A Tour Through Kearsarge

The ultimate goal of our trek today was to reach the summit of Kearsarge Mountain. We had several secondary sites to visit before starting our main journey. First by heading out to Willey Boulders, this happens to be an incredible historical site. In 1826 on August the 28^th, a family was killed by a landslide. Tragically they could have survived had they remained in their house. The family chose to abandon the house when they heard the landslide approaching. This oddly enough was the wrong decision, as there were boulders that redirected the landslide directly to the sides of the house. This being exactly where the family had fled to, killing them instantly.

The second location that we visited before heading to Kearsarge Mountain was the Tourist Center that we used as a rest stop to fill up our water bottles and to plan our possible routes for the coming days with the help of a three dimensional map.

The start of our actual trek began along the side of a road heading out of Little Conway. The trail was very rutty and rocky. This trail was unlike any I had ventured on before in all my years of backpacking or hiking, but my knowledge and experience was quite limited to the Rockies and the Southwest. The trail suddenly became less of a trail and more of an exercise in basic rock climbing, which one author referred to as “Clambering”. The most incredible feeling came over me as I began to climb further and further. Every so often I felt that I had lost the trail entirely but then miraculously a yellow blaze as they are called came into view. These are used to mark the trails and reinforce morale as treks continue on.

I managed to make it to the summit of Mount Kearsarge and the old fire station that was once manned on top of it. The view was simply spectacular. I was able to see well into Maine and several of the surrounding ponds and lakes of Maine. After taking a cornucopia of photos the weather made a turn for the worst and we were rushed back down the trail in order to get to a safe level.

All in all it was a very exciting day, and at the end of our trip we visited several different local adventure stores. These stores really put the activities of the locals into perspective; New Hampshire is full of active bodies.