Hiking: Mount Hedgehog via the UNH Trail

Seen from the Boulder Loop Trail to the east, Mount Hedgehog (2,543 feet) might look like a curled up hedgehog at the foot of Mount Passaconaway. Getting closer to it on the Kancamangus Highway, the prickly dark spruce on its ridge top are visible.

To me, hiking Mount Hedgehog is returning to home ground. I’m not sure when I first did the 4.7-mile loop on the mountain called the UNH Trail, or who was with me. It might have been the late Conway artist Bob Gordon. Once he gave me a painting of the Mount Hedgehog summit scene, with Mount Passaconaway dominating the view. He had painted it before we met, probably 40 years ago, carrying a large easel to the summit.