Tunnel Brook Notch: 4/23/24

A gorgeous sunny, breezy spring afternoon and evening for a ramble into Tunnel Brook Notch, between Mount Moosilauke and Mount Clough, with visits to several beaver ponds and two slides.

 

I reached the trailhead after a 0.4 mile walk from High St. (in Glencliff) up Long Pond Rd.

Cascade on Jeffers Brook, the first of four brook crossings along the south section of Tunnel Brook Trail. I brought my Crocs, but all the crossings were rock-hoppable with a few long steps.

Signs of spring: yellow violet flowers and trout lily leaves.

Slide Brook flows down through open hardwoods.

The Tunnel Brook Trail follows an old roadbed on an easy to moderate climb up to the notch.

Crossing the broad, gentle height-of-land.

The shore of Mud Pond, the largest and southernmost of the chain of eight beaver ponds in the notch, provides a fine view up to the ridge and South Peak of Mount Moosilauke rising above aptly-named Slide Ravine.

Land of the lingering snow - this was the only significant patch seen on the hike.

A watery view north into the notch.

The wind blows fiercely through this "tunnel" in the mountains.

Nice hardwood forest on the east side of the pond.

Following the Tunnel Brook Trail north past more ponds.

Looking south over Pond #6.

Near here I headed off-trail towards the second (counting from the south) of nine slides on the steep east face of Mount Clough, most of which fell in 1927 and 1942.

Looking "slidey."

Breaking into the open on the gravelly lower part of Slide #2, with a view up to South Peak.

A red pine, which I have found far less frequently on slides than white pine.

Peering down to the tawny fringe of Mud Pond.

Slide Ravine slides and South Peak.

For years I've been eyeing this cliff on the lower slope of Moosilauke. One of these days.

I passed on making the very steep and rough whack to the upper ledgy swath of Slide #2. Instead, I descended back to the trail, followed it north, then whacked upslope to one of three gravel swaths at the lower end of Slide #4.

I had hoped to scramble partway up the ledges on this, the tallest of the Clough slides. But the slabs were mostly soaking wet.

I did get a little way up on some dry ledge along the south edge.

 

To the north I could see the ridge followed by the Benton Trail.

Looking down.

The meeting place of ledge and gravel.

Late afternoon sun on the gravel spine.

Another South Peak vista.

A different angle on the ledge and gravel contact point.

Looking up at the impressive upper slabs on Slide #4. With a pitch of ~40 degrees, this is one of the steepest slide sections in the Whites.

A debris flow levee - a trail of boulders deposited along the edge of the lower slide track.

 

Back down on the trail, I continued north through the notch to see the rest of the ponds and more of the Clough slides. Here Tunnel Brook meanders through a meadow at a spot where the trail crosses the stream.

 

Pond #4 is currently a mud flat. Slide #5, the widest of the Clough slides, rises above.

Cairns mark a passage through a spruce grove.

From the edge of Pond #1 (the northernmost), a look across at Slide #5 on the left, Slide #6 in the middle, and Slide #8 at upper right.

The work of an ambitious beaver.

Scene at Pond #6.

Evening at Mud Pond.

 

Kettles Path Maintenance: 4/22/24

With the snow mostly gone at lower elevations, it was time to check out my adopted Kettles Path in Waterville Valley to see how it fared through a winter and early spring during which widespread blowdown had been reported across the Whites. I would soon find out that Kettles Path had more than its share of blowdown.

There were still some icy stretches on Livermore Trail where the snow had been compacted by the groomer through the winter.

I was pleasantly surprised to see that the first 100 yards of the trail, which is often a running stream in early spring, was bone dry, though severely eroded.

A short distance in was the first and worst blowdown mess of the day.

This one took multiple saw cuts to clear.

Fallen spruce.

Cleared.

Broken tree.

Cut.

A white pine blowdown by the third Kettle.

Done.

I didn't mess with this big, dangerous yellow birch widowmaker. Left it for the pro crew.

A short distance beyond was this broken treetop precariously suspended in the top of a slender beech, right above the trail.

I carefully cut into the little beech and dropped it and the hanging treetop onto the trail (atop another blowdown that was lying parallel to the edge of the trail).

It took a while to clean that up.

The main trunk of this large beech I left for the pros.

I cleared out the tangle of limbs beyond.

I call this natural sculpture "Dude with Sunglasses."

I was happy to see that Waterville's champion white ash had survived another winter.

Compared to the blowdown removal, cleaning the trail's 15 drainages was easy.

It took 5 1/2 hours to cover the mile of trail up to The Scaur. The tally was 23 blowdowns removed, 13 by saw and 10 by hauling off. My Silky tickled six tree species: red maple, yellow birch, beech, white pine, balsam fir and red spruce.

 

 

 As always, the view was ample reward. Sandwich Dome in the distance.

Mount Tecumseh and its partly snow-covered ski trails.

Middle and South Tripyramid and parts of The Sleepers.

I went a short way along Irene's Path to admire the Rock of Gibraltar.

I explored the dark woods above that massive rock, where more ledges lurk.

From Irene's I made a familiar bushwhack descent below The Scaur through open hardwoods. Mixed in this forest are a few black cherry trees, not a common species in the Whites.

A profile staring into the woods.

Evening sun in the hardwoods, with the spruce-topped Scaur looming above.

This towering maple is prominent when peering down from the eastern edge of The Scaur.

The rock face of The Scaur.

Following the base of a ledge wall back to the trail.