Little Tunnel Ravine

Where to get away from the foliage crowds? Little Tunnel Ravine, on the north side of Mt. Moosilauke, seemed like a good bet. To get there, I walked up FR 171 and then FR 170 to its bridge over Little Tunnel Brook.

 

 

A glimpse of Mt. Clough while approaching the bridge.

Little Tunnel Brook drains a sharply-cut valley between Mt. Moosilauke and Mt. Blue.

For nearly a mile I followed an old logging road, obscure in places, along the east side of the brook.

A standout yellow birch.

Nice overhead color in this hardwood-rich valley.

One of many attractive scenes along the brook.

This tributary, dry during the drought, comes down from an eastern branch of the ravine. At its head is a slide that came down during Tropical Storm Irene in 2011.

Just above the tributary is a lovely series of ledges and waterslides, now carpeted in leaf-fall.

The waterslides continue upstream.

Side view.

A sculpted pool.

Looking up from the pool.

Cascades farther upstream. If you continue far enough up the brook, encountering some very steep and gnarly terrain, you will eventually come to the "Nine Cascades," which gained some renown in the late 1800s. The tallest of them is over 100 feet high. John "1HappyHiker" Compton and I made our way to the base of the big drop in 2014. I did not plan to go up there on this trip, especially with a crack o' noon start.

My objective for this trip was to see if I could access any of several open ledge patches - the remnants of old, very steep slides - on the west wall of the ravine. These slides are shown on a sketch I stumbled upon years ago in the Dartmouth College Library, in the papers of Moosilauke forest historian J. Willcox Brown. They are depicted below what was then a series of three outlooks on the Benton Trail.  The undated sketch may have been drawn by someone from the U.S. Forest Service.  I had studied these from the valley floor on a December trip three years ago with the leaves down. At the time I declared, 

"Crazy steep up there, I don't think I'll be climbing up on that one." Well, maybe it would be worth a try...

 

 

 

 

 

I continued up the valley on remnants of the old road mixed with bushwhack diversions. 

I had a glimpse of the ridge on the west side looming ominously.

I crossed the brook in a rubbly area and decided that this looked like as good a place as any to start climbing up the steep slope.

The terrain quickly took a turn to the crazy. Lots of pushing off from below and tree-pulling from above.

A first glimpse across to a northern spur ridge of Mt. Blue on the east side of the ravine.

 

The climbing was slow and strenuous,with a pitch of about 40 degrees as measured later using online maps.

Arriving at the bottom of the first ledges on the chosen old slide.

Looking back.

Steep enough!

I worked my way up along the side of a higher and larger ledge, obtaining a preview of the vista up to the lower headwall of the ravine.

I eventually made my way up to a safe and comfortable perch beside the widest expanse of ledge on the old slide, 300 feet above the floor of the valley. That's not a lot of elevation, but it took a long time to fashion a weaving route up to here.

I thought the view was worth the effort! The steep drop up at the rim of the headwall is the location of the big waterfall. The crest of Mt. Blue peers over in back.

I spent the better part of an hour relaxing here.

 

Looking up to the top of the big ledge..

Looking across to the northern ridge of Mt. Blue. 

 

The northern ridge, continued.

There was even a little shelf where I could safely step out onto the slide.

Down-look. I was pleased to see several good-sized white pines thriving on the slide.

Peering down to the valley floor.

 

There's the little shelf I was able to stand on, amidst ledges too steep for me to climb.

While relaxing at my perch, I decided I did not want to descend along the precarious route I had come up. Too easy to hit a dead end. Instead, I chose to ascend 300 feet to the Benton Trail up on the ridge. I used a Lidar map with two-foot contours, which I had printed off the NHGranit website, to strategize a route weaving around impassably steep spots. First I climbed alongside the last part of the big ledge to the top and weaseled down for a look below.

The track of the slide continued a little way above the big ledge.

 

Looking back down as I ascended through the prickly woods.

A little corridor that was steep but passable.

An impassable band of cliffs, just as shown on the Lidar map.

Also shown on the Lidar map was this little shelf extending along the base of the cliffs.

This little ramp was key to making the traverse along the base.

Still pretty rugged but better terrain ahead.

Circling around to the crest of the ridge. Phew!

Yay for the Benton Trail!

A 0.9 mile descent on the trail and a 2.4 mile road walk completed this afternoon/early evening adventure.