Hiking on the Holidays, Mount Starr King & Mount Waumbek

If you go out when no one else does, you’ll see what no one else can see.

Generally speaking the trails tend to be a little less populated in the winter months and even less so on holidays and if you’re anything like me, you capitalize on these days. The wilderness seems to be more alive when there are less human visitors, you can feel the silence blow through the trees, birds sing beautiful songs instead of short warning calls and chipmunks seem to be just a bit more playful in their movements. Your chances of breaking the days untouched trail greatly increase and the thought of how alone you really are starts to sink in but then becomes foreshadowed of what lies ahead, what no one else has seen and may never see. The idea of hiking alone can seem dangerous to some but for me and the queer community it can seem and be that much safer if you hush your ego and know your limits and also abide by what mother nature has thrown your way while remembering  the weather can change in an instant when you’re hiking at elevation and above tree line.

This year for Christmas I chose to tackle my first winter four thousand footer, viewless Mount Waumbek with Mount Starr King along the way, a mountain on the 52 with a view list. This was a well deserved hike in my opinion after working 60 plus hour weeks for two months and a house move thrown in there a week prior. Mount Waumbek is one of the smallest and easiest of the 48 four thousand footers in New Hampshire’s White Mountain National Forest standing at 4,006 feet, flanked to the west is Mount Starr King which stands at 3,907 feet, the two summits are connected by walking a mile on the Kilkenny Ridge trail.

Just off Rt. 2 in Jefferson is Starr King road which has a plowed parking lot at the end with room for about 10-12 cars. We got to the Starr King Trail trailhead at about 8 AM with the final snow flurries floating their way out, we we’re the only ones and the setting was a perfect and crisp Christmas morning.  As we started our ascent the sun was rising up through the clouds and casting its light through the trees, oh how I missed the morning sun!
The winds were light and the temperature was in the low teens to start, I could hear a brook flowing, bubbling on my left knowing its final destination is the Atlantic Ocean many miles away. The sounds of nature started to calm me, the brook, the birds, the snow crunching beneath my feet, I was home and very much the only human around. Starr King trail has a moderate gain of about 2,381 feet over 2.6 miles and never gets very steep. We also chose this trail because it has zero water crossings. Water crossings in winter can be very dangerous, wet gear cannot dry, it only freezes.
We took our time and made it to the summit of Starr King in about two hours. At the top stands the remnants of what used to be a lodge and just beyond that to the right is the start of Kilkenny Ridge trail. From Starr Kings summit looking northeast the views of the presidential range make up for the viewless true summit of Waumbek, however if you walk a quarter mile past Waumbeks’ cairned summit a gorgeous outlook towards the Presidential range greets you. The mile long walk on Kilkenny Ridge trail  from the summit of Starr King to the summit of Mount Waumbek has only 100 feet of gain and is easily one of my favorite ridge walks in the Whites. I love hopping from peak to peak while being surrounded by stunted conifer trees whose harsh weather environment shows on their bark, needles and cones. Their resilience reminds me of the trans community, standing strong in their being, taking the brunt of whatever comes their way but never letting it beat them down. Kilkenny Ridge trail continues east and then north summiting the three Weeks Peaks and ending at a crossroads with York Pond trail, we turned back a couple hundred feet beyond the lookout on Waumbek.

River and I spent about an hour at the summit of Starr King watching Mount Washington and the presidentials  go in and out of the clouds while eating our trail snacks. A hungry mountain jay kept making his presence known but never attempted to eat our food, I was willing to share. As the sun shined on warming my bones I remember thinking “Wow, my guard is down and was never put up,” and it’s because the trails we’re empty that day. I finished my snacks and drank some water then packed our bag and made the easy 2.6 decent off Mount Starr King to the car. What a perfect day.

I often find myself wondering who I’ll meet and if they’ll accept my dog and I, I’m very queer and very open about my past, the present and what I have planned for my future in regards to getting more queers on the trail, being open is how I educate folks on queer and trans topics even if they didn’t ask as well as staying visible for those who cannot be. However, I also understand that although being trans is almost everything to me, most people only know what they heard in the news, negativity. It’s known that the trail tends to be cis, white and straight and although hikers can be some of the most loving people you’ll meet while in nature, hikers can also be some of the most uneducated on queer topics in real life. We all want safe spaces to be able to comfortably exist in and as hiking becomes the new yoga it is important to remember that we are all out there for the same underlying reason, to get outside, relax and explore nature and ourselves.

Stats taken from Gaia GPS* Total miles 6.89 Total gain 2,697 Time moving 3:16 stopped 1:39 total 4:55 Average moving speed 2.1