28 December 2005 Mount Waumbek, New Hampshire
Well near the beginning of the hike
I coaxed my husband out of bed early this a.m. for a journey to Mt. Waumbek, which I had never visited before. We got to the trailhead shortly after 8. There is a very large lot on the south side of Rt 2 immediately west of the Starr King Road. A blue and white sign read "Trail Parking" but was difficult to read because of snow that had blown onto it. We put on our boots and shells and set out. A short stroll up the Starr King Road had us to the summer trailhead by about 8:30. We put our snowshoes on here and saw that only one hiker had been up before us. The lower part of the trail took us along a small stream with some trivial crossings of tributaries. We passed what appeared to be a wide, shallow old well made of stone masonry. Before long the trail banged a right up toward a ridge through lovely open hardwoods. Though the grade had steepened it was not bad at all. By this time the sun was beginning to peak over the ridge and the light was slightly softened by a thin layer of haze. I'm not much of a photographer, but I suspected that this was really good light.
Trail through snow-laden spruce
We gained the ridge and enjoyed some teaser views through the open woods. At 1.4 miles, according to the WMG, the trail branches left for a mile-long traverse. I was skeptical because I knew we had to gain nearly 1000 feet in this next mile and 1000 ft per mile is not my idea of "traverse". There being no alternative to getting up the mountain, I went left and immediately entered a conifer forest, leaving the hardwoods behind for the rest of the ascent. Indeed, the climbing was fairly easy, with short steeper sections mixed in with flatter ones. The conifer traverse was beautiful and we saw some woodpeckers and chickadees along the way. Just before regaining the ridge the trail steepened and our pace slowed accordingly. Once back on the ridge it was a short gentle climb to the summit of Starr King where we met the hiker whose tracks we had been following. He was nice enough to take some pictures of us. He had a tripod and spiffy camera set up so we moved on to be out of the way of his pictures.
Ridge between Starr King and Waumbek
From there it was an easy, 40-minute ridge walk to the summit of Waumbek. The ridge was lovely, mostly open conifer forest with bits of moss hanging from branches. There were several opportunities for small views through openings in the trees where there had been blowdown. The 250-ft climb up from the StarrKing-Waumbek col was not too bad and soon the trail leveled out at the summit of Waumbek around noon. Trees all around made for no sweeping views but did provide a sheltered spot for pictures and a quick snack before heading back. As we turned to had back to S.K. we noticed that clouds were massing in the south...no doubt the ice storm that was headed in for tonight. We retraced our steps and on the way back met a hiker and two skiers with a dog. We stopped at the shelter site just below the summit of S.K. for lunch and pictures. We also had a chance to take in the view from the summit. Both were spectacular lookouts though I wonder for how much longer. The trees around there are already growing up into the viewscape (at least for shorter folks). From there we headed down. When we came out at the summer trailhead at around 2:30, I noticed a great view of the Franconia Ridge. It was a nice view to close out a wonderful hike.
