It’s good to have projects. Some are more deliberate, like my decision to pursue the 52 With A View peaks this year, and some are a little looser—like my side quest to redline the Wapack Trail, which only occurred to me a week or two ago.
The Wapack Trail, if you’re not familiar with it, is a 21.5-mile north–south route that spans several mountains and crosses the border between New Hampshire and Massachusetts. If you’re living in the area and don’t have time to get up north, this trail gives you a great alternative, both for its accessibility and its character. If you want to get the map and more details, you can check them out here.
Beautiful trees and old stone walls on the Wapack Trail
Not Far to Get Far Away
I never intended to redline the Wapack. And even saying redline feels a little funny, because it’s only 21.5 miles. If I really wanted to, I could take care of the trail in a day, or at least a weekend. But these mountains don’t call for that somehow. The Wapack is a regional gift that allows you to get a mountain feel without requiring you to disappear from regular life for too long. I often visit the area when I just need to get out for a few hours but still have work I gotta get back to.
Yesterday was just such a day. After working from about 8AM to 1PM, my back couldn’t take being hunched over the desk anymore, and I needed to stretch the body. A regular workout wouldn’t do—I needed to move. Fortunately, a thirty-minute drive was all it took to get me to the trailhead for Burton Peak, which sits pretty much in the middle of the Wapack Trail.
An icy trek up
Burton Peak
I’ve climbed Burton before, but because I’m redlining the Wapack, I wanted to climb it from the other direction. I’ve travelled all the miles north of it, which includes the Pack Monadnocks and Temple Mountain—now I need to focus on more of the southern half of the trail. I can’t give you any good reason why I want to do this. Maybe it’s because the Friends of the Wapack offer a neat patch for those that complete the whole thing, and I can’t rightly purchase it unless I actually did the deed myself. But I think, in truth, the real reason is I just wanted another project. I certainly didn’t need one, because my plate is pretty full, but I can’t help it: side quests are in my blood.
For this section, I headed up to Burton Peak from the Sharon Ledges Trailhead, which is also referred to as the Homer Belletette Parking Area. It is about a 2.6-mile journey up and back, and you grab two subpeaks along the way: Ridge Crest and Burton Peak’s West Slope. On the trail, there are views of Kidder Mountain, which is accessible via another route off the Wapack, and if you wish, you can take yet another side quest to climb that. (Yes, of course I did—but on a different day.) New Ipswich Mountain is also visible from this stretch and is one of the peaks in the areas I’ll be heading to next.
Kidder Mountain appears though the trees. New Ipswich Mountain is obscured to the right.
A Great View
But the real prize on this hike, is near the summit of Burton Peak. When you arrive, if you’re willing to bushwhack a tiny bit, you’ll get a great view of Mount Monadnock. Truly, it’s one of the best views I’ve ever seen of it. I followed another hiker’s footprints through the snow to a fantastic lookout, where a few spruce, standing as sentinels of the valley below, greeted me. “Come, look,” they said. And look I did.
This hike was a much-needed kick in the pants. After a few weeks of holiday cookies and a bit of a cold last week, my body was going to hell in a handbasket. And it was so easy to get here. Honestly, I don’t know why I don’t make it over to these mountains more. It only took two hours out of my day, and it was no problem to get in a little more work when I got home. Even better, the invigorating trek made me a heckuva lot more productive. Before I set out, I questioned whether it would take up too much of my day because I had so much to do—but thanks to the exercise and the adventure, I worked twice as fast when I finally got back to my desk.
Maybe I should go back tomorrow…
A terrific view of Mount Monadnock from Burton Peak
Exploring New Hampshire’s Mountains
Each week I try to check out at least one mountain in New Hampshire. I tend to pick ones I haven’t visited before, but it all depends. If I’m going alone, I might climb one of the 52 WAV peaks. If I’m climbing with a buddy, it might be a 4000-footer or some backcountry skiing destination. I never know exactly what’s next, but when a day opens up on the calendar, I figure out what’s doable, find out who is coming with, and go see what there is to see. If you’re exploring New Hampshire’s mountains and want to read more, head over to In the Mountains.
Come look
Oh Yeah, P.S.
Field Note: You could get away without using spikes right now, but I wouldn’t recommend it. A very fit septuagenarian was out on the trail with his dogs and didn’t have any, but I moved a lot faster with mine on. For the first half-mile up, there was very little ice to speak of, so I carried them. But up on the ridgeline there was plenty of ice, as you can see in the pictures above, and I was very glad I had the option to put them on when I did.
I hope you send this to everyone in your contact list. It is really, really good.