Some people who Grid — to hike NH’s 48 4000-footers every month of the year — or have Gridded, will tell you there are times when it feels like Grinding instead of Gridding. It stands to reason as you can only encounter so many unique experiences chipping away at this finite list of peaks during this finite list of months. Hiking the White Mountains in different seasons helps a lot as all four seasons stand on their own up here offering somme really cool variety. Another anti-tedium aid is to mix up the approaches by hiking different trails. Not to say there won’t be repeats — oh, there will be — but it all helps. It is this last thing that Redline Guide Chase Hall was hoping to accomplish: summit Mt Isolation like he recently did by way of a Glen Boulder out-and-back. What follows is a summary and photos from Chase.
Today’s goal with my guest was to summit Isolation via the Dry River Cut off Trail to Davis Trail to Isolation Summit. Entering the Wilderness from Mizpah Hut and hiking down into Dry River was an awesome experience. You’re in a different world it’s just you, your guest, and the sounds of water. You need to be on point and have some good navigation skills when deep the Wilderness because there aren’t blazes to help you. It was a really awesome feeling knowing that my guest was safe and that he hired a really fun guide [we agree] to help him hike to Isolation. Hiking from the west to east in the Dry River Wilderness to summit Isolation is something that you need to try. I want to be your guide if you need help. Just reach out to Redline Guiding [we agree with this, too]. The hike had a lot of everything in about 14.3 miles with just over 4,000-feet of elevation gain. A perfect hike to try in the summer. We had fun! You will, too! —Chase
