Our mountains may not be the tallest in the world, but hiking in the White Mountains in NH will make you work for it. Unlike other places like Utah, Arizona and parts of California, Washington and Colorado, hiking in New England is destination hiking. Meaning you will toil long and hard before there is much of a view. Oh sure there are waterfalls and brooks, but views are few and far between. You've got to get above or beyond the treeline for that. Most of the trails are stream beds and rocky in the extreme (they don't call this The Granite State for nothing). In some months it's wet, buggy and cold. Or alternately wet, buggy and miserably humid.
So why do it?
For this.
Mt. Jackson is a little over 4000 feet and steep as hell. There are no flat parts on the trail that last over a minute. It's up and more up. We took the Jackson-Webster loop which meant coming down off this summit for a bit, crossing a ridge and climbing up to another 4000 footer. Kicked. My. Ass.
More to come.
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