NH Appalachian Trail: Smarts Mtn to Cube Mtn and Ore Hill

Red Eft on bog bridge

Day 2 of this backpacking excursion begins at 4:15 am (!) on Smarts Mountain when the sky begins to brighten and I can't get back to sleep. I'm not a morning person, but I finally give up and get up and start breaking camp at 5:00 am.

Back up the fire tower

By 6:00 am I'm packed and back on the trail, stopping to check the view on the fire tower.

Wow.

There's a beautiful sea of fog down below. Mountain tops have become islands. Gorgeous.

Cube Mountain (left) and Mt. Moosilauke on the horizon (right)

During the drama that was the never-ending lightening storm the previous night, a lot of rain was  dumped on the trail. I felt like the sky was trolling me for having to carry so much water up the hill. I bet the "weak spring" was flowing great, although I didn't look for it.

Regular Trail Mud

This was a day of mud. I have never hiked through so much mud in my life. I considered it good practice for what I hear is pretty common on the Cohos Trail further north. There was regular mud, which could be deeper than your boot in spots, who knows.

Moose Poop Mud

There was moose poop mud, which was pretty common for the first mile or two going down Smarts Mountain. Sadly, I did not see a moose. There was shallow mud and deep soupy mud, still mud, flowing mud. Mud with stepping stones and mud so deep it was a real struggle to find a way through. Mud with logs thrown in to step on.  Further down the mountain there was mud with firm sand underneath. That mud was my favorite. Easy to walk through.

Trail Turnpike

You're not supposed to try and walk around the sides of mudholes because that makes the trail tread wider over time, but it was hard to avoid it after the storm. The mud was so deep and there seemed no bottom to it. As the trail headed further down the mountain and there was more of a grade, there were a number of welcome trail improvements to help hikers over the worst parts and to direct water off of the trail.

Bog Bridge

Clintonia in bloom

Hikers have various strategies for dealing with muddy trails. The majority of the backpackers I saw seemed to be going with light trail runners with sleek gators over the ankles instead of traditional boots. They just surrender to the mud. The idea is that it's a lot easier to walk through the middle of the mud and let your feet get wet. The light trail running shoes dry out pretty quickly. I can attest that I wasted a lot of energy trying to keep my high-top leather water proof boots marginally dry, and it took a lot more focus. "Waterproof" boots eventually leak through. My boots never got soaked all the way through, but it was close. And once the heavy hiking boots are wet inside, they are wet for days. This type of problem doesn't exist in Connecticut where I do most of my hiking, so it's a new challenge for me.

Other than the mud, it was a long (5 miles), easy hike down Smarts Mountain. Very gradual. And then it was time to start up Mount Cube. By this time, it was heating up and the trail was drying out.

Heading up Mt. Cube

Mt. Cube had a lot of false summits with grand rocky exposures.  I parked myself at one and took an hour break to enjoy the view, boil up some freeze dried biscuits and gravy, and lay out my gear to dry off from the previous night's rain.

Lunch break! Smarts Mountain in distance

I kept thinking I was at the top, but then there would be another uphill stretch. I admit to being pretty hot and tired at this point.

This is not the top

But finally the top was reached and there was a nice breeze.

Top of Mt Cube, Smarts Mt in distance

My husband was taking Friday off of work to drive up, so my original plan was to drive up on Thursday and hike all of this out to the next highway, 25A, four more miles down the trail, where he would pick me up. Then I could do the rest of the trail up to the base of Moosilauke day hiking while he golfed. But I was worried about whether my flatland legs would be able to carry me and my pack that distance in two days, and didn't want to feel rushed, so I left a day early. So now it was Thursday afternoon and I was nearing the pickup point a day early. There was no choice but to continue on past 25A to the next campsite at Ore Hill, an additional 3.2 miles.

Ore Hill was exceptionally wet

Mt Cube was steeper and drier, providing some relief from all the mud, but this was not the case with Ore Hill. The trail very gradually ascended the hill on what appeared to be an old road, perhaps a mining road given the name of the hill, and it was a tedious morass. And then the bugs came out. I had to pull out my bug jacket for a spell. Eventually the trail left the old road and crosssed serious wetlands, but this was a blessing because there were finally some trail improvements to cross these wet areas. Giant rocks for stepping stones and bog bridges. Then the trail suddenly crossed a stone wall (not many of those in these parts) and entered a dry hillside covered with towering Red Spruce and the mud was history. Even the bugs thinned out.

Red Spruce hillside

The sky got really dark as I approached the camp and I though it was going to rain on me just when I needed to set up camp, but after a bit the sun came back out and it was good.

Yes, the campsite is down this side trail

The sign to the Ore Hill Privy and Campsite was broken, so I wasn't sure if the side trail was just to the privy or to both the privy and the campsites. I wandered down the side trail, found an open area and fire ring, and finally the privy. I was confused...where were the tent sites? Along the privy trail? Further up the A.T.? No one was around, so I dropped off my pack and wandered further up the A.T., not finding anything. Then I went back to the fire pit area, pulled up the Guthook app on my phone, and it showed my location right at the campsite. OK, correct spot. Also, there were some explanations. The open area was the site of a former shelter that had burned down. It all made sense now. 

Guthook app confirms my location

So I had the entire campsite to myself that night and slept quite well. Stats for the day were 11.9 miles with 2900 feet up and 4200 feet down. I don't normally keep track of those things, but I needed to gauge my capabilities for the sections going through the White Mountains up ahead.

Before going to sleep, I needed to figure out the next day. Should I continue on all the way to the base of Moosilauke, or get picked up at the next highway (25C). I decided on the latter since otherwise I would have nothing to do on Saturday while my husband golfed (I was saving Moosilauke for a trip with my daughter). He wasn't going to arrive until 12:30 the next day, so after waking up I spent a few hours reading Stephen King in my tent while listening to the mosquitoes outside buzzing around my tent.

Killing time

Boredom finally took hold and so I packed up everything up and headed very slowly down Ore Hill. It was just 2.7 miles to the pickup point and I had about three hours to do it. And this part of the trail turned out to be quite easy.

Really big frog

I stopped for awhile at a small pond to kill time, listening to the frogs and watching a zillion damselflies darting over the surface of the water. Nice.

Pretty spot to hand out

I still managed to arrive at the highway half an hour early, but soon enough my husband arrived with a cooler filled with cold drinks and we stopped to get sandwiches. Wonderful! We checked into our Bed and Breakfast and after I took a much needed shower, we retrieved my car. That turned out to be a much longer drive than expected (an hour each way). Such are the mountains. Then we explored Plymouth, a college town without any students for the season, and had a delicious dinner at the 1766 Brewing Company. I highly recommend the 11th Regiment IPA.

Route 25C, the pickup point