Change Peak w/Derek and Mark 4/16/2016

Derek and I planned to meet Mark Garrett at the eastern-most Exit 38 parking lot at 7:30 and that is about what happened.  At the same time, three hikers parked nearby and asked us directions to Hall Point.

We were planning to hike right by Hall Point and I started to explain the route, but it does get complicated so we decided to join up for at least part of the journey.  They were three very nice guys and perhaps we will meet up again sometime.

Mark is second from the left.

We wound up going up the Change Creek trail, bushwhacking across an area with a pond (there is a trail but the blow downs and snow obscured it), up to the Great Wall trail and from there to Change Peak.

Derek and I went back down Great Wall to Mt. Washington trail because Derek’s knee started to complain.

Mark went on, going further south on the Great Wall and ultimately to Greenway Mountain and then back on Mt.  Washington.  When he posts his trip report on WTA.org I will update this post and link to his report.

Derek and I did over 4K elevation and 12.5 miles, Mark has to have beaten that by at least 5 or 6 miles and 3K elevation.  Great job!

On the way down we ran into a series of tracks we could not identify.  Not big enough to be a bear, didn’t look like a Coyote, Derek thought it might be a bobcat or smaller cougar.

Here is a link to a Garmin Adventure visualization of our hike:

http://adventures.garmin.com/en-US/by/djhiker/change-peak-via-change-creek-trail/#.VxORkZXlsbw

Bottom line is that we had a great time (pending diagnosis of Derek’s knee) and it was wonderful to actually do a real hike after months of poking around at the edges.  Weather is improving, there should be a ton of great hikes coming up.

UPDATE 4/18: Mark’s trip report.  Long day for Mark, epic hike:

http://www.wta.org/go-hiking/trip-reports/trip_report.2016-04-17.6257045919