Garfield. February 19, 2019

Road walk, Garfield Trail,  11 miles round trip with around 3150 feet of elevation gain.

My sister, Alex, also has a blog, www.alexinthewhitemountains.com.  She and I take turns posting trip reports, so make sure to check out her blog as well.

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This week I am a stretched for time with my schoolwork, so I am just going to write a summary paragraph of the hike and then include the pictures.

Mom, Alex, and I started after sunrise at the start of the road leading to the Garfield Trail trailhead.  After walking a mile, we started up the trail.  We were wearing snowshoes, as the snow was still soft.   All of us wore snowshoes for the entire hike.  We got to the halfway point, then to the switchbacks, and then to the intersection.  There, we layered up, then continued to the exposed summit.  On our way, we accidentally took a wrong turn and went up the wrong side of the summit cone.  We had to wade through deep snow and get through some tricky bits, but we eventually made it to the summit and the old hotel structure.  Alex, Mom, and I got a snack and then headed down. 

Photo by Trish Herr

Jackson. February 6, 2019

Jackson-Webster Trail, 5.2 miles, 2,150 feet of elevation gain

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We started in the daylight, and went up with the intention of finishing relatively soon, as Jackson is a short peak.  Alex was not with us, as she and Mom had hiked Pierce and Eisenhower earlier in the week. Also, Mom and I ended up not using our snowshoes for the first time all winter!  We didn't put them on for the entire hike.

We moved more slowly than usual, but we still made it to the first intersection before long.

Mom and I started up the steepest part of the hike...

When we were almost to the top, we started to see Grey Jays!  There were two flying around us.

A closer look...

Looking back at the view...

Eventually we made it to the summit! It was a beautiful day, and Mom and I could see the summit buildings on Mount Washington.

Photo by Trish Herr

The summit cairn...

Me on the summit...

Photo by Trish Herr

Mom on the summit...

The Gray Jays followed us to the top!  They hovered around us.

We had a snack while watching the birds.

Here are some more pictures of the surrounding views:

We headed down after a bit.  A little while later, we stopped to look at this extremely deep posthole somebody left on the trail.  It was one of the deepest I have ever seen!  

Mom and I got to the intersection, drank some water, and then continued down.  Before we knew it, we were at our car.  It was a fast, but beautiful, hike.