Benton Trail Ridge Fir Waves

The Benton Trail on the NW side of Mount Moosilauke is one of my favorites, and several times over the years I've used it as the access to explore some of the many "fir waves" at the edge of the ridgecrest to the west. Fir waves, which are bands of dead and dying trees that slowly migrate across a slope, are one of the most interesting natural features in the Whites. Presumably caused by icing and other stresses of life at high elevation, these are seen as a series of wavy gray bands high on a darkly wooded mountainside. They can be prickly to navigate, but due to their openness, fir waves can provide good views, sometimes from unusual angles. Several of Moosilauke's ridges are striped with fir waves.

 

After a 1.5 mile walk up the road portion of Tunnel Brook Trail, I turned onto Benton Trail and made an easy low-water crossing of Tunnel Brook. 

 

Hardwoods rule along the first 3/4 mile of Benton Trail.

 

Through the conifers to the outlook above Little Tunnel Ravine.

 

The most open view here is north beyond a spur ridge of Mount Blue to the Kinsmans.

It is a nice profile of the Kinsmans, with the little bump of Bald Peak seen left of center. Mount Cabot is faintly seen on the hazy horizon.

 

The view into Little Tunnel Ravine has become more obstructed in recent years, but this is still a neat wild spot, with the muted roar of the cascades on Little Tunnel Brook wafting up from below. I spent an hour relaxing here, chatting at one point with an AMC Boston Chapter group hike.

 

This big slab appears to be part of an old slide that fell into the ravine. 

 

 

Though it has become more eroded over the years, some sections of Benton Trail still have wonderful footing. It is admirably maintained by adopter Per Frost.

Into the boreal forest.

 

I left the trail at ~3600 ft. and headed west through mostly open woods, though there were some rougher spots, too.

After a half hour or so I emerged in an open fir wave that I had visited last year, with a  distant view to the west.

Black Mountain and Sugarloaf in the Benton Range were visible in the foreground, with Vermont's Signal Mountain Range in the middle distance. The distant Green Mountains were dimly visible though the haze.

I followed a moose path down through the brushy opening to access another fir wave below.

Looking back up.

 

 

A lovely fern-filled glade between the fir waves. 

 

 

Another opening in sight ahead.

 

A nice view south from this fir wave.

Mount Clough and its slides falling into Tunnel Brook Notch are seen in the foreground. In the distance are Mount Cube, Mount Mist, Webster Slide Mountain and Piermont Mountain.

The inside of a fir wave. As the older trees die back, vigorous new growth springs up.

Adding Smarts Mountain to the view.

 

The view I was seeking the most was a clear look at the massive 2011 slide in Tunnel Ravine, courtesy of Tropical Storm Irene. Found it!

Zoom on the upper part of the slide....

...and the lower part, where revegetation by birches is well underway.

 

A peek at the steep headwall of Tunnel Ravine, one of the wildest places on Moosilauke.

Heading back through the ferns.

 

 Homeward bound on Benton Trail.

 

 

Out and About

Images from a few recent hikes on the shorter side.

 

CHAMBERLAIN-REYNOLDS FOREST

 

This beautiful property on the south side of Squam Lake is owned by the New England Forestry Foundation with a network of easy trails maintained by Squam Lakes Association. There are two trailheads along College Road, just off Route 3 in Center Harbor (just over the line from Holderness). The western trailhead has better parking.

The wide and smooth West Fire Road is the primary access to the beaches on the NW side of the property.

 

 

I was delighted to randomly run into old friend Doug Teschner, a regular customer at my store. A longtime climber, mountaineer and hiker, he has been a major contributor to the AMC journal, Appalachia, for many years. He was an AMC hutman in his youth, served for many years in the Peace Corps, and was a NH state rep for a decade. He recently co-authored Beyond the Politics of Contempt, a practical guide to bridging the current political divide in America. 

 

 

One of several views of Squam Lake along the Beach Trail.

 

 

 

Naturally, there are beaches along the Beach Trail.

Another beach.

 

Trail maps are posted at several trail junctions.

 

A view across to Red Hill from the Wister Point Trail.

 

 

A neat boardwalk traverse on the Swamp Trail.

 

A lakeside home for Winnie the Pooh and friends.

 

 Along the Dog Cove Shore Trail. A variety of pleasant loop walks can be enjoyed on the network of trails at Chamberlain-Reynolds.

 

 

 

BEAVER BROOK CASCADES 

A short mid-day jaunt to the first several cascades along the steep Beaver Brook Trail, one of the most scenic routes to Mount Moosilauke.

A hike of just 0.4 miles, with a wee bit of steep climbing, brings you to the first cascade. 

 

 

A cascade that is slightly off-trail.

The upper end of a long cascade. Just above here is a tricky scramble up ledges with a drop-off to the brook on the right.

 

 

 

 

 

Looking down the long cascade. Due to a time constraint, this was my turnaround point. 

 

 

 

 

 

HIKING AROUND LAKE WILLOUGHBY

Made another trip north to indulge a new fascination with hiking in Vermont's Northeast Kingdom. (It's all Carol's fault for bringing me up there for a hike to complete her Vermont towns geocaching challenge.)  I hadn't hiked in the spectacular Lake Willoughby area since the 1980s, so I was long overdue for a visit. Back then I hiked Mount Pisgah on the east side of Willoughby Gap, the prominent U-shaped notch that frames the lake. As I recall, I joined my good friends Mike and the late John Dickerman, who hailed from nearby Lyndonville, for that hike. For this afternoon jaunt I decided to climb Mount Hor, on the west side of the gap. 

The Herbert Hawkes Trail, the most popular route up Mount Hor, is accessed by a 1.8 mile drive up the gravel CCC Road off Vermont Rt. 5A.  

Almost the entire trail passes through a beautiful open hardwood forest.

 

Parts of the forest are awash in a sea of stinging nettles, making off-trail excursions painful unless wearing long pants. Nettles are abundant in the Catskills as well; luckily we don't have to deal with them in the White Mountains.

The elevation gain to the summit of Mount Hor is just 750 ft., most of which comes in the second half of the mile-long hike.

 

A T-junction on the ridge; left leads to the summit, right leads to two viewpoints.

 

A gorgeous fern glade at the wooded summit.

 

 

Summit sign.

A southerly vista near the summit. 

Though it was hazy, Mount Moosilauke could be seen in the distance.

 

 

A gentle trail leads north along the ridgecrest to the eastern and northern outlooks.

The somewhat precarious eastern outlook offers close-in views of the south ends of Lake Willoughby and the Mount Pisgah cliffs, and distant vistas to East Haven, East and Seneca Mountains in the NE Kingdom, the Pilot Range, and the Nash Stream mountains.

 

The north outlook peers down at the north end of Lake Willoughby.

 

The signature view here looks across to the impressive line of cliffs on the face of Mount Pisgah. The hike to Mount Hor and the eastern and northern outlooks is ~3.2 miles round trip with ~950 ft. of elevation gain. I saw only a handful of hikers on this route, while the parking lot for the south trail up Mount Pisgah was crammed with vehicles.

 

I had time in the evening for a second short hike. I had hoped to climb Haystack Mountain but due to a missing road sign I failed to find the trailhead, so I opted to climb up the southern trail to Mount Pisgah to an outlook called Pulpit Rock.

 

 

The trail passes this peaceful pond not far from the trailhead, via a gravel accessible path.

Nice rock work on this heavily used trail.

 

 

 

The small outlook at Pulpit Rock was occupied, so I snapped some photos of the view over the south end of Lake Willoughby and continued up the trail.

A nicely fashioned relocation above Pulpit Rock. 

 

 

 

I continued up the trail to ~2200 ft. and thought about heading to the summit, but it was getting late and I still had 550 ft. of ascent to go plus a long drive home. So I descended back to Pulpit Rock, now unoccupied, and hung out for a while in the evening sun.

 

The view across the lake to Mount Hor and its cliffs would be gorgeous in the morning. In the evening it's just a silhouette.

 

It was entertaining watching paddleboarders, kayakers and this water skier down on the lake. Good times in the Northeast Kingdom.