Recently, I've been lucky enough to spend some time in the woods. We've had fantastic weather this fall.. Really fantastic. Thinks 60s, sun, and hardly any wind. Perfect weather for hiking. I've revisited some old places (like the Presidentials, Tripyramids, and Mt. Moosilauke), trying to find new routes up and down, and I've also gone to new places (like today, when I went to the Percies). Today's trip was really interesting (in my opinion) so that's what's here.
I had first heard about North and South Percy from a forum I frequent. The peaks themselves are pretty far north; they're still two hours north of here, just a bit over the border in NH. What piqued my interest is that there is an abandoned trail on North Percy which goes straight up some rock slabs. I found out that two people (and a moose) have died on the closed-for-thirty-years West Side trail. I've been a bit bored lately, hiking on all these well kept trails, so I looked forward to the challenge of following an old trail for a change. If I couldn't find it, I'd just go up. Pretty simple.
However, I did find it, and overall it was pretty easy to follow. I could easily make out the blue blazes painted on the rocks, and there were even two cairns still standing close to the summit. I would even say that there were too many blazes. At least they were faded.
The view from the top was spectacular. Unfortunately it was a hazy day, but I still enjoyed it. There was a small windfarm to the northeast, which I think was beautiful. Further east was Maine and its Mahoosuc range. The south included the majority of the White Mountain National Forest. West was Vermont, and north was Canada. I would happily return to this summit, and probably via the same route.
Descending North Percy was pretty straightforward. It reminded me of coming off of East Baldpate, although only for about a quarter of the distance. It was a quick out and back to South Percy. There was a summit registry (which I signed - first one since CO!), but the best part of the summit was the view from where I just was. The summit of South Percy is wooded, but there are good viewpoints and it's got a cool little vibe. It's difficult to explain. Some people are disappointed when they come up here, some say it's not worth it, but I certainly think it's worth the trip. It's only ten minutes.
I ran back down, completely on the trail this time. It's had a lot of work done - there are a good number of stone steps and areas where it's been re-routed because of erosion. I met two older guys who where on their way up and we chatted for about five minutes. It only took twenty minutes to go 1.7 miles! Nice. The footing at the top part was treacherous because it was wet slabby rock, and the leaves did a pretty good job hiding small rocks and roots on the lower section. Still great fun, though!
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| From a tree in Rachel's yard. We had an entire milk crate. |
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| Mmmmm |
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| Sometimes I feel really old... |
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| This was the first blaze I saw once I got onto part of the slide that wasn't about to kill me. |
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| Steep! And fun. |
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| I saw two tamaracks. I've never seen them on such thin soil, so high, and in a dry area. South Percy is in the background. |
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| This part was great! |
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| No way would I do this if it was wet. |
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| That's a long way down. |
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| There were lots and lots of blueberry plants up here. |
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| Sustainable energy makes me happy. |
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| The trail up South Percy was very green. |
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| North Percy from South Percy. |
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| This was a gravel pit on the access road. There's some cool glacial stream stratification going on. And a huge erratic. |
