A Paugus Among Us

I learned something today. The mountain I climbed Wednesday was named for Chief Paugus, who was the head of the Pequawket tribe, a sect of the Abenaki. He lived near Conway, New Hampshire, in the early 1700s, and was killed at the Battle of Pequawket (or Lovewell’s Fight) in 1725. Paugus means “The Oak,” implying hard. Resilient. Tough. And perhaps, difficult? As such, I think Mount Paugus is aptly named, because it was not the funnest hike.

Tough dude, that Chief Paugus

Weather Made Me Do It

Originally, I was planning on climbing Mount Webster, but my phone told me that there was a good chance of rain if I went that way for my hike, so I pulled an audible and went to Paugus instead. My phone seemed to think there would be less rain there, and that it would start well after the rain at Mount Webster. As it turns out, I shouldn’t have listened to my stupid phone because it hardly rained at all. Anywhere. Mount Webster would have been fine. Instead, I was battling The Oak, alone, on a twisty, rooty, stubborn set of trails leading to the south peak of Mount Paugus. Stupid phone.

I did meet some friendly people at the trailhead, but that was it. And none of them were planning to climb Mount Paugus. It was surprising to have the trails to myself after every mountain I’ve gone to lately has been jam-packed with explorers. Why aren’t any of them over here?

The Route

I started from the trailhead parking for the Cabin Trail, which ultimately led to the Big Rock Cave Trail, up past the summit of Mount Mexico. The younger me may have felt the need to bushwhack my way to Mexico’s summit when I passed by the nearest access point, but it didn’t look like there would be a lick worth of views on it. All I’d be doing is disturbing the brush, so I let it go.

The best part of the trail was, in fact, the Big Rock Cave—or caves? But as I approached, I couldn’t remember if they were called the Big or Bear Rock Caves, and with all of the bear activity we’ve been having in New Hampshire, I started to worry about a bear jumping out at me. Hey, come on, there was nobody else on the trail, it was oddly quiet, and then comes this giant rock formation that could be harboring bears? Yeah, I was on the alert.

It was oddly quiet, though, for upwards of four miles of the trail. There was hardly a bird and nothing in the way of chipmunks or squirrels. Pretty unusual. There wasn’t any deer scat or bear scat either. Signs of life were hard to come by. It felt, well, kinda dead.

Um yeah, if I was a bear, this would do nicely.

The Old Paugus Trail

After leaving the Big Rock Cave, the trail crosses over Whitin Brook where it turns into the Old Paugus Trail. Old Paugus runs to the summit where it meets up with the Lawrence Trail that hikers can choose to descend to make a loop hike of it. I had already planned to do a loop hike of Paugus, but by the time I got to the summit, there was no question I would be taking the Lawrence Trail down. I was done with Old Paugus. It just ran too steep, and too narrow, in too many places. I wish I had discovered this website before the climb, because I probably would have opted for the route it describes instead (even though it is a couple of miles longer).

But alas, I was on Old Paugus, getting mouthfuls of spiderwebs every couple of minutes. I’ve never run into so many spiderwebs in my life. It got me wondering—when was the last time anyone came up here? I identified one set of footprints along the way, but they quickly disappeared under the carnage of a rockslide. That wasn’t encouraging.

Fortunately, though, I made it in one piece, and as it is with all of the 52 With a View mountains, there were great views once again at the summit. Notably, a stunning view of Mount Passaconaway, which seems to keep popping up on my 52 WAV hikes. First with Hedgehog, then Potash, and now again with Paugus. I think there were one or two others as well, that I’m just not remembering off the top of my head. Either way, it’s clear that Passaconaway likes to be seen.

Hello again, old friend.

The Lawrence Trail

The Lawrence Trail was considerably easier to navigate than Old Paugus, and was a welcome change in terms of both grade, and terrain. There were actually some switchbacks to help navigate the steepness—something you hardly ever see on New Hampshire trails. It still took a while to get down and I’d say all told, I probably spent 1.5 hours getting down after about 2.5 hours getting up. I know I left the truck at 10AM, got back to it around 2PM, and spent about twenty minutes resting at the summit. You can subtract the twenty from either the ascent or the descent, it’s all the same.

When I returned to my truck and left the trailhead, I did stop to take a picture of the Wonalancet Chapel in the foreground of Mount Paugus. It was such a quaint New England landscape, I couldn’t resist. While I may not have been overly enthusiastic about Paugus, I did fall in love a little with Tamworth and sleepy Sandwich, two small New Hampshire towns tucked into the valley of the Sandwich Range. As I drove through the quiet hamlets, I asked Google to tell me their population sizes and wondered about what stories their people could tell.

The Wonalancet Union Chapel in front of Mount Paugus

Exploring New Hampshire’s Mountains?

Head on over to In the Mountains if you’d like to read more the peaks and hikes you may find in New Hampshire. Most of them made me happier than this one, which really, wasn’t too bad. I think it just surprised me because it was harder than expected!