Mountains: Mt. Anna
Date: Sunday, February 26, 2017
Trails: Mt Major Trail, Brook Trail, North Straightback Link, Quarry Trail, Blue Trail

Nancy and I hike again in the Belknaps. At 1,670 Mt. Anna is a rather unimpressive peak. We had originally hoped to take the Marsh Brook Crossing Trail off the Quarry Trail along the ridge and tag West Quarry, but unfortunately we can find no sign of the Marsh Brook Trail. That means we have to go back one more time to bag West Quarry.

It is another hard hike for me. I take a puff from my rescue inhaler and it helps a little. I don't cough as much or feel any breathing distress. But as I hike I fall into and out of having energy. Sometimes I lag behind and sometimes I feel strong.

The trail is icy. There are two water crossing on the Brook Trail that had snow bridges last week. Today lots of melt water is moving. I hate water crossings and the longer we flounder around looking for a place to cross the more anxious I become. The first crossing we choose to scooch across on a log spanning the brook. Anxiety is high as I go first. I immediately feel how easy it would be to lose my balance. I am so relieved when I reach the other side that I say, "I'm not coming back this way. No chance."

The second crossing is a bit easier and we find a place to cross without a lot of floundering. More relief and I am even more convinced that I do not want to hike down the Brook Trail. When we make it up to the ridge the glare ice turns to frozen snow. At least it had been frozen when people had barebooted last week. Looking at the footprints I can't see that anyone used snowshoes. The trail is a mess of holes when it could have been a relatively smooth sidewalk.

The ridge between Straightback and Mt Anna is beautiful, especially where it is open to views. It seems like it takes a long time to get to Anna. The realization that there was no trail between Mt. Major Trail and the Quarry Trail sits a bit heavily on our shoulders. But frankly I don't think I have it in me to do the steep, short ascent to the Quarry Trail and then back down. The ice is hard on the ridge and we are slipping sometimes with our microspikes on the steep stuff.

We reach a point where we have to decide whether to go down the steep, rocky, icy Mt Major Trail or the Brook Trail with its water crossings. We choose the Brook Trail and are able to get across the brooks without much ado. All that anxiety for what?

Time to think about a new goal...