The Pemi Loop

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The Pemi loop is a 32 mile loop in New Hampshire’s White Mountains. The loop summits a total of twelve 4000 foot peaks, if you count the side trails we took to bag a few outliers.

This wasn’t Mya and my first Pemi, in fact I’m pretty sure that this was the 4th time our paws had set foot in the Pemigewasset wilderness. It was, on the other hand, Su’s first time and I got the privilege of introducing her to the Whites. And she got to knock off a good chunk of her new 4000 footer list.

We had a great weekend & took a relaxing 3 days and 2 nights to do the loop. We camped the first night next to Garfield pond. After a challenging 13.5 mile day, it was lovely to relax under stars next to the pond before calling it a night.

Day two was a little less ambitious, but still no slouch of a hike. Heading up Garfield first thing gave us the rare opportunity to have the summit to ourselves, and we watched the fog roll out and over the mountains. Along the way we stopped at the Gailhead hut to grab some water and take a break before taking the spire trail up Gailhead for Mike and Mya’s #42 NH 4000 footer.

We ended the second day with a hike over to Zealand (#43) and set up camp for the night on the summit. We built a fire, made dinner, and as we relaxed two curious birds stopped by and hung out for a long time. Mya was very interested in them. Apparently we didn’t do enough miles for her that day. Lucky for her we remembered her ball! And we spent that last few hours of daylight meeting thru hikers, chatting around the fire, and tossing the ball with Mya.

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