Bill and Sheep
New member
It's been a slow period of hiking for me. Between minor injuries for both Sheep and myself and a crazy work schedule, I only got out hiking twice all winter and never covered more than 8 miles in any single trip. Having the three day weekend to myself, I decided to go all out and attempt a 3 day Grafton Notch loop.
We hit the road at about 5:30am on Saturday and hit the trail at 8:45am. The opening climb to Puzzle Mountain was steady but never too steep. There are some beautiful open ledges, many of which were surrounded by the most beautiful white moss. 3.6 miles later we had reached the 3000 foot summit. It was certainly a nice start to the hike. Having views would have been even nicer but being outside was enough for me at this point.
We then descended about 1000 feet to the col between Puzzle Mountain and Long Mountain. Once again, the terrain was pretty easy and served as a good "back to hiking" warmup for both Sheep and I. Soon things got a bit more challenging as the amount of running water on the trail increased dramatically and the trail became harder to follow. At one point, We followed what seemed to be the trail for a long time until I noticed that there were no longer any blue blazes. Eventually I ran into a big section of blowdowns and decided that it was time to backtrack. With the help of another group of hikers we were able tog locate the real trail. We attempted to block off the confusing section with some branches. I hopw this helps others out in the near future. There were a few more confusing places on this section of trail The key is to watch for blazes and never assume that the obvious corridor is in fact the trail.
At about 9.5 miles, we found the summit of Long Mountain. The climbing wasn't very intense but I found I expended a lot of mental energy in trail finding. From here, teh day became very interesting. There are a number of campsites of the next 4-5 miles and also tons of water on the trail and probably 8-10 tough water crossings. None of these crossings were dangerous but they were not rock hoppable. Thankfully, I was so wet already, I didn't mind the wet feet.
My big adventure of the day came on one particularly tricky crossing. The water wasn't very deep but it was swift moving and had one section that was deep enough that Sheep had to swim. Now, he's a super strong swimmer but I wanted to make sure he got across quickly as there was a drop off just 15 feet or so downstream. He was ahead of me and instead of pushing to the shore, he was looking back to make sure I was ok. Fearing that he might get pulled downstream, I leaned forward to give him a shove toward the shore (only 5-6 feet away) and went down. I remember as I was going down thinking, "I hope I have my pack straps unbuckled." I landed on my knees and elbows and ended up totally underwater up to my neck. Thankfully I didn't hit my head and indeed my straps were unbuckled. Other than some bruised knees and bloody scrpes on one hand, I was fine. The digital camera in my pocket was another story. Two days later, it still seems DOA.
The remainder of day one was thankfully uneventful. There were a few more very wet stream crossings but I did stay upright through these. There were a lot of blowdowns on the stretch leading to Lightning Ledge and our destination, East Baldpate campsite. These made for a little work in trail finding once again but we managed to arrive at the camp at about 6pm (14.8 miles total for the day).
By this time, the weather had gotten very foggy and visibility was at best 100 yards. After a quick dinner, both Sheep and I were asleep before 8. It rained periodically during the night but never too hard.
At 6am we were up and out of the tent and on our way. The plan was to finish the 21 mile east loop and get over Old Speck on day two. Well that was the goal but the relatively easy ascent up east Baldpate told me a different story. My body was simply too beat up to expect to finish the Baldpates and make the 2500 foot climb up Old Speck. With these new expectations of a shortened trip, we just took it slow as I stopped to huff and puff a lot while Sheep wondered what my probnlem was. There was only one tricky spot on the approach to East Baldpate where a difficult ledge had been outfitted with iron rungs. Those are great for people but don't work well for dogs so I did need to give Sheep a boost up this section. The final approach was easy and the top of East Baldpate was quite spectacular. Even without much in the way of views, it was still a fine section of mountain. I will go back on a sunny day to check it out.
The climb off of East Baldpate was pretty straightforward except for one steep section with slippery ledges. The climb to West Baldpate was more than I expected but never exceedingly difficult. There are two ladders that Sheep was able to bypass with no issues. I'm really glad I pack the counter clockwise direction as I think going up these steep sections was much more doing friendly.
The descent down from West Baldpate was kind of hellish in that it consisted of section after section of bare ledges with running water on them. Being exhausted already, I took it slowly and probably spent more time lowering myself on my butt than I did walking. Eventually we made it to the Baldpate Lean-To where we stopped for lunch and rested until our final walk back to route 26.
The final 2+ miles to Route 26 was uneventful and relatively easy. There was lots of mud but nothing difficult or dangerous. At about noon we had made our way back to the highway. Now the real fun was about to begin. Looking at the map, I estimated the road walk to be between 6-8 miles. I stashed both of our packs in the woods and started the long walk. This walk certainly made the walk out on the Wilderness Trail seem like a piece of cake. Thankfully Route 26 has a wide shoulder and a good number of places for Sheep to get water. Without the packs, we were again moving at a fast pace and we covered the 7.2 miles in just over two hours. From there, it was back to our car and back to the other trailhead to retrieve our packs before the long ride home.
So, while I didn't meet my original goal of doing the whole loop, it was great getting back into tyhe mountains in a serious way and for both of use to get out injury-free. Covering 28+ miles in two days after such a long layoff made me feel good about the possibilities for this summer. I'm looking forward to some more redlining in the Whites in the coming weeks.
Note that this is my first attempt to post from my iPad. I suspect that auto correct has done a number on some of the sentences. Please be kind in your criticism.
We hit the road at about 5:30am on Saturday and hit the trail at 8:45am. The opening climb to Puzzle Mountain was steady but never too steep. There are some beautiful open ledges, many of which were surrounded by the most beautiful white moss. 3.6 miles later we had reached the 3000 foot summit. It was certainly a nice start to the hike. Having views would have been even nicer but being outside was enough for me at this point.
We then descended about 1000 feet to the col between Puzzle Mountain and Long Mountain. Once again, the terrain was pretty easy and served as a good "back to hiking" warmup for both Sheep and I. Soon things got a bit more challenging as the amount of running water on the trail increased dramatically and the trail became harder to follow. At one point, We followed what seemed to be the trail for a long time until I noticed that there were no longer any blue blazes. Eventually I ran into a big section of blowdowns and decided that it was time to backtrack. With the help of another group of hikers we were able tog locate the real trail. We attempted to block off the confusing section with some branches. I hopw this helps others out in the near future. There were a few more confusing places on this section of trail The key is to watch for blazes and never assume that the obvious corridor is in fact the trail.
At about 9.5 miles, we found the summit of Long Mountain. The climbing wasn't very intense but I found I expended a lot of mental energy in trail finding. From here, teh day became very interesting. There are a number of campsites of the next 4-5 miles and also tons of water on the trail and probably 8-10 tough water crossings. None of these crossings were dangerous but they were not rock hoppable. Thankfully, I was so wet already, I didn't mind the wet feet.
My big adventure of the day came on one particularly tricky crossing. The water wasn't very deep but it was swift moving and had one section that was deep enough that Sheep had to swim. Now, he's a super strong swimmer but I wanted to make sure he got across quickly as there was a drop off just 15 feet or so downstream. He was ahead of me and instead of pushing to the shore, he was looking back to make sure I was ok. Fearing that he might get pulled downstream, I leaned forward to give him a shove toward the shore (only 5-6 feet away) and went down. I remember as I was going down thinking, "I hope I have my pack straps unbuckled." I landed on my knees and elbows and ended up totally underwater up to my neck. Thankfully I didn't hit my head and indeed my straps were unbuckled. Other than some bruised knees and bloody scrpes on one hand, I was fine. The digital camera in my pocket was another story. Two days later, it still seems DOA.
The remainder of day one was thankfully uneventful. There were a few more very wet stream crossings but I did stay upright through these. There were a lot of blowdowns on the stretch leading to Lightning Ledge and our destination, East Baldpate campsite. These made for a little work in trail finding once again but we managed to arrive at the camp at about 6pm (14.8 miles total for the day).
By this time, the weather had gotten very foggy and visibility was at best 100 yards. After a quick dinner, both Sheep and I were asleep before 8. It rained periodically during the night but never too hard.
At 6am we were up and out of the tent and on our way. The plan was to finish the 21 mile east loop and get over Old Speck on day two. Well that was the goal but the relatively easy ascent up east Baldpate told me a different story. My body was simply too beat up to expect to finish the Baldpates and make the 2500 foot climb up Old Speck. With these new expectations of a shortened trip, we just took it slow as I stopped to huff and puff a lot while Sheep wondered what my probnlem was. There was only one tricky spot on the approach to East Baldpate where a difficult ledge had been outfitted with iron rungs. Those are great for people but don't work well for dogs so I did need to give Sheep a boost up this section. The final approach was easy and the top of East Baldpate was quite spectacular. Even without much in the way of views, it was still a fine section of mountain. I will go back on a sunny day to check it out.
The climb off of East Baldpate was pretty straightforward except for one steep section with slippery ledges. The climb to West Baldpate was more than I expected but never exceedingly difficult. There are two ladders that Sheep was able to bypass with no issues. I'm really glad I pack the counter clockwise direction as I think going up these steep sections was much more doing friendly.
The descent down from West Baldpate was kind of hellish in that it consisted of section after section of bare ledges with running water on them. Being exhausted already, I took it slowly and probably spent more time lowering myself on my butt than I did walking. Eventually we made it to the Baldpate Lean-To where we stopped for lunch and rested until our final walk back to route 26.
The final 2+ miles to Route 26 was uneventful and relatively easy. There was lots of mud but nothing difficult or dangerous. At about noon we had made our way back to the highway. Now the real fun was about to begin. Looking at the map, I estimated the road walk to be between 6-8 miles. I stashed both of our packs in the woods and started the long walk. This walk certainly made the walk out on the Wilderness Trail seem like a piece of cake. Thankfully Route 26 has a wide shoulder and a good number of places for Sheep to get water. Without the packs, we were again moving at a fast pace and we covered the 7.2 miles in just over two hours. From there, it was back to our car and back to the other trailhead to retrieve our packs before the long ride home.
So, while I didn't meet my original goal of doing the whole loop, it was great getting back into tyhe mountains in a serious way and for both of use to get out injury-free. Covering 28+ miles in two days after such a long layoff made me feel good about the possibilities for this summer. I'm looking forward to some more redlining in the Whites in the coming weeks.
Note that this is my first attempt to post from my iPad. I suspect that auto correct has done a number on some of the sentences. Please be kind in your criticism.
