Ritzhikes

Starting with my Mt. Cabot hike (#39 of the 48), I've been recording my journeys with an app on my phone. I found that running the app didn't use much power, and it was nice to have the recording. For the most part I've used the OSMand app, but for the Mt. Pemigewasset hike I switched to Gaia. I thought it might have better info about one of the trails I'd be using, and I just wanted to see how it worked. On my last hike , I noted major differences between what Gaia recorded and the info for the route in the AMC White Mountain Guide. The AMC Guide said it was an 8.7 mile route with 2850 feet of climbing, but Gaia recorded 8.06 miles and 2678 feet of elevation, quite a significant difference. What was going on? Gaia (and all of these apps) saves the recording in a standard file format known as GPX (GPS eXchange). The recording is a "breadcrumb" track, with the app noting the GPS info (lat, lon, altitude) at regular intervals. The GPX files can be shared (expo...

Where: Noon Peak, Jennings Peak, Sandwich Dome When: November 3, 2026 With: Solo I hiked this loop (plus a bit more) during a solo overnight trip in 1988 , but passed by Jennings Peak for reasons unknown. It's an isolated little peak on a short (0.2 miles) spur trail off the Sandwich Mountain trail, and it's on the 52 With A View list, so it seemed like a good choice for another hike. I packed up the night before, was out the door a little after 5AM, and pulled into the parking lot around 7:30AM. Temperatures near 70 were forecast for home, but it was 48 degrees at the trailhead when I started. Warmer than my last hike , but still a bit chilly. I set off wearing my North Face sweater over a wicking quarter zip LL Bean base layer. The trail left the lot, passed by a power substation, dropped down to cross Drakes Brook, then began to climb. As usual, I settled into a steady uphill pace and shed the sweater pretty quickly as I warmed up. My first objective was Noon Peak, a rise o...

Where: Mt. Pemigewasset, NH When: October 21, 2026 With: Solo After finishing the NH48 last year, I figured I'd spend this summer climbing "lesser" NH peaks, but it didn't happen. Lots of reasons, some legitimate, some lame. I did one hike with Chip at the beginning of July, and several local (Mt. Wachusett) hikes, but that was it.  I had this loop on my to-do list as my next NH hike, and kept putting off. Finally, tired of beating myself up for not going, I resolved to just go. I announced my intentions to Jane, put a pack together last night, and forced myself up and out this morning. I was out the door at 5:30AM, and at the trailhead just before 8:00. I'll admit to a residual bit of trepidation about the hike during the first part of the drive, but my mood changed dramatically after a stop at the Hooksett rest area for the restroom and a cup of coffee. My only remaining concern was the temperature.  It was chilly to start, and I watched it drop as I drove nor...

Where: Mt. Wachusett When: October 6, 2026 With: Solo Though the day was on the chilly side, I left my fleece hoodie in the car as I headed to the trail, figuring I'd warm up as I got going. I began questioning that decision when I was a fair way up the trail and still a bit cold. "Perhaps I'm on a fool's errand," I thought, given my motive for today's hike. My goal was to find a feature I'd spotted on a LIDAR image. It seemed to show a square-ish depression deep in the woods about midway between the Balance Rock Road and the North Road,   at the intersection of two stone walls (center of the image below) . Maybe a cellar hole? There was also an indication of a path in the woods just north of the Balance Rock Road that I thought I'd check out as well, beginning at the stream flowing out of the Needham Pool. I started my hike at the Bolton Pond Trail trailhead. I haven't been there since my first hike up Wachusett, which I did with Wilma in 2014. Th...

Where: Mt. Wachusett When: September 22, 2026 With: Solo Redlining is the practice of tracing trails walked, traditionally with a red pen (though I use a yellow highlighter). Given enough visits to an area, the redlined trails begin to dominate and the gaps become evident, and compelling. There's a strong urge to fill in those gaps. Some especially driven hikers have redlined every trail in the AMC's White Mountain Guide, and I've been keeping track of my progress in the Pemigewassett Wilderness in those mountains, but today I set out to complete a more attainable goal: walking every trail and woods road in the Mt. Wachusett State Reservation . My visits to Wachusett go back to 1987, when Chip & I went out for a winter adventure with XC skis , but we stayed on the lower parts of the mountain. My first visit to the summit was with Wilma in 2014 . Since then, I've climbed it a dozen more times. Sometimes solo, often with Wilma, once with Andy & Wilma, and once wit...

Where: Broadmoor Audubon sanctuary, Natick MA When: September 15, 2026 With: Jane After Moose Hill , I looked for other Audubon sanctuaries to visit. I've been meaning to go to Broadmoor for some time, and I convinced Jane come along. It was a perfect, blue sky day, and we joined a handful of other folks on the trails. Starting at the Nature Center, we followed the All Persons trail down to the marsh, then made our way across a couple of boardwalks to the Marsh trail. The path became a bit more rough, but not much, as it skirted the edge of Indian Brook. It ended at the Glacial Hill trail. We decided to go left there, then went a short distance to the Boundary trail, which we followed around its loop. That brought us back to the Glacial Hill trail, and we just retraced our steps back to the Nature Center. More photos here

Where: Moose Hill Audubon Wildlife Sanctuary (Sharon MA) When: September 8, 2026 With: Solo When I was commuting to work in Canton, driving north on Route 95, I'd notice this property on my navigation as I passed through Sharon. I promised myself that I'd visit it some day, and today was the day. I checked in at the visitor center when I arrived, presenting my Mass Audubon member card and asking for advice for a route to explore. "Point me to a trail," I said, "something with a hill." "A hill with a view?" was the reply. Of course. So a route was suggested and I was shown where to find the trail head. The property has a long history. It was Mass Audubon's first wildlife sanctuary, established in 1916 when biologist and Sharon resident George W. Field offered his property to use as a bird sanctuary. The adjacent Moose Hill Farm (managed by the Trustees of Reservations) reflects centuries of New England agricultural history, transitioning from h...

Where: Mt. Wachusett, Princeton MA When: August 12, 2026 With: Solo Another "I need some trail time" hike, which I combined with my "hike all the trails on Wachusett" (red lining) quest. I parked at the Visitor Center and headed north to the Donbrowo Trail, which ran up to the ski slope base area, where I made my way along the base area buildings and parking lot to the head of the Balance Rock Trail. At that point I found my trip tracking on OSM+ wasn't working (I'd neglected to upload map info when I got my new phone). I switched to Gaia, just to be sure I was on the right trail, then didn't use it for the rest of the hike. In fairly short order I looked up to see Balance Rock on the trail just ahead. I got up to it and turned on to the Old Indian Trail. Up until that point I'd been walking on new trails (for me), but now I was on paths I'd traveled before. My first hike, coming up on the Bolton Pond Trail , had followed the Old Indian Trail to ...

Where: Mt. Cardigan, NH When: July 1, 2026 With: Chip On-line comments about the Holt Trail: The Holt Trail to Mt Cardigan's peak is considered one of the most difficult and dangerous hikes in New Hampshire The short but challenging Holt Trail hike up Mt. Cardigan can be harrowing in good weather and down-right dangerous in poor conditions. Tackling Mount Cardigan via the Holt Trail, a 4.7-mile loop with steep rock scrambles, is one of New England's toughest hikes I've never been so scared hiking until I met Cardigan's Holt Trail With the 48 NH 4000 footers done , I've turned my attention to the lower peaks. Some new for me (bypassed in favor of the 4K summits) and some I've climbed before. Cardigan is one of the latter. I climbed it in the mid-1980s (1985?), taking advantage of a new car that allowed me to venture beyond the bounds of Boston. My recollections of the hike are very sketchy though. Even the date is a guess. A recent post on-line mentioned the pea...