Blueberry Mountain (Benton) . . . and Beyond! (17-Apr-2009)

My hiking partner (Zman) and I hiked the Blueberry Mountain Trail today (17-Apr-2009) from Long Pond Road to the summit of Blueberry Mountain. This trail was 99.9% free of snow & ice. I’m not giving it a complete 100% rating since, technically-speaking, there were a couple of very small patches of snow.

From the summit area of Blueberry Mountain we did a bushwhack through predominately open-woods to a ledge about 0.3 mile north of Jeffers Mountain. We chose a different route for our return leg. We descended from the ridge by doing a half-mile downhill bushwhack nearly due east through open-woods to intersect Long Pond Road, and then “road-walked” back to our car which was parked at the gate since the road is still “winter-closed”.

Although there were some attractive views from the ledge, my personal favorite view for the day was a vista we got overlooking Long Pond during our descent to Long Pond Road. (Below is a photo of this vista.)

As shown in the photo below, the ledge itself has an interesting tent-like configuration.

From the ledge, there was an interesting view to the east with the Kinsmans in the foreground which are superimposed on the Franconia Range in the background (photo below).

Also from the ledge was a view toward Moosilauke and South Peak.


1HappyHiker

Hmmmm.....that vista looks like it would be an AMAZING spot for pictures once the trees sprout some intense green! It would frame the pond perfectly. Add some interesting cloud formations and it would be a stunner....hmmmmmmm

Brian

I'll second Brian on that one - great angle for a sunset shot, or for a foliage shot. Looks like you found yet another prime location, John!

Nice to see all that bare ground!

Thanks Brian and Chris for your comments! It was a very good hike/whack. Is there ever a truly a bad one?

The ledge was a unique spot, and I had hoped to continue along the ridge on over to the even more unique area called The Hogsback. However, old “Father-Time” was lurking in the background and prevented that from happening. But hey! The Hogsback will always be there, and since there is some great open-woods whacking in that area, I suspect I’ll be making a return visit sometime!

And yes Chris, there was a lot of bare ground! The Blueberry Mountain Trail was 99.9% dry, and it was also dry for the majority of the whack over to the ledge beyond Jeffers. However, the snow/ice is “hanging tough” in areas that aren’t exposed to a full day’s worth of sun.

Oh, and Chris, I love your new Avatar (The Watcher). For so many reasons, that is a very appropriate and emblematic avatar for you.

Thanks for another excellent TR! These are great. Nice pic over Long pond. I think I've seen that ledge from the pond.

happy trails