Hiking for Beginners - 8 Tips to a safe and awesome hike

Earlier in the summer, I wrote a guest post for my friend Hilary over at Next Stop Adventure.  I shared five hiking tips for beginner hikers, offering some sound advice for anyone looking to spend more time on trails that are dirt.  After I wrote the post, and spent more time hiking on different types of trails, I had a few extra tips that I wanted to share.  So, welcome to the revised and updated post on hiking tips, building off the list I wrote for Hilary.  

Life in Utah reinforced my love for the outdoors and I spent a lot of time hiking.  When I moved back East, I was excited to explore New England and Northeast hiking.  In September alone, I climbed three of New Englands tallest peaks, Bear Mountain, Mount Greylock and Mount Washington.  And this weekend, I am heading to Vermont to tackle Vermont's tallest peak and get in some prime leaf peeping. 

Hog River Brewing- Hartford, Connecticut

Next stop on the Connecticut Brewery tour was in Connecticut's capital city, Hartford.  Hog River Brewing is located in the Parkville neighborhood, a trendy little area that made you kind of think "Hartford isn't so bad after-all".  This section seems to be an up and coming neighborhood that was once industrial and is being converted to a commercial space with cute storefronts, restaurants and now a brewery.   The quick and dirty of this brewery is a historic rubber factory turned beer making, shiny brewing tanks and 20' machine presses sitting in this lofty industrial building.  The guy behind the beer left his 9-5 to brew full time, working his way up the ranks to create Hog River.  He has a variety of styles and overall decent beer in an awesome space.  Bring your own food or enjoy the ndifferent food trucks that park right outside on the weekend.  Read on to learn more about one of Hartford's new breweries. 

Mount Washington, New Hampshire

My third-weekend hike here in New England was the best one yet. It is the ultimate prize of New England hiking if you will. We climbed the highest peak in the Presidential Range and in all of New England.  I may have left Utah but we have an ultra prominent peak right here in the northeast corner of New Hampshire.

 

Yep, it's the famous and challenging Mt Washington, with its sweeping views of New Hampshire.   The famous bumper sticker will not be fastened to my car because we got to the summit the hard way (on foot!).  I have to say, this was the hardest and my favorite New England hike to date and it reminded me a lot of Utah-prominent, steep and with a challenging summit of boulder hopping. This post started as a hiking guide and then it kind of evolved into an overall guide of the mountain, with where to camp, how to get to the summit, and details on my hike to the top. 
Enjoy 

The summit of Mt Washington is known as the "most dangerous small mountain in the world".  If you are scratching your head trying to figure out why (because it's just New Hampshire, right?), grab a coffee and let's have a quick chat about the peak, the weather and its proximity to the public. 

Tidal River Brewing- Canton, CT

When I moved back to Connecticut I was amazed to see how many breweries had popped up all over the state. So much so that I put together a list of all the breweries and made tentative plans to visit as many as I could.  

Let me start by saying that I am not one of those girls that shies around beer and prefers a glass of wine or a fruity drink.  And I am definitely not the person who orders a Bud-lite or a Corona.  I love beer and love trying new flavors and styles (especially small scale local breweries).  My favorite beers are typically a good spiced Saison, or the citrusy bite of a west coast IPA.  I like my beers with a whole lot of funk and flavor and I love a good IPA, as long as it's not "too hoppy".  

I figured this would be the perfect winter activity, sample some of Connecticut's finest beer dressed up in my favorite sweater while the weather was crummy. Well, I started a little early on my brewery tour and after hiking Bear Mountain, I stopped at one of Connecticut's newest; Tidal River Brewing Company in Canton, Connecticut. 

First Impressions:  Awesome owner/founder running the place with a passion for beer. The beer ranged from easy to drink ales to crazy basil and chile beer. Tidal River beers are as fun and funky as their names. The spot is a low-key, unassuming place with small scale production (just a tasting room, no formal tap room... yet). It is in a commercial space with a main tasting bar and a table or two (they are not large enough to accommodate large parties). They are technically a "nano-brewery" and their license does not allow the sale of pints or flights. They are more than happy to provide samples of their beer on tap and they can fill growlers for you to take home.

Sampling beer at Tidal River Brewing in Canton, CT

Hiking Mt. Greylock - Massachusetts' tallest peak

On a whim, I decided to make September "Hike all the New England Peaks Month". When the temperatures started to drop and the bugs were gone, I headed to the mountains. Hiking hiatus is over. The first weekend of September brought my first New England hike to Connecticut's tallest mountain summit, Bear Mountain at 2,323'. The second hike (why you are here today) is to the summit of Mt. Greylock, Massachusetts's tallest peak at 3,491'. And this weekend, it was the grand slam, up to Mt. Washington, New Hampshire's tallest peak. The only three peaks remaining are Vermont and Maine, oh and the hill in Rhode Island. 

But back to Massachusetts.

Farm at the Hopper Road Trailhead 

We really enjoyed this hike. It was a great loop hike around the mountain starting at an old farm. The materials (directions, maps, etc) available for the hike were great, online and at the trailhead. The trail had a lot of signage, but there were a lot of different trails weaving throughout the forest (pay attention to trail signs).

This was a great way to hike a portion of the AT, see a few waterfalls, hike along a river, stop at a few summits, and stop at the main summit. I loved the scenic overlook at Stone Ledge Vista. The hike was steep in parts and humid, but overall the elevation was spread out well over the distance. We had a great lunch at the summit and refilled our water, although we had absolutely no views with the clouds and fog. We continued on the loop hike but by mile 11 we were a little over the hike and ready to be done. The last two miles down Haley Farm Trail were steep, and felt like they took forever. Overall, the trail was beautiful and we were glad to bag another peak, the highest in MA.