Hiking in the Kingdom

Spent another day up in the Northeast Kingdom climbing two small peaks - Moose Mountain and Haystack Mountain - on either side of Lake Willoughby. This brings me up to 10 peaks climbed on the Northeast Kingdom Mountain Challenge, halfway there.

 

The Moose Mountain Trail starts at a remote trailhead on Wheeler Mountain Road. 

 

 

An impressive rock staircase built by the North Woods Stewardship Center.

 

A half-mile up is an outlook known as Moose Ledge, overlooking Wheeler Pond.

Wheeler Pond, with the Green Mountain Club Wheeler Pond Camps visible on the far shore.

The Moose Mountain Trail has a surprisingly steep and rough bit getting up onto the ridge.

 

The easy-graded ridgecrest walk is lovely through open hardwoods.

Approaching the summit.

No views at the summit, but it's a pleasant spot. Here I met the only other hiker I saw, a local woman checking the trails out for the upcoming Westmore Mountain Challenge, which involves a traverse of five peaks: Moose, Hor, Pisgah, Haystack and Bald. Distance options are 20.5 and 26 miles with 6,140 ft. of elevation gain.

 

 

Ferns and a cool gnarled tree.

Moose Mountain from the shore of Wheeler Pond.

While driving to the Haystack Mountain trailhead I stopped for photos from the beach at the north end of Lake Willoughby, where there is a dramatic view into Willoughby Gap.

 

 

Mount Pisgah on the left, Mount Hor on the right.

 

 Haystack Mountain is aptly named.

 

 

 

 Trailhead sign for the North Trail to Haystack on Long Pond Road.

 

 

This hike is entirely on private land under conservation easement.

 

 

The lower half of this trail climbs moderately with good footing.

The upper part climbs steeply through spruces. This little mountain packs a punch.

 

 

Upward!

 

There are three outlooks around the summit area.

 

 

From the west outlook - reached by a steep and slightly sketchy side path - there is a beautiful view over Long Pond with part of Lake Willoughby beyond.

Moose Mountain on the left, ledgy Wheeler Mountain on the right. Mount Mansfield on the horizon.

 

 

The Jay Peaks beyond the north end of Lake Willoughby.

 

Belvidere Mountain, Tillotson Peak and another Haystack Mountain, along the northern section of the Long Trail.  

 

 

 

 

Summit cairn and sign. 

 

The east outlook is a framed view of nearby Bald Mountain.

 

 

A descent of 100+ ft. along the South Trail is required to access the south outlook. It's quite a perch.

 

 

A wide view over the southern part of the Northeast Kingdom and all the way out to the White Mountains, though distant views were hazy on this day.

A serious dropoff below. All sides of Haystack are steep.

 

Mount Garfield in the distance through the notch between Umpire and Burke Mountains.

I descended the South Trail to make a loop. This trail has a very steep and rough section, then abruptly eases off. 

 

 

 

The lower half of South Trail follows a woods road, then a 1.2 mile downhill walk along Long Pond Road leads back to the north trailhead.

A close look at Haystack from the boat launch at Long Pond. In the long distance view from the Whites, it appears as a tiny nubble to the left of Bald Mountain.

 

 

 

 

Scenes from Downes Brook Slide

A hot, humid day with low water levels in Downes Brook was a good day to return to a favorite place, the open ledges on the lower part of the Downes Brook Slide, which creased the northern slope of Mount Passaconaway in the 1890s.

 

On the approach along Downes Brook Trail, I noted much good recent work by adopter Ken MacGray, who maintains the trail up to the Wilderness boundary. Ken had painted many new blazes, including important ones at the four brook crossing in this section. 

 

The many drainages were freshly cleaned.

 

 

Cairns marking one of the wider crossings. Even with low water, the crossings are time-consuming and hikers must be wary of random slippery rocks.

 

Cleaning these long side channels is a lot of work. Thanks to Ken!

Into the Wilderness.

A long, easy-graded section after entering the Wilderness.

The lower wooded section of the slide track, where some of the ledges are very slippery.

 

 

A short bushwhack, partly along traces of the historic, long-abandoned Downes Brook Slide Trail, brought me to the expansive lower slabs of the vintage early 1890s slide. These are prominent in the view of Mount Passaconaway from nearby Potash Mountain. The ledges are slippery and dangerous when wet, which is why the former trail that followed this route, dating back to the early 1900s, was closed by the USFS in the late 1950s. Caution is needed to avoid stepping on wet areas of ledge, which are slick as ice. A ledge step cascade marks the bottom of the open slabs. Not much water dropping over it this day.

Into the great wide open.

 

These ledges are relatively low angle for a slide, mostly in the 15 to 23 degree range as measured with the level tool on my phone. They are grippy where dry, but as noted above, beware of any wet ledge. Not a good place to be during a rainfall. 

 

 

There are a number of good-sized white pines thriving along the edges of the slide. This diminutive pine clings to a patch of turf on the ledges.

Shelves and steps abound on these ledges.

 

Looking across the valley to Potash Mountain (R) and its trailless neighbor, South Potash (L).

 

Zoom on a distant view to Mount Eisenhower, Mount Tremont, and the tip of Mount  Washington just poking up through a col on the right. 

 

 

 

 

  

 

Big dry ledges, fun to scramble up.

A golden pool at the base of another ledge step cascade, which must be bypassed.

August brings asters.

 

 

 

Another wide ledge slab. 

At the top of this slab is the "Ring of Power," a relic of the Swift River Railroad logging days in the early 1900s. This was likely used to lower logs down the ledges with a cable.

 A photo from the 1910s in the Appalachian Mountain Club archives shows a team of horses and men hauling a load of logs on the ledges of the slide, angling towards a tote road at the edge of the woods. The shapes of the ledges in this archival photo match the ledges here; this location is just a few yards downslope from the iron ring.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The outline of the tote road is still visible in the woods.

Water striders in a pool.

 

More ledges.

 

 

I continued up to the last of the open ledges on the lower half of the slide, at 2400 ft. Above here the slide is mostly closed in by trees except for several steep slabs that are too wet to climb. The upper end of the slide is at 2800 ft.

The northern crags of Mount Passaconaway, where the spur trail off the summit leads. That spur was the uppermost section of the old trail.

A profile of Mount Hancock.

 

Summertime and the livin' is easy.