Author Archives: Daren Worcester

Mt. Washington may get the glory, but the Mt. Jefferson Castle Trail has more than its fair share of guts. With 4,200 feet of elevation gain over 4.8 miles, and a tip-top height of 5,716 feet, the Castle Trail packs a wallop as challenging as anything the New Hampshire Presidential Range has to offer. But is it a technical hike?

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The New Hampshire Appalachian Trail from Mt. Garfield to Mt. Guyot features views of the Pemigewasset Wilderness you’ll lose your train of thought in, along with calorie-busting terrain to make amends for that last trip to Five Guys & Fries. In other words, par for the course. We begin this AT adventure at the intersection of the Garfield Trail and the Garfield Ridge Trail.

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For many, the Presidential Range is the Appalachian Trail section most synonymous with New Hampshire, which makes the Franconia Ridge Trail hike from Mt. Liberty to Mt. Lafayette a second fiddle with a marvelous tune. With two mountains over 5,000 feet, the option to summit 4,459-foot Mt. Liberty, and 4,500-foot Mt. Garfield likely also on the docket, this stretch will have hikers crashing and burning by day’s end.

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As one of the AMC’s red lines, the Wright Trail is by no means a secret. Given that I completed it on a cloudless Saturday morning in June after a week of rain and only saw four other people, it certainly passes for a hidden gem. Listed in the White Mountain Guide as a loop trail, the North Branch now appears to be closed. Don’t let this scare you away, though. The long parallel with Goose Eye Brook and eye-popping scenery of Goose Eye Mountain and the Mahoosuc Range make it a great getaway.

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After shaking a case of trail trail déjà vu, it was back onto the New Hampshire Appalachian Trail for another wild adventure. Unfortunately the trek once again didn’t go as planned. Yet another lesson learned in the perils of section hiking an AT state in sections.

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Section hiking the New Hampshire Appalachian Trail, take two. After our first misadventure on the trail, where we foolishly tackled more than we should have and succumbed to dehydration, we returned to complete Smart Mountain and continue along to conquer Mt. Moosilauke.

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