NH 25A - Nobo 1776

This post is from June 8, 2014.   The GPS tracking of this hike can be found at:

https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/798455618 

Did 16 miles today and summited Smarts Mountain and Mt. Cube.  It was raining fairly hard the first half of the day which made the Smarts Mt. ascent unpleasant.  Helen had dropped me off at AT mile 1760.7  at 10am (we had spent the night at our Loon Mt. ski condo) and we had agreed that she would meet me on the Rte. 25B trailhead 16 AT miles later at 5pm.  The summits of both Smarts Mt. and Mt. Cube consist of huge expanses of smooth ledge.  In particular, Mt. Cube was the most polished stone I have ever seen outside a jewelry shop.  This made the extensive climbing over these rocks very fall-prone so I had to go quite slowly over those sections.  The skies cleared somewhat between Smarts and Cube but the rocks were still wet as I went over Mt. Cube and I had my 2 slowest miles of the day (34 minutes/mile) going over the top of Cube.  I made it to our rendezvous at 4:50 just as Helen was pulling in 10 minutes early!