Mt. Jefferson

Trip report - Mt. Jefferson - Coos County, New Hampshire - Saturday July 27th
Elevation:  5,712 ft (1,741 m)
Trail: Castle Trail (from Route 2)
Distance: 10 Miles Round Trip
Time: 10 hours (8am - 6pm)
Hiking Partner: The Super Amazing Miss Julie Smith!

You know you are going to have a fantastic hiking day when you find something as cool as this on the way to the mountain...

The day started at 4:45am. I'd packed the night before: Camelbak (complete with nutrient sludge), poles, headlamp, compass, extra layers, rain gear, map, spare socks, snacks (energy bar, foil packed tuna, apple, orange, 2 Luna bars, dark chocolate!), and spare water bottle (full and frozen).  I grabbed my pack, hiking boots & poles, and my after hike clothing and hit the road. Dover, NH to the trail head is about a 2.5 hour drive. With an 8am meeting time, I was on my way by 5:30. Having posted my hiking intentions over a month ago, I was lucky enough to schedule the day with Julie Smith, a kayaking friend. If you've ever had the good fortune to paddle or hike with Julie, you'll understand when I say that she is the perfect trip leader. Julie knows her stuff, plans ahead, and has the patience of a saint. No kidding. You try leading 8 crazy kayakers down the Kennebec Gorge at high level during a dam release... Just saying.

Arriving just at 8, I met up with Julie, we geared up and headed off. I was not familiar with this mountain and had reached out to a friend for suggestions on trails. I took half of his suggestion and chose the Castle Trail. We decided to hike both up and down on this trail rather than looping off on several other possibilities.

The day was overcast and I was concerned that we might not make the summit as Julie & I had agreed that rain, fog, or extreme wind would cancel.  I mentally crossed my fingers that the day would clear.

The first part of the hike is through a field, under the high-voltage lines, and into the forest. Fairly quickly you reach a stream that you'll need to cross to continue on up the mountain. The water level was low but still covering most of the rocks so we took our time picking a crossing a bit upstream & the poles were a great help. After the crossing we were fully under tree cover and hiking a decently wide path, well cleared, and only a mild incline for the first mile or so in. And then....

Only 3.7 Miles to Go!

The trail became steeper and composed of rocks and roots which often formed steps in the hillside. Some natural, some man made. Now, I don't wear a watch and my cell phone was tucked away for the trek so I'm not sure how long we hiked up and up and up but it was at least an hour of fairly steep, breathing hard, heart pounding in my ears, hiking. And I was loving every second of it!!! All I could think of was how far I had come (figuratively) since November. I couldn't help but grin.

We stayed under tree cover as the trail flattened out for a good long stretch (Mt. Jefferson is a sneaky mountain, lulling you into a false sense that it will be an easy hike) and the sun began to peek through the clouds. All the while I could hear the stream babbling along on our left. Little did I know what the mountain still had in store as the trail took another upward turn and we headed for The Castles which give this trail its name.

As we hiked higher, the trees became shorter and shorter. Approaching The Castles, it looks as though you are nearing the peak of the mountain and have only a short distance to go. How wrong I was (but more on that later)! A few small scrambles over fairly large boulders and a steep, root grabbing, scrabbling climb later, we reached the first Castle.   See below.

Looking Up at The Castles

Stopping to take a couple of pictures, I couldn't believe where we had come from. Though the mountains to our left were still shrouded in clouds, the path we had traveled was clear behind us. The long flat section, of the trail that we had hiked, crossed the mound you see below. We had come from the far side of that mound!

Looking Back from the First Castle

The view to the left was not so promising as the clouds still menaced the tops of the mountains to the left. I'll admit that I was concerned about making it to the summit at this point.

After our picture break we began tackling The Castles. Up, over, through, over, scramble, crawl, is pretty much how it works through this section of trail. The Castles are comprised of HUGE boulders that push up out of the ridge of the mountain and the trail goes from Castle to Castle (and through them). Here are a couple of shots as we went:

Julie Picking the Route

 Here is where Mt. Jefferson really starts its trickery: once you complete the castles, you see that you are not, in fact, at the summit but are faced with the scene below. Okay, I wasn't ready for this hike to be over anyway! I remember pointing to what looks like the summit and asking Julie "Is THAT where we are going?". She confirmed that it was. What I should have asked is "Is that the summit". :) Feeling a theme here? Tricky mountain!

Looking Up Past The Castles Towards What Appears to be the Summit

The sky continued to clear as we ascended, affording us some amazing views of the valleys below. As we climbed, we discussed the challenge this hike afforded. There is something for everyone here: Steep inclines, scrambles, scrabbles (I differentiate scrambles as going over boulders with fairly easy hand/foot holds and scrabbles as steep, root grabbing climbs where you may very well slide back down to where you started and then some), and amazing views (see exhibits 1 & 2 directly below).

Exhibit 1: Oh the views!

Exhibit 2: Clearing clouds

 One of the interesting parts of this hike is that once you get past The Castles, you encounter a series of lawns and granite boulder fields. There is no going around the boulder fields, they spread out across the mountainside. So over we went. Fortunately there are cairns to guide you as you hop from rock to rock in the general direction of the summit. Each boulder field is an uphill climb that finishes with a small dip into a lawn of scrubby grass and alpine flora. And then onto the next boulder field. I was more than thankful to have my poles during these climbs. If memory serves, there were 3 sets of boulder fields and lawns to climb/cross before the final ascent to the summit.

The above is looking up towards the start of a boulder field. The path heads to the right of this picture and the boulder field is not the deceiving little strip of rocks that it looks like. You could easily spend 10 - 15 minutes traversing a field before you came to lawn again.

Finally reaching the summit, I found Julie and the sun waiting for me. Julie was kind enough to "save" the highest point for me and I climbed up with joy. I was standing on top of the world! This was a personal best. The tallest mountain I had ever climbed, the longest hike I had ever participated in. It was an amazing feeling that is nearly beyond words and the views went on forever! Gorgeous George was in full view in all his glory, Great Gulch and all! It looked as though you could just walk across in a few minutes (as I wish was the case!).

After a bite to eat and about half an hour of soaking up the sun & taking photos, we were ready to head down. What a completely fantastical and amazing day! Thank you to Julie for the wonderful company and to Mother Nature for bringing on the sunshine!

The rest of the photos are here.