Trail Chaser: Happy Productive Birthday Hike!

Redlining: it’s how hikers enjoy their birthday.

Well ok, not all hikers. Hawk was busy leading his academic quiz bowl team to victory in their final tournament, and officially ranking #1 in the state. 🏆 Certainly another great way to celebrate his own birthday! (Ours are just a day apart.)

Meanwhile, back in NH, Hummingbird and I had plans for some kind of hike that would be more significant than our norm of late. Ideally, I also wanted productive. That meant redlining, either in the Belknaps or Squams. As usual, the Belks won out due to proximity. Besides, we’re much closer to finishing them, whereas we’ve barely started on the Squam range.

Because of current conditions and accessibility issues, we were somewhat limited in which trails we’d be able to hit. Thankfully, the scout camp roads reopened just in time, after being closed by storm damage and mud. This allowed us to access the last remaining piece of redlining we had on the eastern half of the range.

We’ve had our eye on Mack Ridge for a long time. We heard it could be tough, even scary, and the wrong conditions could make it miserable. So we kept putting it off. But I was itching to check it off the list. Hummingbird was likewise eager to finish the Klem-Mack loop past the summits. It might be overambitious, especially to get both, but we had to try for it.

Huh, it looks very doable, even for me! Sure, there's some road walk distance to add in, but even with that, the mileage shouldn't be *significantly* higher. Maybe if the majority of elevation gain happens on the ridge, that'd explain the reputation? But it still looks within my range of ability. Yeah, well, I should remember how AllTrails lies…

There was a small winter storm predicted to blow in as the day went on, so we got out there as early as we could manage, in hopes of beating any travel impact on the side roads. Luckily we saw no precipitation at all until just after finishing. We did feel quite a mix of temperatures though.

No, I didn't get arrested on the mountain. LOL I switched between thick & thin gloves multiple times, ending up hot and bare handed for a stretch of the ascent, and back into the thick gloves later on, with my fingers curled up inside to reduce how freezing they were. Welcome to springtime in NH.

When we first neared the trailhead, we watched a line of vehicles exit the Griswold camp road and proceeded to follow them to Camp Bell. We guessed it was a group of lost hikers, hopefully who would be hiking in a different direction than us. As we approached the sizable parking lot, we found a ton more cars, and practically no space left! (Extra glad we took one vehicle rather than meeting there as usual!) We wondered what the heck was going on. Turns out it was a camp event; employee training or orientation or something. We were just glad we didn’t have to share the trail with that large of a crowd. Hummingbird managed to tuck her car along the side of the entrance, well out of the way, as well as allowing us an easy exit.

After strapping on our spikes, we headed up the access road towards our destination. We were thankful to be on decently packed terrain, although Hummingbird did carry her snowshoes just in case we encountered deeper snow higher up. I did not bring mine, knowing my body couldn’t handle carrying them. Bigger miles and elevation while wearing my big pack was going to challenge me enough. I don’t regret leaving them behind, but it turned out to be a very smart decision that my cousin brought hers. But more on that later.

For all the hype about Mack Ridge being difficult, I actually rather enjoyed it! It was definitely a workout, but I found it interesting, varied, fun on parts, and not nearly as brutal as I’d gotten the impression of. Conditions were pretty good though. After snowpack on the road/snowmobile trail, we found a lot of bare ground on the steep, rocky part of the orange trail. Partway up, I actually removed my spikes, half to make rock scrambles less awkward, and half to test the tread on my new boots. (I’ll be posting a product review when I get a chance, comparing my recent boot tests! 🥾) The trail reminded me somewhat of Mt. Major’s boulder trail, maybe combined with Precipice cliffs. Past the ridge area, it transitioned to a woodland trail that seemed fairly pretty. Which probably says a lot since we’re in a bit of another “ugly season” right now until spring starts blooming. We even encountered several nice filtered views, and lovely open viewpoints. Also twice encountered on our hike were large bear tracks, thankfully heading in the opposite direction of us.

It seems Mack Ridge mainly attracts visitors to its viewpoint, after which everyone apparently turns around. Past that point, the trail was nearly untouched. This is where the postholing began. The snow was firm, but not firm enough, so at times we were able to balance on the surface, while every few steps one or both of us were breaking through. It was quite unpleasant. There were several boggy areas too, which of course increased the instability of the snow cover. Maybe this is the part of the trail that everyone hates? There honestly wasn’t much to love about this section, even aside from conditions, so while I would willingly repeat the lower half, I probably wouldn’t jump at doing this part again. Although I wouldn’t deny giving it a second chance either. Maybe. Regardless, we pushed on, with Hummingbird eventually giving in and strapping on her snowshoes, and me just dealing with the postholes. In one instance, I sunk up to my knee and got a bit stuck. Hummingbird yelled, “don’t move, I’m coming back!” Not to help, mind you, but to snap a photo. 😂

It's only fair, since I took a few pics of her sinking in too, before she broke out the snowshoes. What is family for, after all? 😉

Normally, we chastise hikers for not going prepared and creating postholes, so I am very aware of the hypocrisy of this situation. But we didn’t feel overly guilty about it, seeing as obviously nobody hikes out there in winter, so we didn’t feel like we ruined the trail for anyone. Besides, the warming temps will soften and melt the “damage” quickly enough anyway. Perhaps this is a good reminder for all of us to curb our judgementalism, since you never know another person's story.

On our way around the loop past Mack, we discussed whether we should take the spur out to tag Klem's summit. It's very short, but also kind of pointless, as there's nothing exciting there, just a small sign in a circle of trees. But we figured we'd regret not officially summiting while we were there, so it was worth the extra .1 or .2 miles. Good thing we did; it didn't even occur to me at the time that we had to hit the actual summit for the Belknap Grid!

What? Another new goal? Well… maybe… The grid is a challenge in which you hike all of the mountains on a list in every month of the year, whether that be a single year, or spread out over several. [Here's more info on the original White Mt. 48 grid for reference.] Recently, a Belknap range grid challenge came up, and though there's not yet an official patch program, it's potentially in the works, and many people have taken up the challenge just for fun.

Now, I had zero intention or desire to ever become a "gridiot," but I was admittedly curious about the rules for our beloved local mountain range. After getting that info, I decided to print out the spreadsheet, and start keeping track. Because, you know, it never hurts to keep track, just in case, right? Plus just for my own curiosity! I also keep a checklist of the 52 With A Views I've done, and heck, even the handful of 4000 footers I've hiked. It's doubtful I'll ever finish the former, and I'm not physically capable of hiking most of the latter, but I still keep my lists. So I figured why not include the Belknap grid? I certainly hike there enough that it's potentially feasible for me to eventually finish. Well, turns out I already have nearly 25% of the grid done! As of today I'm at 35/144. I'm not about to start actively pursuing the grid, but I'm definitely going to keep checking peaks off as I hit them. Most likely, when I finish my other hiking goals and need a new focus, THEN I'll intentionally work on cleaning up whatever's left for gridding.

But back to the current goal, and hike of the day… Once the "Loop of Postholes" was complete, we had two reasons to celebrate. (Well, I guess 3 if you count my birthday, but I don't really care about that.) One, we officially finished redlining the eastern half of the Belknaps! All we have left now is cleaning up trails around Gunstock & Belknap. Oh, and the newly added Iron Mine. It'll take several trips, but we're on track to complete the patch this year! And reason number two to rejoice, being done with the Klem-Mack loop meant getting back on the snowmobile trail, and no more trudging! Solid terrain and being all downhill from that point forward was a physical relief for both of us.

Actually, there is another reason to celebrate too… While my body was "feeling it" after 5 miles or so, overall I retained decent energy, and pain levels stayed in check. Maybe I'm not as out of shape as I thought! Oh, and that estimated 5.5 miles? Yeah, by the end of the trail, we totaled over 8 miles! 😲 That's WAY more than I anticipated, and honestly I may have had second thoughts about attempting it if I'd known it'd be that long. But I'm so glad we did, and super excited that it didn't kill me! A single dose of arnica, a hot shower, and a good slathering of essential oils eased the average post-hike soreness back down to my "normal" chronic pain levels. It's very encouraging for future hikes.

Not bad for officially being in my mid-40s now. But we're not going to talk about that. 😛 Let's just enjoy a few more views from our productive weekend…