Two Notches, One Day

It’s officially backpacking season, and I was carspotting Hawk for an AT section hike, so he could clean up some pieces he previously missed.  I figured while I was in the White Mts, I would do some hiking of my own.  Thankfully it’s not all 4000 footers; there are many easy-moderate trails as well.  And I had a list of spots I wanted to check out.  Hummingbird was able to meet me up there to join in a hike, so I had company - and accountability.  We ended up accomplishing quite a bit!

I dropped Hawk off at the Webster Cliff trailhead in Crawford Notch around 9 am, then proceeded to the AMC Highland Center a short distance up the road.  Right there we had several choices of sights and trails.  I wanted to check off the Playscape and Elephant Head for the NH Rocks That Rock list, and Hummingbird suggested Mt. Willard.  Those were a good start.

When we initially arrived, we were both slightly confused about where we were supposed to park, discovering that the Highland Center Lodge, which appeared to be the main complex, had restricted parking.  Luckily, we somehow had just enough cell signal in that particular spot for Hummingbird to text me that she wasn't sure if she was in the right place just as I drove in and spotted her walking towards the building.  After calling her over, we decided to move down to the old train station, which I believe is now some sort of small welcome center, and turns out is also official day hiker parking.  (There are several other pull offs along that stretch of road as well, so I wasn't super concerned about finding parking.  But I was happy coincidentally having bathroom facilities right by my car!)  After getting situated in the proper parking area, we formed our game plan.

Lovely little Saco Lake, across from the station

First we headed over to Elephant Head, which is a spur off the Webster-Jackson trail.  Hawk and I hiked the peaks a few years ago, but we obviously skipped the spur (I may have forgotten most of that hike, but I definitely would have photos of the viewpoint if we’d done it.)  Elephant Head by itself is a relatively easy hike, and just a bit over a mile round trip; perfect for combining with other goals for the day.  Conditions were wet and muddy, however there were plenty of bog bridges to help keep your feet out of the muck.  Some of them were broken down, but they were better than none at all!  

At the top/lookout we got a nice view down into the valley.  We could see the Highland Center, the old train station where we parked, the pretty pond/lake we walked past on our way to the trail, and the Mt. Washington Hotel in the distance.  Not a bad reward for a quick “warm up” hike. 

It certainly does look like an elephant's head!

View from the lookout (forehead?)

The other direction was still fairly fogged in.

Next we walked up to the Highland Center so I could tag the Playscape for another checkmark.  It’s a man-made structure, making it unusual on the NH Rocks list, but it’s pretty neat.  I wouldn’t drive any distance for no other reason but to see it (like many destinations on this list), but I was literally right there, so obviously I was tagging it.  I did not however play on it, beyond climbing to the top of the formation.  We had bigger plans!  Plus with an iffy forecast, we didn’t want to kill too much time unnecessarily. 

There were so many Lupines! They always remind me and Hawk of our first Canada trip. Aww!

The field of wildflowers was just so beautiful!

Here's the entry to the Playscape.

And another section of it.

A really cool marker by the Highland Center's fields.

Moose bed??

After a convenient bathroom break at the old train station, we finally headed to a “real” hike, Mt. Willard.  It would be our biggest hike of the day, but still only a little over 3 miles and 900 feet of gain.  It’s one of the smallest 52 With a View peaks, and it has some pretty cascades along the trail, so there is plenty of appeal to the hike.  Reviews mentioned some rough water crossings and lots of bugs, so we were thankful to find neither were too terrible.  

Hawk was sad to learn that I planned to hike Willard without him.  Apparently I had forgotten that he’d always wanted to do it with me.  But as I pointed out to him, I have no objections to repeating a good hike.  And it was certainly worth repeating, esp. since it’s easy enough to combine with other moderate trails.  When you have a long drive, you tend to want to get the most "bang for your buck."

Some of the cascades along Willard's trail.

"Centennial Pool"

The trail was not all fantastic though. Yes, this is the trail.

But there was a light at the end of the tunnel!

Pano of Willard's view.  Nice.

I had suggested to Hummingbird that after our descent, we turn onto the Avalon trail to check out the waterfall loop just a short distance in.  Avalon, another 52WAV, is reputed to be a tough little hike, at least on the latter part of the trail, so it’s not a great option to combine with anything else.  Even Hawk said it’s too hard for that!  But the small detour on the beginning of the trail should be an easy pick up.  Unfortunately I completely forgot about the idea until we were back at the cars! LOL  I asked Hummingbird if she wanted to go back, but we decided to aim for something else.

With enough energy left for a bit more hiking, we started driving towards home, which would take us through Franconia Notch.  I had a couple other goal hikes in that area, including another rock or two, as well as Artists Bluff.  When I mentioned the latter, Hummingbird jumped on it, having always wanted to do it too.  Unfortunately we had basically no cell signal in 99% of Crawford Notch, so had no idea how to get there!  But we figured if we just headed in the direction of Franconia, we’d surely hit signal at some point near Rt. 93, and could GPS it then.  

Our plan worked, and we found parking for Artists Bluff directly across from Cannon Mt. ski area.  Lack of signal continued to be a problem, though, so we were totally winging it, with no way to bring up a map or stats.  Hummingbird saw in her small hole of having signal that it was a short loop hike with Bald Mt, and it was recommended to do the full loop, so we figured it couldn’t be too bad to tackle both.  

Well, it was indeed somewhat moderate, but a bit tougher than our previous hikes (despite it's length), and trail conditions were not great.  The humidity was starting to get to us too, and we finally found the bugs as well.  It’s one of those hikes where I might be willing to repeat it in better weather, because it was pretty enough, but it’s not at the top of my list.  

Still, I’m glad we did the whole loop.  I think I actually liked Bald Mt. better than the famous Artists Bluff viewpoint!  And I definitely preferred that section of trail.  Of course, one (but not the only) factor was that we apparently hiked it in the wrong direction.

Not that counterclockwise would necessarily have been better.  The climb up Bald Mt. had a lot of rock scrambles, which are always less intimidating to go up than down.  I was getting tired and overheated, but otherwise it was kind of fun.  The summit spur seemed long, but the view was quite lovely.  

Rocks and roots is one of the themes on this trail.

Including some steep rock climbs.

Hummingbird said I look like a fancy hiker with a cane. LOL

Pano from Bald Mt. summit.

Continuing the loop clockwise to the bluff, we encountered worsening trail conditions.  More muck, more roots and rocks, and some tricky descents, which is what convinced us that counterclockwise would have been a better approach.  I was fairly fried at that point though, and think that Hummingbird was getting there as well, so our impressions may have been slightly skewed.  The bluff viewpoint was pretty too, but I wasn’t overly excited by it at the time.  Even as we wrapped up our hiked, I figured this was probably going to be something along the lines of what Hawk calls “type 2 fun.”  Some experiences are unpleasant while in them, but looking back on them, you enjoy them, at least sufficiently.  I think that's a fair assessment of this trail. 

Awesome boulder at the entry to Artists Bluff viewpoint. Why is this not on the NH Rocks list?!

Obviously I can't resist a good pano!

Even the view from the parking lot was pretty nice.

We decided to call it a day after finishing Artists Bluff.  We probably could have pushed for more, although after I started driving again, I did start "feeling it" a bit, so it's probably best we ended where we did.  Altogether, we totaled 6.74 mi, 1607 ft, and 3:56 hrs of hiking for the day.  That's about my ideal limit currently, so it makes sense I would have some normal soreness.  (The kind you can sleep off, not the kind that lingers because you did too much.)

All in all, I'm glad we hiked all that we did, despite some less than ideal conditions.  I am grateful that the weather turned out better than forecast, and the clouds even parted to afford us better views.  And I'm happy that Hummingbird was able to join me for the adventure, and we hopefully can both rebuild momentum for hiking again!  It was also kind of cool to say we hiked in two different notches in one day.  

I'm also thankful that Hawk had a safe backpacking trip and is now back home… preparing for the next one!  Hmm, where shall I hike when I drop him off next time?