Downes Brook Meander

I wanted to pay a visit to one of my favorite snowshoeing destinations, the expansive lower ledges of Mt. Passaconaway's Downes Brook Slide, but I wasn't sure if the four crossings of Downes Brook on the Downes Brook Trail would have solid enough ice/snow bridges for safe passage. As expected, the first 0.3 mile approach to the Mount Potash Trail; was a packed highway. And, as I often find in winter, beyond that junction the Downes Brook Trail was a chopped-up mess created by barebooters. I strapped on my snowshoes and slogged up to the first crossing. I didn't like what I saw. The booters had made a precarious route involving a tall boulder. 

Not knowing what the other three crossings would be like, I opted to backtrack a bit and bushwhack up a steep slope to a viewpoint atop a gravel slide/washout that I had visited several times before.

Tress barely hanging on at the top edge of the washout.

Potash Mountain across the valley.

Looking up the Downes Brook valley with a northern spur of Mt. Whiteface on the left.

An impressive closeup of Mt. Passaconaway.

Above here I dropped into a drainage and started bushwhacking to the south in mostly open woods, with some fine hemlocks.

This western flank of Hedgehog Mountain consists of a series of ribs and drainages. Up and down we go.

Down into another drainage.

And up again. This route was proving to be slow and tedious, so I descended to the trail between the second and third crossings and figured I see how the third and fourth crossings would be.

The third crossing was straightforward.

A beautiful valley.

The fourth crossing was meandering and somewhat sketchy. Although I cursed the booters for wrecking the trail - I would much rather break trail in untracked snow - they did show the way for me on the crossings.

 

Into the Wilderness.

 

 

 

The condition of the trail was abysmal for snowshoeing, so I took them off and found easier going by stepping in the irregular boot tracks.

I was happy to see that the boot tracks continued up the trail and did not break off for the slide. Don't know where they were going, but it would only get more tiring for them the farther they went up the valley. I put my snowshoes back on and headed up the frozen brookbed towards the slide.

Cold winter beauty.

 

Making tracks.

Frozen cascade at base of the open ledges.

Looking up the broad, low-angle slabs to the norther spur of Mt. Passaconaway, atop which is the mountain's superb northern viewpoint.

The Downes Brook Slide, aka Passaconaway Slide, fell in the early 1890s and for many years formed part of the route of the Downes Brook Slide Trail up Mt. Passaconaway. This trail was abandoned in 1957 because the steep upper slabs are wet and dangerous. Even these lower angle slabs can be treacherous in summer if wet. The old route gets occasional use from experienced bushwhackers, but the upper part above the slide is very steep, mossy in summer, and could not sustain heavy use. When unknown parties blazed the old route about 1990, the Forest Service and Wonalancet Out Door Club cooperatively covered over the markings to discourage casual use, and posted signs at either end noting that while foot travel was allowed, maintenance of the abandoned trail was not permitted. The only part that remains open as a maintained trail is the 0.3 mile upper stretch that leads down from the summit of Mt. Passaconaway to the spectacular north outlook.

The exhilaration of wide-open spaces. The ledge slabs were sheathed in a hard crust, which provided good bite for the teeth of the MSRs. 

An interesting natural sculpture.

Side view.

I have snoozed in the shade of this white pine on hot summer days.

 

Some exposed ice poked through here and there. Before Christmas, after the rain and thaw, the ledges were reportedly sheathed in ice nearly wall to wall.

Looking back at Potash Mountain, which provides an excellent view of these slabs.

Close-up.

 

Ledges on Mt. Tremont in the distance.

 

Looking down from the top of the lower slabs.

A frozen cascade.

Side view.

Feather prints of (presumably) a Ruffed Grouse.

 

Nice open spruce forest alongside the slide.

The largest cascade on the slide and its accompanying pool. Would have liked to continue farther up the slide, but it was getting late, so this was my turn-around point.

Heading back down through the spruces.

View of "South Potash."

 

Back on Downes Brook Trail. Two miles of yuck.

Passing my tracks from where I came down from the bushwhack.

The second crossing on a winding route.

I gingerly navigated my own route on the first crossing and made it out before dark.