Copy/Repost Hike

On Saturday, October 23rd, five of us ended up meeting at the trailhead on Bear Notch Road.  This was JT, Rob, Len, Jim and myself.  We waited for about half an hour, since I knew that at least one other guy (Dave) was coming and we were also going to meet up with Markus at the trailhead on Rt. 302.  Anyway, we decided to just head over to the trailhead for Mt. Tremont on Rt. 302 just west of Bartlett.  As it turned out, Dave was here with Markus.  With everyone here we did the usual introductions and headed across the street to begin hiking up to Mt. Tremont.  It was now about 10AM.  The day was sunny with a little bit of a chill in the air when we started.  The trail headed into the woods at a modest grade following a cascading brook, which didn't appear on the map.  Along the way we encountered a beautiful series of waterfalls, where we took a break.  Afterwards the trail meadered through the woods for awhile before starting to ascend more steeply up Mt. Tremont by way of a number of switchbacks.  As we gained elevation there were some views northward toward the snow-capped Presidential Range; however, the higher peaks were engulfed in cloud cover.  We reached the summit of Mt. Tremont at 12:30PM and we enjoyed lunch with sweeping views to the west and south.  Of note, were Sawyer and Little Sawyer Ponds, Green's Cliff, Mt. Carrigain and the peaks surronding Waterville Valley.  There was also a view of Mt. Washington through the trees to the north...it had temporarily emerged from the clouds by this time.  Shortly after reaching the summit, Tim showed up, having booked up the trail to try to catch up.  Now we were eight!  At about 1:30 we continued down the other side of Tremont as it steeply descended into the col between Tremont and Owl's Cliff.  We reached the spur trail for Owl's Cliff and headed up the 0.2 mile to check it out.  Near the summit there was a sign commemorating a lightning fire, which occurred here in 1963.  The cliff was a little further along the spur and was an open ledge with views mostly to the south.  Here we took another long break.  We descended back off the spur trail at about 3PM and continued along the Brunel Trail.  This was much more moderate in grade as it proceeded to ultimately join up with the Rob Brook Trail and Road.  We all decided to take the trail (both the trail and road head back to the trailhead).  A little ways after the trail left the road, we encountered a very swampy area, which make the trail impassible...due mostly to a high water and a section of logs on the trail being out/submerged.  We decided to head back to the road and use this in order to return to the trailhead off of Bear Notch Road.  The detour was well-worth it, in any case, as there were open views back to Owl's Cliff and Tremont.  The road was much easier going and we made it back to the cars we had left here at about 5:45PM.  Afterwards we drove back to the other cars on Rt. 302 and most of us (with the exception of Jim) went over to Matty B's Mountainside Cafe across from the Attitash Ski area for drinks and dinner.

Thanks everyone for making this a spectacular fall hike.  It was an absolutely beautiful day with a great group of guys.  It was also very nice to find a new trail, which offers so much...from open summit/ledges and waterfalls to sweeping views into the surrounding wilderness.  It was well-worth it.

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