 |
| Paloma Mapping the Route |
On Sunday, September 6th, Paloma and I decided to head back up to
Rt. 3 to tackle North and South Twin. We were both a bit intimidated to
do this hike as South Twin looked absolutely massive from the view we had of it
when we hiked Galehead. Never-the-less, the forecast was looking great so
we made our way to the trail-head. The ride up was relatively uneventful
and quick, save for the few spots where the fog was so thick you could cut it
with a knife.
The trail-head was easy to find, but that was only because we made
a correct guess as to where Haystack road began. There is no sign
whatsoever marking this road but we somehow took the correct turn - keep this
in mind if you are heading up there. Even though we arrived relatively
early there were already a number of cars in the parking lot - it was,
after-all, Labor Day weekend.
 |
| North Twin Trail-head |
We started our hike at 8:42AM. The weather was a nice, crisp
60 degrees at the base with very little humidity. My kind of hiking
weather. I forgot how much I love late
summer/early fall hiking. Our route for the day was to take the North
Twin Trail up to the summit of North Twin, continue along the North Twin Spur
to the summit of South Twin, then return the same way - a total distance of
11.2 miles.
The first half mile or so provided a great warm-up to the hike - a
nice and flat trail through the woods – up to the water crossings. I had
read that the water crossings of the Little River on the North Twin Trail could
be tricky, and those descriptions were correct. The first crossing wasn't
too difficult but at the second crossing I completely ate it on a slippery rock
and wound up in knee deep water. It figured
that this was right in front of the first two people we encountered on the
trail as well. Oops! Luckily we got Paloma across with no incidence. The third and final crossing was also a big
one but I learned my lesson from my prior fall and avoided wet rocks.
 |
| Water Crossings! |
The next section of trail became incredibly steep. Suddenly we were paying for the first few
miles of flat hiking that we had just enjoyed.
Our blood was pumping and lungs burning as we made our way up this
section towards the summit of North Twin.
As we climbed higher we were treated with some nice views through the
trees, which culminated in a beautiful lookout point just below the
summit. A family was sitting down enjoying
their lunch on the giant boulders overlooking the beautiful, untouched Pemigewasset
Wilderness. We snapped a few photos and
continued on our way to the summit of North Twin, reaching it at 11:25AM. The summit of North Twin is a pile of rocks
in the woods – nothing memorable at all.
We snapped our obligatory summit photos and continued onto the North
Twin Spur over to the summit of South Twin.
 |
| Great Lookout Below Summit |
The North Twin Spur trail begins by descending quite steeply onto
the ridge between the two Twins. From
here, the view over to South Twin looks incredibly intimidating. I thought to myself “this can’t be right,
that looks WAY further than 1.2 miles.”
I was convinced that we weren’t going the correct direction, even though
we were following the signs exactly as they were pointing. Sure enough, we were on the correct trail,
and in all honesty it wasn’t that difficult!
Don’t be fooled by your initial view of South Twin – it goes by much
faster than you would imagine.
 |
| Summit of North Twin |
We reached the summit of South Twin at 12:10PM – the perfect time for
lunch. I would have to say that the
summit of South Twin ranks near the top of all of the summits we have hiked to
thus far. The 360 degree views were
nothing short of spectacular. It was a
bit breezy at the top so we decided to hunker down on a ledge overlooking the
Pemi. It was the perfect lunch
spot. I took my boots and socks off to
let them dry in the sun as they were still soaking wet from my dip in the
river. We typically spend no more than
10-15 minutes on any given summit, but this was so beautiful that we decided to
spend a few extra minutes to enjoy it.
We took some great photos from the top before heading back over to North
Twin and ultimately down to the car, beginning our descent at 12:35PM.
 |
| Summit of South Twin |
The hike back over the North Twin Spur went by quickly, and before
we knew it we were on the top of North Twin again, ready to head down to the car. The descent from North Twin was even steeper and
longer than it had seemed on the way up, which made me truly appreciate the
fact that we were hiking down and not up at that point! We made pretty good time on the descent,
reaching the car at 3:35PM. We quickly
changed out of our stinky hiking clothes and started on our drive home. We needed to stop in Danvers on the way home
to feed my parents cat, so we took Route 16 home, stopping in North Conway for
a delicious dinner of pasta and bbq chicken pizza at Delaney’s Hole in the
Wall. If you can avoid Route 16 on Labor
Day Weekend, do it…I’ll just leave it at that.
Overall this was a long, relatively tough hike but one that
rewards you with fantastic views. Take
extra care on the river crossings and you will love this one!
Hike Stats
Trails: North Twin Trail, North Twin Spur
Total Time (Including Breaks): 7:00
Distance: 11.2 Miles
Elevation Gain: 3,700
No comments:
Post a Comment