HIKE FOR EQUALITY: Cathedral Ledge

Warm sun, beautiful day, and 16 LGBTQ hikers with rainbow flags. Who could ask for more?

Cathedral Ledge [1159 ft.] is far better known to rock climbers than hikers, but it has good views from ledges accessible to ordinary folks! The loop made for an excellent short summer adventure that was tailored to suit this year’s HIKE FOR EQUALITY! The loop was 5.2 miles round trip with 722' elevation gain.

We met at the Echo Lake State Park beach area for 10:00AM. Most participants already had a rainbow flag for their packs. For those that did not, Mike distributed to stick out of their packs. We were under sunny skies, temperature around 80 degrees with a breeze. A perfect summer day!

It was nice to meet LGBTQ folks from the greater North Conway region for the first time and get reacquainted with our GO members from Maine, Massachusetts, and even as far as New York! What a fine collection of people for our first White Mountains Pride Hike!

It’s a quick walk to the lake where we appreciated the sheer magnitude of the cliff faces over-shadowing the lake!

We followed Echo Lake Trail to get to Bryce Path. We took the right onto Bryce Path. We came to the junction of Bryce Path, Bryce Link and Whitehorse Ledge trails. From this point on, the trail became steeper and more difficult. We're no strangers to steeps. Still, it slowed our ascent. It finally relented when we reached the col between Cathedral and Whitehorse ledges. We were glad to be done with this section of trail, short as it is. Everyone was relieved when I reminded everyone we were not going back down that way!

At the col we took some time to catch our breath. The trail is comfy at first on our final ascent up to Catherdral Ledge. That is, until we started the last short push to Cathedral Ledge. Wow, we thought the previous steep section was tough!  It took us about 15 minutes just to get up the approximately two-tenths of a mile section to the ledges.

It’s important to celebrate pride in the extreme places and the mundane. Every person who celebrates is another example of who queer people are and what we can do. It’s a chance to remind the world, and ourselves, that our potential is limitless and is in no way inhibited by our sexuality or gender identity.

We reached the top of Cathedral Ledge Road and felt the breeze once more. Since you can drive up there, there were quite a lot of other people enjoying the views. From there it was a short walk through stunted pines to reach the top of Cathedral Ledge. The fenced in open area at the top of the ledge provides some incredible views of the White Mountains and Saco River Valley below! On the other side of downtown North Conway the slopes of Cranmore Ski Area appeared. We even caught sight of a few rock climbers going up Cathedral Ledge.

We took a break up to soak in the views. We had no lost or misplaced souls on our trek. In fact, with our rainbow flags flapping in the breeze, our souls were filled with pride and appreciated the words of support from the people we met during the day! It was great hike that was associated with White Mountains Pride this year. We can be open and out anywhere, and that means hiking up mountains with rainbow flags flapping in the breeze, meeting our gay brothers/sisters and our allies. It’s good to know we are not the only gay people hiking that mountain on a certain day.

We descended using the Cathedral Ledge Road. Overall safer and easier on the knees. Near the bottom of the road, we made a turn on the Bryce Link that led us to Bryce Path and then on to the Echo Lake Trail where we continued where we had left off at the start of our trek.

DJ made a reservation for lunch at nearby Flatbread Pizza, one of the sponsors of White Mountains Pride. We enjoyed a well-earned beer and pizza!

Many thanks to all for joining us and for making the day so pleasurable!

GayOutdoors will have a booth at the White Mountains Pride Festival on Saturday, June 29. Please visit our booth and enjoy the fun entertainment planned for the day! 

Jon and I have many other spirited hikes posted on the website for this summer so we hope you can join us!

HAPPY PRIDE!!!

Mike

This year’s Pride Hike is run in association with North Conway’s first ever White Mountains Pride Festival!

Celebrate Gay Pride with Mike on this EASY TO MODERATE 5.2 mile loop hike with 722 feet elevation gain up to Cathedral Ledge from Echo Lake State Park. Please bring a rainbow flag to stick outside your pack as we “Hike For Equality”, continuing the fight for equal rights for all citizens and fostering a community where all LGBTQ members feel valued, included, and safe! We will have a few spare rainbow flags, not many, for you to borrow, if you don’t have one. You can also buy rainbow flags for this hike. Amazon sells a dozen 12x18 for $18.95 or a dozen 5x8 for $5.95. 

Cathedral Ledge is far better known to rock climbers than hikers but it provides some incredible views of the White Mountains and Saco River below! There are a couple of short, steep sections, up Cathedral Ledge. We’ll hike partly around Echo Lake, join up with the Bryce Path to take us up Cathedral Ledge. We’ll use Cathedral Ledge Road to descend and Bryce Link to hook back to the trails we took on the ascent. 

GayOutdoors will also have a booth to promote our club at the White Mountains Pride Festival on Saturday, June 29th. Mark your calendars for this fun event in North Conway, NH!

What to wear/bring: Wear clothing suitable for a hike. Hike in layers. It’s best not to wear any cotton/blue jeans. Carry a pack with a rain jacket inside in the event of wind or inclement weather. Also carry 1 liter of water, snacks and anything else you may require for a day hike. Contact us if you have any questions. 

Après Hike Social Mixer: Following the hike, the Flatbread Pizza Company in North Conway will be hosting us for a luncheon afterward. While everyone has to buy their own lunch/beverages, this social mixer will provide everyone a chance to talk about today’s hike, upcoming events for White Mountains Pride week, and plan for future summer adventures!  We’ll update this page once we know who will be hosting the lunch/social mixer.  

Bunk Beds Lodging Option [Men Only]: Bunk beds are available at our house [with Wi Fi] near Waterville Valley, NH for Friday and/or Saturday nights. It's $25 per night. Please note that I live 1 ½ hours away from North Conway off of I-93. Coffee/bagels each morning and linen/blankets/towels are provided. We’ll have dinner at a local restaurant on Saturday night. Space is limited so email ASAP to reserve a bunk!

YOU MUST REGISTER FOR THIS HIKE. We highly recommend you become a GO member and sign up on this page to receive updates as we get closer to the hike. If not, then at least email Mike to let him know you will be attending and how many in your party.