Blue Job 8/28/10

"Off Roadin' to Blue Job" Pics HERE

Difficulty: Easy - Moderate:
Fire Wardens trail on South and East side of the mountain is steep and wet with loose footing.
Loop trail which follows part of the access rd. is moderate but easy footing.
Gray Hill or Little Baldy Knob trail is easy with some easy rock scrambles.

Directions: From Rt. 11/N Main St. in Rochester, NH take Rt. 202A. Just past the "4 Corner Store" take your first right at a corner onto First Crown Point Rd. Follow it for approximately 5 miles. The parking lot is on the right (signed) just over the hill. 

 Report:


A long night of work Friday spawned a not-so-thrilled-to-get-up-early-in-the-morning-for-a-long-hike attitude. Scott's mother (Paula) had mentioned over the summer she would like to climb Blue Job with us sometime as she had not done so since she was a teenager. With the Pease air show going on this weekend I thought it would be an awesome sight from the Blue Job fire tower, so we made our plans. We picked Paula up and using my google maps I found a back way to the end of First Crown Point Rd. that would shorten our drive considerably. I found said road, which soon got rough with large rocks. We passed a logging plot and soon found ourselves on a logging road with rocks and mud puddles. I negotiated around a mud puddle, the truck on a 40 degree angle, yikes! Then gunned it through two other mud puddles. Then we came to two more larger puddles. The last two felt a little sticky and I didn't want to chance getting stuck, so I turned it around and made my way back through the obstacle course. I must say, my Ford Escape did well! Hit one rock but the front metal plate took the blow, no damage, phew! Well at least Paula was enjoying herself, she was just sitting in the back laughing!

We made the long drive around the mountain and down First Crown Point road to the parking lot. Got there around 10:30 I think. There were half a dozen of cars or so already there, but not as busy as I had expected. We hit the trail heading to the Little Baldy summit. Paula kept right up with no problem. We summited Little Baldy (passed a few people on trail and a small group on top) and checked the views. The White Mountains were visible through binoculars. I picked up two Tupperware containers and a beer bottle at the summit cairn...are you kidding me? Grrr!!! We then headed for Blue Job summit. The second laugh of the day was when we were talking about facebook etc. and Paula called it Space Book, he, he!

The pond in the Blue Job/Baldy Col. was very pretty. Water levels were surprisingly at a normal depth and the reflections off the water was wonderful!

We arrived at the crowded summit tower, about 6 people on the grounds and 7 or 8 on the tower. We waited for it to clear before climbing the tower ourselves. I was bummed that I had not seen or heard any jets yet today and the same from the tower. I was expecting them to be flying over head as they made their turnarounds. Ah well, still a fun day. We made our summit rounds and headed down the Eastern trail, passing several other people on there way up. Turned out to be a great hike. Relaxing and Paula had a great time. I told her we are going to bring her up Tecumseh so she can get a Four Thousand Footer in! She said bring it on!

Pics HERE