One of my best Christmas presents this year was an awesome pair of snowshoes that I got from my wonderful girlfriend. Eager to get out and use them, last weekend a few of us went up to New Hampshire’s Franconia Notch State Park for a day of trekking through the snow. Earlier this summer, Gemma and I had explored The Flume Gorge, an 800-foot miniature canyon at the base of Mount Liberty. The place was absolutely amazing, and we vowed to head back there in the winter.

During the summer, the Flume has a fully staffed and very crowded visitors’ center which acts as a (for-pay) gateway to the park. But with the advent of winter, the center closes down and the land is free to use. Though the parking lots are plowed, the paths up to the visitors’ center are not, and once up to the front, you’ll need to hop over a stone wall and walk around the building to get to the trailhead. This sounds sketchy but trust me it’s 100% within the rules, I know because I emailed the park staff before we went up there

After putting our ’shoes on at the trailhead behind the building, we headed down the trail and across a covered bridge which leads to the beginning of the gorge. In the summer, a series of boardwalks takes you through the gorge, but these are pulled away when the Flume closes for winter. There are some permanent boardwalks on either end of the gorge, though, and we were able to walk down these a little ways so we could take in the incredible sight of the ice-covered gorge walls and the pristine beauty of Avalanche Falls.

After experiencing the gorge, we continued following the trail towards The Pool, a small body of water surrounded by near 100-foot rock cliffs. Spanning the northern end of The Pool is Sentinel Pine bridge, another covered bridge that was built on the trunk of a giant fallen pine tree. After The Pool, the trail then heads back towards the visitors’ center though a series of enormous glacial boulders.

At just under three miles, this trip was neither too short nor too long. Whether you are brand new to snowshoeing or you are an experienced veteran, I highly recommend checking out The Flume in the winter time. You will not be disappointed! For more pictures, check out my full photo gallery on Flickr.

Late fall is a great time for hiking — the air is crisp and clear, there are no bugs, it’s not oppressively cold, the views are fantastic and it’s a great extra challenge. A couple weekends ago, we went up the New Hampshire and hiked up Mt. Tecumseh, which at 4003 feet is the lowest mountain on the list. Don’t let that fool you, though: Tecumseh is no joke. It’s one of those mountains that starts off nice and steady but rises steeply for about a mile up to the summit. At just over 5 miles round trip, it was great hike to kick off the winter season.

Check out the hike page and the photo gallery for more info.

After hitting up Tecumseh, me and G headed up to Maine for a weekend in Camden along the Maine coast. While we were up there we hiked up the highest peak in Camden Hills State Park, Mt. Megunticook. It was a wonderful hike and we got some incredible weather.

Photo gallery is here.

Yesterday we decided to take advantage of the late August weather and walk up two of the three highest peaks in the White Mountains. Starting at the highest trailhead in the Whites, Caps Ridge Trail, we made our way across the Ridge of the Caps and up to the summit of Mt. Jefferson. This route takes you up 2700 feet in about 2.5 miles, with the majority of the climbing done in the last three quarters of a mile or so.

Summiting Jefferson via the Caps Ridge Trail is definitely a popular hike, but most of the time people loop around and come back after Jefferson. We thought it would be sweet to continue on to Mount Adams, which is just another two miles away from the summit. So continue we did and it really worked out because the the terrain and the views around Mount Adams are simply incredible.

For more info and pictures check out:

• Full photo gallery
• Mount Jefferson and Mt. Adams hike page

It just dawned on me that I never posted my two latest hiking trips to this page. They both were done over the July 4th weekend, day hikes amidst four days of camping in Twin Mountain, NH. We used those hikes to tie up a few loose ends: North Twin, which we missed during our Pemi Traverse, and Mount Cabot, which had defeated us earlier this year.

Above: The crew on the wooded summit of Mt. Cabot.

For more:

• North Twin hike
• Mount Cabot hike
• Picture gallery from the weekend