This past Saturday me and my overly enthusiastic hiking buddies Charlie and Raquel, set off to Mount Cube for a morning hike. The forecast for a couple of days had shown bright clear skies and a balmy 55 degrees. Basically the perfect conditions for a day hike. We knew this hike did not have a ton of elevation so I also made reservations at Winslow State Park so we could do Mount Kearsarge afterwards.
We got to the trailhead of Mount Cube by about 9:30 which is later than I usually prefer to start a hike; but I am glad we showed up late! As the mountain came into the view the temperature continued to drop 38, 36, 33 etc. Not only that but it appeared that there was a fresh dusting of snow all over the trees! This was far from the conditions that we were expecting. I parked the car and started searching for any sign of warm weather gear that I stupidly did not add to my day pack. Lucky for me there was plenty of sweaters and best of all my winter hat! I never knew I could be so excited to see those things. We put all of our warm gear on right away and headed for the trail.
At the trailhead there was a rather large puddle that we had to cross which was only foreshadowing what was to come. For the first mile of the trail we had fairly great conditions considering the time of year. There was some mud but it was easily avoidable and it seemed the snow had stayed off of the trail itself so it was fairly dry once we started getting some elevation. The lack of elevation change is the key factor of why this trail was an absolute mess. A little past the first lookout point we were greeted with deep mud and running water down the trail. It was from this point on that my shoes were completely soaked and muddy.
When we got to the summit shoes soaked and cold, there was a thin layer of black ice and the wind was whipping. With wind chill the top must have been 25 degrees or cooler. I had no gloves and my soaked shoes were quickly freezing. Needless to say, this was not a good situation. We took our pictures and made it down the frozen rocks as quickly as possible. I could barely feel my hands by tree line and I couldn't even feel my hand warmers! We were all very lucky that the trees provided protection from the wind so we all stayed relatively warm.
By the time we got back to the car the clouds had passed and we were hit with a wall of warm air. We cursed the mountain for the less than optimal conditions, but were pretty happy that the pictures we took made the hike look way more intense than it was!
From there we drove about an hour south to Mount Kearsarge. I had soloed this hike before up the same trail so I knew what we were getting into. The trail from Winslow parking lot is a straight shot up. In 1 mile you gain about 1200 feet. And after 1 hike already that day this was going to be extra fun. We started up the Winslow trail and immediately I was feeling really good. I had to remind myself to slow down, but found that I was feeling superb for having already hiked 5 miles that day.
The really steep rocky sections of this hike were super fun to scale and really got the heart racing, which Mount Cube had not been able to offer earlier in the day. The trail was also mostly dry and free of snow, which was a pleasant change of pace. We got to the top and had it mostly to ourselves. There were no clouds and we could see as far as Mount Washington. It was the perfect way to end a great day of hiking.
These hikes are a perfect combination of low elevation high reward hikes that you can fit into one day. I will definitely be re-visiting Mount Cube later in the season probably along with Smarts Mountain so I can experience what is supposed to be a beautiful view.
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