Hiking Ed: Small Mountains: Big Trip

You don't have to hike a big mountain to have a great trip. You just have to get out there.

That's what I did this weekend, hiking a couple sections of the AT west of Mt. Moosilauke. I decided to head south from Route 25A, up and over Mt Cube. What a wonderful trail. Relaxed pace. Plenty of interesting sights and people.

The adventure started less than 100 yards in, when some folks had set up a "Trail Magic" stop for AT thru-hikers. Burgers, beers, Cokes... they made a lot of tired, smelly folks thru-hikers veeerrrrryyyy happy!

Taking my time was a nice change of pace for me. I'm usually on a mission, tackling a 12-15 mile days. Today was less than 6 miles, so I had the luxury of slowing down, taking a nice 1 hour lunch on top of the North Peak of Mt Cube and seeing some interesting things on the trail as well.

Like a pair of blue panties hanging from a tree branch....

They say, "What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas...." .......... that must be true on the Mt Cube trail as well....

I blew by a huge tree growing around a rock on the way up, but stopped to take a picture of it on the way down the next day. The tree was at least 6 of me around, and you can barely see the rock, but it's under/inside the tree. I don't know how the tree stays up!?

Toward the top, you can take a side trail to the North Peak, where you can see way into Vermont as well as into the Pemi Wilderness. Totally worth the 15 minutes it took to get to the outlooks and ledges

Added Bonus: Blueberries at the top!

Up and over the South Peak

I arrived about an hour later at the Hexacuba Shelter, a six-sided shelter. It's joined by a pentagonal- shaped privy. I'm sure someone from the Dartmouth Outing Club had waaaayyyyyyyy too much time on their hands... must have been an engineering type :)

Hexacuba Shelter

This time of year there are a number of thru-hikers making their way along the AT and stopping at shelters. This night was no exception, and I had the privilege of sharing the shelter with "PacMan" and "Slider"-- two distinguished characters.

PacMan

PacMan was determined to have a fire. At times he was successful... at least enough to cook his dinner on.

Other times:...... not so much.... interestingly, though, no mosquitoes were to be found.....

Slider just kind of hung out in the shelter... he was really taking it easy both on the trail and off.

Sunday came a bit earlier than I desired.... 4:30am and I was wide awake. So after coffee, oatmeal and packing up, I hit the trail around 6am. Didn't quite make sunrise at the top of a peak, but I DID see some interesting early morning valley fog.... or was that smoke from our campfire.....?

Met up with a group around 9am that was hiking another section of the AT. Made it to the top of VIEWLESS Mt Mist... almost "missed" the top, it was so uneventful.

Over to Webster Slide Mtn, with some great views of Wachipauka Pond

Moose dropping on top of Webster Slide Mtn

And then, something crazy.... like X-Files crazy....

Out in the middle of nowhere is this pond, and what do we find? It was like a little resort beach area, complete with tiki torches, Coleman chairs, 2x4s (?)... even some type of table! Someone had to hike all this stuff in...