Hedgehog Mountain

"Because in the end, you won't remember the time you spent working in the office or mowing the lawn. So go climb that god damn mountain!"
 
 
It's a holiday weekend in a tourist town. That means, I don't want the weekend off. Or that I get the weekend off. It means, I would rather be working and not have to deal with pushing my way through crowds, or hike trails with hundreds of tourists who are in flip flops, with barely any food or water. My long day ended on Sunday at 5:00pm. I got out of work and needed to unwind a bit.
 

I had plans to get out and hike something short and with great pay-offs. But first, I had to go do my laundry. I started my laundry and then decided to hit the Kancamagus Highway for a short trail. As I looked at the map I noticed one of the shorter hikes besides Boulder Loop. It was Hedgehog Mountain.
 

I got to the trailhead around 6:00pm and hit the trail for a loop just under 5 miles long. In hopes of getting back to the car without having to break out the headlamp. I took the loop clockwise and hit East Ledges first. The views from here were some of the best. They were spectacular. I stopped for a few to take some great photos including the pano up above. I admired the surrounding mountains. I could see Chocurua right in front of me and Passaconaway to my right!
 
 
The coolest things about hiking mountains, is you become very aware of your surroundings. I love to be able to look at all of the bumps around me and point out each one, and see how many I have hiked. What their shapes look like at different angles.
 
 
Coming off the ledges it then dips down a little bit and then climbs right back up to the cliffs you see from East Ledges. Once at the top of this you reach the peak of Hedgehog. With some look outs to the north west you can take in the views of the Tripyramids as well!
 


The climb down starts off a bit steep, but then eventually flattens out. Don't forget to take a small jaunt over to Allen's Ledge for a great view back to the East and Bear Mountain. I made it back down to the car just before 8:00pm and before the sun set. It was a gorgeous night, temps were perfect, and the mild breeze kept the pesty bugs away!
 

Just another day in the life of living in the mountains. Another one down.
 
 
Hike Safe & Keep on Trekking

Comments

  1. AnonymousMay 25, 2015 at 2:36 PM

    Nice green kicks. I did this one last weekend and was awesome

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Huntington Ravine; DUN DUN DUN!

Image
"And forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair."   I have finally hiked the one trail on Mount Washington I have been avoiding for a long time. Huntington Ravine. This trail, according to the AMC White Mountain Guide is the "Hardest trail in the White Mountains." Many, claim it to be incredibly difficult, dangerous, and essentially rock climbing without the ropes. The Mount Washington Observatory hosts their largest fundraiser in July every year for the last 15 years. This even is a hike-a-thon to raise money for the nonprofit, member supported MWOBS. I have participated in this event my first year working for them and now I am participating again this year. On July 18th, Trish, myself, Alex, Sage, Hugh, Josh, John, and Jeremy decided as a team we wanted to ascend Huntington Ravine for Seek the Peak. Most of us had yet to hike this trail and were all ready to see what the big talk was all about.
Read more

48th & Final Summit; Mount Carrigain

Image
It's official. I have completed my New Hampshire 48 Four-Thousand Footers. What list am I going to do next? Answer is:  No list. I am officially done having a list as my goal. It was a great thing to start with as a beginner hiker because it kept me pushing on ward to do something I enjoyed doing so much. However, the "list" thing got old quickly as soon as the millions of hiker friends I had were done with theirs. Don't get me wrong it was still very much enjoyable it just annoyed me for the following question I had throughout the 4 years working on my "list". Have you completed the 4k's yet ? For 4 years I worked on completing this so called list. However, have I completed them yet ? What do you mean by yet? No, obviously not. I am clearly celebrating on the summit of each one. Don't judge my experience as a hiker based on how many rounds of the 48 I have done. This was one of my biggest annoyances with this list. I found that a lot of peop
Read more

Wright & Phelps (ADK) Adventure!

Image
"Travel is more than the seeing of sights; It is a change that goes on, deep and permanent, in the ideas of living." Laura and I planned a last minute long weekend get-away to the Adirondacks. We decided we needed this time away and we need to hike some more of the Adirondack 46 High Peaks. The original plan was to have her come sleep at my house after work Friday evening and we would hit the road early on Saturday morning to hike. However, weather patterns started to shift and there was a storm headed our way this weekend. As usual we waited until last minute, messaged each other and decided screw it, it had been a long week for the both of us and we needed to get out of dodge asap. We booked a last minute Airbnb for Friday night. We then decided to meet at a half way point for both of us where we would leave one car and carpool the rest of the time. We picked the Richmond, VT Park and Ride to meet. It was roughly 2.5 hours for both of us to travel. We both l
Read more