Snowshoeing In The Pemi Woods

PHOTO: This was a quiet snowshoe along an abandoned forest road in the Pemi Woods starting from the Discovery Trailhead on Kancamagus Highway in Lincoln. Snowshoeing is simple and makes it possible to take the path less traveled. If you are new to the sport, most cross-country ski centers and ski resorts rent snowshoes. The resorts have dedicated snowshoe trails and offer guided snowshoe tours. It is fun making tracks in the snow.

by Amy Patenaude
Outdoor/Ski Writer

“Snowshoeing and skiing it’s all I really want to dooooo,” I sing!
During the past two weeks I have crammed a lot of fun in on the weekends and on a few weekdays and weeknights too.
Last Saturday after the rain consolidated the snow I decided to venture out for a bushwhack snowshoe. I had a nice mid morning start from the Discovery Trailhead on the Kancamagus Highway, 2.2 miles east of Lincoln Woods Visitor Center. I was happy to find that the parking area was plowed and the pit-toilets open. There were also a few cars parked there.
As I put on my snowshoes, a group of hikers walked into the lot. They wanted to snowshoe up to the trailless Scar Ridge but couldn’t find a way across the swollen Hancock Branch of the Pemi River. The rain and the warm-up made all the water crossings difficult.
I invited them to join me on my whack up to West Hitchcock but they declined. Since they couldn’t check off a New England Hundred Highest winter peak they each jumped in their cars to drive to the mountains they needed for their February Grid Peaks (grid–hiking all NH 4,000 footers in each of the 12 months). One was off to the Kinsmans and the other two headed to Pierce.
Well, West Hitchcock happens to be on the New Hampshire Highest 200 list.

I snowshoed up the path and then when I reached an open area I went north through the trees to find the abandoned forest road that was marked on my map. Trees and Hobble Bush have begun to reclaim the wide flat way through the forest. There was plenty of new growth so that my guess that it wouldn’t be any fun to try to ski it was correct.
Several times I walked in the more open hard wood forest adjacent to the old forest road. The snowshoe conditions were very good, I could move fast staying on top of the snow.
Six years ago I made my way to the top of this peak from the west starting from Lincoln woods. This time I was hitting it from the south and I knew it would be a lot steeper. When the road started to get steep I set my compass bearing to head to the summit ridge.
Before I could start to climb the steeps I had to slab down and cross a stream. I could see open water but I found a good place to cross where the snow made a good bridge over the rocks in the streambed.
It was 19 degrees and lightly spitting snow when I started out but now it was really snowing. The hardwood forest was wide open and silent. I crossed no animal tracks the entire outing. The higher I climbed the more my snowshoes began to sink into more cold powdery snow. It wasn’t bad, maybe sinking 3 or 4 inches with the occasional post hole to surprise me. As I neared the summit ridge it got really steep, almost like climbing a ladder. My snowshoe crampons bit into the snow. I pushed with my ski poles and grabbed trees to help pull myself up.
Walking on the summit ridge felt like a vacation, it is nearly flat and a third of a mile long. The highpoint is on the very northeast end. Once at the highpoint I quickly removed my wet fleece and dressed more warmly in my light down jacket and I pulled over my head its warm hood.

I drank hot coffee from my thermos while I read the names in the register. It doesn’t get many visitors, no one from last summer and the most recent were in December a pair from Quebec and Maine. The previous signers were a small group from Ossipee way back early last March.
I returned by retracing my tracks in the snow. On the way down, since I wasn’t breathing hard, I noticed I could now hear the toot-toots from Loon Mountain’s steam train.
A few of the steep sections I had to work my way down backwards so I could dig my crampons into the snow to lower myself.
When I was almost back to the old forest road I realized I couldn’t see my tracks anymore.
The tracks weren’t deep but now the crampon marks were buried with a few inches of snow. The road wasn’t hard to find, all I needed to do was to continue downhill and I’d hit it.
My car was blanketed with three inches of new snow and it was still snowing and there were no other cars in the lot. I packed my stuff away and changed into dry clothes. I couldn’t find my snow brush so I used a towel to wipe the snow off my car.
The rumble of a snow plow truck on the Kanc Highway broke the silence. The truck’s appearance would make my drive back to Lincoln a little easier.
Have Fun.