Copy/Repost Hike

On Saturday, May 13th, six of us (Robert, Jim, David, Luciano, George and myself) met up at the Rocky Branch Trailhead off of Route 16 in Pinkham Notch. It wasn't until about 8:50 that we were all assembled given the distance that everyone had to drive. We got ready and took two cars up to the Glen Ellis Falls parking lot. This lot wasn't open yet for the season, but we were able to park just outside the gate along the access road.

At 9:10AM we walked over to the trailhead for the Glen Boulder Trail. It was somewhat chilly at the start of the day with the summits obscured by clouds. As we walked, we quickly warmed up and it wasn't long before the trail steepened with some switchbacking around some granite ledges. In about 20 minutes we reached the junction for the Direttissima Trail. Staying on the Glen Boulder Trail, we continued to climb at a fairly persistent grade. By 10:15 we popped out of the woods briefly and were presented with a view of the Carters and Wildcats across the Notch. As we continued the trail was covered in a good depth of packed snow...probably 2-3 feet in spots. After another 15 minutes we emerged from the woods and after climbing up a ledge we were treated with wonderful view of Mt. Madison, the Carter Moriah Range and the valley below. By 10:35 we reached the Glen Boulder, a large rock perched precariously on the slope. Climbing further the trail was again covered in snow as we re-entered the woods. After going over Slide Peak the trail followed the top of a ridge with views looking down into the Gulf of Slides. We could even see the antennas on Mt. Washington. Along the day we had run into a couple of guys carrying skis/a snowboard, who were looking for a place to ski. We hiked further and by noon we had reached the trail junction with the Davis Path. We decided it was a decent place for lunch. It was chilly with the wind coming out of the east, so we climbed up to some rocks to get out of the stronger wind.

It was 12:30PM when we decided to continue on. As we headed back to the Davis Path, we ran into the guys who were looking to ski and they seemed to have decided to head over to Tuckerman's Ravine. We then started our decent with views of Mt. Isolation off in the distance. In about a half-an-hour we re-entered the woods and began to make our way over to Isolation. For the most part, the trail was fairly easy to follow, but it had not received alot of foot traffic. In a few places there was significant blow-downs and we had to stop and look for the trail. At 1:40 we reached the junction with the first Mt. Isolation Trail (west) and the Davis Path was easier to follow after this point. Another 25 minutes later we were at the second Mt. Isolation Trail (east) junction. From here it, the trail had seen more use, despite the fact that this was not the usual winter route. This was a good and a bad thing...with more use the trail had formed a packed monorail of snow, where we were starting to posthole more frequently. Luckily, there were intermittent stretches of trail which were free of snow. By 2:30 we were finally climbing up Mt. Isolation and in about 10 minutes we reached the spur trail for the summit. We turned onto to this and in about 5 minutes we were standing on the summit of Mount Isolation (4003'). The views were fantastic, despite the fact that Mt. Washington's summit was clouded over. The southern Presidential peaks were all visible, as well as wonderful views over the Dry River Wilderness. As we were on the summit taking pictures and chatting, two gray jays showed up to beg for food. At about 3PM it was time for us to head back down. We backtracked to the Mt. Isolation (east) Trail. It took us approximately 30 minutes for this and we then turned onto this trail. Luckily, this trail had seen some use and it was easy to follow. Still, we were postholing in spots. For the most part this trail was long with a fairly modest grade. Despite this, we had to cross the Rocky Branch Brook 4-5 times, which was progressively challenging as the brook widened and it became more swift-flowing. The last crossing was at the junction with the Rocky Branch Trail, which we finally reached at 5:30PM. After this we climbed over the shoulder of Engine Hill and then began our descent. The trail was still intermittently covered in snow until we got to the eastern side of Engine Hill and then it was much easier going. It still took us approximately 2 hours to get back to the trailhead which we reached at 7:25PM.

Since it was a little later than we anticipated and everyone had a ways to drive home, we decided to call it a day instead of going out to eat. We went up to the other trailhead and retrieved the other cars and headed out.

A big thanks to George, Robert, Jim, David and Luciano for coming out for this adventure. It turned out to be a good day with great views through the day. Our progress was slowed at times because of the snow and postholing, but it was still an incredibly enjoyable day with wonderful company.

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