A sacrilicious summit

Sharing Pine Mountain with a Christian camp

The fall foliage is peaking in northern New England. I repeat, THE FALL FOLIAGE IS PEAKING IN NORTHERN NEW ENGLAND. I’ve just returned from a chilly voyage to New Hampshire and I can attest that now is the time to jump on a bus or rev up your car for a passage north. Think about all the people who gamble thousands of bucks on hotel reservations, airfare, or all-inclusive tours for this season, hoping that just maybe they’ll cross into New England during that brief window when the roads and trails have been transformed into corridors of crimson, gold, amber and sienna. The majority of those folks will lose their bets, but by merely subscribing to MIND THE MOSS and opening this week’s newsletter, you’ve rolled boxcars. Congratulations!

Now…go grab your boots and your fuzziest fleece. Because this week we’re paying a visit to what might just be the strangest peak in the White Mountain National Forest. Pine Mountain is a U.S. Forest Service site tucked in the shadows of Mount Madison and partially colonized by a religious organization. One of the mountain’s high points is outfitted with a freestanding cross made of tree limbs, which looms over the valley like something out of Midsommar. A “basecamp” of yurts and cabins is steps away from this cross and during the summertime, when the mountain becomes the hosting grounds for a faith-based summer camp, the summit is partially closed to the general public. But now that the campers have gone home, the fall foliage window coincides with another window: a chance to freely poke around this mysterious, hallowed place.

But first you have to reach the trailhead by fish-tailing your way to the midpoint of the Dolly Copp Road, which runs from the vast woods of Pinkham Notch to the village of Randolph on the other side of the northern Presidential Range. The road isn’t treated for winter travel, so once the snow arrives, you’re out of luck until next spring. There are potholes and cracks along the road, which alternates between pavement and dirt, but speaking as a Honda Fit owner, you don’t need a high clearance ride to make it down Dolly Copp. Just take it slow (tough medicine if you’re from Greater Boston) and look for a large white sign on the side of the road that says HORTON CENTER. You’ll park in a small lot across from the sign and pick up the cutoff road that begins by the Horton Center sign. This is the gentle beginning of your Pine Mountain journey.

The Horton Center is owned and operated by the New Hampshire Conference of the United Church of Christ. It’s an old school mountain summer camp with hiking, ropes courses, archery, and campfire tales, but with lots of God seasoning. The place was founded by Douglas Horton, a high-ranking UCC minister who wanted to introduce his congregants to something that resembled the wilderness monasteries he had seen in India. After forming the Pine Mountain Corporation, he and some colleagues bought the summit of the mountain and began tinkering away at the first generation of cabins.

The dirt access road which snakes from Dolly Copp up to the Horton Center camp is open to hikers throughout the year. But there’s a crucial divergence point. After roughly 0.8 miles of leafy road walking, you’ll see a sign on your right for a more rugged path called the Ledge Trail. This relatively short trail to the summit of Pine Mountain is on USFS land and it’s a reliable route to the very top of the mountain even when the camp is in session. Because here’s the thing. The Horton Center occupies significant parts of the summit…but not all of it. The pinnacle of Pine Mountain has been left free of man-made structures or NO TRESPASSING signs. And the Ledge Trail is replete with gorgeous valley views, some exciting rock scrambling, and vast slopes of exposed granite that feature striation patterns left by glacial movement, many centuries ago.

After leveling out, the Ledge Trail reaches the old foundations of a fire tower that once stood atop the mountain. From here, you’ll follow the Pine Mountain Trail across the wooded yet windy summit (which clocks in at 2,405 feet above sea level, for anyone who cares about that kind of thing.) You might expect the descent to begin here, but the arguable visual highlight of Pine Mountain is yet to come. Look for a wooden sign near the ground on your right which says CHAPEL VIEW, follow a little spur path to a ledge, and you’ll find a log bench overlooking Chapel Rock, a raggedy granite sibling summit, atop which you should just be able to spot that Blair Witchy wooden cross.

In the summer, Chapel Rock is off-limits to the public, as the camp likes to use it for hosting sermons and such. But it’s no longer summer and this newsletter needs a scenic finale. After the lookout ledge, you’ll hit another trail junction which gives you two choices: you can stay out of Horton Center territory and commence your return journey along the Pine Mountain Trail (a left turn.) Or you can turn right and continue to Chapel Rock. After a very quick descent into the ferny col between Pine Mountain’s summit and Chapel Rock, you’ll follow bog bridges past utility poles to reach a set of wooden stairs, which marks the beginning of the trail to the top of Chapel Rock. The view is magnificent and the presence of that foreboding cross imbues the rock with a sense of mythic ceremony. I felt the urge to pick up a baby, and offer it to the cosmos as though I were auditioning for The Lion King Part 2. Chapel Rock is a special place.

From here, there are two ways to return to the dirt road back to Dolly Copp. You can retrace your steps to that earlier trail junction and take the Pine Mountain Trail to the road. Or you can do what I did and walk through the empty Horton Center camp to re-connect with the road. You’ll see the encampment through the trees near the Chapel Rock staircase. A short path leads there. As I stealthily crept past the yurts, fire pits, and mess halls, noting the presence of a single white van with mild apprehension, I wondered what J-Crizzle himself would have thought of passive trespassing across a private campground that was enshrined in his name. “Go, sell what you have,” is what Christ allegedly told a rich man who asked him about the secret to eternal life. But since we can’t query Jesus Christ himself about the ethics of summit ownership and public access, we’re left with the interpretations of organized religion, which gives a hike to Pine Mountain a vibe that….in the words of Homer Simpson…is sacrilicious.

Just like last week’s newsletter about Providence’s temporary Hope Street Trail, this one has a layer of urgency. When I woke up the day after hiking Pine Mountain, a layer of frost had already covered the hills of Whitefield, NH. Once the Dolly Copp Road gets snowy, the journey to Pine Mountain will become much harder. The leaves will be long gone by then. So make your pilgrimage this month and remember, in the words of Luke 4:10, “‘He will put His angels in charge of you to watch over you carefully’.

Pine Mountain and Chapel Rock
Distance: 3.8 miles loop
Elevation gain: 892 feet
CLICK HERE for a trail map