Isolation

Trip Details
Date: March 8^th, 2019
Total Distance: 13.82 mi (via Garmin fenix 5X)
Total Time: 6 hours 54 minutes
Total Elevation: 3753 ft gained
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Isolation, like Owls Head, is one of those hikes that gets a real bum rap. The hikes are long and it takes awhile to make it to the actual summit. Unlike Owls Head, Isolation has a bald summit with 360º views. On a nice day, this is one of the best summits around and even with its length, the hike itself is not overly challenging. The hike plays out like elongated stairs. The rise portion is gradual but consistent for long stretches, but then the hike will remain flat for long stretches before it once again starts climbing elevation. This repeats until the summit. There are no steep sections (except for Isolation Spur) and besides the long walk in the woods, it is rather easy. This hike also has the pleasure of containing one of the most well known bushwhacks in the White Mountains. The Engine Hill Bushwhack is the winter route that cuts about a mile off each way as long as you stay to the 3200 foot contour.

Now that I have an electric vehicle I have to look at things a bit more logistically to make sure I have enough battery power to make the round trip to the White Mountains. Thankfully, the area is littered with electric vehicle chargers. Bonehead move on my part though, is that I forgot to charge my car the night before. Now, I could have driven my good ole trustworthy gas vehicle and just chalked this up as a learning mistake, but where's the fun in that? I realized my mistake as soon as I woke up. So, I plugged the car in for about 90 minutes as I got things ready around the house before departing. When we hike around the Pinkham Notch area and the weather is below 10ºF, I have to take extra caution. This is close to a 100 mile one-way trip for me (at full charge I can pull off about 300 miles) and after my short charging session in the morning I had just over 200 miles. So, in theory I would have enough battery power. The main issue with electric vehicles is the cold. The cold degrades the efficiency by 40-50%. Because the battery was heated up for charging, the impact is not as drastic. My plan was always to go to The Glen House at the base of the Mt. Washington Auto Road and charge for an hour or so prior to our scheduled meetup around 0930. Their charger is one of the faster ones in the area and puts close to 40 miles per hour back into the battery. I arrived there with around 80 miles or so left in my battery. I plugged in and found out the rest of my group was running late so I decided to go inside and check out this hotel and the restaurant.

The Apple Betty French Toast at The Notch Grille was delicious. I think it was supposed to come with some grape-nut ice cream and granola, but I did not bother to ask since I figured eating ice cream would just make me feel even more sluggish. 

Back up to 120 miles or so in the battery, I headed off for the Rocky Branch Trailhead parking lot. The forecast called for clear skies but cold windy temps. At the trailhead we were finding decent temps and minimal wind. Detroit Rock City (a.k.a., Mr. Blue Sky) did the whole hike in just a base layer for his bottom pants. We also found the parking lot basically full at 0930. There were some large groups ahead of us and the trail showed it down low as it looked nicely packed down. We decided to help pack it down further and wear snowshoes.

As expected, you start gaining elevation almost immediately, but it is always gradual. The trail remained packed down until we started to make our approach to the height of the land near Engine Hill. The trail was a bit mushier from this point forward. In addition, the trees were starting to engulf the trail. Eventually we arrived at the "T".

I expected higher snow packs levels at this point.

The "T" is still visible.

This is where the Engine Hill Bushwhack begins.

BishopX getting ready to tackle the bushwhack.

The bushwhack is a maze through some really nice birch glades. As the bushwhack was established over the season, hikers have found that those before them made their way back to the Rocky Branch Trail too early. So we followed guidance I found on New England Trail Conditions and stayed right as best we could at all the junctions. With all the branching I could see how the trail might stay a bit softer, but this softness continued for the remainder of the hike.

One of the open birch glades during the bushwhack.

Once back on the Rocky Branch Trail, we had to complete our final major elevation climb of the day. The trail remained soft and now we were in the thick of pushing through trees. My patience wore thin and my enjoyment was quickly wanning. Not to mention the increase soft snow had really started to aggravate my hip problem I have had this year. In time though, we found ourselves on the Davis Path (there is no sign at this point) making our way down the final flat section (with a few small pointless up and downs). The Davis Path was especially thick and drifted at times. Thankfully, the drifts were frozen for the most part.

Mt. Isolation from the first knob once on the Davis Path. We were closer but still a decent ways away.

Detroit Rock City (a.k.a., Mr. Blue Sky) looking towards The Presidentials.

The Davis Path was slow going and took us about a half hour to finally reach the Isolation Spur (the only real steep push). The spur is short, so in a few minutes we were standing on the bald summit of Mt. Isolation all by ourselves. The large groups had mostly passed us on the Davis Path as they were making their return. To add to our enjoyment, the summit was basically wind free and temps were in the 20s.

Boot Spur is looking rather snowy.

Mt. Washington and the southern Presidentials.

I wonder how many summited Mt. Washington on this blue sky day.

Mt. Eisenhower

Looking towards the Franconia Ridge.

Foreground: Jackson and Webster
Middle: Tom, Field, and Willey
Background: The Twins
Faint Distant Background: Lafayette and Lincoln

Looking southeast with Kearsarge North almost dead center.

Looking towards the Wildcats and Carters.

The Baldfaces

Enjoying a 1/2 lb Reese's Peanut Butter Cup on the summit.

The summit.

This is the "I am the only aware of the photo right now" photo.

The crew: BishopX, Detroit Rock City (a.k.a., Mr. Blue Sky), me, and J-Pain

A sacrifice to the gods...

After 20 minutes we started to get cold, so we started our long return trip back into the woods. It was not long before my patience completely disappeared. For whatever reason, the trees continually ripped my hat off. This drove me insane to the point that I eventually just took it off permanently. In the trees the temps were warm enough and the wind was minimal to non-existent that this was not a problem. Eventually, I would take my jacket off too as I felt like I was overheating.

Once back on the bushwhack, we found ourselves not taking the same exact path back (again because it is a maze of trails). We tried to stay left at all the junctions but found ourselves doing things a bit differently if you look at my GPS track. Eventually, we were back on the Rocky Branch Trail making our way down the final long descent of the night. I noticed some snowshoe prints on some of the slopes that appeared to cut the long switchbacks in half. I decided to attempt one and got to do some glissading through the snowy powder. It saved a bit of time, but was mostly fun. Before the sun had set we found ourselves back at the parking lot.

The car still had enough battery power for me to get home, but it was warning me about keeping my speed low to conserve power. This would have made for a white knuckle trip home as charging options are plenty in this area and in Conway, but once I start down Route 16 they basically do not exist until Dover, NH. We decided to grab a bite to eat at the Sea Dog Brewery so I dropped the car off at the Mount Washington Weather Discovery Center to charge while we ate. When we got back I had more than enough to get home. Electric vehicles add a bit of a inconvenience to driving, but if you like the logistical challenge of planning and mapping out routes you may actually enjoy the challenge.

The track is good, but the mileage is off by more than a mile. Detroit Rock City (a.k.a., Mr. Blue Sky) has a Garmin Forerunner and we were right next to each other most of the day and his watch reported a mile less than mine (and closer to the actual). The fenix just has some serious drift problems.