It's "Peak Week" in New England and we wanted to take advantage of that. Of course the one day we had available to hike it was cloudy and overcast. Oh well. The temperature was perfect, the company even better. Laura and I decided to visit Potash Mountain. The trail departs from the same parking area as Hedgehog, where we were a few months ago.. however there is a water crossing that is tricky on the best of days. Thankfully there is a bypass alternative, that only adds a tenth or so in mileage and keeps the feet completely dry. We opted for this bypass. The route starts on Logging Road 511 along the Kancamagus Highway. We started early, on the trail by 7:30am to avoid any potential crowds (and also because I had a commitment in the evening that I needed to be home for.. my husband's 50th birthday dinner!) There is parking at the gate to the logging road, space for a couple of cars taking care not to block the gate. The Kanc was mostly quiet as we drove along, which was beautiful, even in the misty weather, to enjoy the gorgeous colours. We headed up the logging road, which was a gentle climb for about 0.7 miles, enough to get the blood flowing, before reaching the Potash Mountain Trail. Turn right at the rock staircase and begin the ascent to the summit. The trail was just beautiful. Enough variety between hemlock forest, some rooty sections with lush mossy rocks and ground cover, a short but fun boulder section and some good old fashioned rock slab. Along the way you pass an outlook with unobstructed views across to Hedgehog Mountain and Mt Passaconaway beyond. We had some gorgeous low clouds creating a magical vista. It was wet lower down and there were a couple places with muddy sections, but these were short and easy to skooch around. I was concerned the upper slabs would be wet also but as we ascended it became drier. I had read in the guide book that some of the steeper pitches had awkward footing and were described as rough. We didn't find that at all. By no means a walk in the park, but we thoroughly enjoyed the entire trail. The rock slab at the top could definitely be sketchy if wet (and particularly icy), but today we had no issues. It wasn't until near the top we had a couple groups pass us, but there was plenty of room at the summit that we all took a corner and quietly enjoyed the views... briefly... the clouds rolled in almost immediately once we reached the summit, which was surreal as our actual mountain seemed clear, but all around was a wall of white! We stopped for a brief snack and the clouds cleared a little so we could see all that beautiful foliage. A yellow X marks the summit itself as well as an orange boundary marker for the Sandwich Range Wilderness. We didn't linger seeing as though there weren't really any views and started back down. Again, we found it much "easier" than we had anticipated. We passed several groups on their ascent and before we knew it, we were back at the logging road and out to the car. This time the Kanc was like a super highway with all those leaf peepers. This makes 30/52 for me and 23/52 for Laura on the 52 With A View list, and was definitely one of my favourites so far!
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