Mt. Major family hike

It was a late morning start at one of the state's most popular hiking destinations…  Thank God it's still the off-season!

I expected a busy trailhead.  Mt. Major usually is on weekends, esp. in good weather, regardless of time of year.  Mid-winter you might still find open spaces in the parking lot, but as we move into spring, there is almost always overflow to the roadside come mid-day.  During the summer, road parking typically extends at least a half mile in either direction.  That's often regardless of what day of the week it is.  Recently police have had to block off certain areas due to overcrowding and people parking dangerously.  It gets pretty ridiculous there.  Most locals try to avoid Major during the on-season, and hike the less crowded trails instead.  Or at the very least know you better get there early in the morning if you don't want a long road walk, or just prefer to beat the crowds.

My sister and I had planned to hike on Friday, as I had the day off (and it was my birthday), but the weather forecast kept looking iffy, so we decided to change plans to Saturday, which actually turned out to be an even better plan because we got to include more family.  Hawk picked up my youngest niece at college on his way here Friday evening, and we had a nice time playing a game and hanging out that night.  Saturday morning, my sister & brother in law came up, and the 5 of us loaded into Hawk's CRV and met Hummingbird for a group hike.  We chose Mt. Major because it is local, giving us time for other activities in addition to hiking; it's not overly difficult, but has some element of challenge to the trails; a good moderate hike that offers something for everyone; and of course the views are excellent.  We can't deny it's a popular mountain for a reason!

By the time my sister and brother in law arrived after a long drive from CT, we didn't make it to Mt. Major until around 10:45.  Sure enough, the parking lot was full, but thankfully there were only a couple cars roadside at the moment.  Well, one more got in front of us… as Hawk was preparing to turn around to park in the appropriate place, I reached for my phone to let Hummingbird know it would be roadside parking, but just then I see her driving past us.  Never mind!  Of course, she lined her car up behind the others, so we ended up behind her.  And of course we playfully razzed her for stealing our spot.  She totally took credit for doing it intentionally.  Ah, family.  LOL  The good news is, we were all still close to the trail.  When we returned to our vehicles that afternoon, there was the usual long line of cars parked along the road behind us.  That definitely would have been less fun if we had to park a quarter mile away.

The main trail up started off in pretty decent condition.  A few small, scattered patches of ice and mud, but nothing too unavoidable.  Boots were certainly sufficient.  There were times I even thought I could have gotten away with my trail runners.  However, I knew the conditions would change as we ascended.  Indeed they did in the usual spot around the cliff section nearing the summit.  As expected, that's where we hit solid ice and snow, and the spikes had to come out.  Eventually I had to pull out my poles too.  Hawk commented, "you know it's getting serious when Dragonfly gets out the poles!"  Yup.  Mind you, I love trekking poles; I'd happily use them for everything, including a flat trail walk.  And I used to, after Hawk converted me to being a pole user.  (Incidentally, on Mt. Major.)  However, I have recently begun stashing them and only using them when absolutely needed, as I discovered they aggravate my tendonitis/carpal tunnel/whatever two decades of grooming has done to ruin my hands & wrists.

Everyone's "good side" as we work our way up the blue trail.

Fun family hike!

Uh oh! Cute guy on trail! What shall we call him?... Ah, I just call him mine. ;-)

Another sunbeam!  And our start of spikes conditions.

My niece, being new to hiking, was given a good introduction to using spikes and other hiking necessities, and we all made it up safely, with only a few slightly scary incidents of minor slipping.  Far more scary was watching several other people hiking in insufficient gear, including one woman who went sliding several feet down the steep rocky section.  Thankfully my brother in law was there to help stop her from sliding further down and off a cliff!  A few yards up, Hawk assisted her and her husband in climbing another tricky section.  Needless to say, we were relieved that they chose to take the easier route down.  Mt. Major may not be huge, but it's still to be taken seriously as a hike.  (That said, I know years ago I absolutely would have hiked with even less gear than some of those people, before I knew better.  We all start somewhere.  At least the Belknaps aren't as extreme as the Whites, so going out underprepared may be slightly less dangerous here.  But obviously that doesn't discount any possibility of something going seriously wrong.  It can, and it has.)

Closer to the immediate summit, the ice mostly went away, so we removed our spikes for the final climb up Major's open rocks.  Once at the top, we milled about with the rest of the tourists, snapping pics and enjoying the views.  Eventually we settled in the old stone fort for a break.  Hummingbird and I mused at how we were finally the "cool kids" and this was final proof, as the fort was always occupied by that crowd during any school field trip.  Let's not talk about how many years ago that was!  LOL

After some discussion about options for our descent, we decided to chance the muck on Brook Trail, as it's the easier way down, rather than risk the icy climb down the steep rocks on the main trail.  Going down is always harder than going up.  It was a good decision.  The yellow trail was indeed mucky, but manageable, and certainly safer for the most part.  We ended up racking slightly more mileage than I expected, and took quite a bit longer than I anticipated, but we all had a good time.  Hawk spent much of the hike, as well as time before and after, talking with my brother in law about their upcoming backpacking plans.  The rest of us girls chatted away as usual, and basically we all just enjoyed spending some quality family time together.  Happily, we also extended it a bit longer after hiking, with a big family meal at home, which left me more stuffed than some Thanksgivings.  I'm not sure which I needed to recover more from that night - the hike or dinner & dessert!  Honestly, I'm thinking the latter.  LOL  Well, so much for all the calories I burned!

The actual brook next to Brook Trail... honestly, the trail looked pretty much the same as this, and only slightly less wet.  It was a legit brook itself in places!  And most of the rest was sloppy mud.  Oh yay.

Sorry, I don't have a fancy, inspirational sign off for my blog entries.  If you want that, you'll need to head over to Hawk's blog.  ;-)


Hike 15. 3/26 Mt. Major blue-yellow loop, 4.6 mi, 2:44/3:28 hrs, 1175 ft.