“All these peaks are densely wooded, and therefore are of no interest to tourists as points to visit.” - Osgood’s White Mountains (c.1876), on the Mount Kineo area.

Driving away from bushwhacking the 3,221’ summit of Mount Cushman two days ago felt as if a door remained open in my thoughts - a project which had yet to see completion. I had put down snowshoe tracks from FR 211 to just about the height-of-land in the Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest and with my original plan of Mount Kineo just another bushwhack away, why not use my tracks for easier winter access before the next heap of snow rolled in? Sounded like a solid plan to me.

Back at my hidden parking spot off NH 118, snowshoes were strapped to mountaineering boots and at 7:00am precisely, I began back down the now familiar FR 211. Surprisingly, the initial walk to the snowmobile path had seen some traffic, I pondered what the chances were that the creators continued down Hubbard Brook Trail, perhaps they jumped on my track for a winter ascent of Mount Cushman.

Alas, the tracks seemed to continue down the snowmobile path and at 0.5-miles into my adventure, I was on my own again - just me, a bear bell, and my two-day old snowshoe tracks. The morning sun shined bright as it cast low rays down the corridor of the Hubbard Brook Trail, inviting me to trek to new places, further still from the beaten path.

On a paper map I had planned the location where I wanted to veer off to begin following the ridge; hoping to traverse along the southern side of the long, gradual northern ridge, perhaps I would luck out and catch some of that enjoyable and quick-going hardwood forest again.

Spoiler alert: if the line I ascended up Mt Cushman contained 82% hardwood, today’s ridgeline up to the highpoint of Mt Kineo contained at most 2%. I saw a beech tree once or twice; upon taking the first step off flat ground it was all spruce, fir and birch - varying stages of beautiful boreal forest.

*Ascending alongside the open rocks to gain the ridgeline*

Passing the original location of where I assumed would make the most sense to diverge from packed trail toward ridgeline spine, I watched the rocky northeast side of ridge to my right grow taller and craggier with each step forward. I hoped to get further down my packed path before slowing to a crawl, swimming through deep powder and maybe spruce traps along the ridge.

Deciding I could postpone no longer, I left my familiar Hubbard Brook Trail and began kicking snowshoe steps up-slope alongside an open rocky face; I had lucked out on Mt Cushman with minimal spruce traps but over on this side of the ‘notch’ I was sinking with every step, certainly got my work out climbing this hillside!

Just before my bushwhack opened up to easier spruce and fir forest I hit the thickest, steepest patch of young fir and spruce I may have ever trudged through; during these times I try to remind myself that, if I just keep moving forward, the current situation cannot last forever - right? Laughter seems to help a lot as well.

Making my way up the steep pathless hillside I began running into fresh moose tracks, this would become a trend for basically the remainder of the ‘whack - I now knew why I never saw a single set of moose tracks on Mt Cushman two days ago, they were all over here romping around the northern ridge of Mt Kineo.

That agonizing thick patch came through will full reward, though, as I nearly could not believe my eyes - a gully atop the low ridge with incredibly open conifer forest, now I could make up some of that time spent floundering in waist-deep spruce.

While I am not certain the average sane hiker would ever choose this route when they could just take the Mount Kineo Trail and bushwhack northwesterly from the height-of-land, this really was a fun and beautiful ridge to climb on snowshoes, lots of open glades, incredibly interesting and distant views down the ridge.

The northern ridgeline, on a topographic map, doesn’t appear to roll as much as it does in person; the periodic descent made for a well needed reprieve while climbing steep and deep powder, allowing for gravity to do some of the work before hitting the next incline.

If I were to have run away as a child as I so often daydreamt of, I think this is the kind of forest I would seek out; desolate, quiet, lots of craggy rocks to sit upon, probably covered in a moss-carpet dotted with colorful mushroom tops in warm weather; it really felt like a magical place, it’s awfully nice to still find that in the White Mountains, a quiet corner of the forest to just be.

While climbing, the tree cover grew tight in sections, necessitating a narrow weave through the pencil-thin spruce and fir; in other places the forest contained massive conifers and occasionally a fine blend of both large and small.

During this ridgeway ascent of Mount Kineo I walked atop four fresh moose beds (hair + scat included), their tracks meandered all over. Each time passing over sunken hoof prints I observed their direction, trying to trek in the opposite, they were all over the place though. They could have been anywhere up there watching this bright orange pack-wearing stranger, romping through with a raucous - I secretly hoped they were all down at Three Ponds taking in some morning water or finding breakfast - anywhere but here.

The final summit cone climb was another steep one, thankfully the airy conifer canopy had allowed sunlight in over the past few days to firm up the powder a bit, kicking in steps was a joy at 3,100’.

Once crested over the hill, there was a very welcoming easterly view out toward Sandwich Mountain (3,960’); I actually thought I had just a bit left to ascend (accustomed to the ever rolling ridgeline, I suppose), but couldn’t keep the brief celebratory choice of words within when I saw the backside of the sign and canister. That was a damn good climb.

At 9:38am, I signed into the summit register, a mere two minutes later than atop Mt Cushman, two days prior. Atop the snowpack I searched for views in other directions, hues of blue, grey and purple suggested unending mountain layers out beyond the tree line but I wouldn’t find a clear sight until further down for a unique angle of Moosilauke’s South Peak and into Gorge Brook Ravine.

Descending, following my own snowshoe track was my reward for hauling this body through deep snow, now it was (mostly) downhill; coasting and glissading through sometimes knee-deep powder, I covered multiple uphill steps with each down while bending and weaving through spruce and fir branches.

The Friday blue skies brought out lots of snowmobilers, to which I stepped off their path and let pass, each throwing their own flavor of a wave and leaving a cloud of 4-stroke exhaust that I would rather do without while in nature, but it was short-lived and tolerable for the 0.3-miles before they continued left along Three Ponds Trail and I sped off on FR 211, to the right, toward my car waiting for me in the mid-morning sunshine.

Noticing that, for these two days of roaming and bushwhacking to peaks in the Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest, I used only my snowshoe tracks for both excursions; a great sense of accomplishment to place the tracks which helped make the Mt Kineo attempt a bit undemanding for the first 1.2-miles.

I had a lot of fun with this one; Cushman & Kineo had such contrasting forests; the hardwood stands on Mt Cushman let me bask in views for a majority of the ascent while Mt Kineo’s northern ridge gave a sense of being serenely engulfed by evergreen; whichever forest-scape a hiker finds themself, the mountains here have a way of making everything okay.

Overall stats for the day:
7.0-miles
4hr 28 minutes
2,628’ elevation gain

Mount Kineo - 3,313’

Mount Kineo

Big Bickford + Scarface Mtns

Scar Ridge