{"id":91,"date":"2011-11-06T08:52:17","date_gmt":"2011-11-06T13:52:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/peterdittman.com\/weblog\/?p=91"},"modified":"2026-01-29T19:38:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-30T00:38:07","slug":"mt-hale","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/peterdittman.com\/weblog\/mt-hale\/","title":{"rendered":"Mt. Hale"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>This was a birthday weekend, so we were looking some weekend activities that might give us some time on a mountain, some fresh air, and would leave us a bit of time to have some &#8220;play&#8221; (relaxation) time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Mt. Hale fit the bill perfectly.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; We chose the Hale Brook trail, round trip to Mt. Hale &#8211; 38th of the 48&#8217;s.&nbsp; Book time on the hike was 3:20, though other postings said as much as 4 hours or more.&nbsp;&nbsp; We decided on the hike, and tacked on an overnight stay at the Mt. Washington Resort &#8211; perfect!<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><a href=\"https:\/\/peterdittman.com\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/Mt.-Hale-011-s.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"912\" height=\"684\" src=\"https:\/\/peterdittman.com\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/Mt.-Hale-011-s.jpg\" alt=\"Jeanne at the summit\" class=\"wp-image-95\" srcset=\"https:\/\/peterdittman.com\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/Mt.-Hale-011-s.jpg 912w, https:\/\/peterdittman.com\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/Mt.-Hale-011-s-300x225.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 912px) 100vw, 912px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p>The day arrived, with not a cloud in the sky.&nbsp; Last week&#8217;s rare snowstorm, dumping nearly a foot of very heavy snow in Mass and NH was a distant memory thanks to some warmer weather during the week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We started out at the trail head a few minutes after 10AM and were on the summit just shy of 11:30.&nbsp;&nbsp; Initially, just leaves on the trail, about 1\/2 up, we began to encounter some snow (and a little ice-covered rocks in the few small stream crossings).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>At the summit, probably only 2-3 inches of the white stuff &#8211; not much, indeed, it made most of the hiking a bit easier having that little white cushioning beneath the shoes.&nbsp;&nbsp; Of course, it was also <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">just<\/span> cold enough to cause a little ice on some of the stream crossings &#8211; just enough to cause us both to take a step into the water!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The hike down went quickly, not nearly as slippery as we&#8217;d thought heading up.&nbsp; Even so, we&#8217;d purchased some Trax for the hike &#8211; they did came in handy for the first portion of the descent.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><a href=\"https:\/\/peterdittman.com\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/Mt.-Hale-016-s.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"985\" height=\"739\" src=\"https:\/\/peterdittman.com\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/Mt.-Hale-016-s.jpg\" alt=\"Mt. Washington from Hale Brook trail\" class=\"wp-image-96\" srcset=\"https:\/\/peterdittman.com\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/Mt.-Hale-016-s.jpg 985w, https:\/\/peterdittman.com\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/Mt.-Hale-016-s-300x225.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 985px) 100vw, 985px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p>Mt Hale doesn&#8217;t really have much for views at the summit &#8211; the trees around the rock pile just block out any views, but there were some really choice views of Mt. Washington and the Northern Presidential peaks on the way down.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; And with the leaves off the trees &#8211; it was a real treat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We arrived back at the parking area in just 3 hours.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; All in all, a very &#8220;pleasant&#8221; hike &#8211; nearly a walk in the woods (but with a bit of elevation gain).&nbsp; The hike up, enough exertion to keep us plenty warm, the hike down, likewise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Overall, the hike turned out to be exactly what we sought &#8211; some good outdoor time and not too strenuous &#8211; leaving us plenty of time to head to the Mt. Washington Resort (only a few miles from the trailhead) &#8211; a quick check in, followed by some very relaxing time in the spa!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The perfect birthday present!<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1041\" src=\"https:\/\/peterdittman.com\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Mt.-Hale-019w-scaled.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-5253\" title=\"Mt Washington Resort\" srcset=\"https:\/\/peterdittman.com\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Mt.-Hale-019w-scaled.jpeg 2560w, https:\/\/peterdittman.com\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Mt.-Hale-019w-300x122.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/peterdittman.com\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Mt.-Hale-019w-1024x417.jpeg 1024w, https:\/\/peterdittman.com\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Mt.-Hale-019w-768x312.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/peterdittman.com\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Mt.-Hale-019w-1536x625.jpeg 1536w, https:\/\/peterdittman.com\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Mt.-Hale-019w-2048x833.jpeg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This was a birthday weekend, so we were looking some weekend activities that might give us some time on a mountain, some fresh air, and would leave us a bit of time to have some &#8220;play&#8221; (relaxation) time. Mt. Hale fit the bill perfectly.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; We chose the Hale Brook trail, round trip to Mt. Hale &#8211; 38th of the 48&#8217;s.&nbsp; Book time on the hike was 3:20, though other postings said as much as 4 hours or more.&nbsp;&nbsp; We decided<a class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/peterdittman.com\/weblog\/mt-hale\/\">Read More &rarr;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"category-hiking.php","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-91","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hiking"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/peterdittman.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/peterdittman.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/peterdittman.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peterdittman.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peterdittman.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=91"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/peterdittman.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5254,"href":"https:\/\/peterdittman.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91\/revisions\/5254"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/peterdittman.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=91"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peterdittman.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=91"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peterdittman.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=91"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}