Wapack Trail - Middle section

Today we hiked the middle section of the Wapack Trail. 7.1 miles from the trailhead on rt 123/124 to rt. 101. - Miller State Park. The weather - gorgeous - Highs in the upper 60's, lower 70's, plenty of sun with not a cloud in the sky. There was a cool breeze at the top in some of the open sections, but not enough to warrant breaking out the fleece. The trail overall was pretty dry, a couple of moist spots here and there but not much more than that.

First off - here are photos from the trip. I am not going to link them inline with the blog at this time, though perhaps in the future I will.

Overall, the trip took us 5 hours which included many short scenic breaks and a 30 min break for lunch at the top of holt peak. Though this trip was longer, I do think that the northern section of the Wapack was a bit more strenuous.

The hike started off by no more than a gentle walk through the woods which eventually hooked up with an old road. (The third NH turnpike if I remember the guide book correctly.) We passed by a small private pond and a couple of buildings owned by the Wildcat Partnership (A quick web search yields nothing.) We figure it must be a camp of some sort. Also of note on this section was a wonderful stream crossing built into the stone wall which lined the side of the trail.

This path led us to cross Nashua Road and continue down Temple road where after a half a mile perhaps, there is another trailhead which begins the trek into the mountains (well, up and over Temple mountain that is.) It took us just about an hour to get to this point and, if we were to do this hike again, probably an hour I would suggest skipping.

Temple mountain is made up of several peaks and the Wapack from this point heads up and over the ridge-line connecting 6 of them together.

[Tangent] I don't actually know what makes a 'peak' a 'peak'. There are only 3 named peaks on Temple Mountain and this trail connects 2 of them. [End of Tangent]

The first 1/2 mile of this trail is the longest, steepest section that we encountered. it has many outlooks on either side of the trail, but none would ever overlook both sides of the mountain. Some crazy people long ago felt the need to build a good 'ol fashioned New England Rock Wall along a good portion of this trail (or probably more appropriately, the Wapack follows these boundary lines.)

The trail gently began to even out more and throughout the rest of the trip, we'd only encounter a couple of brief steeper sections. Before we knew it, we were at Burton Peak and we got our first great view of Monadnock. (It is calling to us.) In the photos you'll see that there is some clear cutting and according to www.wapack.org "The Berry Pasture Trail on Mountain Road in Sharon is temporarily closed for a timber harvest,' which would explain this.

A short while later we arrived at the very unimpressive 'Holt Peak' where we did stop and have some lunch and relaxed for a few. (The Pats incidentally were up 35 to 7 over the Dolphins, or something crazy like that at this point. I knew I wouldn't have to check again until we got done.)

On the next peak north from here, we found the first of some rather unique Cairns. Someone had also took the time to build two large ones side by side. We stopped for some more photos and trekked further north. At this point, neither of us were really impressed with the hike, though the few views and fantastic weather helped, I think we were doubting if we would return (Save for a thru hike of the entire Wapack Trail.)

Then we found the chairs. Situated atop an open stone face, 7 stone cairns in the form f 'chairs' are spread out amongst the peak. We needed, and took, another break. Some were comfortable, some were not. We thank those brave, and eccentric souls who put that much work into that project and have named that unnamed peak - Lazy Boy Peak.

The remainder of the trip opened up great views of Pack Monandnock as we descended down the ski area trails. The Wapack was a bit obscure to find in some places and the terrain in others was covered in small stones. We were glad when the trail diverged off of these and onto grassier terrain. We followed the trail back into Miller State Park (though our car was back across the street,) and a well timed hiker snapped the last photo of us, standing next to the sign which began our trip a couple of weeks back.

Would I do this trip again (aside from when we want to do a thru hike of the entire trail?) Probably at some point yes. I guess in the end reflecting back I did have a great time and the views at points were wonderful. I would defiantly avoid the first hour of the trip again if I could and choose to begin at the second tail head.

On another note, the new pack was great, I barely noticed all of the extra weight I was carrying on this trip. I had also folded the map up into a zip top bag and placed it on the front cargo pocket of the shorts I was wearing and we were constantly referencing it unlike the last time. I will no doubt make this my new common practice.

New Gear

I bought a new pack this week, the EMS NorthPeak 50. It has a lot more room than my old pack, and fits much better. I was flopping back and forth between this one and one made by Gregory. All of the packs from them fit, and felt great. They were a bit more expensive but that wasn't the only reason I chose the EMS one.

I also picked up a book titled 'Cookery' by NOLS (The National Outdoor Leadership School.) The book seems great with many recipes, though it's not quite what I thought it would be. The book focuses on portioning and multi day, multi person trips (so far,) and I don't see myself there yet. (Multi day, yes, Base camp near the car somewhere - also yes.)

This week I also went to a backpacking clinic at EMS. I was pleasantly surprised to find out it wasn't a glorified sales pitch and very much, 'this is the information you need to know.' It was however more of an outline of what you need to know, than any hard useful information.

The outline covered; first aid, survival skills, cooking, not getting lost, trip planning, LNT*, gear selection including clothing, tents, cookware, water filtration, and more.

[LNT - Leave No Trace - I have to tangent a moment, I felt like I was at UPS all of a sudden when he called it LNT - Everything at UPS has some sort of acronym to it. DECR, DLN, PLARSTAC, and UPS to name a few.]

The follow up to this clinic was yesterday (Saturday the 13'th,) with a hike up Mt. Oceola, and though I really wanted to go, and should have gone, I do need to get some different clothes for this cooler weather.

I think though, that I will suggest this hike as our trip for next weekend.

Wapack Trail - South Pack to North Pack

October 6th, 2007 Alex and I hiked the 5.2 mile section of the Wapack from Rt 101 - Miller State Park to Old Mountain road.

One of the main highlights for me - Celebrating my Dad's birthday on the top of North Pack. Miss ya Dad!

We made the trip in 4 hours including a decent stop at the top of North Pack. It started of course with Sue dropping us off at Miller State park... well, actually it started off with too long of a trip at WalMart, then a missed turn (bad directions in the trail guide I think,) then a stop at the farm stand for the real directions, then dropping off my car, checking and double checking for keys (thats important later,) and then Sue Dropping us off at the starting point.

And then us paying $3.00 a piece to enter the park. I don't know why but in a small way that irks me... but I can honestly understand and it's not like it broke the bank or anything.

We started out, took a couple of photos of each other at the trail head sign, (which I photoshopped so that the two of us are in the same picture,) and then our journey began.

The first bit of that trail was the most difficult bit of the bunch. Hand and foot climbing up some pretty steep rocks. Lot's of water later we were through and to our first scenic overlook. A bit hazy of a day, but we knew it would be good from that point on.

The remainder of the trail to the top of South Pack was pretty easy, a few steeper spots, but nothing like the first part. Near the top we veered off the trail onto the red dot trail where there was some open rock face / an over look. As we came around the corner we spotted what we thought was a film crew at first (no luck,) but it did turn out to be a 'Hawk Watch' which was pretty neat.

We got to the top in a little over an hour I think, took a photo break and a quick snack. A guy at the top talking on his cell took a photo of us (so I didn't have to worry about photoshop for that one.) He was quite the character - it took him 2.5 hours for the same trek. He probably could have done it in less had he not been smoking.

We packed up, spotted a sign for some water, filled up and found a very odd sight. The cut off bottom of a 2 gal. milk container, filled with water... and two hornets swimming around. Truly, truly odd. But, we had little time to observe their backstroke as we got on our way.

The next leg of this trip put both of us into the unknown. I've been up Pack many times (on the Auto Road,) and North Pack more times than I can remember, but never linked the two together.

A short distance from the summit we passed a cairn, and then after that a side trail to a 'memorial overlook'. Being the sight seers that we are, we decided to look and as thought, the view was great so out came the camera again. As Alex framed up the photo, I got into position on a rock slab and as I did - it began to list backwards on me... I quickly regained my balance, and stepped off the rock for the photo. We laughed and moved on.

The decent was pretty uneventful. We exited the state park, entered another wilderness preserve area, and began climbing again. At some point we - well I say we - Alex spotted our next 'wildlife' encounter in the form of a small snake. I did eventually see it and Alex got this photo of it.

We eventually reached the junction where the 'Cliff Trail' splits off and thats where we met Mike and Donna (or at least I think that was their names....) They were also hiking through and wondering which way we were going. We decided to keep with the plan and stick with the Wapack, and they decided to take the Cliff trail.

We made it to the summit and took a good break. After a few minutes of re-orienting myself with the top, we found the place to celebrate my Dad's birthday. A couple of Gatorade slushies, some trail mix, and an apple sauce made for the fixins, and Alex lit a match... er, candle to help the party atmosphere.

We finished up, packed up and began to look for the trail down. After a false start we found it and... we found Donna and Mike. They both agreed that the Cliff Trail was gorgeous and we let them go ahead for a few moments. The trail down opens up onto some open rock face and Alex and I stopped a couple of times for some more photos. It was only a few minutes from the summit though when we ran into our two new 'friends' again.

It seems as if they had just discovered that they left the keys to the vehicle ahead of them, in the vehicle a couple hours behind them. They asked us for a ride back to the lot and we couldn't leave them stranded so we now had some hiking buddies.

We stopped for a few more shots, they went ahead. We saw them only a couple of times at the bottoms of a couple of steep areas. The trip down seemed quick and it was pretty much right when we caught up to them that Alex spotted the cars parked on the side of the road.

4 hours later, we were finished. We cleaned a bit out of the back seat of the car, and we drove Mike and Donna back to Miller State park. (She ate my Doritos, but thats perhaps for a different blog.)

All in all, this hike re-energized my love for the outdoors and it looks like our next hike will be on the weekend of the 20th.

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