Mount Moosilauke Long Loop: 5/31/24

With the luxury of the long daylight hours of late spring, I made a leisurely long loop over Mount Moosilauke, making a six-mile ascent via the Asquam Ridge Trail (Ridge Trail for short) and Beaver Brook Trail with a bushwhack to an old slide along the way. I descended via the Carriage Road/Snapper Trail/Gorge Brook Trail route, paying a visit to the South Peak for additional views. In addition to the great views at the summit, I had looks into four of the ravines on Moosilauke - three from the trails and one from an off-trail vantage.

A Dartmouth Outing Club sign points the way beyond the end of the Ravine Lodge Road.

A classic DOC bridge over the Baker River.

Pleasant, easy-graded walking as the Ridge Trail heads deeper into the upper Baker River valley.

An artifact at Camp 3, used by the Parker-Young Company while logging in the upper Baker River basin in the 1940s.

The Ridge Trail makes a long gradual ascent along the flank of the Moosilauke spur known as the Blue Ridge. Unfortunately the trail has become rockier and more eroded in recent years, more from torrential rainstorms than hiker use, as this route is lightly traveled.

The Ridge Trail passes through miles of beautiful upland conifer forest.

It gains the ridgecrest by a series of switchbacks leading up to Mount Jim through deep high country forest.

 

Mount Jim (4172 ft.) does not have enough prominence to make the AMC 4000-footer list, but it is on the Trailwrights 72 list. The elevation gain from the Ravine Lodge trailhead is only 1700 ft., spread out over 3.9 miles. The summit is quiet, wooded and viewless.

As the trail descends off Mount Jim, there is a view ahead to Mount Blue (4529 ft., another Trailwrights 72 peak) from an open fir wave.

 

The Ridge Trail ends at the junction with the Beaver Brook Trail/Appalachian Trail. From here there is still 1.9 miles to go to reach the summit of Moosilauke.

After an easy section and a short climb, the Beaver Brook Trail traverses a rough and rocky stretch along the steep face of Mount Blue, at the edge of Jobildunk Ravine.

A small vantage beside the trail, with a dropoff close beside it (use caution!), offers a view SE over the ravine to distant horizons.

There are beaver ponds on the flat floor of Moosilauke's finest example of a glacial cirque.

 

A tricky ledge scramble near the end of the traverse above the ravine.

After  a rocky climb, there is a gentle walk through boreal forest along the west side of Mount Blue.

After another 3/4 mile, near the junction with the Benton Trail, I made a fairly short but also fairly intense bushwhack to the top of an old overgrown slide on the headwall of Tunnel Ravine, the wild glacial cirque on the NW side of Moosilauke. I marveled at the view when I first visited this spot four years earlier, and felt it was worth a repeat visit.

 

Evidence suggests that this slide fell during a rainstorm in June 1973. It is now completely revegetated except for a steep ledge slab at its top.

Looking down the overgrown track of the slide.

A great view of the big 2011 Irene slide across the ravine. The light green swath, partly in shadow, to the left of the Irene slide is probably the fully revegetated track of a massive slide that fell in the 1870s. In the late 1800s guests staying at the Tip Top House on the summit of Moosilauke could follow a footpath to the top of the slide, which was apparently quite an impressive sight.

 

A closer look at the Irene slide, impressive in its own right. There have been many other slides in Tunnel Ravine over the years, including in 1927, 1938, the late 1960s, and the mid-1980s. A 1927 slide served as part of the route of the DOC Tunnel Ravine Trail, opened in 1930 and abandoned by the late 1940s.

 

Long view to the west beyond Mount Clough and the Benton Range.

Looking across the steep headwall of Tunnel Ravine.

An important message as the Beaver Brook Trail approaches treeline.

Climbing to the sky.

Wide western views.

Looking to the high peaks of the Whites beyond Mount Blue and its bumpy north ridge.

The Kinsmans and the Franconia Range, with Mount Washington in the distance on the far right.

 

 

 

Skywalking through a brisk NW wind, probably 30-35 mph. No bugs today!

The summit in sight ahead. When I arrived, there was no one there, and it stayed that way for 20 minutes.

Bed frame from the old Tip Top House (1860-1942, aka Prospect House, Summit House and Summit Camp).

Windbreak.

Summit benchmark.

 

Summit signs in DOC orange.

Heading south along the Carriage Road to South Peak.

Fine rock step work.

Looking back at the summit.

View out over the Gorge Brook ravine from a short side path on "Middle Peak." If you zoom in you can spot Ravine Lodge in the valley, right of center.

The side trip to the South Peak is always a favorite.

The summit and "Middle Peak," from the South Peak.

Shadowed view down into Tunnel Brook Notch, home of the Mount Clough slides.

Mud Pond on the floor of the notch.

The northern slides in Moosiluake's Slide Ravine.

View to the southern Whites from South Peak.

Heading down the Carriage Road.

A familiar junction.

A pleasant section of the Snapper Trail, which eases you back down to the lower Gorge Brook Trail and on to the Ravine Lodge, completing the 10-mile loop.