Our guest had hiked here before so when she requested a guide, she already had an idea of what she was getting herself into hiking our rugged trails. As for finding us, she asked ChatGPT and the AI pointed her to Redline Guiding. The objective of the day was Hedgehog Mountain — a pretty 52 With a View peak.That suggestion came from her Redline Guide Tim Jones. She thought it was a great choice. Now, without further ado here’s a summary from Tim along with some photos.
She had been visiting the area for years and knew exactly what she wanted: a relaxed 1/2 day hike on a trail she’d never done before. And she wanted a view. What she didn’t want was any chance of getting lost or hurt alone on a trail, so she reached out to Redline Guiding for a guide/companion. I took the assignment. I presented her with a number of possible options and she decided on Hedgehog (which she’d never heard of). It fit the bill nicely. It’s one of the ’52 With a View,’ mountains and the UNH Trail makes 4.4 mile loop (slightly longer if you add the quick side trip out to Allens Ledge as we did).
We met up at Redline Basecamp at the very civilized hour of 8:30 am, checked out her gear (all was in order), and headed over to the Kanc and the trailhead via the scenic Bear Notch Road. You couldn’t have asked for a ncer day: sunshine, a few puffy fair weather clouds to cast interesting shadows on the surrounding peaks and temps in the lower 70s with a nice breeze. Oh, and no mosquitoes or blackflies! Our guest had specified ‘relaxed’ so we took our time heading up to the junction where the loop begins. From there, we went counter-clockwise to get most of the climbing behind us quickly, while our legs and lungs were still fresh.
The view from Allens ledge was, as always, spectacular and after a quick stop for hydration and a snack, we continued up. Doing the loop counter-clockwise presents you with an interesting optical illusion: Four times, ‘false summits’ made it look like we were reaching the top, only to find more climbing ahead. White-flowered viburnums were putting on a show along parts of the trail — in full flower at this altitude long after the bloom had gone by in the valley.
The summit was warm and sunny and we stopped for another quick sip-and-snack before descending on the longer eastern section of the loop. Relaxed as our pace was, we had time to enjoy all the views this little mountain presents, and still averaged nearly 2 miles an hour. At the end, our guest pronounced it a perfect day. I absolutely agree! —Tim
