Last night I was all "I'm going to get up early tomorrow and hike Owl's Head!" I set my alarm for 6 am, packed my backpack with the maps and all. And, when the alarm went off I hit the snooze bar a few times and decided "I'm doing Moosilauke!" In my defense, Moosilauke was my original plan, I just got side tracked with Owls Head. But, #1 - it was my first solo 4000 footer. #2 - it was pretty hot out today, in the 80's. #3 - I'm not totally convinced that I can do Owl's Head in one day - it's 18.9 miles!
Moosilauke is nicknamed "the Gentle Giant." It's the tenth tallest of the 4000 footers, but apparently the trailhead starts kind of far up on it. Also, it's got a pretty long approach, so the start at least isn't that hard. The top is alpine meadow, my favorite kind of hiking! Total distance, 3.7 miles up, 3.8 down (I did a loop) plus an extra .2 mile because I went up South Peak tool. So, 7.7 miles, about 5-5.5 hours hiking time (just a little slower than book time)
The drive up was about 2.5 hours, but I downloaded a Dan Brown MP3 book, and that made such a difference! I'm never going on a long drive again without books on tape (or, iPad really), I drove almost 5 hours, but it didn't feel like it at all.
The hike starts from the Dartmouth Lodge, which is totally cute! The only thing was they were having some kind of event today, and so I had to part about a half mile from the trail head. I hate it when I have to walk to my hike. The hike started out really gentle uphill, and I thought it was a pretty easy hike for the first hour or so (I remembered to acknowledge crossfit for this - in the hours of the week that I'm not at crossfit, it's so worth it). Eventually the trail got steeper, but it had a lot of switchbacks, so it wasn't one of those NH trails that just goes up the side of the mountain. A little before the top, the "Stomach Alarm" went off, and I had to stop and eat something. I waited until I got above tree line, so there was a nice view. Then I finished the last half mile. Really nice views from the top!
Walking from the peak to South peak was my favorite part of the hike! It was about a mile and all alpine meadow, scrub pine, flowers and a nice view!
On the way down I worked on walking with gravity, not fighting it but using it to help me move faster. It would be a lot easier if there were fewer rocks, that's for sure. I think I'm getting better at it, though. It was fun to try, though my feet started to hurt. There was a stream right by the Dartmouth lodge when I finished, and I stuck my feet in it. So cold! They always have football players take ice baths, I feel like this is the same idea. Although, I couldn't keep my feet in that long, they started to hurt after a minute or two.
On the way home I stopped for a hamburger that was so good.
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