The loop junction. I went clockwise, up over the East Ledges, on to the summit, and then down the western part of the loop, which I maintained for a number of years. The entire loop is now admirably maintained by Fawn Langerman.
Nice hardwoods along the lower part of the East Loop.
The trail makes an easy crossing of little White Brook, which flows out of a hidden mini-ravine.
The rainstorm had blown the snowpack out of long sections of trail, making for tedious conditions.
The spikes took a beating on sections like this.
Due to the poor conditions on the trail, I made a familiar shortcut bushwhack up through a little notch on the peak that bears the East Ledges.
Heading for the sun.
Regaining the trail on the crest, I backtracked east a short distance to the western section of the East Ledges, my favorite spot on the mountain.
The ledges offer a sweeping view over the expansive valley of Oliverian Brook. How often can you do this in December?
In addition to the valley view there is, of course, the impressive sight of Mount Passaconaway and its eastern spurs: Nanamocomuck Peak, Wonalancet Hedgehog and Square Ledge.
In 1884, AMC tramper Alford A. Butler hailed Passaconaway as “a perfect forest-mantled cone, the most symmetrical mountain in the landscape, a veritable sonnet in stone.”
Looking up at the summit of Hedgehog.
Wild terrain as the UNH Trail swings around the west side of Hedgehog.
Love the open spruce forest.
I had started barebooting at the East Ledges, to save wear on my 'spikes. Careful footwork was required on icy spots as the trail makes a steep zigzag climb towards the summit.
Had to put the spikes back on to get up this scramble.
One of several outlooks along the approach to the summit.
Spikes off for this ledge, which seems a little harder each time I come through here.
A near-summit view of Passaconaway & Co.
Mts. Huntington, Hancock and Carrigian from a western outlook.
Zoom on Hancock, with Mts. Bond and Guyot seen in the distance on the right.
West Sleeper, the Tripyramids, part of the Fool Killer, and South Potash.
Mt. Chocorua and the Sisters.
The Osceolas beyond Scaur Peak.
Heading down the trail north of the summit, where ledges open a view out to Mt. Washington beyond Mt. Tremont.
PASSACONAWAY BEAVER POND AND BEYOND
Two days later I headed back to the Hedgehog area to bushwhack to a favorite beaver bog that provides an imposing view of Mt. Passaconaway, followed by some wandering out in the western part of the Oliverian Brook valley. The lower parts of the Oliverian Brook Trail and Passaconaway Cutoff were solid and pretty smooth, making for easy microspiking.
Moose were liking the conditions, too.
Into the Wilderness.
And on to Passaconaway Cutoff, which I had traversed a week earlier en route to Square Ledge.
I had noted this projecting stub on the first trip.
This time I remembered my saw and removed it.
At my chosen spot, I switched to snowshoes and headed into the woods.
The snowshoeing was decent in perhaps 5 or 6 inches of crunchy snow.
Approaching the beaver bog.
The view of Mt. Passaconaway from the sunny north shore is one of my favorites in the Sandwich Range Wilderness.
In fact, I deem it one of the best views of a single mountain anywhere in the Whites. I like how Charles Edward Beals, Jr. describes the mountain in his 1916 classic, Passaconaway in the White Mountains: "...the loftiest, wildest, yet most symmetrical, most awe-inspiring mountain of the Sandwich Range."
From here you can see the top of Passaconaway's East Slide, which fell during the September 1938 hurricane.
View of the beaver bog from the East Slide.
This fallen spruce provided a convenient seat that allowed me to bask in the sun for nearly an hour.
Farther along the shore I could see the backlit profiles of Square Ledge and Nanamocomuck Peak.
Heading back into the woods for some wilderness wandering.
I made my way to the site of a logging camp I had stumbled upon a few winters ago while bushwhacking down to the beaver bog from the UNH Trail.
There is still a small clearing here. This
was a camp of the Conway Lumber Company's Swift River Railroad
(1906-1916), one of seven in the Oliverian Brook valley, according to
Bill Gove's Logging Railroads of the Saco River Valley. As always, a
reminder that logging artifacts should always be left as they are found;
it is illegal to remove them from the WMNF.
Part of a wood stove. The map in Gove's book, shows a "Lambert Camp" in this neighborhood. On the other hand, in Albany's Recollections, by A. Bernard Perry, there is a photo of a large camp building with a dozen men in front with the caption, "St. Clair's camp on small pond between Passaconaway and Hedgehog Mts." Presumably the small pond referred to is the beaver bog.
These hoops may have been used on some sort of carriage wheel?
The tributary of Oliverian Brook that served as the water source for the camp.
I continued bushwhacking westward to the lower flank of Mt. Passaconaway.
Some fine woods out here, on seldom-visited terrain in the shadow of the mountain.
A random steep drainage.
There are many large boulders in this area.
Descending along a gully.
An unusual spot where three brooks merge.
On the broad, flat floor of the valley the streams trace meandering courses.
There is ample hobblebush to impede the bushwhacker.
The impressive face of the East Ledges, scene of some early AMC rock climbing in the late 1920s.
Late day sun tints the summit of Hedgehog.
An old curving beaver dam.
Cold, end of day light on Mt. Passaconaway.
HAPPY HOLIDAYS TO ALL, AND BEST WISHES FOR THE NEW YEAR!
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