Join us as MITOC backpacks the Pemigewasset Loop in NH. The “pemi” is a quintessential NH loop covering at least 8 (and possibly more) of the state's most scenic peaks. At a minimum, the loop ascends 9K feet of vert over 30 miles of rugged, rooty, and rocky NH trails. We’ll plan on splitting this up over three days (so two nights in the woods). We’re open to running this Friday to Sunday or Saturday to Monday, or cramming this into two days if people are up for a longer first day.

Trip Plan:

-- Day 1 - 11 miles / 4000ft Vert: We’ll depart for the Lincoln Woods trailhead early in the morning, and then hike up to Guyot campsite, passing over Bondcliff and the Bonds. Depending on the weather we may head up to West Bond for a sunset dinner, or save that for sunrise the following day.

-- Day 2 - 6.7 miles / 2540ft Vert: We’ll traverse from Guyot campsite up to Garfield Campsite. This will be our lightest day, so we can take some time to hike up some side trails (there are 4 more summits that are all within a mile or so of the Pemi loop), or we can take the time to go over some skills like setting up a bear hang. Depending on the weather we might go up Mt Garfield for some stargazing / astrophotography.

-- Day 3 - 12.6 miles / 3600ft Vert: We’ll depart from the Garfield campsite and hike over the picturesque Franconia Ridge. From there we’ll head over Liberty and Flume, before descending the Osseo trail back to Lincoln Woods.

Other logistics: Because one of the aims of this trip is to help people who are experienced day hikers make the jump to doing longer, multi-day backpacking trips, there will be a mandatory trip meeting on Tuesday (9/17) evening at 7:00 pm in the MITOC office. During the meeting, we will go over what to bring and how to pack. There will also be time for people to rent gear during office hours that night. We'll aim to have everyone leave Tuesday with a detailed packing list so we can go through and make sure we're all packing efficiently. One aim is to cut down the base weight that people are carrying as much as possible!!! With good packing, a low pack weight is definitely achievable even with heavier MITOC gear.

We will discuss food options during the meeting, but to keep things simple, we should plan on having dehydrated meals on both nights night. You can either buy those at places like REI or you can make your own using things like dehy mashed potatoes from the supermarket with cheese along with anything else you might want to throw in. Don’t worry about this though as we will fully talk through all of this when we meet!

Here’s a map with the route for the trip

This is still tentative, but a general gear list can be seen here

Trip costs: personal food including dehy meal for both nights, reimbursement for drivers (will vary depending on how many people we have per car, but plan on ~$40 total), camp site fees ($15 / person / day) and any rental gear costs to MITOC. We will try to keep costs to a minimum, and assistance is available for any undergrads!

We may open the trip up to a larger group if we can get a second driver.

If you have any questions, please contact Dheepak & Thomas.