Echo Lake

Submitted by Pat

Stats
Date: February 1, 2019
Miles: 4.3 redline miles, 6.3 total miles
Elevation Gain: 1,355
Time: 6 hours
Trails: Echo Lake Trail — Bryce Path — White Horse Ledge Trail

Nancy and I haven’t hiked in a couple of weeks when we decide to redline a few trails in Echo Lake State Park. It’s a gorgeous, bluebird day, with temps in the low teens, light wind, and perfect snow conditions. We meet at the Village Kitchen in Moultonborough for breakfast. As I’m looking for my gaiters, I realize I’ve forgotten the bag that has all my last-minute gear: gaiters, extra gloves, extra fleece and poles. I suggest we buzz over to my house where we change into hiking clothes, pick up my gear, and drive to a parking area outside the main gate.

We hit the trail at 9:00 am and begin snowshoeing on packed trail toward the edge of the lake. Views of the White Horse and Cathedral Ledges are spectacular, big steep cliffs jutting out of the earth on the far edge of Echo Lake. We continue around the lake toward the right until we hit the junction of Bryce Path and White Horse Ledge Trail. We continue right on Bryce Path toward Cathedral Ledge and encounter a steep climb leading up to the top of the ledges. I know by the contour lines on the map that it’s going to be a steep pitch, but I don’t realize how challenging the climb is really going to be.

Nancy is leading on trail that is mostly broken out but still covered with 6-8” of unconsolidated snow. We labor, breathing hard, and jam our snowshoes into the crust, pushing up to the next step, often sliding back down, gaining nothing. Still, around me, when I stop to catch my breath, is a beautiful wood, clear blue sky, and cold, crisp air. How lucky am I? Then back to it.

Eventually we reach a section of the trail where I can’t find purchase with my snowshoes, even off the side of the trail where there’s less ice. I decide to put on my spikes, wishing I had brought crampons. I’m standing on a steep section of trail so taking off my snowshoe and putting on my microspikes is an exercise in patience and balance. I’m frustrated and beginning to feel anxious. Nancy states that it will be difficult, if not dangerous, to come back down this way. I tell her that if we get up this ascent, the descent on the White Horse Ledge Trail will be much easier.

Once we have our spikes on, we start climbing again with Nancy in the lead. It’s still difficult to climb, but no longer impossible. We reach an area of trail that is blue ice covered in a thin layer of snow and Nancy feels she has reached an impasse. She is anxious and frightened and going back down isn’t a good choice.

When I finally reach her, we talk about the possible ways of getting up past the ice – I try a sketchy traverse across the trail looks possible but the microspikes won’t hold on the ice. There’s also an area to the right where it looks like someone has tried to get up but deserted the effort. I suggest that Nancy come back down to a tree where she can find some purchase and rest. I offer to give it a try.

I start up the right side, pushing snow away and clearing the area down to the crust or to bare rock. I slowly and methodically create my own footing and make it up the rocks. Eventually I reconnect with the trail and crawl to safety on all fours. Phew! Safe – it feels so good to be up, knowing that Nancy can make it up if she’s focused and moves slowly.

A hiker on snowshoes appears below us as Nancy begins climbing. I think his presence pushes her to climb faster than I like. She is feeling anxious about holding him up. Still, she slowly moves upward to a point where I can grab the top of her pack and steady the last few steps of the climb.

We step off the trail so he can get up and pass us. We’re out of breath and need a few minutes to lower our stress before changing back into snowshoes and continuing the hike. I think we have finished climbing, but we haven’t, although the trail is much less steep and snowshoes with televators under our heels work perfectly. The guy ahead of us breaks trail up to Cathedral ledge. We come up behind him, first on relatively flat terrain, then some steeper climbing up to the Cathedral Ledge lookout.

Pretty view of Conway, Cranmore Ski Area, and points east, south and north. It’s cold so we don’t stay long and head back down, sliding some steep portions of the trail on our butts. My legs are tired. We both expend a huge amount of energy on the steep climb we did earlier.

We reach the intersection of Bryce Path and the White Horse Ledge Trail and find that a barebooter has made post holes up the White Horse Ledge Trail. We follow and try to repair the damage as much as possible with our snowshoes. More climbing on legs that are getting very tired. At the first viewpoint, the barebooter turned around and we break trail for the rest of the day.

The snow is soft and some of the areas on the ledges are icy and difficult to get up. More views. Signs of active deer life up there are prolific. Deer paths, scat and sleeping parlors are everywhere. Some tracks and scat look new, but we don’t see any deer. We follow the trail in and out of the woods, changing leads every so often until we reach the Red Link Trail, a .4 section of trail that leads up to the Moat Mountain Trail that we need for redlining. We still have 2.3 miles to get back to the car. I don’t have it in me to add another .8 to our day so we’ll get this trail another day.

We hike through a sparse, hardwood forest. The sunlight feels warm and the descent is gradual. As we come around the edge of the cliffs, the trail becomes steeper for a while. We wind our way through a boulder field as we descend. We finally see Echo Lake to our right. Onward.

With the ledges blocking the sun, we descend into a darker and colder snow world. Toward the end of the trail, we lose the blazes and continue through deep snow until we reach the intersection with the Bryce Path. We continue hiking on perfectly broken out trail until we reach the junction of the trail that goes around the shore of Echo Lake. I figure I have enough in me to complete the flat circumnavigation of the lake and we head off. The end of the trail and the sight of my car is an ecstatic moment. My hands are very cold and become colder as we take off snowshoes and load the car. We drive to the MacDonalds in Ossipee to change. While I’m in the restroom, I notice that the tips of my fingers are white and numb. Wow! I Google it when I get home. Raynaud’s syndrome. Caused by stress or cold temperatures. I experience both at some point during the day. Strange end to a gorgeous day. We certainly got our exercise.