grouseking
Well-known member
Friday morning I woke up, wondering if I could convince one of my friends to go hiking this weekend. I didn't know where to go, but I knew I wanted to get out. Then my Dad sent me an IM, and asked me if I wanted to hike the McCrillis trail to Whiteface. He got his motivation from here, the immortal Steve Smith.
I was fightning an uphill battle as soon as I woke up Saturday morning. For some reason the breakfast I ate wasn't sitting well with me, so I kept it small, and had some water, an apple, and a cliff bar as we approached the trail head. We were the only car on a gorgeous Saturday morning. I know this trail is quiet, but I figured there would be a couple cars since it was the weekend.
The initial walk in along the Flat Mtn Pond trail was calming, but somewhat fast to keep the bugs at bay! Wow, those mosquitoes are something else this year! They laugh at deet. I don't know how bad they are further north, but in the southern whites, they are oot and aboot! Moving on, there is a nice bench that can't be 1/2 mile down along the trail, that gives a nice view of Sandwich Dome and Flat mtn.
Before long, the trail turns right off the "road" and it becomes an actual hiking path. There was a nice view of Whiteface, which lied ahead. I thought..."boy that is a long way away!"
The distance to the Whiteface river crossing was about 1.7 miles, and we made good time getting there, about 35 min. Considering how cruddy I was feeling, we made amazing time. The crossing was pretty easy yesterday, but I can see it being a bear with higher water.
After the crossing, it was a short walk uphill before the McCrillis trail diverges to the right for good. This is where my uphill battle feeling really begins. I think it was because I had lack of nourishment, and I was trying to ration water. I took 4 liters, but for me, that is really not enough. Temps were pretty mild, and for May, it was somewhat humid. But most of all, the trail was somewhat difficult to follow, and I had to pay attention to my radar at all times. Normally I can kind of put my body on cruise control, but not yesterday! There was deep mud, hidden rocks, moose poo, blowdowns galore...and several of those required climbing up and over, or under. Sometimes I just said screw it, and completely avoided them altogether. It was at this point when I realized I was not in the best shape.
The highlight in the lower section of trail was when we saw a white tailed deer go charging down the hill to get away from us. I always feel bad for scaring wildlife.
I didn't take too many pics on the way up, till we got into the conifers and started getting ledge views. Mentally, I didn't care about pics till then.
Except for this pink lady slipper. these are beautiful flowers, IMO
on a break above 3000 ft
Soon after this break, I stumbled on a faint path, covered in moose dung, that led out to a really nice view of Sandwich Dome, and the rest of the mtns nearby. It was the same view as in my first pic on this report.
A look back at last week's hike, Mt Israel
On Golden Pond
Another ledge, looking towards Whiteface, Dad takin pics
The rest of the climb to Whiteface was kind of a blur. It got pretty darn steep for me, and the uphill battle was at an all time high. I methodically made my way up, and around, and eventually over some ledges that led to the "toppermost of the poppermost" of what I like to call Blueberry Hill. I didn't actually summit Whiteface....that would have been another 0.6 round trip, and plus, I've been there before.
The break on the top wasn't good enough, but it was kind of late, so we had to hurry a bit.
Un moment!
grouseking
