Member Trip report

Mt. Waumbeck and Mt. Starr King

09/13/2014

Trip Report/Photos from Cartman

Featured Photo

Mt. Waumbeck is the second most northern of all the 4000 footers in New Hampshire, located in the town of Jefferson NH. Don and I arrived at the trailhead at 10:30am on Saturday Septermber 13rh. It was a brisk morning, temperature at the parking area was in the low 40’s.  The Starr King trail does not start flat with a warm up at all. It jumps right in with an incline that continues all the way to the summit of Mt. Starr King.  The incline is not steep but is gradual with good footing the whole way. The trail to the summit s nestled in a canope of trees. Alongside the trail about 20 minutes after we started we came across a broken old spring well.  We had the trail mostly to ourselves.  We encountered a few hikers climbing down and two women passed us on the way up, for one of them it was her next to last 4000 footer. I asked what she was saving for her last, she replied “Jackson, so afterwards I can go celebrate at the bar at the Mt. Washington Hotel”.  When we got to the summit there was an opening offering great views of the Presidential’s. We could see the whole northern half including Mt. Washington, but the southern half was clouded in. We got to the summit at 12:30. We rested on top of Mt. Starr King for about 10 minutes so Don could warm his feet up.  The only issue he has with hiking barefoot is on cold days when the ground is cold, his feet have a difficult time staying warm. We continued onto Mt. Waumbeck, the trail was right at end of the summit and easy to find. It another mile over to Mt. Waumbeck.  The trail dips a bit and then ascends the additional 80 or so feet to the summit of Mt. Waumbeck which just barely makes it a 4000 footer at 4006’.  When we got to the summit we encountered the group that set up their flag and about a half dozen people other people. The gentleman that set the flag up suggested we continue a few hundred feet to the overlook where another group had set up a flag at the clearing with more great views of the Presidential’s.  Just like before the northern half were clear and southern half were in the clouds. We stopped here and had our lunch and admired the great view. We then proceeded back the way were came and stopped for a few minutes back at Mt. Starr King to chat with a few other hikes and admire a Canadian Jay that was entertaining us.  On the way back down from Mt. Starr King it started to rain which was okay at first because it was light as we were protected by the trees. As we got lower in elevation the temperature warmed up and Don’s feet finally felt warm.  Half way back down the rains intensity picked up we got wet as we continued back to the trailhead. We got back to our car right before 4:30 and headed to the Woodstock Inn for dinner.  My app calculated that we hiked 6.8444 miles with a vertical of 2798 feet.  This differs slightly from the book in distance and vertical.

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