Avery Hill & Mt. Anna

Part of me was tempted to label this as "overambitious."  It was very close!

I mean, realistically, tacking on any sort of even semi-serious hike after doing Avery is pretty darn ambitious!  And obviously I mean for average hikers, not hard core hot shot ones (*cough cough* Hawk. 😉)  But it truly wasn't unrealistic, at least in theory.  It wasn't even close to being ridiculous mileage or elevation we had planned.  However, it would still be moderately challenging.  I resisted calling it overambitious though, because the real difficulty lied somewhat more in myself than the trail.

Avery Hill:

Hummingbird & I met at the trailhead in the morning with a couple gentlemen from the town conservation commission.  After our previous hike on Avery and the unfolding mystery around the legitimacy of the trail, I've been in contact with Gene, who leads the Alton ConCom.  We discovered that the land that encompasses Avery Hill/"Reid's Trail" is privately owned, in trust to two families.  I actually know one of them, and confirmed they welcome hikers, so that was relieving.  Gene plans to contact both families to discuss further questions about the trail, and how all of the landowners feel about public access.  He did express concern that too much foot traffic could be detrimental to the trail, which I certainly couldn't disagree with.  It's obviously a fairly well used trail (by someone), well maintained and easy to follow (mostly), but of course the light-moderate traffic it seems to get is not the same as say, Mt. Major popularity, where excess traffic definitely takes a toll on the land.  We want to share hidden gems like Avery Hill, and likewise encourage people to "spread out" rather than burden a few over-used hiking areas, but at the same time, we don't wish to cause other locations to suffer the same fate as such popular trails.  It's a bit of a dilemma.  We shall see what happens next!

Today we just wanted to hike.  I had offered to be something of a guide for the ConCom since they'd never been up Avery, and today was the day.  I think they enjoyed it overall, although they agreed it is definitely steep!  haha  But the views make it worth the effort.  We were also treated to the sight of a red-tailed hawk soaring close by; not uncommon here.  And we spotted some mayflowers starting to grow, with tiny buds just beginning to pop out.  Yay, spring!

Although, it didn't feel like spring the whole time. As we turned to make our descent, the wind chill picked up.  We were definitely glad to get off the open summit and into the trees.

Hummingbird & Gene enjoying the splendor of Avery.

Mt. Anna:

After we wrapped up at Avery, we planned to hike somewhere else in the Belknaps, preferably to clean up a piece or two of redlining Hummingbird still needed.  We decided, after gauging our remaining time and energy, that our best choice was to just drive to the (very nearby) end of Alton Mt. Rd. and head up the red trail to hit one of her remaining sections past Mt. Anna.  It would be the quickest and easiest route for accomplishing our goal.

When we did Avery, I had my full pack, but only took one bottle of water (which I drank half of on the way up) and left my spikes behind, knowing the trail there was dry.  However, when we restarted the hike towards Anna, I added my second water bottle as well as my spikes, in the unlikely event we actually hit significant ice.  Anything is possible this time of year in the Belks, so better safe than sorry!  But the weight difference in my pack was definitely noticeable.

Remember, we had already hiked a bit over a mile and gained well over 400 feet of elevation in a short distance, although I handled it relatively well.  But combine that workout with a heavier pack as we continued, and I quickly felt a serious energy drain.  I tried snacking to keep my blood sugar up, and stopped to rest several times, but it was far more struggle than I feel it should have been.  The red trail is not easy, but it's definitely not as steep as Avery, so I know this was all me.  Man, it sucks being out of shape!

Exhaustion aside, it was an otherwise good hike for the most part.  I was thankful to see the snowmobile trail club has recently done some work around the bridge by a little pond that frequently floods that section near the beginning of the hike.  The water was very high and you could see it was trying to encroach the trail, but the culvert was flowing and the drainage rocks kept the trail fairly dry.  Shortly ahead, at the base of a turn off, in another typically mucky area, it was wet but not as horribly flooded as I feared, so that was nice too.  Well, maybe not "nice," but at least somewhat better than expected. 😉  Later, there were a couple water crossings over what I believe are runoff streams immediately after turning onto Goat Pasture trail, but those too are not as extreme as they were a very short time ago.  So things are starting to dry up!  👍

The little pond by the snomo bridge.

A pretty stream, thankfully to the side of the trail, not on it. Though there were those too. LOL

The weather, however, did not stay entirely dry.  At one point early on, we got hit with a light rain shower.  We tried to find a spot with enough cell signal to check the radar, to see if it was just isolated precipitation, or if it was the start of something bigger, in which case we'd consider bailing.  Eventually we were able to pull up a forecast, which looked ok, and as predicted the shower quickly passed.  The wind, on the other hand, continued to make it feel quite a bit colder than it was.  Apparently the cold was coming from the upper atmosphere, as we even saw a couple unexpected snowflakes fall at one point in our hike!  I told you anything can happen here this time of year.

The red trail went up and up, seemingly longer than we felt it should be, but it's a good hiking trail that I've done before and would do again... just preferably carrying less weight.  Finally we made it to the summit of Anna, and turned east to get Hummingbird's missing piece of blue trail, which led to the intersection of Precipice W.  It's an interesting continuation of the Precipice experience, with varied terrain and a rock scramble.  Not much for views, but appealing enough in itself.  Although Hummingbird did express mild disappointment in not getting a level of prettiness worthy of our effort. LOL

Scrambly section on blue trail.

Oh no, ice!  Good thing I packed my spikes. 😏

And yeah, turns out I expended more effort than was necessary.  We definitely did not need spikes, as you can see in the photo above there were only a few small, and very avoidable, patches of ice here and there.  I also, slightly more surprisingly, did not even finish my first bottle of water, so I carried that heavy second one for nothing.  (It was still a smart move to pack it.)  I didn't even eat but one of my snacks, and had a full day's worth of food in there.  That didn't add a ton of weight, but apparently it was still unnecessary ounces.  Maybe a pound?  But again, smart to have.  I was not sure what we'd be doing for hiking that day, so I went prepared to spend a full day on trail.  Of course, I'm obviously grateful we did not end up doing that, as there's no way I could have handled more.

On the other hand... after totally crashing at home for some time, and a bit of arnica to ward off further stiffness, I managed to recuperate enough energy by early evening to head back to my land to reset a game camera I had picked up on my way through.  (And believe me, it was a major push to get myself to walk out to check it in the first place!  I was sooo tired!  But it'd been around a month since I'd last checked it, so it had to be done.  At least I was rewarded for that final effort by finding I'd caught some great deer pics!)  Then, when I returned to set the camera back up, I wandered around to find a new spot, and actually racked up another full mile in the process!  

So this brings us back to the original question - was this day overambitious? 😂  I still don't think it quite qualifies, but it almost does!  I'm just thankful that I wasn't left physically broken, as I often am when I overdo it; I just needed rest.  I even felt okay enough the next afternoon (after work, no less!) to take advantage of far more beautiful weather and go for a short, easy hike at Trask Swamp.  [Bonus: I later realized that I hit about a mile of "unique" (to this year) trail, which I hadn't done when I hiked there in Feb., so I also get to count it towards my 52!]  Hummingbird points to my recovery as a sign that maybe I'm not as out of shape as I think.  The foundation is still there, I just lost some stamina.  I know I will come back to it (within my own physical ability level), I just need to keep getting out there, chasing more trails.

Oh deer, what a fine young buck!

 

Hike 18. 4/10 Avery Hill & Mt. Anna, 5.5 mi, 3:06/3:32 hrs, 1522 ft.