Birch Hill & Sawyer Pond

With the ongoing closure of Sawyer River Road, the shortest route to picturesque Sawyer Pond is the Sawyer Pond Trail off the Kanc Highway - 9 (easy) miles round trip. I hadn't hiked the length of this route for a few years and wanted to revisit it for the next edition of AMC White Mountain Guide. 

 

The trail doesn't receive a lot of use due to the crossing of the Swift River at the start. Unless there is a severe drought, this requires wading, and in high water it's dangerous. There's a line of underwater rocks you can follow. On this day it was a bit more than knee deep, but even so the current was strong in the middle.

The first part of the trail is easy walking under many tall white pines.

Now that's a blowdown. Don't think my Silky would be of much use.

I made a short detour to check out the little-used southern segment of Brunel Trail.

Not hard to follow, requires attention in a couple of spots.

 

 

I doubled back to Sawyer Pond Trail on a pleasant Forest Service road.

Signage where the trail crosses the road.

 

The trail makes a moderate ascent up the west slope of Birch Hill, and partway up I bushwhacked through hardwoods up towards the summit ledges, a trip I've done a couple times in the past.

 

 

Whacking along the flat crest.

The ledgy summit. In the 1920s and 1930s Birch Hill was accessible via a trail maintained by the Passaconaway Mountain Club, which was based at the Swift River Inn in the Albany Intervale. I may have spotted a few remnants of the trail, but I wasn't sure.

Of course there's a register for this 1891-ft. peak. It doesn't quite make the NH 500 Highest list. Maybe the 1000 Highest?

 

There are nice ledges with views of the mountains around the Albany Intervale.

Bear Mountain to the east.

 

 

Owls Cliff to the north.

 

 

 

There are two sets of cliffs on this wild peak. The spur trail to the viewpoint goes to a ledge between the cliffs.

 

 

 

Mount Chocorua to the SE.

 

The Birch Hill cliffs do drop off.

A hidden ledge gives a vista north to Carrigain Notch...

...and Mount Tremont behind Owls Cliff.

I whacked north along the ridge of Birch Hill and rejoined the trail near this interesting boulder.

 

Nice walking along a shoulder of Birch Hill before the trail descends gently to cross a snowmobile trail.

 

 

Most of the remaining two miles to Sawyer Pond is easy walking through a vast hardwood forest on the north side of Albany Intervale.

There's a fine sense of remoteness on this lightly-used trail.

 

Getting close to the pond.

 

A rock-hop across the pond's outlet brook.

 

When Sawyer River Road is open, the hike in to the pond is only 1.5 miles and it is a busy place on weekends. It's gotten a reprieve the last few years with the added 3.8 mile road walk each way. All was quiet on this midweek day in May.

There's a shelter here, not many of these left in the Whites...

 

 

 

 

 

...and several tent platforms. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

One of the finest pond-side views in the Whites: Mount Tremont and the "back" side of Owls Cliff.

The eye of the Owl stares across the water.

The full sprawling, lumpy mass of Tremont.

 

Heading home in evening sun.

 

Tunnel Brook North Ramble

As regular readers of this blog know, the Tunnel Brook region is one of my favorite haunts in the Whites. This spring I wanted to check on the status of logging operations this past winter along the northern part of Tunnel Brook Trail. While in the neighborhood, I planned a bushwhack to a hidden ledge with a unique view of Tunnel Ravine, the deep, wild, glacial cirque on the NW side of Mount Moosilauke.

Ever since Tropical Storm Irene wiped out the northern section of the USFS Tunnel Brook Road, the hike into the Tunnel Brook area has been lengthened with 2.3 miles of road walking each way. In the initial section, Tunnel Brook has taken over part of the former roadbed.

The first  0.7 mile of the trail is on the fully abandoned part of the road. It provides pleasant walking before the summer undergrowth flourishes. 

 

 

A small stream blew out a culvert a couple of years ago near the start of the 1.6 mile section of road that survived Irene.

Before reaching the Benton Trail junction, the road passes the site of the Parker House, a small three-story summer hotel, with room for 40 guests, that operated from 1903 into the 1920s. This is part of the crescent-shaped driveway at the front of the hotel.

 

When this area was open, guests must have had a nice view of the mountain.

 

Part of the foundation remains.

A new skid road from last winter, on the right near the Benton Trail junction.

Tracking a moose.

Where the trail part of Tunnel Brook Trail enters the woods.

Nice hardwoods.

Work began last winter on a marked cut about a half-mile in along the trail. This was slated to be a clearcut in the WMNF Pemi Northwest Project documents. Maybe it's been scaled back to a selective cut?

 

A scenic stretch alongside Tunnel Brook.

 

 

Yay for Trout Lilies!

 

A bit farther along I made a short bushwhack across Tunnel Brook to an old beaver meadow with a view up to the ridges enclosing Tunnel Ravine.

Looking south up Tunnel Brook towards Tunnel Brook Notch.

On the other side of the trail I launched my bushwhack into the lower part of Tunnel Ravine, aka Benton Ravine.

I wandered up through one of my favorite hardwood glades.

 

And soon came to and crossed the attractive brook that drains the ravine.

This stream is not named on USGS maps, but in recent years the name "Faraway Ravine Brook" has appeared on some online maps. I don't know where that came from, but it sounds kind of Tolkien-ish.

 

A nice cascade.

Side view.

Wild woods on the steep slope on the NE side of the ravine.

An unusual hardwood flat partway up the slope.

 

This looked like the remnant of an old tote road cutting across the slope, probably from the Fall Mountain Paper Company logging operations in the early 1900s.

 

 

I wandered a bit off course and ended up in some gnarly terrain.

 

 

Oh, boy.

 

Another tote road.

 

Steep and prickly.

I initially bypassed my ledge destination and spotted this newly opened (by a blowdown) spot a bit higher up along a line of cliffs overlooking the ravine.

 

 

A great perspective looking up the ravine to the steep headwall.

A closer look.

From here the lower part of the massive Irene slide from 2011 can be seen. That was a memorable climb with my friend Daniel Newton and his slide-scaling canine companion, Friday, back in 2020.

My main objective was this ledge perch, which I first visited on a bushwhack directly up from the brook in 2014 with avid explorer John "1HappyHiker" Compton. This would be my fourth visit here.

 

 

In addition to a fine view up the ravine, this ledge offers a look over to several of the slides on the steep east face of Mount Clough.

One of the northern slides displays a remarkable contact point between dark metamorphic rock and light plutonic rock.

Looking down the line of scrubby cliffs.

And up the ravine.

Time to relax for a while.

This ledge is well-guarded and is not easy to find.

 

Steep ledge in the woods, encountered on the descent.

 

Pick-up sticks.

 

This looks better.

Back to the lovely brook.

A trace of the old Dartmouth Outing Club Tunnel Ravine Trail, open from about 1930 into the 1940s.

 

Back on the Tunnel Brook Trail, heading south.

 

I made a short bushwhack to the gravel slope at the base of the northernmost of the nine slides on the east side of Mount Clough. 

This is one of the two slides that fell in the epic November 1927 rainstorm. Above the gravel swath there are two bands of steep ledge, but no time to go up there today.

 

 

One of a number of white pines flourishing on this dry slope.

Looking SE to the west spur of Mount Moosilauke, which forms part of the eastern wall of Tunnel Brook Notch.

 

 

 

 

From here I could look NE up to the ridge I had been bushwhacking on. With binoculars I could just make out the ledge perch.

 

The iconic cairn on Tunnel Brook Trail as I headed north for a quick visit to the northernmost beaver pond in Tunnel Brook Notch.

 

A very peaceful spot.

 

A good look at some of the Clough slides.

 

Looking north. Time to head that way for home.