Hiking Cherry Mountain, NH

Crossing from Quebec into New Hampshire | Camping in White Mountain National Forest | Hiking Cherry Mountain | July 2024

This morning, we rose early and prepared to cross the border back into the US. We chose to cross on the US-3 route at the very Northern end of New Hampshire, then make our way down to the White Mountains. It was a very quiet crossing, and the border patrol agent was very friendly and we ended up chatting with him for a long time. It was so refreshing to have a full, uncomplicated conversation with someone in English for the first time in weeks! We learned that he had lived in Quebec for a few years and was married to an English Quebecan, and he shared about the struggles and downsides they experienced while living there. Having enjoyed our time there over the last few weeks, besides the language barrier and other minor inconveniences, we had naturally started to do what we always do and wondered what it would be like to live here, and he had a lot of points to consider. Before we left, he also warned us about the flooding that had just taken place in Northern Vermont and New Hampshire following Tropical Storm Beryl a few days prior. Thankfully it sounded like we would be fine where we planned to go, and decided to stay on the main highway for our drive South.

Fortunately, we’d never taken US-3 this far North before, so our drive was still all new to us. We drove down to Lancaster, where we stopped to grab groceries for the week. Then we continued on to Cherry Mountain Road — the first place that we stayed when we visited New Hampshire in 2016, then returned a month later for the peak of fall colors. It was also one of the first places that we had tried dispersed camping. We’ve come a long way since then!

We drove all the way up to the trailhead for Cherry Mountain, and fortunately the closest campsite to that spot was available, and had just a bit of cell service. We settled in and had lunch here before Curtis set off on the hike — at 8 miles long, it was a bit too far for Charlotte, who much preferred walking up and down the forest road anyway.

Curtis: The trail up to the top of Cherry Mountain followed an old forest road and so fortunately had forest road grades for almost the entire route. I’ve read that the trail from the opposite side of the mountain is more typical of White Mountain trails and is quite a bit steeper. I considered this hike to be mostly a hike of opportunity – we had driven for a lot of the morning and mostly just wanted to relax, so having a hike right next to our campsite was an easy choice. Fortunately, here in the Whites, almost every hike is part of some challenge or another and Cherry was no exception: 52 with a View, the Alpine List, etc. But most importantly, it has the prominence for my 300 Meter hiking goal!

I passed only one person coming down and was otherwise alone the entire hike. There were no views, but the trail was easy and I made good time. The summit was partially tree covered but offered limited views to the East and the Presidential Range. Technically, this peak has two names – Cherry Mountain, and Mount Martha – as in Martha Washington, wife of George, and the namesake of Mount Washington. New Hampshirites sure were patriotic when they named these peaks.

I managed to find one letterbox on the peak, then decided to make the short hike over to a sub peak with a little less trees and a little more views. The trail between the peaks was much more typical of White Mountain hiking than the route I took up. Lots of rocks and steps, and it comes as no surprise that this trail was part of some long distance trek — in this case the Cohos Trail. I hope those who live in New Hampshire know how lucky they are.

The summit of Owl Mountain was in fact more open, but since it was shorter, most of the views were of Cherry Mountain itself. I ended up spending quite a while on one of the summits or the other just sitting or looking for long-lost letterboxes. I honestly lost track of time and how far I had been hiking before I realized that it was actually getting quite late. The peak of summer meant that I had sun for a long time, and I took definitely took advantage of it today and many other days.

Jess: When Curtis returned, we had dinner and a relaxing evening together. During this week, most of the country was under a heatwave, but we were very comfortable here in the mountains. The bugs weren’t bad, a light rain fell on us overnight, and overall the evening was very quiet. It was good to be back in the US!