I headed for the Starr King Trail for a day on the Pliny Range, with sunny skies after morning fog, and cool, clear air for good visibility. The parking lot has been expanded since my last visit here two years ago, but beware of a couple of washout dips on the entrance road.
The Randolph Mountain Club maintains this trail and has done some excellent erosion control work in recent years.
My favorite part of this hike is the magnificent mature hardwood forest on Starr King's broad southwest ridge.
There's some rocky footing on the long traverse through conifers on the back side of the ridge.
The spring at 3400 ft. was flowing, but just barely.
Above the spring two RMC trail crew guys were cleaning drainages. Reuben and Justin were working under the watchful eye of their supervisor, Winry. Thanks for the good work!
The summit ledge of Starr King bears a cairn and USGS benchmark.
The cleared view just below the summit is still pretty good.
A cloudbank lingered over the Presys.
Starr King is one of the most frequented Gray Jay summits. In the background is the fireplace from the old shelter up here. I spent a night in it with some friends around 1979, shortly before it was torn down.
Descending from Starr King through the fern-filled balsam fir forest so typical of the Pliny and Pilot Ranges.
Part of the day's plan was a bushwhack descent from the col to the upper part of the Waumbek Slide, which fell in 1957. The first part of the whack led down through ferns, which made for difficult footing as I could not see where I was stepping. Farther down it was steep and thick, as a fellow bushwhacker had told me.
There are actually two slides on this steep south-facing slope. This mossy slab is the top of the narrow, older eastern slide, which is mostly revegetated.
I made a slow traverse across the slope to the top of the 1957 slide.
A little farther down I came beside the edge of the upper open slab of the 1957 Waumbek Slide.
I worked my way down to the main part of the slab, looking across to the Presidentials. As reported by slide researcher Edward Flaccus in his 1958 dissertation, Landslides and Their Revegetation in the White Mountains of New Hampshire, on the evening of July 22, 1957, following a 24-hour rainfall, Jefferson resident Ralph Hunt "heard a roar sounding like a jet plane, then a long rumble, which he then knew to be a slide on the mountain behind his house." Hunt noted that the sound lasted no more than a minute.
I was pleased to find a small shelf on which to sit in the sun and take in the commanding view, which included 30 White Mountain 4000-footers. In the foreground is the fine-looking valley of Crawford Brook, which is within the WMNF but is difficult to access as the land below it is private.
In his dissertation, Edward Flaccus called this the "Starr King West Slide." In editions of the 1960s and 1970s, the AMC White Mountain Guide referred to it as the Waumbek Slide and suggested ascending it as part of a bushwhack route: “It is possible to bushwhack from the western leg of Ingerson road in Jefferson, up the Waumbek Slide and thence to the ridge. This route is marked by infrequent blazes, and enters the trail just W of the easternmost low point on the ridge.” The slabs looked pretty wet and potentially dangerous to me. Perhaps the conditions were different 50 years ago, when the slide was new.
I love this quote from Kim Nilsen in his guidebook to the Cohos Trail: "Well below this glade, off the trail and out of sight, is a hideously steep slab of exposed rock where no tree or shrub can gain a foothold."
Tamaracks are thriving above the upper edge of the slab.
The edge of the slide is well-guarded.
I made the steep climb back to the trail and continued on to Mt. Waumbek.
Some first time visitors don't know that a good view awaits at a blowdown area just 50 yards east of the summit on the Kilkenny Ridge Trail.
The south-facing vista is still pleasing, though it's getting a bit more restricted.
Nice angle on the Presys.
Madison, Adams, Jefferson and Washington, with shadows engulfing Castle and King Ravines.
I continued another 0.3 mile east on the Kilkenny Ridge Trail over the east knob of Waumbek, which used to have an interesting though restricted view north over The Kilkenny, but is fully overgrown now. Beyond the Waumbek viewpoint, the KRT is a narrow footway pushing through luxuriant fern fields, sometimes overgrown, and frequently blocked by blowdown.
Hikers traversing this trail east from Mt. Waumbek should anticipate a wilderness-type experience. It's a marvelous walk, on a dry day.
Back at the Starr King viewpoint, the Presys were catching some late day rays.
Madison and Adams, with the Knife Edge of Durand Ridge on Mt. Adams standing out.
Jefferson, Washington and Monroe. Last look before the 2.6 mile descent. Made it out just before dark, no headlamp needed.
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