Mt. Moosilauke (#13) April 9, 2011

Trails: Lodge Road, Gorge Brook, Carriage Road, and Snapper

Total Miles: 10.7 Vertical gain: 2950'

This trip had a couple of firsts. It's the first 4K hike of 2011, and the first peak we tried to descend by skiing and riding. Now, some people may say that it doesn't count if you don't hike down. But if we haul an extra 30-35 lbs. of gear each to do it, and use our leg muscles to get down, it counts to us. Enough said. On to the trip report.

'Twas a beautiful day to be in the mountains. Temps in the mid-40s to start at 8:30am, and were expected to rise throughout the day.

All geared up at the start of the Moosilauke Ravine Lodge Road.

It's a mellow 400' vertical and 1.5 miles to the Moosilauke Ravine Lodge, and the road, though plowed, had enough snow on it.

We had never been here before, so when the road forked, we took a little longer way to the actual trailhead. Enroute, what we thought was the Lodge.

Looking down to the bridge and trailhead.

Here comes Thomas crossing the bridge.

The trailhead sign across the bridge.

An hour or so into the hike, we take a snack break beside Gorge Brook.

Halfway up, Thomas was a little tired, so we traded the helmets for his snowboard.

As we start to traverse towards the top of Jobildunk Ravine, the woods start to open up and the sun just shines on.

We start to get some views.

SouthEast:

And East:

Finally, we see the snowfields off the summit ridge.

Looking back down at the Moosilauke Ravine Lodge and the road in/out.

We climb the upper snowfield and get our 1st glimpse of the summit.

Looking East towards Franconia Ridge (center left) and Mt. Washington (back right).

There used to be a cabin on top called Moosilauke Summit Camp. This may be the foundation for that camp or an outbuilding of the camp.

Our final objective.

And #13 in the books!

We really didn't feel much wind at all on the way up.Did get a couple of good gusts once on top, so we put on our shells, had lunch, and got ready for the ride down.

It's .8 miles towards the South summit on the Carriage Road and the split with the Glencliff trail. Though we had slid? and hiked over that .8 miles through various ups and downs, now the Carriage Road turns into an alpine descent.This 1st video is us starting our descent from the split.

After that beginning section, the trail widens to 10-15 feet and is quite fun in the sunny conditions.

Here's a couple of pics of Thomas on the descent before turning onto the Snapper Trail.

Once we got on the Snapper Trail, we quickly realized there would be no more open trail to turn on. It's really a low angle, tight, traversing hiking trail to get us back to the Gorge Brook Trail.

We end up down at the trailhead and bridge, which we cross and go right instead of left. Lo and behold, the "real" Moosilauke Ravine Lodge. BIG !!

And out we go on the road.

Total trip time was about 7 hours. We took a good 45 minutes on the summit eating, resting, and talking with people (and ourselves). A couple of snack breaks and stopping to enjoy some views on the way up and down. Also, when we started from the road, we met Ed and his dog, Lauke (Ed'n'Lauke of "Views from the Top"), who answered our many questions and is a very genuine guy. Thanks, Ed.

We tried to make this hike an interesting loop. But if we were to do it again, we would probably park down at the bottom of the Carriage Road, take it to the top, and ride all the way down to the car. Just sayin'.

I say this alot, but I can't wait for the next one, especially if we can turn it into a sliding experience, too. 'Til next time...........

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