I only happened to look in this forum now and saw WWF's report from 2015 on Camels Hump. I finally did the hike a few weeks ago and followed the same path WWF did, except in reverse. From Duxbury I hiked up to Camels Hump via Monroe to Dean to the Long Trail and then came back down via Monroe. The Long Trail from the intersection with the Dean trail up to the intersection with the Alpine trail was definitely challenging (my short legs did me no favors on this section and added to the challenge climbing some of the boulders). When you read a lot of reports, people often say the last .2 miles from the Alpine trail to the summit of Camels Hump is the most challenging part of the hike. I actually really enjoyed that last .2 miles of mostly rock scrambling above the treeline and found the previous section of the LT that I mentioned much more of a challenge. Overall it took me substantially longer than WWF (nearly 7 hours for me), although I was stopping a lot to take photos and spent a decent amount of time at the summit before descending. Great hike though and I really enjoyed it.
And now on to some photos.
View from an old beaver pond along the Dean Trail:
One of the first really good views along the Long Trail from the south on the ascent:
A pretty steep section of rock climbing on the LT (still probably at least a mile from the summit at this point):
Starting the final approach to the summit and entering the alpine vegetation area:
And now on to some photos.
View from an old beaver pond along the Dean Trail:
One of the first really good views along the Long Trail from the south on the ascent:
A pretty steep section of rock climbing on the LT (still probably at least a mile from the summit at this point):
Starting the final approach to the summit and entering the alpine vegetation area:
