In the middle of February Bianca and I took a vacation to visit my parents and sisters in Vermont for 10 days. It was a trip full of fun reconnection with family, meeting my youngest niece for the first time, meeting my parents’ new dog, and many beautiful (but cold) Vermont winter days. We went sledding on the huge hill beneath my parents house, went for long walks in the woods with the dog, took several sleigh rides behind my father’s horses, and enjoyed cooking a variety of tasty plant-based meals with my mother. At the end of those 10 days Bianca flew home and I stayed behind for just a few extra days, which included one day hike up Mt. Moosilauke, nearby in New Hampshire, with my brother in law Casey.
The night before the hike I slept over at Kate & Casey’s house and had a fun evening playing with my nieces , ~1 and 3 yrs old. The next morning we had a big pancake breakfast before leaving for the hike around 9am (alpine start…). The trailhead we started from was conveniently just 20 minutes down the road from Kate & Casey’s house. When we we got there the temperature was a bit below freezing but rapidly climbing and the day was otherwise a perfectly crisp & clear New England winter day. The trail we were going up is one of the steeper, more direct routes up the mountain, and at home there had been ~1ft of snow on flat ground, with drifts up to a couple feet, so we had come fully prepared with snowshoes, crampons, microspikes, and ice axes. From the trailhead we could see the trail had already been packed down pretty well, so we left the snowshoes in the car and started out wearing microspikes with the rest of the gear on our backs.
The hiking was pleasant and trail pretty well packed making for easy going most of the way up with just microspikes. Within a quarter mile of the trailhead we started gaining elevation at a good pace and continued that way for a total of ~3k feet gain in ~4miles to the summit. Most of that gain happens in the middle ~2 miles where the trail follows the steeply cascading Beaver Brook it takes its name from. The steeper sections took some care to get through using just microspikes, but the packed snow trail made cruising up the steep hillsides fairly easy going compared to the rock scrambling and root climbing required during summer months. Occasionally we would post-hole up to our thighs or hips in an area less well packed. As we hiked the temperature rose well above freezing and we started getting rained on from all the melting snow and ice in the trees.
The trail stays below treeline until just before the exposed summit where we took in some beautiful 360 degree views and had a quick snack before heading back down. On our way down we could slide all of the steep sections in the soft snow making for a quick hike back to the trailhead. By 3:30 we were back home with Kate and the girls and having a sledding party in their yard before I had to say goodbye and head back to my parent’s house for the last night of my visit.
Hike stats ~7.5mi, 3100 ft gain, ~5-6hrs.
