We heard winter had arrived in the White Mountains of New Hampshire so we decided to find out for ourselves. The weather called for 37 degrees, sunny and clear blue skies so we were in for a treat. We started the morning off a tad later than our usual 6:30-7am start but that was ok, the extra hour of sleep would be beneficial to both Kyle and I due to us both feeling like crap and the cold morning weather. I felt like it would be best to hop on the trail a little later than usual so we would catch the “warmer” air mid hike. This actually worked out well as we hit the Dicey’s Mill Trail around 8am and saw about 1000 feet of elevation gain in the first 2.2 miles. This was fairly easy and at about 2500 feet we saw a bit more snow and it was hard packed which made for an easy ascent. It was so cool seeing snow for the first time all season and automatically makes us both excited for ski season.

After mile three the trail definitely gets steeper (not crazy steep) and between the steepness and a few large ice patches that we hit we were finally on our last half mile descent to the summit. We decided not to use our spikes (we did have them in our packs) with a just a few ice patches it wasn’t that bad so they stayed packed away for now. The last portion of the hike was really cool as you were basically walking on a snow filled trail with all the trees covered in snow as well. A mini winter wonderland if you will. There is something about being 4000 feet up and looking out at the Sandwich Range wilderness that just puts a smile on your face. In our case a couple of smiles. This was probably the happiest I have seen Kyle on a hike, the kid loves being outdoors and the minute he sees snow he gets overjoyed and all he can talk about is doing hikes like these and skiing. Nothing makes a father happier than doing something with my son that he truly enjoys.

After hunting for the actual summit for a few minutes we found it, snapped a photo and went back to a small viewpoint to each our lunch. This lasted about a total of 10 minutes and we were getting pretty chilly just standing around so we decided to start our descent. It’s weird, you go from sweating your nuts off to freezing in the span of minutes. This was one of our easier descents of all 25 of these 4ooo footers and we just shot the shit about how cool the hike was and more ski talk. After a few miles it was out of the snow and back on the leafy, slippery and rocky terrain which was a nuisance but at least it was all fairly flat at that point. Finally got back to the parking lot at around 1:30pm, changed clothes and hit the road to home. This was one of my favorite hikes mainly because of the day I spent with Kyle. We were both in good moods and just enjoyed each other’s company. I would 100% hike this mountain again and would tell anyone to get out and hike this one as well.