Rock Circuit Trail

Never underestimate the Middlesex Fells. I've said that before, and I say it again today. I was thinking about going to the Whites and doing one of my 4000 footers, but I wanted to sleep in, and the weather in NH said views from the mountains wouldn't be that good. So, I decided to hike in the fells instead. My favorite hike over there is the Rock Circuit I think, anyhow, that's what I decided to do.

I guess I decided that since it wasn't a 4000 foot mountain I didn't need food, water or a map. Dumb! I also forgot how long the trail is - it's 3.7 miles, which isn't that far, but it's not short either. It was a really nice day, and the walk felt good (until the last 45 min or so, when I started getting really hungry and thirsty). I took one small wrong turn, which turned out really well because I found this guy rock climbing - I knew there were a few places to climb in the fells, but this one was pretty nice. The climbs were easy, he wasn't using a rope and he was alone. I don't know that I would be that brave - the top moves looked a little hard for so high up.

I was getting to what I hoped was the end, and turned on what I hoped was the trail back to the road, only it wasn't. I walked an extra 5 or 10 min to get to the wrong road. That was a bad moment on the hike. I cut one little corner out of the trail, but I decided it still counted as complete and blogable because of the extra walk on the wrong trail.

The entire hike took me about 3 hrs and 20 min, which I guess is OK. I talked to the climbing guy for about 10 min and I looked at views for 5 or 10 min on the way. So, that's probably 3 hours of hiking. After I was so hungry I went to Whole Foods and pigged out on the free samples - they had crab legs that were really good, and cheese! I bought coconut water, sushi, and pretend healthy chips. That's good post hiking food, right? :)