Timber Camp Trail and Beyond: 11/27/24

After morning snow showers ended and skies began to clear, I headed down to Waterville Valley for a hike up the Timber Camp Trail, which offers unusual views of the Mad River Notch area and a great angle on Mount Tripyramid. It was nice to run into WMNF surveyor Kevin Tilton at the Depot Camp clearing. He had been taking measurements for a watershed study involving the Mad River.

There was just a dusting of snow on the Greeley Ponds Trail as it ascends towards Timber Camp Trail.

Sign at the junction.

Timber Camp Trail follows an old logging road up into the valley of Greeley Brook on the east side of Mt. Osceola. After its first hairpin turn it offers an initial peek up at the impressive Painted Cliff of East Osceola, with the snow-caked summit rising behind.

The trail ascends through corridors of small snow-crusted conifers.

At 0.6 mile from Greeley Ponds Trail the trail cuts along the base of a large open gravel bank. I'm not sure exactly how this opening was created, but it offers excellent views, especially in the leafless seasons.

There is an especially fine angle on the Tripyramids, with Flume Peak and Scaur Peak to their left.

The Tris looking rather wintry. The top of the North Slide pokes above Flume Peak.

Head-on view of the hollowed out Painted Cliff. In the 1990s two friends and I snowshoe-bushwhacked up to the talus slope at the base of the cliff. The closeup view of the cliff was impressive, and the view out to the east was wild and expansive. The whack was very thick in places and along the way we traversed some sketchy terrain with big boulders and deep holes. We were also mindful of the potential for chunks of rock to peel off the cliff, evidenced by the huge gouge in the face and the jumble of rocks below.

 

Unique to this vantage point is the view of the western front of Mt. Kancamagus, featuring the K1 Cliff (R) and K2 Cliff (L). In the early 1900s both of these cliffs were reached by trails built by Waterville Valley hikers, but those paths are long gone.

A profile of Mad River Notch.

I was not surprised to find a couple of white pines amidst the spruces that surround this gravelly opening.

 

 

Timber Camp Trail continues another 0.3 mile to the small clearing of "High Camp," a logging camp used in the 1960s when there was a 185-acre logging cut here in the valley of Greeley Brook. The floor and south side of this valley are striped with old logging roads from that operation. Two documents found online note that this valley did hold old-growth spruce, but the 1960s logged areas now support a scrubby growth of young birch and conifer.

A few years ago this clearing had views of Mt. Tripyramid and the Painted Cliff, but these are now almost fully overgrown.

A large artifact.

From High Camp I followed an unofficial continuation of Timber Camp Trail that continues up the Greeley Brook valley and then ascends partway up its south wall.

Though it mostly follows sections of the 1960s logging roads, this unmarked route has one short steep and rocky stretch.

A thin line through  a crowd of scrubby softwoods. There was 3-4 inches of crunchy snow up here.

A side view of the Painted Cliff.

Well up on the side of the valley the route follows a remarkably clear logging road contouring southeastward.

The route ends at a semi-open scrubby area with a striking view of the Painted Cliff and the bumpy ridge above.

 

Looking north through Mad River Notch to snowy Mt. Huntington and the dark profile of Mt. Hancock beyond.

Looking up at East Osceola.

The high-elevation flume on Mt. Kancamagus shows as a dark cut in the K1 Cliff. This was recently ascended by two backcountry adventurers, who surmounted a chockstone in the middle of the steep rocky cleft.

On the return trip, I paused at the gravel bank to admire the late afternoon light on the Tripyramids.

 

Baum Conservation Area: 11/25/24

On a sunny, crisp late November afternoon, Carol and I drove down to Hanover for a fun geocaching loop on the trails of the Baum Conservation Area. This tract on the SE side of Moose Mountain is managed by the Hanover Conservancy. A detailed guide to the hike is available at hanoverconservancy.org.

Mt. Cardigan and its sprawling spur ridges can be seen from a logged area high up on the loop.

This geocache is called "Ring my bell" and requires a ~100-yard bushwhack.

Approaching the high point of the trail loop just below the south ridge of Moose Mountain.

We ascended a slope off-trail through these beautiful woods to find a cache with a most unusual container.

From that cache Carol descended back to the loop trail while I made the short bushwhack up to the Tom Linell Ridge Trail, which runs along the southern ridgecrest of Moose Mountain.

A short distance to the north I came to an open ledge with an excellent view east and northeast. Beyond the rounded South Peak of Moose Mountain I could see Smarts Mountain, Carr Mountain, and distant peaks such as the Osceolas, Mt. Tecumseh and the Tripyramids.

East to Mt. Cardigan.

Farther north is another ledge with eastern views.

Heading down off the ridge through open hardwoods to rejoin Carol on the trail loop.

This one was called "I got a kick out of this."

This was a cleverly designed container.

I branched off for "Bigfoot sighting in NH," which required a 0.1 mile bushwhack each way. Some work went into placing this one.

We found 12 of 13 caches in the series on this loop created by cacher BGOOD2AL, plus one more cache a short distance off the loop. Kudos and thanks to BGOOD2AL! Happy Thanksgiving to all!

 

Southwest Slide, Mt. Liberty: 11/20/24

This day of sunny skies and 50ish temperature was a gift from the weather gods, two-thirds of the way through November. I chose a familiar trail-and-bushwhack route that would maximize sun exposure - a stroll on the mellow lower section of Flume Slide Trail into the Flume Brook valley and a bushwhack to the Southwest Slide on Mt. Liberty, where I knew there was a view perch suitable for basking in the sun.

The only hiker I saw all day passed me on the lower Liberty Spring Trail en route to an ascent of Flume and Liberty via Flume Slide Trail. Given the chance of encountering ice or morning wetness on the slabs, I hoped he would make it OK.

 

Morning sun on the start of Flume Slide Trail.

The lower Flume Brook valley is cloaked in a gorgeous hardwood forest.

100% blue sky on this day.

Inviting corridor.

The spur known as Hardwood Ridge looms to the southeast.

This gully beside the trail was gouged by the slide when it came surging down off Mt. Liberty during a tremendous rainfall on June 20, 1883. The force of this slide carried far downstream along Flume Brook and dislodged the famous boulder that was suspended between the walls of The Flume. The same storm also triggered massive slides on the west face of Mt. Flume.

 

The trail then crosses the brook that drains the slide.

This train of boulders near the trail is a classic example of a debris flow levee, a sort of natural stone wall deposited along the edge of a slide. A bit farther along, the trail actually crosses the levee.

The bushwhack began in gorgeous open hardwoods.

Having been up this route four times previously in the last couple of years, I readily made my way up to an old logging road that climbs steadily and at times quite steeply parallel to the sharply cut slide drainage. This is one of a remarkable network of old logging sled roads constructed on the south side of Mount Liberty, probably around 1900-1905.

Blowdowns litter the road in places.

The upper part of the road is steeper than it looks here. It must have been a wild ride coming down with a horse team and a load of logs.

A connecting road led me across towards the slide.

Approaching the lower of three open slab sections of the slide.

First view looking across the lower open swath of ledge to Mt. Moosilauke. The wetness of the slabs renders this slide unsafe to ascend. It's a climb alongside in the woods kind of slide.  It's more accessible in winter, as long as avalanche danger is low.

 

 

A headwall ledge above the first open swath of the slide. This becomes an ice cliff in winter.

 

 

The ledge band continues into the woods.

Heading up to the next open section of the slide.

Looking across the middle ledge swath.

Looking up from the base of the middle ledge swath. Not as wet as the lower swath, but in my judgement there isn't enough dry clean rock to provide sure footing.

Side view while climbing along the edge. The average slope of this slide is 31 degrees.

View from the top of the middle swath. The strip along Route 3 in North Lincoln is prominent in the valley.

I ducked back into the dense woods and continued up to the base of the slide's upper ledge swath.

From previous visits I knew there was a comfortable, dry ledge perch here, with a commanding view. Visibility was good - with binoculars I could spot Mt. Monadnock, and even the faint outline of Mt. Snow, far off in southern Vermont. The lower Flume Brook valley is seen in the center of the photo.

This is what I came for - an hour and a half sojourn in the warm November (!) sun.

It seemed a shame to start back down a little after 1:00 pm, but it was necessary if I wanted to get out before dark.

Detail of the headwall at the top of the lower swath.

This dry slab on the lower swath was inviting.

The sun was so glorious that I sat here for a few more minutes soaking it in.

The descent was through sun-streaked woods most of the way down, and I did make it out before dark.

 

The Liberty slide shows up best in winter. There's a good view of it from the parking lot of Indian Head Resort on the west side of Route 3. 

 

This postcard view from the Indian Head tower, probably from the 1920s, shows the main Liberty slide on the right and two tributary slides (now revegetated) on the left. Part of a steep logging sled road can be seen to the right of the lower part of the slides.