Hiked by: Tim and Valerie on September 8, 2007 - via the Glencliff Trail
(AT)
Conditions: Despite the threat of bad weather today, we arrived at the trailhead around 9am and were quite honestly stunned to be the only ones in the parking lot. Mt Moosilauke is a popular destination, and we figured that Flags on the 48 would bring out a crowd. It was 70 degrees and very humid as we set off.
Headed into the woods along a nice path edged by New England asters, goldenrod, and touch-me-nots. Trail was soft and easy. From there, we went through a couple fields full of milkweed before finally setting off into the woods.
The trail was a steady climb from about the 0.5-mile mark to the 3.0-mile mark. It started out as dirt (really! no rocks!), then turned more rocky as we headed up. There was a period in the middle where it temporarily flattened out a bit, which was a nice reprieve for a few minutes. During this first three miles of the trip, we passed three AT thru-hikers, all headed south (opposite of us). This surprised us. We hadn't considered that traveling southbound, starting in late July or early August was really an option for thru-hiking.
A boreal chickadee peeped at us from a nearby tree. Tim tried to feed him a peanut, but he wasn't quite as brave as the Gray Jays are. Instead, he just sat there and preened while Tim did his best to convince him.
When we reached the 3.0-mile mark, the Glencliff Trail, we merged with the Carriage Trail. At this point, we started to see some other day-hikers. We hiked the almost-flat last 0.8 miles to the summit, moving into more and more clouds all the time. Also, the wind was picking up as the trees shrunk in size. Soon, just out of the fog, we could see the remnants of the summit buildings.
We sat with a few MIT students behind a rock wall and ate a snack. The team with the flag arrived about the same time that we did and immediately began setting it up. It was extremely windy - hard to stand up in the gusts, and you can see that visibility was just a few yards. We were a little nervous about whether or not the bungy cords would hold in the wind, but they did! It was an incredible effort on the part of the team, and we appreciate them for it.
After some time on the summit, we headed back down the same way that we came. By the time we got back to the Glencliff trail, we were pulling off the hats, gloves and jackets. We talked about where we were on 9/11 and how we learned what was happening bit-by-bit while at work. Also, about how the culture has changed since then. We've all adjusted to new airport regulations (how many of us wear slip-on shoes when we travel now?) and all our cell phones have cameras. Just little things that we take for granted.
On the way down, the skies cleared a bit. We found the "talus slope with a view" that was described in the trail description. Funny that it had been so foggy/cloudy on the way up that we hadn't seen the little detour to this giant pile of rocks at all.
The weather was holding, but very warm, as we made our way down. Took some pictures of some wildflowers. Sorry they aren't very good - the cameras were not cooperating. The plant with the blue berries is Clintonia. The white flowers are White Wood Aster.
We met several northbound thru-hikers as we headed down. Moosilauke would be a very hard climb in 83 degrees, high humidity, 2:30pm in the afternoon with full packs. We didn't envy them at all. Several of them looked whipped already and they still had a couple hours of climbing to do.
Tim took several pictures of a beautiful butterfly/moth that we saw repeatedly during the day. We haven't been able to identify it yet. Also, some of the brightest yellow fungus ever! We don't yet have a "Fungi of New England" identification book, so this too remains a mystery.
Stats: 8 miles RT, 6 hrs 5 mins with a long stay at the top