This hike was part of a winter hiking and backpacking program I signed up for with the AMC (Appalachian Mountain Club) via the Random Group of Hikers Meetup group. The main program was held over five nights during November and December 2012 at the AMC center on Joy Street in Boston but then the origram participats were offered the opportunity to sign up for numerous winter hiking and backpacking trips that would be led by AMC trip leaders over the remainder of the winter season. The Highland Center Weekend was the first of two winter trips that I had signed up for, the other being a Carter Hut trip would take place on the final weekend of the winter season in mid-March.

This day hike started at the Highland Center just off of US Route 302 in Crawford Notch, about 10 miles south of Twin Mountain. I had originally hoped that we would be doing Mount Jackcon as I needed that for my New Hampshire winter 4000-footer list but that was not to be tghe case. I already had Mount Pierce but it was still a nice hike to do over. The other option for the day was Tom, Field and Willey which I also did not need. I went on the Pierce trip hoping that maybe the leader would decide to go for Jackson as well but this was not to be the case. We had a really nice day for this hike and the temperature was already close to freezing when we started.

600 x 450   1024 x 768 Pre-hike gathering in the bunkhouse 600 x 450   1024 x 768 Mount Avalon from Highland Center 600 x 450   1024 x 768 The AMC Highland Center 600 x 450   1024 x 768 Gathering outside the bunkhouse 600 x 450   1024 x 768 Gathering outside the bunkhouse

The first leg of the hike, the 1.6 miles to the junction with the Mizpah cut-off was easy and we only stopped a couple of times for people to get rid of extra layers of clothing. We were in the midst of a January thaw and it was not so cold when we started and we warmed up quickly as we hiked. There was fresh snow on the trees from the day before and it was melting so fast that it was like being out in a light rain shower. If you were under a tree and stayed there too long you would get very wet, very quickly.

600 x 450   1024 x 768 Sign at the trailhead 600 x 450   1024 x 768 Hiking up the Crawford Path 600 x 450   1024 x 768 Hiking up the Crawford Path 600 x 450   1024 x 768 Snowy trees 600 x 450   1024 x 768 Hiking up the Crawford Path 600 x 450   1024 x 768 Pink hiking gloves 600 x 450   1024 x 768 Hiking up the Crawford Path, snowy trees 600 x 450   1024 x 768 Reji, our fearless leader, hiking up the Crawford Path 600 x 450   1024 x 768 Snowy trees 600 x 450   1024 x 768 Hiking up the Crawford Path 600 x 450   1024 x 768 Trail to Mizpah Hut 600 x 450   1024 x 768 Trail to Mizpah Hut

The temperature continued to rise the higher we went and by the time we got to the ridge we were well above the clouds. We had some magnificent views of Mount Eisenhower which was also above the clouds but the the peaks further back were still shrouded.

600 x 450   1024 x 768 First view of Mount Eisenhower 600 x 450   1024 x 768 Hiking up the Crawford Path, snowy trees 600 x 450   1024 x 768 Mount Eisenhower 600 x 450   1024 x 768 Hiking up the Crawford Path, snowy trees

We stopped breifly at the junction with the Webster Cliff Trail before continuing up the the Mount Pierce summit.

600 x 450   1024 x 768 Junction with Webster Cliff Trail to Mount Pierce summit 600 x 450   1024 x 768 View towards Mount Pierce summit 600 x 450   1024 x 768 Cairn 600 x 450   1024 x 768 Heading up to Mount Pierce 600 x 450   1024 x 768 Heading up to Mount Pierce 600 x 450   1024 x 768 Cairn, heading up to Mount Pierce

Because the weather was so nice we were able to spend a lot of time on the summit of Mount Pierce. We had snacks and took lots of photos. While we were up there the clouds around Mount Monroe and even Mount Washington started to clear and we had some really nice views of that portion of the Presidential Range.

There were also several Canada/Gray Jays on top of Mount Pierce which were happy to share in some of our trail snacks.

600 x 450   1024 x 768 Mount Pierce summit 600 x 450   1024 x 768 Boot shot on Mount Pierce summit 600 x 450   1024 x 768 Bob, Mount Pierce summit 600 x 450   1024 x 768 The group, Mount Pierce summit 600 x 450   1024 x 768 Summit cookie 600 x 450   1024 x 768 Gray/Canada Jay 600 x 450   1024 x 768 Gray/Canada Jay 600 x 450   1024 x 768 Gray/Canada Jay 600 x 450   1024 x 768 Casey, Gray/Canada Jay 600 x 450   1024 x 768 Casey, Gray/Canada Jay 600 x 450   1024 x 768 Gray/Canada Jay 600 x 450   1024 x 768 Gray/Canada Jay 600 x 450   1024 x 768 Gray/Canada Jay 600 x 450   1024 x 768 Gray/Canada Jay on a hiking pole 600 x 450   1024 x 768 Mount Washington poking out of the clouds 600 x 450   1024 x 768 Mount Washington poking out of the clouds

From the summit of Mount Pierce we continued south along the Webster Cliff Trail towards the Mizpah Springs Hut. Along the way we had some really impressive view of a sea of clouds below us to the south. The temperature was probably in the upper 30s or maybe even low 40s up on the ridge and it was a beautiful day for hiking.

600 x 450   1024 x 768 Sea of clouds 600 x 450   1024 x 768 Sea of clouds 600 x 450   1024 x 768 Snow field on the way to Mizpah Hut 600 x 450   1024 x 768 Mount Washington poking out of the clouds, Mount Monroe 600 x 450   1024 x 768 Heading down to Mizpah Hut 600 x 450   1024 x 768 Heading down to Mizpah Hut 600 x 450   1024 x 768 Heading down to Mizpah Hut 600 x 450   1024 x 768 Sea of clouds 600 x 450   1024 x 768 Butt sliding down a steep section of trail

We took another rather long break at the Mizpah Springs AMC Hut and I was getting too warm so I took advantage of the break to strip off another layer of clothing.

There were also some Canada/Gray jays at the hut and I wondered if the ones from the top of Mount Pierce had just followed us down.

600 x 450   1024 x 768 Mizpah Springs Hut 600 x 450   1024 x 768 Mizpah Springs Hut 600 x 450   1024 x 768 Mizpah Springs Hut 600 x 450   1024 x 768 Gray/Canada Jay on top of Mizpah Springs Hut 600 x 450   1024 x 768 Gray/Canada Jay

We had a little trouble finding the start of the Mizpah cut-off trail which was a little strange since we met people on the summit of Pierce who claimed to have come up that way. After considerable confusion and hunting around Reji finally found it but no idea how the others had come up that way. We really should have backtracked once we found the trail to see where it came out at the hut as several people had obviously come up that way.

We stopped hardly at all on the way back to the the Crawford Path and had fun sliding down some more of the steeper, snowy sections of the trail. We did stop briefly at the junction with the Crawford Path to talk with another party that had stopped there on their way up to Pierce but that continued our mad dash back down to Crawford Notch and the Highland Center. I did manage to get Reji to stop briefly at Gibbs Falls so I could try to get a couple of photos there.

600 x 450   1024 x 768 Pool below Gibbs Falls 600 x 450   1024 x 768 Frozen Gibbs Fallls & pool 600 x 450   1024 x 768 Frozen Gibbs Fallls

We got back to the Highland Center around 1:30pm so it was a very early day. The hike was just under 6 miles and it took 5 hours so our overall average speed was only 1.2 miles per hour. We stopped a lot and some of those stops were pretty long though.

It felt good to be able to have a nice hot shower right at the end of a hike and to not have to hop right into a car and drive for several hours. Many people also had a nap in the bunkhouse.

We had a wonderful group dinner at the Highland Center that night which was also very pleasant. I was a little worried about the meal since one of my New Year resolutions was to go vegetarian but they had a very nice veggie option for the meal, something that looked like a large meatball that was made out of lentils and mushrooms and covered with a tomato sauce. I am not a big fan of mushrooms but this thing was delicious. It seemed like most of the people I was sitting with went for the veggie option as all of the non-meatballs disappeared and there was still quite a bit of baked ham left at the end.

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