Day hiking on Welch & Dickey Mountains

This day hike started at the parking lot for the Welch-Dickey Loop Trail off of Orris Road in Thornton, New Hampshire. We did the hike counter-clockwise and from the parking lot we took the Welch-Dickey Loop Trail fist to the the summit of Welch Mountain and then to the summit of Dickey Mountain. From Dickey we continued down the loop trail along the ridge on the southwest side of the mountain back to the parking area.

Parking area - 1,040' Welch Mountain - 2.1 miles - 2,605' Dickey Mountain - 2.4 miles - 2,734' Parking area - 4.3 miles - 1,040' Total elevation change - 1,694' Trail map - 1,000 x 1,294 - 435K Trail map - 600 x 776 - 205K

This was another warm up hike for the upcoming Grand Canyon backpacking trip at the end of April. I was accompanied by my hiking buddy Pam on this one and the choice of the hike was actually her idea. She had gone with me on another Grand Canyon backpacking trip the previous year and would also be joing me on the one coming up.

This hike started at the parking area for the Welch-Dickey Loop Trail in Thornton. We got a very late start for this one but it was a short hike and that was not a problem. There was no snow at the bottom of the mountain but we were expecting some higher up. We didn't figure it would be a lot though so we didn't both bringing snowshoes.

600 x 450   1024 x 768 Pam at the trailhead 600 x 450   1024 x 768 An ice free brook! 600 x 450   1024 x 768 An ice free brook! 600 x 450   1024 x 768 Well, maybe a little ice

The lower part of the hike was easy and snow free climbing at a moderate grade up to the ledges below the summit of Welch Mountain. The ledges were the first place that we encountered snow and this was spotty and not very deep in most place. There were a couple of places where it was a little deeper but it did not take long to cross any of these sections and get back to bade rock. Some of the ledges climbing up towards the summit are very steep and it's definitely not someplace where you would want to slip as you could be in for a very long tumble before anything would stop you.

600 x 450   1024 x 768 Slickrock terrace below Mount Welch 600 x 450   1024 x 768 Southern ridge of Dickey Mountain 600 x 450   1024 x 768 Pam, slickrock cliff 600 x 450   1024 x 768 Slickrock cliff, view to the south and west 600 x 450   1024 x 768 Slickrock cliff, view to the east 600 x 450   1024 x 768 Mount Tripyramid 600 x 450   1024 x 768 Pam, Welch Mountain summit

It took about anouther hour of climbing on the ledges to get to the summit of Welch Mountain and the views from the ledges were outstanding. We had a beautiful early spring day for this hike and it was nice and sunny with a deep blue sky and not too cold with hardly any wind.

600 x 450   1024 x 768 Whaleback Mount ski area, Killington Mountain (Vermont) in the distance 600 x 450   1024 x 768 Pam 600 x 450   1024 x 768 Bob 600 x 450   1024 x 768 Pam coming up one of the many steep ledges 600 x 450   1024 x 768 Ledge and slickrock terrace below 600 x 450   1024 x 768 Icicles 600 x 450   1024 x 768 Icicles 600 x 450   1024 x 768 Icicles 600 x 450   1024 x 768 Pam, notch between the rocks 600 x 450   1024 x 768 Snowy slope near the summit of Welch Mountain 600 x 450   1024 x 768 Some snow near the summit of Welch Mountain 600 x 450   1024 x 768 Pam, some snow near the summit of Welch Mountain

We took a short break on top of Welch Mountin to eaat our lunches before continuing on to Dickey Mountain. It was nice to be able to enjoy a peanut butter and jelly sandwhich again without worrying about the jelly freezing solid during the hike up. The views from the top of Welch Mountain were fantastic.

600 x 450   1024 x 768 Dickey Mountain, Mount Moosilauke in the distance 600 x 450   1024 x 768 Mount Moosilauke 600 x 450   1024 x 768 Pam, lunch break 600 x 450   1024 x 768 Mighty Moose 600 x 450   1024 x 768 Pam & Bob

There was a downclimb of about a hundred feet or so coming off of Welch Mountain before we started climbing Mount Dickey and in this space between the peaks was where we encountered the most snow. It still was not a lot and was only a small patch but it was the deepest patch. There was also quite a bit of snow on top of Dickey Mountain in many large patches but this was not very deep.

600 x 450   1024 x 768 Cairn between the summits 600 x 450   1024 x 768 Welch Mountain 600 x 450   1024 x 768 Welch Mountain, Pam 600 x 450   1024 x 768 Welch Mountain 600 x 450   1024 x 768 Cairn, ledge 600 x 450   1024 x 768 Snow 600 x 450   1024 x 768 Franconia Notch & ridge to the north 600 x 450   1024 x 768 Franconia Ridge, Mounts Lincoln & Lafayette 600 x 450   1024 x 768 Bob & Pam 600 x 450   1024 x 768 Mighy Moose

We didn't spend much time on top of Dickey Mountain at all before starting down. We just wandered around on the summit a bit and took some photos.

On the way down we encountered some animal tracks in the snow that were very large a we suspected they were from a bear.

The descent went fast as there was hardly any snow on the ridge descending from Dickey Mountain and very shortly we were back in the snow free zone. We did pass a spectacular ice flow.

600 x 450   1024 x 768 Welch Mountain 600 x 450   1024 x 768 Animal track, bear? 600 x 450   1024 x 768 Ledges descending from Dickey Mountain 600 x 450   1024 x 768 Animal tracks, bear? 600 x 450   1024 x 768 Animal tracks, bear? 600 x 450   1024 x 768 Ledges descending from Dickey Mountain 600 x 450   1024 x 768 Ledges, ridge, Dickey Mountain 600 x 450   1024 x 768 Ledges, ridge, Dickey Mountain, Pam 600 x 450   1024 x 768 Icicles 600 x 450   1024 x 768 Ice flows 600 x 450   1024 x 768 Ice flows 600 x 450   1024 x 768 Pam, ice flows

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