Black Mountain - 5/26/09

My friend Mark and I decided to get together for a hike. Neither of us had anything particular in mind, but I had a few places I had been wanting to get out to. We decided on the ledgy little peak of Black Mountain. Despite the ominous name, it’s actually a nice place to spend some time.

Mark takes in the sights

We set off in the morning for Chippewa trail, on the mountain’s West side. This is the steeper of the two approaches to this peak, but it’s rather short at 1.8 miles (3.6 round trip) and climbs through a gorgeous red pine forest. It is also the more scenic of the two trails, passing some ledges with great views to neighboring Sugarloaf Mountain and out to the Southwest, over the town of Haverhill and beyond.

View from the first ledge (click to enlarge)

We took our time on the way up, lingering to take pictures of the various flowers in bloom, including many Pink Lady’s Slippers.

Pink Lady's Slipper

After the leisurely climb, we arrived at the former site of the fire tower on the line of ledges making up the summit. Making our way over this series of scenic ledges we emerged on the Northeastern end of the ledges offering a wide view of Moosilauke, Kinsman Ridge, Cannon, Franconia Ridge, and much farther.

View from the summit

Here we took a long break, passing the binoculars back and forth, picking out cairns on Moosilauke from miles away and interesting boulders on the Kinsmans. After gobbling a sandwich and attempting to budge the large boulder once known as the Tipping Rock, we set off on the return trip back to the car.