Rambling Randolph Paths – A Taste Of Winter
The Randolph Mountain Clubs maintains trails in the White Mountain National Forest that crisscross the northern slopes of Mt. Madison, Mt. Adams and Mt. Jefferson. Additionally, on the north side of Route 2 on private and public lands, the RMC maintains trails on the Crescent Range in the Town of Randolph.
Since winter isn’t paying attention to the calendar, Danielle decided to hike some of the more gentle lower elevation Randolph Paths and she invited me join her. The RMC’s 100 miles of trails are described in the RMC’s guidebook, Randolph Paths and in the AMC’s White Mountain Guide.
When I jumped into Danielle’s car, this outing to collect the “short paths” seemed like a fine idea. There wasn’t much snow in Franconia Notch, just some high up on top of the ridge. As we drove through Twin Mountain we could see that snow blanketed the Presidential Range. When we turned onto Route 2 in Jefferson the ground was white and when we reached Randolph Hill there were several inches of wet snow on the ground.
We drove to the end of Pasture Path Road and parked the car. This was ridiculous. There was four inches of snow. We booted up and hit the trail, but not before we put on rain gear too. The snow was melting off the trees and it might as well have been raining.
Danielle had a bright yellow vinyl poncho. The poncho covered her pack too but she ripped the neck when putting it on. She was able to loop her pack strap through the arm holes which it kept it together nicely. She looked like Big Bird in the snowy forest. We wore our rain pants too.
It felt funny to be walking in snow and the slipping made us both cranky. Danielle wondered if she’d do better in her snowshoes. I didn’t have mine anyway. We both had microspikes in our packs but the snow was wet and sticky and certainly it would ball under our feet. It took a few minutes to get used to picking up my feet. Danielle wondered how long before her feet would be soaking wet. I was glad I coated my boots with waterproofing earlier in the week.
The snow did make the forest pretty and we adapted to hiking more carefully at a slower pace. Soon we were both well-adjusted and happy to be out.
Danielle had a plan and a map. She’d collect about six new miles of new-to-her trails with eight miles hiking. We’d do a few out and backs, a figure eight, three short road walks and not much repeating. A short ways up the Pasture Path we turned right up EZ Way and went up to Randolph Hill Road and followed our tracks back down to the Pasture Path. We continued on and headed down Bee Line all the way down to Durand Road. As we lost the 400 vertical feet of elevation the snow decreased to less than inch. It was easy going on the bare pavement for the short road walk to another trailhead. Up another trail, went around in a circle near Mossy Glen over the bridge.
We crossed Carlton Brook twice and each time it was a daring rock hop with some of the rocks under a few inches of water.
This day was an ambitious outing of redlining these trails, not just an add-on after a bigger hike. I told Danielle about my hikes on these trails. Sometimes Charlie accompanied me. Other times he just dropped me off at the top and waited for me down below when he didn’t want to do just one more thing.
We also chatted about our days this summer with the RMC volunteer trail crew. We brushed trails, removed blow downs, and even helped to construct a bog bridge. One time Danielle got to paint trail blazes.
Between Durand Road and Randolph Hill Road it is a dense maze of trails. I was happy to have Danielle guiding me and telling me which way to turn at the intersections. Beeline, Diagonal, Burnbrae, Glenside, Wood and EZ and Pasture Paths we slogged in the slushy snow.
Ours were the only tracks in the snow and it was fun to cross over them again and again.
Have Fun!
Amy Patenaude is an avid skier/outdoor enthusiast from Henniker, N.H. Readers are welcome to send comments or suggestions to her at amy@weirs.com.
