Shepard (our son) had not climbed Mt. Hale yet in his 4,000 footers of New Hampshire quest. He is a stronger runner than both Scott and I now so we figured Hale would be a good warmup for the Pemi Loop which we were planning on for the next day. Plus we wanted to complete a family FKT (just missing our daughter who was away on a trip)! We ran/hiked up in a conversational, but strong pace. The trail is very easy to follow. Mostly smooth to start and then gets rocky and rooty as it climbs. Once at the top we cautiously moved quickly down to not jeopardize our next days adventure or our son's ability to run his college XC debute this fall. We carried small water bottles, just in case. No food or additional gear needed as the peak is barely above 4,000 feet and only a little over 2 miles up and 2 miles back.
This is a fun, mostly runnable out and back.