On a morning when the Mount Washington Observatory reported 100-mile visibility, with a prediction of light winds by afternoon, I headed back to the Cog Railway Base Road for a snowshoe trek up the moderately graded Jewell Trail to treeline at 4600 ft., where after three miles in the woods you are suddenly treated to panoramic views. It's not a peak, but the views are better than those from many 4000-footers. On the way down I bushwhacked through deep heavy snow to the top of a slide in the drainage of Jefferson Brook's south fork.
Near the start the Jewell Trail crosses the Ammonoosuc River on a sturdy footbridge.
Conditions were quite different from what I found on Ammonoosuc Ravine Trail two days earlier. All the snow had melted off the trees, and cover was thin in places down low. The top layer of the track was soft, and I found snowshoes to be the most efficient footwear.
There were a few minor icy spots but they were easy to traverse.
Bridge over Clay Brook.
A sidehill section higher up the ridge (western spur of Mt. Clay) traversed by Jewell Trail.
Passing through a blowdown patch at 3600 ft.
View of Mt. Franklin and a slide in the Franklin Brook drainage.
Monroe Brook Slide under Little Monroe.
Screened view out towards Bretton Woods, the Twins and Mt. Lafayette.
Higher up, around 4000 ft., the trail makes a long, easy-graded climb through a beautiful open balsam fir forest.
Great snowshoeing through here.
Into the scrub at 4450 ft.
Serious snow depth up here.
Final approach to treeline.
It was an amazing afternoon on this perch at the edge of treeline. Temp in the high 20s and zero wind. This view looks west down the ridge and out past the Base Station to the Twin-Bond Range and Willey Range.
The nearby Dartmouth Range with Cherry Mountain and vast Vermont horizons beyond.
Mt. Jefferson and Caps Ridge.
The Pliny Range with Mt. Cabot and The Horn peering over in back.
Mts. Bond and Guyot and the Twins. Mt. Lafayette in back.
Great angle on four of the Southern Presidentials: Monroe, Franklin, Eisenhower and Pierce. The 2017 slide in Burt Ravine is prominent in the foreground.
Monroe Brook Slide.
Looking up at Mt. Washington. The Jewell Trail looked quite bony above treeline.
Monroe and Little Monroe.
Eisenhower and Pierce, with the Hancocks and Mt. Willey to the right. The Osceolas and the tip of Mt. Tecumseh can be seen behind Pierce.
The distant views were quite clear. Here the long Abraham-Ellen ridge is seen beyond the Signal Mountain Range. Thanks to the Peakfinder app, with binoculars I could spot the tip of Whiteface Mountain in the Adirondacks off the north slope of Camel's Hump.
Parting shot after an hour-plus stay. The only hikers I saw all day was a descending group that included Steve Kenney and Tonia Sterling, who I knew from the store. We had a nice visit.
After descending a couple hundred feet I headed off-trail and downhill, seeking the top of a slide that fell in the south fork drainage of Jefferson Brook during the 2017 Halloween storm. I had visited this in summer a couple of years ago and wanted to see it in its winter guise. I had my doubts as on the way up the trail I had tested the snow off trail and found it deep, soft and wet. But the woods were wide-open, so it was worth a try.
I proceeded deliberately, letting each snowshoe step set in the wet snow, not wanting to plunge waist-deep into a spruce trap or hidden blowdown hole.
Found it! The unique view was as I remembered - Mt. Jefferson and Caps Ridge close in, and the Pliny Range in the distance.
Down-look. While the snow in the woods was deep and soft, on the open slide there was a hard crust under a thin soft layer. So I did not attempt to go down a bit on the slide.
Mt. Jefferson rises impressively, with the Caps in profile.
A more centered view looking down the slide.
Snow depth just above the slide.
I did drop into one good trap.
For the 150-ft. ascent back to the trail, I stepped in my tracks, which had set up nicely.
Glad to get back to the trail.
For variety, I took the Cog spur (Jewell Link) on the way out.
Dusk view from above the tracks.
The downside to the Jewell Link is the crawl/duck under the tracks. At least it is a somewhat unique experience. All was quiet as I walked down the road back to the icy Forest Service parking lot.
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