After the what felt like never ending snowfall Lindsey and I and of course all the dogs hiked Piper Mt in the Belknap Range in Gilford.  Someone had already broken the trail out which was great.  I have hiked Piper a few times in the past and have completed the Belknap Range.   It is a nice hike that leads to an open rocky top with good views.  To get to the top of Piper you have to park on Carriage Rd and walk to the trail head during off season.  The trail you take to the top is Piper Mtn Trail, round trip it is about 3 miles.  The trail climbs slowly with a few steep pitches.  The snow was very deep off trail and Reba thought it was great to chase after squirrels into the deep snow.  Benson the Bassett Hound attempted to follow but quickly realized it was not a good idea since he was sinking up to his ears in the snow.  The top of Piper was rather windy and we had it all to ourselves.  There are many cairns at the top but not many visible with all the drifted snow, but the rock chair was snow free.  To get to real top of Piper you have to hike a little further till you get to a large cairn that marks the highest point of the mountain.  It was another great hike and more amazing pictures from Lindsey!

On Sunday I had originally planned to hike Owl’s Head which is a 4000 footer that I need to complete the list.  But scheduling problems with the others in the hiking group and weather made us change our plans.  So Beth and I choose to hike Mount Tecumseh in Waterville Valley.  It is a 4000 footer that we have both hiked during the summer but hadn’t hiked it in the winter.  It was cold so I did not bring Reba with me on this hike.  The trail we took was the Mt Tecumseh Trail which starts in the parking lot of the ski area.  The trail was still soft from all the snow and the snow that was falling on us so we used snowshoes the whole hike.  It is a short hike but a steep hike up to the top.  This trail is also popular with backcountry skiers who skin up it and ski down the ski trails and we ran into a few along the way.  The total mileage for the hike is around 5 miles and it took us 2.5 hours to complete it.  It was much faster to hike in the winter since the snow covered up the long stretch of stone stairs that are found on this trail.  No few at the top this time but it was Gumby’s first time up!