September 11, 2013 dawned hazy and clear, much as it had back in 2001. Fortunately we were headed for a hike up the Osceolas, not watching the destruction in New York City on television as I had done twelve years earlier. Margot, Hunter, and I, joined by Grannies Barbara Duncan, Steve Flanders, and Lili set out at a moderate pace on the Mt. Osceola Trail after driving up a pot-holed Tripoli Road from Waterville Valley. Apparently the Forest Service has been unable to maintain all of their paved forest roads as well as one might expect, perhaps due to a reduced federal budget this year.
As we climbed the trail over the very rocky footpath, we noted that the temperature and humidity were both rather high for mid-September, although not as high as predicted for the valleys and southern parts of New Hampshire. We arrived at the summit of Osceola in good time, only to find Hunter nowhere in sight. Several other hikers were eating lunch at the large, open ledge east of the true summit and said that a dog fitting Hunter’s description had wandered by a few minutes earlier. After about five minutes of calling and whistling, Hunter appeared from one of the short side trails eager to join us for lunch. So much for my concern that he might have either slipped off a ledge or continued on the trail to East Osceola!
After a quick lunch, Steve, the dogs, and I hid our packs in the woods and set out for East Osceola, while the ladies lolled on the summit for awhile before beginning a leisurely return to the trailhead. The trail to East Osceola is only a mile, but it descends a steep chimney just before reaching the col between Osceola and East Osceola. I had forgotten that a less difficult route could be found to the north of the chimney, so Steve and I lowered ourselves down this almost vertical rock ledge and, seeing neither Hunter nor Lili, wondered if they were still up above the ledge. On a hunch that they might have found the other route down(that I now remembered we could have taken), Steve started up the trail toward East Osceola and found Hunter lying in a mud puddle with Lili waiting patiently for us to continue our hike. We should pay more attention to our dogs, I guess!
Soon we reached the wooded summit of East Osceola and quickly began our return back over Osceola. We had little trouble climbing around the steep chimney as we began our ascent up Osceola from the col, noting that even though steep and rocky, this was certainly the way the dogs had gotten down on our way over to East Osceola. Retrieving our packs at the summit of Osceola, we hurried down the trail to see if we could catch the ladies before they reached the trailhead. Unfortunately the Mt. Osceola Trail has numerous angled rock slabs on its upper part and very rocky footing on the last mile, making a rapid descent extremely difficult. I did slip and fall once as we made our way to the end of the trail, but only scraped one ankle in the process. We never did catch up with Margot and Barbara who insisted they had not been down more than about 15 minutes before we reached the trailhead. As we stopped for ice cream in Plymouth, we found the temperature to be 92 degrees and agreed it was a good day to be up on the much cooler peaks than down in the hot valley.
I believe the lower part of the Mt. Osceola Trail could be greatly improved by removing some of the rocks in the center of the footpath. Many of these rocks are not very large and an experienced trail crew would probably be able to move them without much difficulty. This would have been a “piece of cake” for J. Rayner Edmands and his crew back in the 19th Century!
