We had a significant rain/wind storm since all the snow, so I was unsure what the conditions would be like. I headed back to the New London area to tackle a few more trails and was met with plenty of snow still. I parked on Pingree Road, there is a trail entrance marked on a fence with a pullout that will fit a couple of cars. I geared up in snowshoes to start but packed my spikes just in case. The Pingree Connector takes you to Great Brook Trail. I was pleasantly surprised at a well packed snowshoe trail and prematurely got excited that the entire hike would be under such great conditions. I took a left onto Great Brook Trail, having done the section to the right on a previous hike of Bunker Hill Loop. The trail crossed a power line swath and followed Great Brook through the woods. I passed the Lower Cascades, which were spectacular in their frozen glory. The entire brook was so pretty I could have taken millions of pictures of all the ice formations. A fireplace from an old homestead was in the middle of the trail at one point before crossing a bridge and soon after taking a right onto an old road. This section of trail was a combination of ice and frozen leaves, so I opted to remove the snowshoes and put on spikes. Still trying to find my coordination in snowshoes, the spikes were a welcome respite and allowed me to quicken my pace slightly. I reached the Dura Crockett intersection but stayed on Great Brook, noting this as my return point. From here on Great Brook Trail, the clear sections decreased, and while the trail had been broken out, it was less traveled and became more of a slog. Remembering my last time in this area over the Summer, I was anticipating having to reach a clearing with an access road to turn onto Morgan Hill Trail, so I was surprised to find a trail head sign a little ways before the clearing, and realized I had gone slightly off course over the Summer to begin Morgan Hill Trail. I continued the few hundred yards to the access road to officially complete Great Brook Trail and backtracked to the Morgan Hill Trail sign. The few tracks I had been following had continued on Great Brook Trail, but Morgan Hill Trail was completely unbroken. I started in and felt badly for post holing in sometimes knee deep snow, but knew I couldn't put my snowshoes on in such deep conditions, and hoped there would be a large rock or branch sometime soon where I could change. There was a bridge and area that had melted, so I took the opportunity to change back into snowshoes and proceeded to basically break trail from here. I did see one set of boot marks, but they were only helpful in guiding the way, I was breaking trail and it was tough going. Heading up the incline (which is slight, but felt like Everest) I would take a step and slide back 2. I wanted to quit, but knew that wasn't an option! Finally I reached an area where the trail was melting a bit and there were some more tracks which made the going a little easier. I continued down to the other end of Dura Crockett Trail and contemplated continuing on my original plan of picking up Morgan Hill Loop Trail, which I had opted out of on my last trip in this area for the same exact reason.. I was getting very tired! Knowing the intersection was just a short distance down, I decided to see if it was broken out, and if it was, I'd do it, if not, I'd save it for another day. As it turns out, it was broken out/clear, so I decided to go for it. I changed back into spikes, as I knew I didn't have the energy to continue in snowshoes. The trail ascends to the Morgan Hill summit, also the high point of New London. With no views, I continued down to Kidder Trail. This side of the hill was pretty, but the snow was deeper, and was pretty chopped up with frozen post holes. I reached Kidder Trail and took a left. This returned me to the parking area I had used on my last trip and the beautiful views over to Kearsarge Mountain. From here I took a left and headed back up Morgan Hill Trail to the Dura Crockett Trail. Dura Crockett started out with just one set of boot marks. I knew I couldn't possibly do snowshoes again (I was just too gassed) so continued in my spikes. Thankfully it wasn't too deep, but it was definitely a trudge at this point. Not really paying too much attention to my surroundings, just wanting to be done, I kept my head down and plodded on. I reached a water crossing that had ice on it, and I hoped it would hold me as there really weren't any other options for crossing safely. I tested each step with my poles and safely made it across. From here, the trail was more broken out, it seems people had come that far, probably because from this point back the trail followed the brook again with more beautiful frozen cascades. I was happy because I knew once I got back to Great Brook Trail it would be clear sailing and broken out trail. There was a lot of debris on the trails from the previous storms, but I was able to step over or duck around the bigger ones without too much hindrance. This really is a pretty area, and I highly recommend the sections along the brook. While having only seen it in Winter, I'm sure it's gorgeous in Summer too if there's enough water flowing along the cascades.
No comments:
Post a Comment