MT. MOOSILAUKE: 3/11/10
The forecast seemed promising for an ascent of "the Moose," the gentle giant that is a favorite peak for this writer and many another hiker. I hadn't been up Glencliff Trail for a while, so I drove over the steep, winding and horribly frost-heaved Rt. 118 and on to Rt. 25 and the Glencliff trailhead off High St.
This trail has a lovely pastoral start, following an old farm road up along two open fields. The first offers a glimpse of Moosilauke's South Peak through the trees.
The second field had a decidedly spring-like look. These fields are actually part of the Benton State Forest.
The trail ducks into the woods and immediately passes the junction with the little-used Hurricane Trail.
Farther up you climb through fine northern hardwood forest, featuring some mature trees
such as this trailside sugar maple.
At about 2700 feet the woods transition to conifers. The trail had a well-packed snowshoe track. It was frozen hard in the morning; I used Microspikes up to 3000 feet, then switched to MSR snowshoes for the rest of the day as the snow began to soften. The trail was in excellent shape, and is well-cared for by two friends who have been its adopters for a number of years: Thom Davis and Steve Martin.
Around 3200 feet there is some nice open fir forest.
But the views were still good, including this interesting look down at slide-streaked Mt. Clough and the beaver ponds in Tunnel Brook Notch.
Looking down at the Blue Ridge of Moosilauke, which encloses the upper Baker River valley, a stripe of hardwoods was evident amidst the darker forest. Was this an old Dartmouth ski slope from the 1930s and 1940s? Sandwich Dome dominates on the horizon.
We chatted for a while, then they continued on their way down. They were the last hikers I saw for the day.
Taking advantage of the unusually good snow cover on the summit, which protected the alpine vegetation from damage, I dropped down the west side of the crest to an impressive snowfield above the rim of the NW-facing glacial cirque known as Benton Ravine or Tunnel Ravine. The MSRs were perfect for travel on this styrofoam snow. (Wandering off the trail like this is strongly discouraged at other seasons, as it would trample the fragile vegetation.)
Dropping down a bit, I was able to peer into this impressive and little-known ravine. In 2007, an avid backcountry skier became obsessed with this ravine and made several explorations into it from below. This culminated with a solo climb of the mountain and ski descent through the ravine in April 2007 (after a great northeaster dumped tons of snow that month). His fascinating photo journal of that trip, "Hidden Gully, Attempt Five 4/20/07" can be found on www.telemarktalk.com, page 64 of the thread "East Coast Stoke 06-07: Turns are Where You Find 'em."
Here's a look into Benton Ravine taken during a summer bushwhack up the ridge west of the Benton Trail. Photo taken from a blowdown patch, which in the picture above can be seen as one of the white patches on the crest of the ridge, right of center.
Returning to the trail, I sat behind a cairn and out of the light wind for a late lunch. A snow flurry whipped by shortly after I took this photo looking north to the Kinsmans seen beyond the bumps on the north ridge of Mt. Blue.
A cairn was starting to emerge from its rime ice cocoon.
I headed back to the summit and then across the East Snowfield, a favorite of Moosilauke ski enthusiasts. There is a picture of a skier on this snowfield (taken, I believe, by frequent Moosilauke skier Dave Metsky) on page 61 in David Goodman's guidebook, Backcountry Skiing Adventures: Maine and New Hampshire (AMC Books). Mt. Blue is in the background, with the Franconias and Presidentials beyond.
Looking across the snowfield to East Peak. Mt. Kineo (L) and Carr Mtn. (R) beyond.
From the East Snowfield I headed over deep drifts to the Gorge Brook Trail, and
from more drifts along the shoulder of East Peak I found this interesting look at Mt. Blue (L) and Mt. Jim (R), joined by a long ridge.
I climbed back to the summit via yet another snowfield on the SE side. A good view here of Middle and South Peaks.
On my downbound trip, I made the short side trip up to South Peak. The side trail started out through dense conifers where crouch-walking was necessary to pass under the branches.
The upper part of the spur was an open snow climb.
The sun made a brief reappearance on the upper part of the Glencliff Trail, where an Appalachian Trail blaze testifies to the depth of the snow.
The track of a moose who had postholed partway down the trail was teeming with springtails, the little snow fleas that speckle the surface like spilled pepper on warm late winter days. Spring can't be far behind; indeed, the snow on the lowest part of the trail had melted considerably by the time I descended.
Wonderful report that's chocked full of interesting details and history about "the Moose"!
ReplyDeleteYou have a talent for so aptly describing the photos of sights you seen along the way. I particularly liked your photo of a cairn with the description which read: "A cairn was starting to emerge from its rime ice cocoon." That one short sentence was so perfect!
John
1HappyHiker
Thanks, John - glad to see you were enjoying sun over on Mt. Tom that day. Loved your photo sequence of the Gray Jay "awaiting" and then "getting" a snack. Priceless!
ReplyDeleteSteve
What a fun trip, Steve! The ravines of Moosilauke will be the destination for several bushwacks this year.(I hope!)Good to see all of Steve and Thom's hard work get some press ;-)
ReplyDeleteThanks, Jason. Yes, Steve and Thom have worked very hard on that trail. There's alot to explore in those Moosilauke ravines - enjoy!
ReplyDeleteSteve