Noon Peak, Jennings Peak, and Sandwich Dome

This Saturday provided another opportunity for Sarah and me to head to the White Mountains of New Hampshire for a hike.  After much deliberation on my part, I chose Sandwich Mountain in the Waterville Valley area to be our destination for the day.  Sandwich Mountain, also referred to as Sandwich Dome, is not on the NH 4k list (peaks over 4,000 feet in elevation), but at 3,993 feet it is darn close.  Regardless of its height, it’s a beautiful mountain with a great approach, certainly worth a climb.

Sarah and I were on the trail by 11:45.  For what seemed like the first time in a while, we were blessed with cloudless skies and very little wind.  Temps were cool, but the sun helped make us comfortable.  The trail started climbing almost immediately.  Grades were moderate at first, but there were a few very steep pitches.  After about an hour of hiking we reached the first lookout, the 2,976 ft Noon Peak.  Views from here were great, especially those of the three peaks of Mount Tripyramid, as well as Mount Washington and the Presidential Range.  After I took my fill of pictures we continued on our way.

The trail descended a bit after leaving Noon Peak before soon resuming a steady climb.  Eventually we reached the very steep 0.2 mile spur trail to Jennings Peak, the second major view point on the hike.  From here we had a great view of Sandwich Dome itself.  There were also extensive views to the west, all the way to Vermont.  After we had a brief snack and some water (and I again took more pictures than necessary), we left Jennings Peak to make our way to Sandwich Dome.

Once back on the main trail, we began the climb to Sandwich.  This part of the hike wasn’t overly steep, but at this point in the day our legs were quite fatigued and every step hurt.  Finally we reached the summit.  The views from here were similar to those from Noon Peak, only more impressive.  In addition to everything we saw before, we now had a clear view of Franconia Ridge.  We stopped here to have our lunch.  For the first time, we brought along our Jetboil stove to make hot chocolate, using it to melt snow and boil the water.  Unfortunately, we lost most of the hot chocolate because it boiled over, but what we had was a nice treat.

When we had had enough and started to get cold, we packed up our “summit camp” and started our long walk back to the trailhead.  We made only one prolonged stop, and that was at noon peak to take some pictures in the late afternoon light.  The light at this time of day gave everything a reddish tint and was really quite beautiful.  We arrived back at the car shortly after sunset, completing the 8.2 mile hike in just over 5 hours (pictures from the hike are here.  Also, and I just recently discovered this myself, if you click on any picture on this page, you will see a full screen version).  Our post-hike beer (and this time dinner as well) was provided by the Mad River Tavern in Campton, NH.  From there, we headed home, and were back in Newton in less than 2 hours.  This pleased us greatly, as we love knowing that there is such great hiking so close to us here in Boston.