peakbagger
In Rembrance , July 2024
Kearsage North in North Conway is always a nice half day hike and is great to hike on year round. In combination with it being just up the road from Moat Mountain Brewery makes it a nice mountain to visit. The normal up an back via the Kearsage North trail is handy but doing and out and back gets a bit old after awhile. Weeks Brook Trail is a nice option but requres a car spot up and over Hurricane mountain Road which isnt an option in winter.
The big trade off of doing the normal route is it misses the hike down to Shingle Pond via Weeks Brook Trail. This trail is a bit hard to follow initially as it zig zags down some ledgy areas where false routes come and go but generally the route is blazed on the rocks with yellow paint. It also feels like it heads well NW of Shingle Pond. Once you get out of the ledges, the woods turn into fairly mature softwoods with little understory and there are some large trees, mostly Hemlocks that have been around for a long time. The trail crosses the outlet of a bog over fairly dry land before following a farily large brook before swinging away towards the Shingle Pond Drainage. At one point there was signs of recent agressive maintanence where the trail was cut back at least eight feet wide. Shingle Pond at this time of year is pretty boggy but the woods near the pond look like a great place to camp.
So far the trip was on an official trail but I had heard over the years of a mountain bike trail that cut back to near the Kearsage North trailhead. I had my GPS, compass, safety glasses and leather gloves in preparation for a bushwhack. No need whatsoever. The "Red Dot" trail is not signed but is marked with faded red paint spots on trees, although as the road gets more obvious the red dots fade away. The turn for the Red Dot trail is just after you have passed the pond and initially it is a bit hard to find as the woods are so open, but very soon its obvious. The entire length of the trail is a very well graded old logging road, with the exception of some large blowdowns across the route and one stream crossing, the trail is better than most hiking trails in the whites. I normally dont jog on a trail but I expect many will as there is just enough duff on the route to make for some nice walking through mature softwood stands. There were a couple of wet stretches down low but I expect that if it hadnt rained so heavilly in the past few days, a dry route could be found. Eventually the road comes into a recently logged area, the roads have been grassed in but it obvious which way to go until you see a house to your left. Rather than walking down in their yard, I beared right and came out on the main logging road then beared left which eventually comes out at a ski club. The hike is then a walk down a road to Hurricane mountain road and then a 1/4 mile walk back to the car. I believe that the land is WMNF and Nature Conservancy land and i ditn see any no trespassing signs.
Overall a fine hike. I would guess the hike to the pond and the route back adds about 1-1/2 hours to the out and back time via Kearsage North Trail. I would definitely not recomend going up this trail as there are many branching roads near the beginning that make sense when you are going down but would be easty to miss going up.
The big trade off of doing the normal route is it misses the hike down to Shingle Pond via Weeks Brook Trail. This trail is a bit hard to follow initially as it zig zags down some ledgy areas where false routes come and go but generally the route is blazed on the rocks with yellow paint. It also feels like it heads well NW of Shingle Pond. Once you get out of the ledges, the woods turn into fairly mature softwoods with little understory and there are some large trees, mostly Hemlocks that have been around for a long time. The trail crosses the outlet of a bog over fairly dry land before following a farily large brook before swinging away towards the Shingle Pond Drainage. At one point there was signs of recent agressive maintanence where the trail was cut back at least eight feet wide. Shingle Pond at this time of year is pretty boggy but the woods near the pond look like a great place to camp.
So far the trip was on an official trail but I had heard over the years of a mountain bike trail that cut back to near the Kearsage North trailhead. I had my GPS, compass, safety glasses and leather gloves in preparation for a bushwhack. No need whatsoever. The "Red Dot" trail is not signed but is marked with faded red paint spots on trees, although as the road gets more obvious the red dots fade away. The turn for the Red Dot trail is just after you have passed the pond and initially it is a bit hard to find as the woods are so open, but very soon its obvious. The entire length of the trail is a very well graded old logging road, with the exception of some large blowdowns across the route and one stream crossing, the trail is better than most hiking trails in the whites. I normally dont jog on a trail but I expect many will as there is just enough duff on the route to make for some nice walking through mature softwood stands. There were a couple of wet stretches down low but I expect that if it hadnt rained so heavilly in the past few days, a dry route could be found. Eventually the road comes into a recently logged area, the roads have been grassed in but it obvious which way to go until you see a house to your left. Rather than walking down in their yard, I beared right and came out on the main logging road then beared left which eventually comes out at a ski club. The hike is then a walk down a road to Hurricane mountain road and then a 1/4 mile walk back to the car. I believe that the land is WMNF and Nature Conservancy land and i ditn see any no trespassing signs.
Overall a fine hike. I would guess the hike to the pond and the route back adds about 1-1/2 hours to the out and back time via Kearsage North Trail. I would definitely not recomend going up this trail as there are many branching roads near the beginning that make sense when you are going down but would be easty to miss going up.
