52 Hike Challenge

Greenleaf Trail coming down from Franconia Ridge, White Mountains, NH

In September 2021, my 18-year-old daughter and I hiked the Franconia Ridge Loop in the White Mountains of NH. It was quite an incredible experience and unlike anything we had ever done before. She had been asking to do it for a while, but we had been putting it off because I didn’t think we were ready. Finally, in September of 2021, we decided we were going to make it happen. We planned for a 2-day trip and made the 3-hour drive up to Franconia, NH on Saturday afternoon after she finished work. We stayed in a motel and got up early on Sunday morning to be at the trailhead by 8am. We decided to go up Falling Waters Trail to Little Haystack Mountain, then go across the ridge over Mt. Lincoln and Mt. Lafayette, then onto the Greenleaf Trail to the Greenleaf Hut, and finally down Old Bridle Path back to the parking lot. It took us about 9 hours to complete. The loop is 8.8 miles total, and we got back to the car just after 5 pm.

This hike was one of the most difficult things I had ever done. In the last two miles or so, I really didn’t know if my legs were going to make it. They were shaking so badly, and I had to stop frequently to give them a rest. But, I kept pushing and we did make it back to the car before dark. On the ride home, I told my daughter I was never doing that again.

Fast-forward one month to October 2021. I had posted pictures of our hike on Facebook, so my Facebook feed suddenly became filled with posts related to hiking. I joined a few hiking groups dedicated to the NH48 (the 48 mountains over 4,000 feet in NH), and they were so inspiring! The pictures were beautiful and I found myself spending a lot of time looking at posts from those groups. In the meantime, I saw a promotion on my feed for the 52-hike challenge, so I decided to sign up. The goal of the challenge is simple. Complete 52 hikes within a year, and you can only log one per day. My daughter and I decided that would be a fun thing to challenge ourselves to do. The official challenge allows you to do a trail more than once, but we decided we wanted to explore 52 different locations.

At the time of this writing, we have completed 13 hikes in the challenge. Each week we look forward to our next adventure. Here are a few of my favorites so far:

  • World’s End – Hingham, MA
  • Moore State Park – Paxton, MA
  • Moore State Park – Paxton, MA
  • Moore State Park – Paxton, MA
  • Moore State Park – Paxton, MA
  • World’s End – HIngham, MA
  • Burrage Pond – Halifax, MA
  • Sachem Rock- East Bridgewater, MA
  • Sachem Rock – East Bridgewater, MA
  • Sachem Rock – East Bridgewater, MA
  • Holmes Reservation – Plymouth, MA
  • Cato’s Ridge – Plympton, MA
  • Cato’s Ridge – Plympton, MA
  • Holmes Reservation – Plymouth, MA
  • Holmes Reservation, – Plymouth, MA
  • Moose Hill – Sharon, MA
  • Moose Hill – Sharon, MA
  • Moose Hill – Sharon, MA
  • Moose Hill – Sharon, MA
  • Moose Hill – Sharon, MA
  • Moose Hill – Sharon, MA
  • Striar Conservancy – Halifax, MA
  • Striar Conservancy – Halifax, MA
  • Striar Conservancy – Halifax, MA
  • Great River Preserve – Bridgwater, MA
  • Great River Preserve – Bridgwater, MA
  • Great River Preserve – Bridgwater, MA
  • Great River Preserve – Bridgwater, MA

Here are the hikes we have done so far:

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