Earth Day Hike Up Mt. Pemigewasset in Franconia Notch

Happy Earth Day Weekend!!  In celebration, we think Spring has finally decided to make an appearance; the sun was out and it was warmer than 40 degrees!  We took advantage of the gorgeous weather (you know it has been a rough winter when sunny and 50 equals gorgeous) and got out for our first hike of the season.  We have been making a list of to-do hikes all winter and decided to try Mt. Pemigewasset in Franconia Notch.  A colleague had recommended Mt. Pemigewasset to me this winter and I’m so grateful he did! It was a perfect hike to start the season, and certainly manageable for little legs, even with snow cover.  The kids and I had done a snow hike in 2017, but Dad had never experienced it, so we packed our hiking poles and micro-spikes and off we went!

We decided to take the shorter (and I think more traveled) Pemigewasset Trail up so we parked in the Flume parking area. The trail head is at the northern part of the lot, so try and park up there if you can! You start the hike on the Franconia Notch Recreation Path and soon come to the actual trail head; the trail itself is 1.5 miles.

After crossing under 3 roads, you start the ascent.  For about half of the hike up, the trail follows and crisscrosses a stream.

There were 3 or 4 little “crossings” which were exciting for L. Most were just little steps across rocks (I could do them in one or two steps), but one had a log bridge.

The trail was never super steep and we did not have to scramble over any rocks.  (I’m not sure if that is different when there isn’t snow.)   We did have to duck a few times to avoid clotheslining little man in the Osprey (you can read more about the Osprey carrier here), but I imagine that the snowpack had something to do with that.  There is also one big boulder that Dad couldn’t resist climbing up…

As you reach the summit, the trail gets narrow and flattens out a bit, but stays in the trees…until…

it opens up to a big ledge with amazing views to the south and west.

We hung out at the top for a bit and ate some snacks while enjoying the view.

After snacking, we walked around to the east side of the summit and could see Mt. Lafayette and Mt. Lincoln through the trees.  It was pretty icy on parts of the ledges, so we didn’t explore too much.

After that we headed back down the trail with L in the lead!

The Indian Head Trail is another trail that leads to the summit of Pemigewasset so there is the option to do a loop.  That trail starts/ends about a half mile from the Pemigewasset trail, so you’d have to add a little extra road walk to get back to your car.  Hiking in and out on the Pemigewasset trail took us a little under 2 hours to get up and about 1.5 hours to get down.  We are pretty slow hikers, though.

As we were hiking, I had a few revelations:

1) Micro-spikes are awesome and totally necessary when hiking in winter. Confession: we actually bought the micro-spikes a few years ago for when we snow blow the driveway…not for hiking…but they have come in handy for hiking and snow blowing!

2) Don’t try and break in new hiking boots on your first hike of the season.  No matter how comfortable they are around your house and how excited you are to try them, wear them walking around your neighborhood or local trails first.  Feeling blisters while your legs are dying because you definitely aren’t in hiking shape is not fun…trust me.

3) Hiking can be hard.  I’m not going to lie, there were some rough points for me in this hike!  The combination of it being our first trek up hill for the season and Little Man weighing a good 7 lbs more than last year made my legs hurt a little more than usual on the way up.  I did have some good motivation to keep moving, though; Little Man decided he would yell every time I stopped so it really was like having my own little personal trainer on my back!! Ha. But, honestly, the reward of getting to the summit is worth any discomfort on the way up.

4) Hiking slowly is okay.  I think we might be the slowest hikers on the planet, or at least in New Hampshire.  It used to bother me that people often pass us, but then I realized it really doesn’t matter.  The important things are that we are together as a family, making memories, having fun, and enjoying the outdoors!

I hope that your family enjoys this adventure as much as mine did!