Mt Passaconaway was a great hike

Posted on October 2, 2007 in the Hiking category

After a series of busy days, I am back at it finally. I have been unable to post anything since Friday because I was busy hiking, going to the fair, and even getting a little work done.

Friday night, my friends from CT Dave and his wife Tara came up for a Saturday hike up Mt Passaconaway. One of the White Mountain 4000 footers is 4043 feet at the summit and number six on the list of 48 such peaks. We got up somewhat early Saturday morning and, after a health dose of my pancakes, our trip began. I had wanted to get there by 8am because I wanted to avoid hiking down in the dark - the round trip from car to summit to car is about 9.2 miles. But sleeping in proved to be the winning opinion so we did not get there until about 10am and, after some last minute packing and snacking, we started at 10:17am down the dirt road.

The actual trail does not start for .3 mile after following the dirt road and then hiking through a couple of backyards. I think it is so great that these people that own the property still allow hikers to walk through their yards. So about a half mile from the car, the hike actually begins. It is quite pleasant and gradual for about a mile and a half passing by and over streams and other trails. Fall is firmly in place as evidenced by the wealth of yellow, red, and orange leaves on the ground. They had a tendency to make the trail a pit slippery in spots but not bad.

The trail picks up to a moderate grade for the next couple of miles - we were all panting before long. One key difference between this one and the trail up Mt Tecumseh was the distinct lack of large rocks and boulders. The trail up Tecumseh was much more punishing to my legs and joints because of the constant up and down and teetering on the edges of rocks. This trail was mostly dirt and sand - of course with some rocky parts. Either way you get beat up because what it lacks in rocks, it makes up for with distance.

We did find that, within a mile of the top, there were a few challenging and quite steep sections of trial - the next two pictures show my perspective of the trail as I took a picture of Dave above me and Tara below me. The trail remains pretty steep for at least a half mile.

We all make it to the top - Dave and I sprinting (really a slow jog) about 150-200 yards from the top. Funny thing is that we both wanted to be first at the summit but each of us ended up at a different dead in some trees. We didn’t realize that the true summit is not really marked and is totally occluded. After calling it a draw, we head back down the trail about 100 or so feet to a tremendous rock outcropping offering what I think is the only view from the summit. The next few pictures are of Mt Chocorua to the east and Mt Washington (peak in the clouds) to the north. It was a great climb - we summited at 2:25pm, hung around for a while and grabbed some food. We didn’t make it back to the car until 6:50pm - we assumed that it would be a quick trip down with gravity on our side but didn’t take into account how fatigued we would be due to the length of the trail. My legs are still a bit sore:) Dave and I hope to get one more hike in before it gets too cold for us - Mt Whiteface which is actually right next door to Passaconaway.