Pine Mt.

Our "local quickie"...

The Morse Preserve in Alton Bay is always beautiful.  A hike up Pine Mt. here, one of the “lesser” Belknaps, is doable for most ability levels.  At less than 2 miles via any route, and a bit more than 300 ft. elevation gain, you’d be hard pressed to get a better payoff for the effort.  I dare say Pine has views that could even rival several much bigger peaks up north! 

My sister and I enjoyed a very nice day of skiing at Pat’s Peak yesterday, and she spent the night, so Hummingbird and I decided to take her on a quick morning hike before work today.  Pine was an obvious choice for her “first” Alton trail.  

We got an early start, although not early enough to enjoy the pretty sunrise from the summit.  We’re fairly sure it’d only be a partial easterly view anyway, with potentially some color just peeking around the corner over the lake, so probably not a huge loss this morning.  However, as we passed the field near the beginning of the hike, and I saw the sun still working it’s way up through the trees, I got the impression that the sunrise view might be quite nice from that spot (at least in winter, with leaves dropped)!  We definitely will need to test that theory at some point.  Bonus: we wouldn’t have to start quite as early when sunrise is near a trailhead, vs. catching it at a summit. 😉

Nice start to the day, and I hope my sister and I can do more hikes together this year.


Hike 5. 2/17 Pine Mt., 1.5 mi, 45 min, 302 ft.