Hedgehog Mountain (White Mountain National Forest)
I'm going to preface this post by happily stating that this is the last of the 2022 backlog hikes I needed to write up. I've really enjoyed this journey of documenting my hikes in writing, and looking back at January through March to have those documented too. Now that I will be caught up with the original goal of this blog fully encompassing my 2022 hikes, I'm going to think about going further back to document some of my bigger and memorable adventures, and continuing my journaling into 2023. I also find it fun that this was on my first day of winter hiking, and I finished blogging about my most recent winter hikes too. Now, on to the hike!
We had about an hour drive from the Mt. Roberts parking area to the Hedgehog Mountain area, and the only eventful moment was when I got popcorn stuck in my teeth, then I got floss stuck in my teeth, ran out of extra floss to remove the stuck floss, and then had to stop at a convenience store on NH-16 to get more floss. I had been to the Hedgehog Mountain parking area when I hiked Potash last year, so I was excited to make my return. We arrived in the parking lot in the early afternoon, and made sure to have headlamps ready.
The hike started on the Downes Brook Trail, and quickly turned left onto UNH Trail from the parking area, following what appeared to be an old road. The trail had a couple inches of frozen snow on the ground, which our spikes gripped excellently. The trail continues by turning right off the straightaway and starts ascending, never too steeply. The whole loop is the UNH Trail, and at the next junction we continued straight instead of turning left to go over the summit first, and then hit the ledges. The woods were beautiful and peaceful - cold but windless. We took the side trip to Allen's Ledge, which had an excellent view of nearby peaks (I wish I had the guidebook with me because I can't seem to tell which peak ... I am writing this 11 months after the fact...).
Back on the UNH Trail, we continued onward. Hitting the summit ledges just in time to see the sun setting behind the apparently massive Mt. Passaconaway. It was magical up here, and I saw the one, the only, Floki the cat! I was too starstruck to say anything, but it absolutely made my day. There were some more great views just below the summit and onto the east ledges, which were icy but easily gripped with spikes. The highlight of this view was the snow capped Mt. Chocorua, which I would hike in just a few more months. Behind us on the East Ledges was the upper stretch of Hedgehog Mountain, which was fun to see.
Our final view of this hike was of the Moats (I think...), with sunset colors at the horizon and pale blue just above. The full moon had just risen over the mountains too, which was just a beautiful way to end this section of the hike. The final mile+ was significantly less glamorous, though. We continued on the longer stretch of the UNH Trail, where Gen had to stop and pee. That was the break that broke me. My body temperature dropped the second we stopped moving and I was shivering. I thought getting moving again would help, but it did not. Gen reminded me that I had mittens and my puff in my back (duh), and when I put those on my world was changed. Such an easy fix for such a potentially dangerous problem - amazing! When we hit that original straightaway it was officially headlamp time, and we safely made our way back to the car. Our day ended at the Mad River Tavern, which was just delicious.
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