After my lecture on brush fires, myself and Young AK stopped by the fire station to get the State's forest fire danger rating. As expected , was a HIGH rating. We got a late start as usual, getting to Miller State Park @ noon or so. Was concerned about making our destination(Temple Rd.) and back while it was daylight out. I had been in touch with New Hampshire , a member of this site, who was extremely helpful w/ info on the sections, point to point, as well as approximate milage of each.Based on this info I figured flashlights should be brought just in case.We headed across Rt.101 to the now abandoned Temple Mt.ski area. The trail follows the west slope up the hill, and we both immediately felt the familiar burn of our calves. As always, I was way overdressed, and by the top of Temple I was ready to peel a few layers off , swig some water and check out the view. Very cool. This was the place to be when I was younger! :naughty: It had changed for the worse. We continued on, the burn now gone from our legs, on a trail that was quiet with a covering of spruce needles.The trail weaved in between rocks and trees up and down. We made good time to the Temple ledges , an open rock face that had cool stonehenge-like strutures.Lots of time went into these towers. We were 1 1/2 miles from 101 and picking up speed. We came to Holt Peak shortly after, a 2084 ft. summit. The top was treecovered so we had limited views . We encountered few people, strange given the ease + popularity of this trail. No complaints by me though! One group we did meet did the whole trail in two days, sleeping out on the trail somewhere. LUCKYS !!! :banana: About 2 1/2- 3 miles into it came upon a big rock w/ a fantastic view of Monadnock , about ten people were there enjoying themselves so Young AK and I left them alone. From here the trail resembled a ridge walk of sorts, either side dropping away. Not steeply, but enough to provide decent views. Occasionally, the trees would open up enough to see distant locations: Manchester, Goffstown, Jaffrey, Mts. Watatic and Wachusetts. Watatic being the end of the Wapack for us.We started on North Pack 2 weeks ago.Eventually we came to an old run down cabin. Vandals had had their way with the old place so it was in tough shape. Again, it was probably something in it's day. Seeing the vandalism, I knew we must be close to a road, as vandals are generally lazy and would not put much effort into destroying something they had to work to get to. I was right. We reached the Temple Rd. in under 3 hours.( the sign on temple rd. said rt. 101 was 4.8 miles, the one on 101 said temple rd. was 4.6 miles. must be further from the other way!
) The trip back was uneventful with the exception of the telltale signs of smoke.There was one very large brush fire somewhere south of Monadnock. 3-4 other columns of smoke appeared from the seacoast to Jaffrey, and in between . We did stop at that big rock with the view of Monadnock and I did manage to doze off while laying in the sun. We finally decide to move along before we both crashed there for the night.We made good time going back as well , considering it was .2 miles longer
The Jeep was a welcome sight , my legs starting to feel the day's efforts. Total of 9.6 or 10.0 miles depending on which sign you believe. ( the extra .2 miles accounting for the life altering crossing of Super Highway Rt. 101. If you've ever seen the highway crossing scene in the movie "Bowfinger" you'll know what I'm talking about. " Oh! Heavenly God ! Heavenly God! I don't want to do this anymore!" As soon as I stopped quivering from the road crossing, the Boy and I decided on our next section. The small piece from Temple Rd. to the 123/124 intersection, approx. 5.5 miles, piece of cake compared to this one! Plus , NO kamikaze, chicken run, running w/ the bulls, running w/ the devil road crossing!!! :uhg:
:uhg: Seriously, it was a good hike, fairly easy by my standards, just long that's all. Funny thing is , 2 weeks ago we were in 12" of snow and ice, this week : shorts and t-shirts. Gotta love New England !
Ed (Thanks again, Brian)
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