Mount Potash

I'm an idiot. 

Last October, on one of my favorite weekends of the year, I randomly found out about Mount Potash at night, then decided to hike it the next day using 1 trail guide. To be fair, it was the only one I could find at the time, but I followed it like a true idiot. It recommended ignoring the "UNH trails trailhead" and walking up a gated off fire road instead. It said it was shortly after Bear Notch Road. SO, being an idiot, I found Bear Notch Road (off the Kancamagus Highway), then drove back and forth for like 2 miles looking for this famed fire road. Never once did I consider that maybe whoever put together the guide had a different definition of "shortly" and that maybe it's more like 2-3 miles. I also had never heard of the "UNH trails" (UNH is in Durham, not the White Mountains), so I guess I thought it was slang or something? I don't know. There really is no excuse. I'm just one of the stupidest people alive. The trailhead couldn't be more obvious:

IT EVEN SAYS THE MOUNTAIN ON THE SIGN

and the fire road shortly after was just as obvious too. 

to be fair, the hike guide had a picture of pretty much just the gate, and it looked almost exactly like what I walked up. But still. I suck.

So I had a miserable time, cursed the internet and hated everything, all because I'm dumb. Truthfully, in hindsight, I'm kind of happy I didn't hike it back then though, since it poured all over us, and if we had actually been hiking the mountain and not just some road in the woods, we wouldn't have been able to enjoy what is truly an awesome hike. 

After laughing at my stupidity, I parked and got ready. There's a lot of parking.

Immediately to the right (behind the sign) is a sweet little pond with a billion frogs.

And immediately to the left is a very helpful sign.

I went straight up a very boring road for a bit,

then turned right onto the very obvious Mount Potash trail.

And then I hit the almighty brook crossing that online guides recommended I avoid. 

It was NOTHING! To be fair, I could imagine it getting a lot worse after a lot of rain. And I ran into an older couple here too, who had given up and decided to not try to hike Mount Potash afterall, since they didn't know how to cross the river. I grew up on a lake and ran and jumped across rocks through my whole childhood, so I already know that I feel much more confident and balanced doing this than a lot of people, but still. This wasn't bad at all. And you can always take your shoes off if necessary. Don't bother with the avoid-the-brook-way. Just hike the regular trail. It's way better.

the other side

The trail then started climbing a bit (it had basically been flat so far).

and after seeing a dog and a young woman (I was certain I'd see nobody on this hike and I was already at 3 people and a dog), I eventually came to where the boring fire road meets up with the trail. I'd rather hike almost any trail than walk up this:

The turn onto the trail was very obvious:

And although not that steep, the climbing continued.

I loved the amount of roots and leaves showing. I am a huge fan of hiking lesser-known mountains, and the messiness of the trail added to the remote feeling. Although, soon, it started to turn more into an exposed rock climb with a billion roots. 

This was a great hike so far. It started very flat, gradually built up, had a few switchbacks, and then just climbed in a straight line, which normally I hate, but because the surrounding woods were so awesome, it was actually pretty cool. 

I then came out to a view that's better than a lot of summits I've been on:

You get to walk along an exposed ridge with Passaconaway Mountain and Whiteface staring down at you. It's an awesome spot that I hung out at for awhile. Looking the opposite direction, you can even see Chocorua in the distance.

But this wasn't the summit, and although I was tired, I wanted to get there. Online guides had said there were views, but they didn't talk much about them, so I assumed this would be the best view I'd get- I just didn't want to hike half a mountain. Immediately I was back in the woods and climbing again.

This trail was great though- after a steep section, it turned left and gradually climbed over a lot of big rocks and roots. Slow going yes, but much more interesting and friendly than straight up. It then went along a ridge a bit, and came out to exposed rock. Things got steep.

I was starting to really feel like I was getting some good elevation. Turning around, Passaconaway watched. I began to feel afraid of this mountain.

After some solid climbing and exhaustion, I was at the top.

And it was glorious. This immediately became one of my favorite hikes I've done and an instant addition to the "I will absolutely hike this again" department. Here are a bunch of ridiculous HDR shots.

The sharp ones are the Tripyramids.

Passaconaway from the summit

I love this one. Any time I can take a picture where it looks like the trail takes you off a cliff, I'll take that picture. 

I attempted to get some sort of panorama using iphone apps, but they never work. So I just took a bunch of pictures with my actual camera and did the best I could in photoshop to connect them. This isn't perfect but it came out way better than it should have. I absolutely loved the view- tons of mountains to the East (left), a valley of flatness, and then monsters in the distant north (right). Click the picture, it's huge.

I spent a long time up there and took way too many pictures. The black flies were out in full force, and I tried my best to not let them ruin my time. But they worked HARD. Eventually, I forced myself to leave to get away from them and to stop taking HDR pictures I'd have to put together and edit later on. I still had like 30 pictures though. Ughk.

Going back down the open rock face was awesome, but further made me terrified to attempt to hike Passaconaway. It's a monster. Once back in the woods, the rock trail going downhill was extremely interesting.

I stopped and hung out on the ridge again, and took some terrible pictures.

sweet apple shirt!

The hike down was uneventful but not bad. I never got too dead, and going with my theme this summer of not hiking down mountains in the dark, I was happy to finish in daylight. What a great hike.

On the way home, I decided I didn't have enough pictures and pulled over on the side of the road to catch some early sunset pictures. I wish I had found this valley somewhere and it was some great secret, but nope. This is just the beauty of the Kanc (with HDR)

From there, I took the mandatory "it's sunset, go take pictures" stop at Chocorua Lake and wow was I happy I did. It was like this guy knew I'd be there. Or he just really gets life and spends every sunset fishing with this view. If I lived on this lake, I certainly would.

Man, what a great hike. The pictures I took on the way home helped, but even without them, I couldn't be happier with Mount Potash. Based on online guides, most people parked at this trailhead hike the UNH trails to Mount Hedgehog. I don't know why Potash isn't insanely popular. It's a very reasonable mountain for elevation gain and footing, and has an amazing ridge and near 360 degree gorgeous views from a mostly exposed summit. I loved it and couldn't recommend it more. 

Directions: Heading west from Conway on the Kancamagus Highway, look for the trailhead on the left, a few miles after Bear Notch Road and some visitor's center (which has bathrooms). The trail has signs everywhere you need them. 

Summit: 2,680 feet

Mileage Round Trip: 4.4 miles

Elevation gain: about 1,500 feet

$3 to park unless you're a jerk

currently listening to: Jimmy Eat World- "Damage"