Yesterday dawned bright and cold, but more importantly, dry. Since it had been a while since the last trekking adventure at Great Wass Island, I decided to chance that the voluminous water and wind  we’ve recently experienced here in New England had cleared the trails of snow and ice in the southern part of the mountains and departed Pondside early for Mt. Roberts in Moultonborough, NH.

The trails to both Mt. Roberts and Shaw start at the Castle in the Clouds property in Moultonborough. Both of these hills are part of the 52 With A View list, which I am more or less pecking away at. I’m about halfway through the list so far, mixed in with all of my other excursions. The mountains on this list are appealing to me as I know there’ll be a decent view once I reach the top. Many summits near home are vista-challenged. Not all, but many, and I know this because I’ve humped up all of them. Were it not for signage declaring you were AT THE TOP, one might never notice.

There weren’t many cars at the lot when I arrived at 10:30AM. I quickly checked through the pack, and decided to bring along the microspikes in case there was ice up on the ledges. I’d not seen any sign of snow on the ground since coming down out of Franconia Notch, miles to the north.

After a short walk along the road, I reached the trailhead.

The trail was quite wide as it started into the forest. Incline was mild, and it took me a little more than a mile to work myself up to “warm”. I’d felt chilly at the parking lot wearing only my pullover and base layer, so I started the walk wearing the parka. When I reached the signage for the “Viewpoint”, off came the parka and the lined gloves, which were replaced with the old leather Red Ball work gloves. Here’s a short video from that early overlook.

Continuing up the trail, it wasn’t long before more rocks and roots appeared. The going became steeper, and it wasn’t long before I gained the open ridge. To this point I’d seen no ice or snow, and all of the muddy spots were frozen solid- a bonus!

The views were pretty fantastic from many places along the ridge. There were great views of Lake Winnipesaukee to the west and south, along with many mountains, both nearby and afar.

The trail continued up along the ridge for a bit, and then dropped back into wooded cover for the final few tenths of a mile to the summit. Here there were a few more patches of ice, but they were small and easily avoided. Not once on this hike was I tempted to put on the spikes.

The final ascent to the summit was the steepest part of the trek, but even then it wasn’t severe, nor long. Once at the summit, you’re greeted with a nice sign and a great view of the mountains to the north, with Mt. Washington front & center.

I hung out at the top for a few minutes, taking in the views and drinking some water. A couple that I’d passed on the ledges arrived and I took their photo, trying to squeeze The Rockpile into the frame along with the summit marker. Despite the brilliant day, I only saw five other people on the trail. No doggies. In fact, the only critter I did spot was a lone chickadee.

Initially I’d planned to head over to Mt. Shaw as well, but I figured that daylight would be fading fast on this last day of fall/ first day of winter. So down the mountain I went, fairly quickly for an older fella. I did stop out on the ridge to take this video before continuing back to the trailhead.

Mt. Roberts Trail was a fun hike with great views, and I’d classify it on the edge of Easy/Moderate. The round trip took 3 hours to complete, with an elevation gain reported of 1339 feet. Total distance was 5 ¾ miles.

That’s it for now. Thanks for stopping by and hopefully there’ll be one more mountain before 2023 is done- I’d really like to get 30 for the year!