Redlining - Getting there!

[Snowflea]

After pursuing redlining/trailbagging--or at least "keeping track" --for the past 25 years, punctuated by numerous fits and starts and a 6-year hiatus while living in California, I decided to finally tackle the last ~300 miles and ~200 trails in May of this year. My intention was never to finish by year's end (as evidenced by some of the goofy trails that were left for last) but somehow it got down to the last 75 miles, then 50, then 25... such that the end is very near. The following is a little trip report of my previous five outings.
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Miles Notch Trail
Haystack Notch Trail

Date: Saturday, 11/15/14

Trails: Miles Notch Trail to Red Rock Trail junction. Haystack Notch Trail point to point, east to west.

Trail conditions: Couple of inches of fresh snow over lots of leaves. First winter boot hike of the season. River crossings took some studying but all were rock hoppable.

Comments: Happily surprised to see Morrill-Grover Road in great condition and driveable all the way to the trailhead. Evans Notch Road also still open on this date although a thin layer of slippery snow necessitated cautious driving.

We hiked out and back through an untracked couple of inches of fresh snow to the junction with Red Rock Trail. Trail was easy to follow.

I then hiked Haystack Notch Trail east to west with Chris picking me up on the Evans Notch side (thanks Chris!!). Again fresh tracks through 2-4 inches snow. River crossings were not icy yet and still rock hoppable. There was one short head scratching moment where a blowdown obscured the trail, but the rest of the trail was easily followed and not confusing at all. A pretty walk in the woods!

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Bald Land, Scenic Vista Spur, East Branch, Wild River, Bog Brook, Carter Notch Road, Black Mtn Ski, and East Pasture XC Trails

Date: Sunday, 11/16/14

Trail conditions: 2-4 inches fresh snow over leaves and half frozen mud pits

Gear: Waterproof boots and full gaiters. Poles were very helpful. Headlamps!

Comments: We started this big 19-mile loop at the Bald Land-East Pasture TH at the end of Black Mtn Road. A wiser choice would have been to start at the Black Mtn Ski Trail on Mellon Road for rather obvious reasons (!), but I think we were not yet wide awake at the start. Anyway, it worked in the end.

The beginning of Bald Land Trail is a XC ski trail but shortly after the Scenic Vista Spur junction turns right onto a narrower hiking trail. Thanks to my eagle-eyed husband, we found the actual scenic vista. At the second opening described in the WMG, look up to the left, where there is a sign pointing up another 100 +/- feet and 0.2 mile or so on a singletrack trail (NOT described in the WMG). Voila, a view!

We made our way down to East Branch Road/FR 38, which is still closed to traffic post-Irene, and shortly found ourselves at the Bud Light TH, cans strewn all over the place. What IS it with Bud Light drinkers anyway??!! Once on the East Branch Trail, the setting was quite lovely along the river with many, many critter--but no human--tracks in the fresh snow. We really enjoyed the lower couple of miles of this trail. As for the upper couple of miles, the footing became more on the “poor” side, with more rocks, half frozen mud pits and a very boggy section as we neared Wild River Trail. Thanks to good boots, poles, focus and luck, we were able to keep our feet dry all day, no small feat (ha) on these trails! We encountered no confusing sections on East Branch Trail--it was easy to follow.

As we approached No Ketchum Pond, the resident moose made their presence known. Lots of tracks up there! The next couple of miles was more stream crossings and mud pit lurching and the feeling that we were the only humans for many miles around. We did encounter other human prints at the Rainbow Trail junction--they looked to be a day old. Shortly after turning onto Bog Brook Trail is a section where the beavers have been hard at work. This results in a potentially confusing but well marked (with surveyors tape) reroute. It will feel like you’re going the wrong way, but just follow the markings.

Bog Brook Trail was otherwise unremarkable until the Wildcat River crossing, which was probably not going to happen with dry feet this day. I say "probably" because a little ways downstream there was a ~15 inch diameter tree across the river which looks like it maybe could be straddled. Since I’d already redlined this section of trail, however, and we didn't feel like straddling, we opted to head back up to FR 233 for about 0.5 more mileage but continued dry feet.

By the time we hit Carter Notch Road, we decided that we both “could be done” if some kind soul just happened to drive by and offer us a ride back to our car. As the star alignment would have it, NO ONE drove by over the course of the 1.5 mile road walk, so up and over Black Mtn it would be! (This is why we should have started HERE instead of Black Mtn Road.) After splitting a Starbucks Doubleshot, we slogged up the mountain in the quickly fading light and made it to the cabin before pulling out headlamps. An energy-injecting bright spot at the end of our day was the fact that the cabin was being rented (on a Sunday night!) by some kind folks from Rhode Island who invited us inside to warm up next to the wood stove. I ran up and tagged the summit quickly, then both of us bid adieu to our new friends and headed back down and around to the East Pasture XC Trail.

In the downhill direction EPXCT is very straight forward, but I can see where going in the opposite direction some of the junctions might be confusing. One more cool thing was to be discovered. About halfway down the EPXCT was a little spur trail that led to the gravesite of one Nathaniel Kimball, who apparently fought in the Battle of Bennington. His connection to Jackson is unknown to me. It was kind of eerie to encounter a 19th century gravestone in the dark in such an odd location.

We were happy to reach the car at the end of this long, cold day!

Continued...

 

[Snowflea]

Grafton Loop (western) and campsite spurs

Date: Saturday, 11/22/14

Trails: Old Speck Trail, Grafton Loop, spur trails to Bull Brook, Slide Mtn, Sargent Brook and Bald Mtn campsites

Trail conditions: Old Speck Trail was very icy, but we were able to bareboot it. Only real ice on the Grafton Loop was over Sunday River Whitecap. We wore Microspikes for this section. There was a few inches of fresh snow which was untracked save for the usual critters.

Gear: Winter boots, Microspikes, poles, headlamps

Comments: Back in September 2011 I hiked/ran the Grafton Loop in one fell swoop but not being “redline-centric” at that particular time, neglected to do any of the tentsite spurs. Bad move! Soooo… the western side of the Grafton Loop redux it would be. I actually quite liked the “excuse” to revisit Sunday River Whitecap, such a beautiful mountain that one. My buddy Al and his pooch Percy agreed to join me, and Chris kindly played taxi driver and also got in his own out-and-back hike on the southern end of the trail, thus potentially saving us a bit of route finding in the dark later in the day.

Old Speck Trail was very icy this day, and most probably would have been more comfortable with light traction. We were able to find enough ice-free spots to place our feet but probably could have made better time with spikes on. Once on top of Old Speck and on down the Grafton Loop Trail, ice was minimal to nonexistent. For the most part the western portion of GLT is a nice walk in open hardwoods.

Al and Percy refused to do the tentsite spurs even after I regaled them with fascinating descriptions of composting privies, tent platforms and bear boxes. Hiking 17 miles in order to mark off 0.3 is perfectly rational to a redliner but probably not so for the rest of the population…

The highlight of the day was going over Sunday River Whitecap in winter conditions! We knew it would be icy up high, so just before busting out into the open, we layered up (Percy included) and donned Microspikes (Percy not included). The summit ridge was cold and invigorating, the 360 degree views awesomely spectacular!! Although they are Maineaks now, it was a first visit for my compatriots who were duly impressed.

At Sargent Brook Tentsite I found, and carried out, a good sized bag of garbage (boo). The descent off Stowe Mtn was a bit precarious and steeper than I’d remembered. The remainder of the day was more woods walking interspersed with some mildly challenging brook crossings, but the feet stayed dry. We were happy to finally reach Chris’s tracks because it meant no searching for the trail over the last 30-45 minutes with headlamps. Thanks Chris, Al and Percy! I am a lucky woman!!
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Great Brook, Red Rock, Miles Notch Loop

Date: Sunday, 11/23/14

Trail conditions: 2-4 inches snow over lots of leaves

Gear: Winter boots, poles

Comments: We really enjoyed this loop! Were able to drive all the way up Hut Road to the TH. After a bit of deliberation and reading that Great Brook and parts of Red Rock Trails might be confusing and hard to follow since they are so lightly traveled and partly within Caribou-Speckled Mtn Wilderness, decided to do this 10.7 miler in the clockwise direction even though it meant a 550 foot climb at the end.

Great Brook Trail starts off as a FS road, turns onto FS 4, then onto a grassy road, and finally morphs into a real hiking trail. At about mile 2, the trail takes one past the mid 19th century Butters homestead. The trail passes right next to a cellar hole and gravestone of two young children. Amazing that folks could try to eek out a living there in the early-mid 1800s. We also passed the frame for a rather large teepee--not sure what the story is with that!

Because it is so lightly used, Great Brook Trail might be tricky to follow here and there, but we lucked out: there were human footprints in the snow from the day before by the looks of it! The brook was very pretty, melodious, and had some interesting cascades. All crossings were easy. Just before reaching Red Rock Trail there is an overhanging rock ledge with impressive icicles coming off it. Some good photo ops there.

I’d done the western half of Red Rock Trail in July and really enjoyed it even though it was a major fern-whack. With all the ferns and hobblebush in a more dormant state this time of year the trail was easy to follow and there were no head scratching searches for the tread. This trail is really cool, one I would redo in a heartbeat. Per the WMG, near the East Knob of Red Rock Mtn is an unmarked spur that leads to an incredible downsloping ledge with a pretty extreme dropoff (definite deathfall territory!). There was very little ice this day, but we still exercised extreme caution on the ledge where we enjoyed that best of winter hiking treats: Campbell’s tomato soup.

In comparison the rest of the hike was rather anticlimactic. Much to our surprise, we encountered fresh boot prints at the Miles Notch Trail junction. About a half hour later, we caught up to their owners. What was kind of funny was that for the first 10 seconds or so, all four of us just stood there staring at one another, amazed to have encountered other hikers on this trail. They actually asked "Why are you on THIS trail??" The 550 foot climb wasn’t so bad, now made more fun by sharing stories with our new trail buddies, names unknown, with whom we walked out the last couple of miles.

The icing on the cake this day was stopping in North Conway on the way home and finding out that my circa 1992, very heavy, never to be worn again by me, collecting dust in the closet Koflach plastic boots sold for $95 at IME. Yay!
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Eyebrow Trail
Diamond Peaks Trail
Magalloway River Trail

Date: Wednesday, 11/26/14

Trail conditions: After rain and warmer temps earlier in the week, most of the ice and snow were gone.

Gear: Could’ve used trail runners today but was happy I wore waterproof winter boots on Eyebrow!

Comments: Yup, we were in fact up in Grafton Notch just four days prior, but the Old Speck Trail was very icy so we knew Eyebrow Trail would be no place for Percy the dog that day. Fast forward four days and almost all the snow and ice is GONE. We awoke at an utterly ridiculous hour in attempts to beat the storm Wednesday afternoon and were mostly, but not totally, successful.

Having never been on Eyebrow Trail before and not knowing what I’d encounter, I brought Microspikes AND full crampons for the ledges. Chris waited this one out in the parking lot! Traction proved unnecessary as the only real ice encountered was on the metal hand rungs. The cable hand rail seemed a bit overkill IMO, but the metal rungs were appreciated! One move necessitated placing my foot on a rung with water running over it (why I was happy to be in boots!). Another very wet rung soaked a couple of fingers of one glove. You would not really want to fall here. After negotiating the major ledge section, it was an easy climb with some nice views up to the Old Speck Trail which I took back down to the parking lot. Amazing how NOT icy the trail was this day compared to Sunday.

Next up was the interesting drive up Routes 26 and 16 through Upton, Errol and Wentworth’s Location en route to Dartmouth’s Second College Grant lands. At 27,000 acres, this area has a few other hiking trails (per my old Dartmouth Outing Guide), but only Diamond Peaks Trail is in the WMG. We were cracking up because it seemed so far away and out of the Whites that we might as well have been driving to Rangeley! Totally unexpected was the amount of traffic we encountered on the 2+ mile (gated) road walk on a Wednesday in November. ?? Turns out they allow hunting within the Grant (one must have or know someone who has some Dartmouth affiliation), and probably a dozen pickup trucks drove by as we walked the road to Diamond Peaks Trail. We espied the famous osprey nest and checked out the impressive river gorge. Both of us agreed that the river reminded us more of one out West, say Idaho or Montana, than of New Hampshire. As for the Diamond Peaks Trail, it was easy to follow but appeared lightly used. We cleaned out a few waterbars with our boots--looked like they hadn’t been cleaned in some time and were chock full of leaves. Views from the end of the trail were nice, especially of the Magalloway River and Mt Dustan across the road.

After a quick stop at the Dustan General Store (now I know where to get pickled eggs and night crawlers), our final hike of the day was the "0.35" mile Magalloway River Trail. A map at the kiosk, however, showed three different trails--Blue, Green and Orange--totaling about 1.5 miles. Knowing we probably wouldn’t be back, we walked them all. With a thick carpet of fallen tamarack needles, the Blue Trail was especially pretty. I called it the Snow White Trail.

As we reached the car at 1 pm, the first flakes appeared. Fifteen minutes later the road was covered. It was a slow ride home but we got our trails for the day!
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A bit of weather cooperation is required for my next hike, its being entirely above 5000 feet. Hmm... now which trail could that be?

 

[J&J]

Westside trail?

 

[Maineman]

Great report! Would your next trail be the Cornice?

 

[Snowflea]

Westside trail?

J, Half right... wrong direction.

 

[trailbagger]

Wow, that is a HUGE amount of progress! So you will finish this year? Hope you picked a good trail to finish on, and not Landing Camp or a campsite spur. Actually, I haven't done Landing Camp but Becca Munroe said it sucks.

From your report, sounds like I missed the view on the Bald Land "Scenic View" spur. It was winter and I remember looking for it, because there wasn't any view from the second clearing. Oh well ... hope that doesn't mean I have to repeat it!

Anyway, keep up the good work ...

 

[Snowflea]

Trailbagger, Landing Camp Trail was not too bad and had a nice view of Cabot. In fact, I found most trails' conditions to be better than what I'd read online. It's so subjective and there are so many other factors at play (bugs, recent maintenance, weather, snow, etc.).

The Scenic View Spur was a bit confusing because the WMG narrative did not mention the "spur of the spur," but there was a definite view there. If you're ever in the Jackson area, it would be a short hike to tag it!

As you can probably see from the other thread, I did finish on Southside Trail. Sorry to be so obtuse... given the weather report wasn't sure I would actually make it on Saturday!

Sue

PS: Found out that the buyer of my old Koflachs was none other than the HFKA Dr. Dasypodidae, who bought them for an upcoming trip to Antarctica! (Thanks Dr. D, I'd have given you a better deal than IME if only I'd known!)