it seems another piece of equipment shows up, from Jerry’s nylon rope to new socks, backpacks and hiking poles.

Click HERE to see photos taken on this hike.


Straightback Mountain - Elevation 1,890 ft. & Mt. Anna - Elevation 1,670 ft.

Date: 10/24/2008

Hikers: Paul and Eleanor Apholt, Richie and Beverly DiVaio, Don and Peggy Hughes, Jerry McCabe

Comments:  The hike started as we all loaded into the Apholts' van at 10:00 am.  The weather was perfect: clear skies, sunny with no wind.  We parked at the end of Jesus Valley Road, right after a boggy pond.  There is no apparent direct trail up to Mt. Anna, so we decided to take this trail first to Straightback Mountain, which we had previously climbed starting at the Mt. Major parking area, and then continue on to Mt. Anna from there.

The trail, which starts as a snowmobile and ATV trail, was a steep uphill climb from the get-go which had a lot of loose rocks covered with fallen leaves to about ½ way up to the top of Straightback.  This trail is shorter than the trail starting at Mount Major, but it is more difficult.  We all agreed that Straightback is our favorite destination of the mountains we've hiked so far because of the spectacular views and wide open summit.  The hike from Straightback to Anna was described to us by Paul as “cake and ice cream”.   Not so!  There was one steep spot going down Straightback and up Anna that looked at first like a sheer rock cliff!  But we were able to follow the trail to the top of the cliff.  Other than that we went through some pretty wooded areas of just beech trees, then just evergreens.  It was quite desolate up there, and I felt very isolated from the built-up lake.

There was no view at all from the top of Anna.  We had lunch in a sunny open spot looking over a grassy area that had a sign saying "goat pasture".  When I got home I looked at a map and saw that a trail head starts on top of Anna heading for a hill called "Goat Pasture".  I'm guessing that the goat pasture was another revolutionary war era field.  We have seen stone walls visible from most of the trails we have hiked.  Back in the late 1700's the Belknap Range had many small farms.  The fields were very rocky and goats were able to handle the terrain.

The blue trail was very well marked, but we all missed seeing some kind of view from the top.  Then we hiked down Anna, back up Straightback, and down Straightback to the van.  It was a long hike, but we all enjoyed being outside in the beautiful weather.

Click HERE to see photos taken on this hike.


Mt. Rowe - Elevation 1,690 ft., & Gunstock Mountain - Elevation 2,250 ft.

Date: 10/31/2008  (This is the second time we hiked these two mountains this year.)

Hikers: Paul and Eleanor Apholt, Richie and Beverly DiVaio, Don Hughes, Jerry McCabe

Comments:  We decided to hike these mountains again because Don needed to finish his last two mountains of the 12 Belknap Range peaks.  (Yeah! Don!)  It was glorious fall day weather-wise.  The views from Mt. Rowe and Gunstock are particularly great because we hike down a ski trail and therefore we stay out in the open rather than get treed-in for a long, long way.  We went up Mt. Rowe by way of the service road (the old "Try Me" ski trail.  Near the base we stopped and walked across the old road leading to the old 60 meter ski jump.  The ski jump was dismantled.  There was a small pile of pressure treated wood there.  We don’t know if it will be rebuilt.  We continued hiking up the old Try Me ski trail.  We saw thin ice on any water at little lower than the summit level.  We went across to Gunstock by way of a clearly marked white trail. After the earth quake monitoring station we stayed on the white trail until we intersected the blue/faded purple trail.  This brought us out at the bottom of the flats on Flintlock.  This trail is used for cross country skiing in the winter.  We hiked up Flintlock and had lunch at top on the deck at "Panorama Pub".  We hiked down Gunsmoke, stopping to look at two memorial plates in a picnic alcove on the yellow trail.  We continued down Shotgun looking at another memorial plaque.  This one on the trail side was dedicated to a boy who died skiing in 1984.  We walked down towards the car through the horse poop alley again, although we really knew better!

Click HERE to see photos taken on this hike.


Conclusion:

I read that when we finished these hikes we had hiked over 40 miles, by the estimation of Danielle Delisle of the Baysider free newspaper!!

In mid-December, the Webergs hosted an awards dinner/ceremony.  Six of the "Over-the-Hill Hikers" qualified for the Belknap Sportsmen's Club hiking patch for climbing all 12 mountains in the Belknap Range.  We got patches #126 - 131.  The four hikers who hiked some, but not all, of the required mountains also received patches that I made giving them credit for the hikes they finished.  A fun time was had by all.  Thanks Dan and Celeste!

 It's easy to see that many of us are already thinking about next spring.  I understand that Jerry has a new backpack, Peggy has new zip pants, Richie is having his knee operated on, and I'm planning a trip to a bookstore in Wolfeboro to search out new hiking books.  (For some reason, Paul is a little afraid of the facts in a few of my books that have copyrights in the 1970s printed on the cover sheets!)

This year we're hoping to work toward Fire Tower patches being offered for climbing five mountain-top fire towers.  These patches are being offered by the State of New Hampshire.  After our 2008 hikes, climbing fire towers sounds like "cake and ice cream"!

Big thanks goes out to each hiker for doing their share.

A huge thanks goes out to Don for offering to do this web-journal.