With visions of piles of snow and plenty of cross-country skiing at Bretton Woods, we’d planned a weekend at the Mt Washington Hotel many months ago.  New England weather being what it is, the few 60-degree days during the preceding week wiped out all of the snow on the ground – at least in the open areas.

Prepared for any sort of activity (and to bring more spontaneity to New Hampshire!), we brought along our hiking gear and eye-balled Mt. Willard as a possible day-tripper.

True to form, the Mt. Washington Resort didn’t fail.  Even without big snow, we were treated to the natural beauty of the area that causes us to keep coming back, again and again.  The sunrise photo at left is just one of those amazing views that unfolded for us!

While you wouldn’t think much of the hike, especially on paper – in the lists of peaks in the NH Whites, it doesn’t even make a 3000′ list, topping out at a mere 2865′ – it has a one-way distance of about 1.5 miles and 900′ of elevation gain.    Despite that, it was only about 15 degrees and we’d heard it was one of the best views of “the Notch” out there.

With that, we signed up for a group hike at the AMC’s Highland Center, though the 1pm start time seemed late, so after some coffee we got our gear and were on the trailhead by 10:30.   By then, the outside temperature was in the upper teens – pretty chilly, though fortunately very little wind and the sun was in and out of the clouds.

We’d also heard there was a bit of water/ice at the beginning of the hike, and sure enough, about 10 minutes into the trail, there was an area, where a stream had backed up, creating a ice-encrusted area – about 1/2 the size of a basketball court.  Bushwhacking a bit, we skirted the ‘pond’, crossing the stream up-river, and continued on our way. Once in the woods, the trees had protected some of the snow-melt, leaving about 8-12″ of snow on the trail/forest floor.  With our trax, the going was easy – probably easier than during the summer, when the NH rocks/boulders often makes many of the hikes a bit more like bouldering than hiking!

We hit the summit in slightly under an hour, seeing very few others along the way.  As they’d said, it’s probably the best view of the Notch going.  We agreed – and while the clouds were moving in for some snow flurries later in the afternoon, the visibility was great and the terrain, punctuated by a dusting of snow, was breathtaking.

A quick energy bar, a few more photos and time to head down.  While there was little wind, it was still cold, and beginning to seep in through some of the clothing.   It was good we went when we did – on our way down, we bumped into a number of parties, a few small ones, but also a few with over a dozen people – quite the crowd on a cold winter day.    After some pleasantries, we just continued on our way…

Making it back to the ice pond, it was hard to find the original bushwhacking tracks, so we made some new ones – should have looked harder for the old ones, because this time, while the ice/stream was only about 5′ across – the ice was a bit too thin, and Peter went through, up to mid-thigh!  Gators and nylon hiking pants over long johns kept some of the water out, though some still drained into the boots.  Fortunately, we were only about 5 minutes to the car – but even so, by the time we arrived, the water on the hiking pants was frozen…

A long time to warm up back at the hotel, but a bowl of soup, a quiet late afternoon and then a wonderful meal in rounded out a great day outdoors!

And how can one tire of this?