Sunday, August 17, 2014

Mount Pawtuckaway: 8/17/2014

Mileage: 5.25
Elevation gain: 1105'
Trails used: North Mountain Trail, North Mountain Bypass, Chase Trail.


Desi wanted to get out for a hike so I suggested Mount Pawtuckaway since I had heard it was nice with ledges galore and the views weren't too bad.  The weather when we left the house was a bit on the cool side and mainly sunny, and it wasn't bad on the hike.  

Mount Pawtuckaway is located in Nottingham, New Hampshire and also in Pawtuckaway State Park,  and like the other two peaks (Middle and South) they are part of an ancient ring dike.  Mount Pawtuckaway is also the highest peak in Pawtuckaway State Park.


We took the North Mountain Trail which starts right off Reservation Road.


The gate where we parked off of Reservation Road, which has room for several cars.


At a snowmobile junction, the North Mountain Trail branches off and starts heading up to the summit of North Pawtuckaway.


The trail is easy to follow and well blazed with white diamond blazes.


Views from some of the ledges on the ridge heading over to the summit of Middle Pawtuckaway with the fire tower on South Pawtuckaway barely visible.


Looking over to the main summit of Mount Pawtuckaway.


The hiking was fairly nice along the ridge.


The hiking on the approach to the summit of Mount Pawtuckaway.


The summit area of Mount Pawtuckaway, with one of the two benchmarks visible.


A neat little grassy area right around where the communication reflector is.


We came across this large communications reflector on the north side of the trail heading down from Mount Pawtuckaway's summit.


Yet another view over to Middle Pawtuckaway.


The trail coming off the northern end of Mount Pawtuckaway has quite a few switchbacks that lead down to Round Pond.


Some of the Boulder Field area at the bottom near Round Pond.



We didn't really explore the boulder area but we did see a few rock climbers/people bouldering on quite a few rocks and cliffs around here.


A neat little wet spring area on the way back to the car.


The North Mountain Bypass was a bit bumpy but it was a straight shot back to the North Mountain Trail.  There wasn't much to see along the way except nice open woods.



An old foundation complete with old fireplace and cellar holes at the start of the trail on Reservation Road.  I couldn't find much information on what exactly it is.




It was a perfect day to do this hike, due to the nice temperature's and decent views.  It was good timing to.  As we started to leave, a rain shower moved in for a nice soaking for the people still out hiking.  The bugs were pretty fierce on the way back to the car but the hike in was not too bad.  An easy 5 miles to add to the totals.

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