Little Tunnel Ravine

A relatively new slide on Moosilauke that I didn't know about? How did that happen? This winter the accomplished bushwhacker known as timbercamp posted photos from two treks to a slide in the main branch of Little Tunnel Ravine, on the west wall in the vicinity of the Nine Cascades. This small but very steep ledgy slide can be seen on satellite photos from 2023 and 2024. Several satellite photos from previous years are too dark in that area to determine if the slide is present, but it does not appear on a 2016 photo, which suggests that it may have fallen in the October 2017 “Halloween storm.” 

Taking a break from trail checking for the AMC White Mountain Guide,  I set out for Little Tunnel Ravine on a gorgeous day in mid-May, making my approach via WMNF Forest Road 171, which, after an initial steep climb on FR 170, provides pleasant walking.

 

 

Spring greens popping out in the hardwoods.

Approaching the bridge over Little Tunnel Brook.

 

As on several past visits to Little Tunnel Ravine, I followed an old logging road partway into the valley.

Little Tunnel Brook was surging after recent heavy rain.

 

The lower valley is gentle and beautiful.

 

 

There's a series of sliding cascades at a point where a tributary comes in from a branch valley to the east. That branch has its own slide that was triggered by Tropical Storm Irene in 2011.

 

 

It's really one long continuous cascade.

Still following the old logging road, more or less, but it soon petered out.

A lovely open glade.

 

The steep-sided ridges enclosing the upper ravine loom ahead.

A steep sidehill ahead necessitated a crossing to the west side of the brook. This narrow passage made it possible without wading.

A washout on the east bank.

The ravine steepens and the brook starts tumbling.

The terrain gets rougher for bushwhacking here, and there is plenty of hobblebush to bar the way.

 

An interesting spot where two loops of the brook rejoin after a split.

I believe this is about the spot where the "Nine Cascades" begin. These cascades were apparently regularly visited in the late 1800s. Wrote Warren historian William Little in 1870, “It has nine cascades, - one more than two hundred and feet high at a slope of seventy degrees, which comes laughing, leaping, tumbling into a great basin at its foot. A huge cliff, a hundred feet high from its brink, looks down on the falling waters.” AMC groups of 8 and 11 went there in the summer of 1888 while sojourning at the Tip-Top House and Moosilauke Inn. In that same year, a correspondent for the Concord Monitor reported, “One of these cascades is the celebrated Cliff where a cold mountain stream falls 250 feet, its waters dashed into spray and foam having worn a smooth basin-like cavity into the solid rocks for a depth of forty feet.” The largest waterfall in this series is actually ca. 120 ft. high and is quite impressive. I visited it in 2013 with friend John "1HappyHiker" Compton, that report is here. Bushwhack access is difficult. The big waterfall can be seen from NH 112, if you know where to look.

I love the long view here up a corridor lined with yellow birches. A similar photo appears in Moosilauke: Portrait of a Mountain, photographer Eli Burakian's magnificent ode to the Moose.

Getting deeper into the ravine.

Just before reaching the base of the slide I was seeking, I went over for a look at this steep slab, perhaps a remnant of a very old slide. The walls of the ravine are precipitous in here.

Arriving at the base of the recent slide. The tree debris did not look fresh, whichwould correspond with a possible 2017 date.

 

The slide has a very steep and wet ledgy footwall. No way am I going to try and climb up that.

I knew from studying the two-foot contour Lidar map on the NH Granit website that the terrain on and around the slide was exceedingly steep, and that getting up onto it might be problematical. On the map it appeared there might be a way to weasel up along the left side, so I headed over that way.

 

 

Another angle on the footwall.

 

 

Getting past this mess was tedious.

 

I scrambled up a little gully on the left side of the slide, but soon ran into a dead end.

I pushed up through some rugged terrain to a second gully, which seemed like it would exit well up on the slide.

I made it partway up this gully, but deemed the upper part too steep, wet and slippery to continue. Coming down would be treacherous. Time for a strategic retreat.

 

The terrain in here is pretty crazy. Many cliffs.

 

Talk about running into a wall.

 

Cool overhang.

Yikes!

Time to head back down towards the brook.

 

I knew the biggest of the Nine Cascades was at least 150 feet of very rough elevation above me. I decided to pass on that and hang out for a while enjoying these lower drops of the Nine Cascades.

This one has been called the "Cave Cascade" because in lower flow the water appears to issue from an opening under the flat rock. But today the flow was surging over the rock.

 

Beautiful view downstream.

More cascades below.

I found a nice flat rock in the stream and hung out for a while to savor the scene.

 

The cascades keep coming.

 

 

 

I poked around the edge of the brook to find a partial view looking back up at the slide.

When I first arrived at the base of the slide, I ruled out a possible approach up the right side. A second look on the way down confirmed that opinion. Wet moss over steep ledge, nope.

Back down the ravine we go.

Rollin' and tumblin'.

 

Farewell to the upper ravine, a wild place indeed.

 

 

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.