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I
had been thinking of doing just Mts Pierce and Eisenhower, but I decided
that we might as well add Monroe to the list
considering that the weather was great and the days were long. So, as usual,
Muffin and I got up at 4:00 AM and headed out for a long day above
treeline.
I
parked
at the Ammonoosuc Ravine Trailhead and we headed out for my third, and
Muffin's second climb up this trail. There were quite a few lupines
growing along the edging of the parking lot. The first mile is relatively flat, with numerous small
brook crossings and a few minor ups and downs but we quickly arrived at the
junction with the old trail from the Cog Railway base station.
The
trail followed the river for about a mile, gaining altitude slowly. It was
easy walking, and we could smell the spruce and fir trees in the woods. We
passed the Herbert Judson Young Memorial, which honors a member of the
Dartmouth Outing Club who died near this spot from exposure in 1928. We
soon arrived at Gem Pool, a small pool with water cascading down from
above. This spot is appropriately named for two reasons - the spot is a
real gem, and the pool is like an emerald the way it reflects all the
greenery of the forest surrounding this the little glen. It's a nice
place to rest on a hot day, so we stopped for a couple of
minutes to eat a quick snack.
My camera was fogging up a lot so the picture of the Gem Pool waterfall
didn't come out good, but I took another picture from a totally different
angle that did.
Above
Gem Pool, the trail gets extremely steep, gaining
1000 feet in 2/10 of a mile, and then another 700 feet in the next 2/10 of
a mile. In
the middle of the steep section, there's a side path that leads about 1/10
of a mile to the gorge, where two thin ribbons of water cascade almost
straight down into another pool.
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Lupines.
The lupine is a common flower in the lower elevations of the Mt Washington
valley. |
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