New Year's Day Tradition Continues

My friend, Mark and our sons, have a tradition of hiking on New Year’s Day for the past number for years and this year was no exception.  Normally we would have hiked Mt. Greylock in Mass. but the temps have been extremely cold this last week of December, with expected wind chills in the -25 to -30 degree ranges on Mt. Greylock, so this year we decided to hike another mountain and trail, one that Mark had not hiked before but an old friend of mine.  We hiked the Alander Mountain Trail in Mount Washington State Forest out to the summit of Alander Mountain.  It was a bright sunny day with the temp in the parking lot at -3*.  We began hiking at around 10am and made the summit just before noon.  The trail was broken but hadn’t been hiked in a few days.  We were able to bare boot the entire trip but were prepared with microspikes just in case. 

The way out was a steady climb through hardwood forest and we made pretty good time.  The cold wasn’t an issue as we had all dressed in layers and prepared.  We stopped briefly at the cabin just before the summit and had a snack and some water, but sitting still soon brought the cold on and before we got really cold we moved on to the summit.  The views were nice as usual, and the Catskills stood out to the west. 

I think the snow on the mountains made a nice contrast and they really stood out.  After enjoying the view and the bright sun we made our way back.  The return going quickly, and we were back at the car and warming up by 2:30pm. 

It was a nice hike of about 5.4 miles over a dry powdery snow.  The temperature at the car was 7* when we got back.  Our tradition continues with more good memories and miles to start the year.