poison ivy
Well-known member
Several of us had been tossing around the idea of doing a Kilkenny Ridge traverse this fall -- but the clock change and snowy weather arrived before we knew it. So instead, we decided to scale back our plans and hike North, Middle and South Weeks, two of which are on the New England Hundred Highest list. Our intrepid group of eight consisted of our trip organizer MEB and Little Sister, yam, getawaygirl, sal, Steve, Amicus and me. We were thrilled to find a bypass at the fish hatchery for bridge that is closed for construction -- which knocked four miles of roadwalk off our 12.2 mile hike.
We gathered at the York Pond trailhead at 8 a.m. and were geared up and were heading past the metal gate by 8:20 a.m. The trail is initially an old logging road filled with pretty brown and yellow grasses. It crosses a concrete dam over a brook and soon became a little boggy -- beautiful area but plenty of mud holes to step in along the way. We made great time up to the double brook crossing, which proved to be a little challenging, especially for me with my shorter legs. We scouted a little while to find the easiest place to cross, but did not realize there was a second crossing immediately after the first. For the return trip, we crossed a small tributary instead and bushwhacked downstream instead, which proved much easier, at least for me.
With the brook crossing out of the way, it was an easy walk up to the Kilkenny Ridge Trail, which we reached in an hour and 40 minutes. We passed a few odd spots where there was a warm wind blowing on us -- we all began to take off layers and realized that the winter pants and coats in our packs were not going to be needed. At the Kilkenny Ridge Trail, we spent a few minutes trying to rectify the map, which had a four-way junction on it, with the actual terrain, which only had a three-way junction. Fortunately, sal had brought her White Mountain Guide and we realized the fourth junction was 100 feet down the trail.
Once on the Kilkenny Ridge Trail, we almost immediately encountered patchy snow, which ranged from about an inch at lower elevations to about a foot near the summits. The snow was so patchy and mushy that snowshoes really wouldn’t have helped. There were quite a few spots where there was water flowing underneath the snow. Steve led the way for most of the trip uphill because we reasoned he had bigger feet than the rest of us and for a long way he followed moose tracks, which were pretty consistently on the trail. We worked our way pretty steadily up to the summit though we did have a long stop to enjoy the awesome oatmeal, cranberry, white chocolate chip cookies that getawaygirl baked for us.
We came to flat area near the top of North Weeks and someone with eagle eye spotted to holes in a tree where a sign once was. So, we stopped for the mandatory pictures and for a lunch break before heading on to tackle our next two summits. The trail became a little more challenging due to a myriad of blowdowns as we headed down into the col between North and Middle Weeks. The most challenging blowdown was two big trees lying across the trail. As Steve attempted to cross over them, both trees snapped in half and he took quite a tumble (or so I hear… being the sweeper, I missed what was happening at the front of the group.)
The summit of Middle Weeks was really not all that noticeable… we knew we had a mile to go when we started going downhill to a second col. Fortunately, the trip back uphill to the South Weeks summit was not as steep and we made it pretty quickly to the summit. Both Mary Ellen and I searched around but were unable to find the canister mentioned in the White Mountain Guide. (I was later told that it has been removed since these are trailed peaks now.)
It was then time to turn around and head back out the way we came. Yam and Little Sister had talked about continuing on to Waumbek and out that way, but we all ended up hiking back out to the York Pond Trail. The hike back was pretty uneventful, though I was running out of steam by the time we climbed the steep slope back up North Weeks and was thrilled that all our uphill climbing was done. From there, it was an easy cruise down to our cars.
The sun set at about 4:30, which provided a nice pink backdrop to some of the mountains behind us. An orange sliver of moon rose over the summits behind us which we could see over the trees on the York Pond Trail. We finished the hike under skies just barely light enough for us to continue without digging out the headlamps at 5:15 p.m.
It was definitely a nice day to be out in the woods and another great group hike! I hope others will post pictures -- a majority of mine were fuzzy. I think my camera battery was low and it was slower than usual to react. The few I could salvage are
here.
- Ivy
We gathered at the York Pond trailhead at 8 a.m. and were geared up and were heading past the metal gate by 8:20 a.m. The trail is initially an old logging road filled with pretty brown and yellow grasses. It crosses a concrete dam over a brook and soon became a little boggy -- beautiful area but plenty of mud holes to step in along the way. We made great time up to the double brook crossing, which proved to be a little challenging, especially for me with my shorter legs. We scouted a little while to find the easiest place to cross, but did not realize there was a second crossing immediately after the first. For the return trip, we crossed a small tributary instead and bushwhacked downstream instead, which proved much easier, at least for me.
With the brook crossing out of the way, it was an easy walk up to the Kilkenny Ridge Trail, which we reached in an hour and 40 minutes. We passed a few odd spots where there was a warm wind blowing on us -- we all began to take off layers and realized that the winter pants and coats in our packs were not going to be needed. At the Kilkenny Ridge Trail, we spent a few minutes trying to rectify the map, which had a four-way junction on it, with the actual terrain, which only had a three-way junction. Fortunately, sal had brought her White Mountain Guide and we realized the fourth junction was 100 feet down the trail.
Once on the Kilkenny Ridge Trail, we almost immediately encountered patchy snow, which ranged from about an inch at lower elevations to about a foot near the summits. The snow was so patchy and mushy that snowshoes really wouldn’t have helped. There were quite a few spots where there was water flowing underneath the snow. Steve led the way for most of the trip uphill because we reasoned he had bigger feet than the rest of us and for a long way he followed moose tracks, which were pretty consistently on the trail. We worked our way pretty steadily up to the summit though we did have a long stop to enjoy the awesome oatmeal, cranberry, white chocolate chip cookies that getawaygirl baked for us.
We came to flat area near the top of North Weeks and someone with eagle eye spotted to holes in a tree where a sign once was. So, we stopped for the mandatory pictures and for a lunch break before heading on to tackle our next two summits. The trail became a little more challenging due to a myriad of blowdowns as we headed down into the col between North and Middle Weeks. The most challenging blowdown was two big trees lying across the trail. As Steve attempted to cross over them, both trees snapped in half and he took quite a tumble (or so I hear… being the sweeper, I missed what was happening at the front of the group.)
The summit of Middle Weeks was really not all that noticeable… we knew we had a mile to go when we started going downhill to a second col. Fortunately, the trip back uphill to the South Weeks summit was not as steep and we made it pretty quickly to the summit. Both Mary Ellen and I searched around but were unable to find the canister mentioned in the White Mountain Guide. (I was later told that it has been removed since these are trailed peaks now.)
It was then time to turn around and head back out the way we came. Yam and Little Sister had talked about continuing on to Waumbek and out that way, but we all ended up hiking back out to the York Pond Trail. The hike back was pretty uneventful, though I was running out of steam by the time we climbed the steep slope back up North Weeks and was thrilled that all our uphill climbing was done. From there, it was an easy cruise down to our cars.
The sun set at about 4:30, which provided a nice pink backdrop to some of the mountains behind us. An orange sliver of moon rose over the summits behind us which we could see over the trees on the York Pond Trail. We finished the hike under skies just barely light enough for us to continue without digging out the headlamps at 5:15 p.m.
It was definitely a nice day to be out in the woods and another great group hike! I hope others will post pictures -- a majority of mine were fuzzy. I think my camera battery was low and it was slower than usual to react. The few I could salvage are
here.
- Ivy
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