Men's Retreat - Mt Cardigan

Last weekend I was up in New Hampshire at our church's annual Men's retreat. During the Saturday free time I had the chance to go hiking. At lunch time someone at my table mentioned hiking and I inquired about where they were going. After some discussion they decided on Mt. Cardigan and the Holt trail.



I hike a lot with the family, but we've never been on a trail like this. These trails are part of the Appalachian trail system and maintained by the Appalachian Mountain Club. Two of the guys had been on this trail many times and knew their way around. The fall colors were almost at peak and really made the hike worth it. The weather on the other hand was awful. Rainy and windy and not friendly to hikers, and I did not have any rain gear. I packed cotton mostly not expecting such a hike. Here's some snow alongside the trail.



The trail started flat and easy.




But it wasn't long before i was able to experience that these eastern US trails prefer to go straight up instead of switchbacks to climb in elevation.




The rainy conditions added a degree of difficulty so we were slow and did not make it to the summit in the short time we had. But I must say I really did enjoy the hike. Rarely do I get to do something like this. I'll have to look for more trails like this when we get to Italy.

We did eventually make it to a clearing but the clouds and my iPhone camera don't do the scene justice.


I also had a great time at the retreat but I'll have to talk about that later.

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