North South Trail, Ninigret to Kenyon Hill Road

Saturday, September 5th

This hike was supposed to be the previous Saturday, but weather got in the way. In the meantime I developed a chest cold that I hoped would clear up in time. It did not. I hiked anyhow.

We drove down before 7 in the morning and put my wife's van on Kenyon Hill Road, about 17 miles from our starting point. Piling into the other van, Scoutmaster Kelley, my son Peter, two other scouts, and I drove down to Ninigret. We parked on East Beach Road. It was about 8:30 before we started walking. The trail markings were exceptionally clear.

We followed East Beach, crossed route 1, then entered Burlingame State Park. The bugs were ferocious. As usual, I resisted putting repellent on. While in Burlingame we saw a strange ant. Very large (about an inch), and orange and black. I'd never seen anything like it. I let it crawl on my hands to get a better look, and maybe a picture, but it moved too fast and quickly dropped off the other side. Eventually I got it to cross the back of my map and got a shot of it. The picture wasn't much, but the following Tuesday at work I googled it to find out more.

What I learned was that what I let crawl on my hand was a Velvet Ant, which is actually a female wasp. It also goes by the name Cow Killer Ant because the sting is so painful, it is said to kill a cow. And I let it crawl on my hand. It won't actually kill you, but if it's a painful as I'm told, it would have ended the hike real fast. I stole this picture because it matches the bug we saw.

We continued through Burlingame. We spotted a couple deer. Somewhere near the half way point, we stopped for lunch. I ate too much, but the mosquitoes seemed to eat more. After Burlingame we were walking on roads for what seemed forever. A jeep stopped and asked us directions to the campground. I was tempted to say continue driving, then turn right into the woods, but that wouldn't have been very helpful. I did the best I could. Later a man stopped to ask us if we were hiking the North South Trail. I said yes, up to Arcadia. He eagerly told us how great the trail was. The man who stopped behind him was less enthusiastic.

After walking through Wood River Junction, we finally reentered the woods near the Carolina Management Area. Here there are corn fields, high as an elephant's eye. This is where the trail markings finally let us down. We continued following a farm road when I noticed three things: the grass on the trail was very tall, we hadn't seen a trail marker in a while, and the sun was now in our face. We were off the trail. We came to a point where we could see landmarks we passed earlier that clearly indicated our location, so we turned around. There is a jog in the trail that is perfectly obscured. This is described in the book, but I don't hike with a book in my hand. They could have prefaced the paragraph describing the turn with CAREFUL: or some other words of warning. Two woman on horseback happened to be coming out of the wood on the trail we needed to follow.

Back in the woods, we continued through Carolina. Evidence of horse traffic was in great quantity, if you catch my meaning. We watched our step. We banged a left on Pine Hill Road and passed a hunter check station. We crossed the road for the final mile and a half of the hike. The trail turned into a forest road, then a dirt road, then a paved one. We walked by some very interesting houses. Soon after that, we came upon my van. I have never been so happy to see it. It was about 4. We hiked for about seven and a half hours, including lunch.

I expect to do another leg of the trail, maybe in the 12 to 14 mile range, but I have no plan to do it soon. With the additional off trail walking, I estimate we hiked around 18 miles, much further than I ever have before. I've done more strenuous hikes that took longer (Katahdin back in '07 took twelve hours), but this was different. My hips hurt, my feet hurt, my shins hurt, my thighs. A couple advil later and some extra rest, and I am fine, but boy oh boy was I sore on Sunday. And I've been dreaming about expensive hiking boots.

Thewlis Woods, South Kingstown

Friday, August 21

Off of Route 1 in South Kingstown is Thewlis Woods, a South Kingstown Land Trust property. I drove down after work on Friday.

The trail is called The DAR Friendship trail or DAR Freedom trail, not sure which. The trail map available online says Freedom, but the sign says friendship. DAR refers to the Daughters of the American Revolution. The trail was created and maintained by Troop 1 Kingston. There is a .1 mile walk to a .7 mile loop. Not much of a trail, but I had other things I wanted to do before karate, so I didn't mind a short stroll.

I found the trail head fine. There wasn't much room to park. I walked the 500 or so feet to the main loop. When faced with a loop without a reason to go in a particular direction, I always go counter-clockwise. I don't know why. I turned right.

Straight away I was taken uncomfortably close to private houses. The blue blazes were few and somewhat indistinct. Having been created by Scouts as part of an Eagle project, the blazes were very nonstandard. They appeared to have been made using spray paint without any template. Also, they were a bit lower than you normally find. but the trail itself was clear and I trudged on fearlessly.

At some point I realized I hadn't seen a blaze in a while. There are a lot of paths that seem to have been made for cutting timber and I may have stepped onto one. The main path became occasionally overgrown. I checked my Blackberry for my location and headed the way I thought I should have. I got back onto the trail, this time going clockwise. That's when I discovered that the blazes were far more numerous and distinct in that direction. I passed by the access path back to my car, but continued on to see where I got off the trail. I found it in short order. Instead if turning back, I decided to continue and do the loop again, clockwise.

I walked back past many nice South Kingstown homes, noticing more and more "service" paths, for lack of a better term. Once again, despite my best effort, I was off the trail. I came to a familiar intersection, turned around, and hunted for the access path yet again. In doing so I walked by a rock on the trail with scat on it I had passed maybe three times. I again found the access path and headed back to my car. I had spent 50 minutes in the woods.

There was a pure stand of mature white pine, with the tell-tale denuded understory. Little other than greenbrier will grow. But much of the rest was oak, beech, and maple, will some pine. Greenbrier, fern, and a holly tree made up the understory. There was also a fair amount of poison ivy on the trail.

It's a nice walk but clearly needs a lot of maintenance. When checking my facts for this entry, I noticed these red letters:

NOTE: Thewlis Trail is temporarily unavailable for public access due to trail maintenance work underway at this site.

Was that new or had I simply missed it before? Astounding. I'll see about visiting again once it's done.

Mount Monadnock, Jaffrey, NH

Sunday, August 9, 2009

I took a long weekend and brought the family camping. In addition to my wife and 7, 9, and 13 year old boys, I brought my 15 year old niece. My boys adore her. Since a trip with her grandparents to Utah, she had been itching for a real nature hike.

We camped, for maybe the forth time, at Greenfield State Park, in Greenfield, NH. Despite the large number of campsites, each one is clean, spacious, and distant from each other. It's my favorite campground, anywhere.

I chose to climb Sunday so that we can participate in camp lead nature activities on Saturday. Phil gave a fairly short lecture on Black Bears that I think the kids enjoyed. There also was a nature hike and ponding event, but we didn't attend them. After 8 pm we did a night hike, which was fun. I got some ideas for our cub scout pack sleepover in October.

I had climbed on Monadnock three times prior and been to the summit twice, and each time using the White Cross trail from Monadnock State Park. I toyed with the idea of doing a different trail, but I was overruled by the wife. Play it safe, we have a new hiker with us.

Monadnock State Park is about 25 minutes away from Greenfield and we got a late start. Parking at Monadnock cost us $18, which was a bit of a surprise. They charge per person and 15 years old is an adult, apparently. We used the bathrooms at the trail head and started up.

The climb was mostly uneventful and we were going rather slow. It was overcast but the rain wasn't predicted until much later. My 7 year old, despite having done this hike two years ago, was certain he couldn't make it. I spent some time trying to boost his morale.

There is no water on this trail, which is too bad. The water on Moosilauke and Little Haystack make those hikes memorable. There was mud, and we will likely remember it, but it's not the same. I wonder if other trails do.

At some point above the treeline we entered the clouds. Goodbye scenic views. Here we went VERY slow. I wore my work sneakers again. Everyone got to the top and we could barely see past our outstretched hands. It was cold and the wind was whipping. Some of the other climbers were not prepared for that, but having been on top of Washington and Katahdin, I've seen wind 30 mph faster in weather 20 degrees colder. We didn't linger long.

The summit is bald, not because it's above the tree line, but because fires lit by farmers in 1800 to clear land for pasture got out of control and burned the mountain. Maybe someday the forest will retake the summit. Monadnock is 3165 feet above sea level, but chiseled into the top is the number 3166. Let's dismiss survey error or erosion. Back in 1959 the size of the inch was shortened a tiny bit to make metric conversion easier. I'll refer the units nerds to this article for a better explanation than I can muster.

The hike down was also fairly uneventful. We continued to move slowly. It would sprinkle from time to time, but nothing too concerning. My 9 year old took the lead and complained constantly how slow we were going. He was completely done with the mountain and wanted out.

Back at the trail head I noticed that I had drank very little from my hydration pack. My youngest drank his dry and as such had to stop for frequent pee breaks. We used the bathrooms again and headed back to camp for dinner.

I had to remind the boys to be smart about what path they chose and where they put their feet, but all in all I'd have to say they climbed like champs. I don't know if I'd plan a harder trail for my younger two (or my niece) but this hike was well within their abilities. Maybe we'll do it again next year and choose another trail. There are rumors of caves and abandoned structures. I'll have to read the book to find out more.

Queen's River Preserve, Exeter

July 31, 2009

Off Route 2, a bit south of Schartner Farm, is Mail Road. Less than a mile down Mail is School Land Woods Road. Less than a mile down there on the left is the trail head for Queen's River Preserve, a Nature Conservancy property.

It had rained earlier in the day and threatened to do so again, so I didn't know if I would get this one in. I didn't know how muddy the trail would be. Worst case was I would at least find the trail head. That I did around 3:30 pm. There were three other cars parked there. I did my best to not block them in.

The trail is a barred forest road. I brought shorts, but it wasn't very warm, so I walked in jeans. First order of business was to walk off the trail for a relief. Through a clearing and back into the woods I found a private place. There I found half buried debris. Some of it looked very old, maybe dating back to before the preserve was declared.

Duty done and back on the main trail I saw foot and paw prints. I passed another clearing declaring a forest restoration project in effect. Fire is an integral part of forest health, but we simply do not allow them anymore. Instead, the conservancy selectively cut some species of tree to allow, if memory serves, pitch pine to grow. This was very important to the tiger beetle. I'll have to take their word.

Soon I came to the end. This, I presume, is Queen's River. I had passed two side roads on my way. I turned back to try one of them. I passed a small cemetery. The stones I could read dated to the early 19th century. Soon I came upon three woman, each with large, friendly dogs. I'm not a dog person, but their sight was not without welcome. I didn't continue too far before a narrow side trail beckoned me. I turned right off of the road into the woods proper. The foliage was still wet and passing there made we as well. The way zig-zagged through mountain laurel and rhododendron. The path became more distinct then ended at another forest road. Left or right? I chose left.

I wanted to see what was to the right, and I also needed to know where the other forest road led to. I'd simply have to come back. So, off I went down the road. Eventually it ended at a field. There was another sign there announcing the preserve. I turned left down a road that seemed to skirt the property. I don't like to rely on my innate sense of direction, but no trail map was available and I didn't bring a compass, and I had the feeling I was walking back towards the original road. After a while I landed at the restoration clearing! I had looped! I turned back towards my car.

I passed the other side road and took it. I was doing ok on time. In short order I ended at a clearing with parked tractors. I doubled back and went back to the car. It was time to change into hiking shorts. Conveniently after changing, another car pulled up. In it was a woman with two greyhounds. She seemed to be waiting. The other three cars were gone.

I made hast on the path again, now free from cotton. I turned down the side road, then down the path. This time I turned right. It couldn't lead back to the main road or I would have seen where it comes out. It ended in a clearing near the river. I poked around, seeing more dog prints in the mud. I doubled back. Time was growing short.

Back on the main road, I still felt the urge to dawdle on side paths. There is a patch of moss that looked like a great place to nap. A side path led back to the agriculture field. I finally got back to my car right at 5:00. A second car was there, this one with a bumper sticker declaring their support for Chocolate Labs. Popular place for dog lovers. I had just enough time to get to North Kingstown and get into my Gi. We did heavy bag.

Mount Moosilauke, White Mountains, New Hampshire

Beaver Brook trail
Saturday, July 25

This will be a long one.

A co-worker, Lou, has a family cabin outside Plymouth, NH and none of his friends are willing to go hiking with him. I stuck a bargain. He supplies the cabin, my bro-in-law Mikey and I will supply the food and beer. Weather reports didn't look very promising, but worst case we spend the weekend in a cabin in the woods with a lot of beer.

At 4802, Mount Moosilauke is a fairly high peak, and the closest 4000 footer to the cabin. We got a late start driving (my fault) and landed in the Whites around midnight. We unpacked some of our stuff, set up sleeping arrangements, and crashed. We woke late.

After a leisurely breakfast, we packed up and went looking for the trail head. I realized my AMC maps were left back in Rhode Island, so we stopped at an information center. A kindly, old, toothless man suggested a trail and gave Lou the directions. After an hour of driving, we found the trail head. $3.00 to park. It was ten past eleven when we hit the trail. The weather was gorgeous.

Beaver Brook trail resembles the Falling Waters trail to Little Haystack. For both that and this hike, nature provided plenty rain to ensure the mountain streams had extra vigor. The photos do not do it justice. The trail was strenuous and we had to take frequent breaks to catch our breaths. Normally I hit the gym treadmill twice a week to prepare for my high peak, but with a shift in my work schedule, I haven’t been able to make it. Lou, younger than I and somewhat fit, was unaccustomed to this level of hike. Mikey, on the other hand, had quit smoking and lost over 25 pounds.

There were 6X6’s cut diagonally, and attached with rebar to the rock to make an effective stairway. There was also rebar hand-holds along this stretch. We walked out onto the rock to marvel at the waterfall. Without warning my feet slipped out from under me and I landed flat on my stomach. I gripped the rock to keep from falling back, but with my feet over open air and the rebar out of reach, I couldn't climb back up.

In a calm voice, I said “Hey guys”. They said “Yea?” without turning around. “Little help?” They turned around, confused why I would choose that moment to lie down. Mikey realized the situation and jumped to my aid. He helped me up and I stepped to a safer location. “Nobody got a picture of that?” I said.

I was wearing my work sneakers. My hikers are old Timberlands that hurt my feet. I thought I could get away with something more comfortable. Maybe, had the treads not been worn out. Almost became an entry in Hiker Hell. I took this picture on the way down.

The roaring river slowly shrank away. Soon we found a side trail for use by AT through hikers. There were a couple tent platforms, a privy, and a hut. That provided a nice place to rest and refuel. The rest of the way up was mostly uneventful. The trees grew shorter, when suddenly we were on a rocky plain. We followed the cairns to the top. The remains of the Tiptop house were visible. A steward from the Dartmouth Outing Club was there providing some education to small children. Apparently they came up an easier path.

Ok, so here is the fancy book-learnin’ about Mount Moosilauke. Moosilauke is a Native American word for Bald Place. Bullwinkle and his kin have nothing to do with the name. Dartmouth College owns the summit and the Dartmouth Outing Club provides education and trail maintenance. The Tip Top House kept being broken into by snowmobilers. One day they took the stove so Dartmouth decided to close it. There is some disagreement to the proper pronunciation. According to Ada, the DOC steward, Dartmouth had a vote many years ago and choose Moose-a-LOCK, while the AMC and Forestry Service chose Moose-a-Lockee.

Ada was very nice. I would have liked to chat with her longer, but I felt I was detracting her from her duties. I wish her luck in medical school. It was 20 past four when we started back down.

We made better time. Five hours up, I was hopping for two hours down. We took a break at the hut. Now two people were sitting in it. I asked if it was ok if we lingered there with them. Lu Lu and Chris were north bound through hikers. They were happy to see that they had only 390 miles left. Our miles were about six for the day and my legs were burning. A south-bounder arrived called Face Plant. They had a lot to talk about, one having just come from where the other will go. I pestered them with questions.

Face Plant admitted she walked the 100 mile wilderness in Crocks because she didn't want to get her new hikers wet. I couldn't imagine it. She pulled her now-wet hikers off and I was struck how white her feet were from moisture. She better take care of those dogs. I gave them the last of my smarties and bid them goodbye. We lingered longer than planned and I didn't want to end the trail in darkness. Two of us were carrying flashlights.

My going was slow. We were all tired, but I wanted to take extra care at the cascades. Lou and Mikey went on ahead. Eventually the trail flattened out and we grouped up again.

We walked off the trail ten past seven. Exactly eight hours from when we started. We could have taken an hour off that at least if we were going for time, but we weren't. Dinner consisted of chicken and vegetables, marinated steak tips and shrimp, Johnsonville Brats, and lots of beer. I slept well. In the morning we breakfasted at Plain Jane’s diner then went to Polar Caves Park.