Ammonoosuc Ravine Ramble

Chose a cloudy, relatively warm day to check out the newly relocated 1.5 mile section of the Ammonoosuc Ravine Trail. I had walked part of this when it was first being roughed out in 2023. It was officially opened this past October. Though it lacks the river scenery of the older, now closed route, (which has become washed out and dangerously unstable in several spots), it passes through a beautiful open forest most of the way. With easy to moderate grades and several switchbacks, it's a fine route for snowshoeing in to Gem Pool.

There was a nice snowshoe track through several inches of fresh snow as I headed in from the Forest Service trailhead parking lot.

The crossing of Franklin Brook.

The relocation starts 0.8 mile in from the trailhead.

When I came through here in summer 2023, I noted the open, fern-filled woods on this slope. The woods are just as beautiful, if not more so, in winter.

 

Winter wonderland stuff.

Marvelous. After several switchbacks, the relocation ascends easily to 3400 ft. on the NW ridge of Mt. Monroe.

Inviting woods for bushwhacking up into the valley of Franklin Brook to visit a slide, but I think I'll wait until the snow consolidates.

The new section then makes a 120-ft. descent to cross Monroe Brook. Along the way I saw ski tracks heading into that drainage.

 

Dropping to the brook.

Monroe Brook, looking upstream.

The last half-mile of the relocation climbs by more switchbacks, then makes an easy 50-ft. descent to Gem Pool,. where it rejoins the older route.

Gem Pool in its winter guise. Here I chatted with two seasoned backcountry skiers who had bailed on an attempt at Monroe Brook (which wasn't fully "in" yet), then checked out Oakes Gulf and then a possible traverse of Westside Trail to the Cog service road. They ultimately came back down Ammonoosuc Ravine Trail due to extremely poor visibility and high wind above treeline.

 

From here I made a short bur strenuous bushwhack to an open area where two branches of the river are on either side, with a good view up into Ammonoosuc Ravine.

The bushwhack was strenuous because the unconsolidated snow was two to three feet deep out here.

I made a sketchy crossing of the river branch that comes down from Central Gully, which was buried in snow with hidden crevasses, and then snowshoed up through open woods.

Nice fir glade.

An attractive gentle area of scrubby birches approaching the open view spot. This area was scoured by debris from a trio of slides that came down in the north branch of Ammonoosuc Ravine during the Halloween storm in 2017.

 

I plunged into my first spruce trap of the season.

Looking back.

When I first arrived here, the Ammonoosuc Ravine headwall was smothered in cloud, as the area had been all day.

On the left was the track coming down from the 2017 slides.

 

It was comfortable enough to hang around for a while, and in a few minutes things looked promising.

Wow - the ravine's Central Gully was suddenly revealed.

Zoomed. In summer, there are impressive cascades up there.

A wider view, also taking in the north branch of the ravine.  

 

 

  

The deepest snow I've seen so far this winter.

Heading back to the trail.

Back over the brook crossing.

Trees along the trail.

The skiers had some fun in the open glades.

I came back out via the link to the Cog Base Station.

 

As I was descending along the road, I looked back and was startled to see the Presys revealing themselves at dusk. 

 

 

  

 Washington was peeking through a break in the fog.

 

Jefferson.

And Clay with the Jewell Trail ridge on the left.