Sabbaday Brook Valley

A hike into the remote and beautiful Sabbaday Brook valley in the Sandwich Range Wilderness is an almost annual occurrence for me. On this 9 1/2 mile round trip I visited three old landslides and three logging camp sites of the Conway Lumber Company's Swift River Railroad (1906-1916).

The water level in Sabbaday Brook was late-summer-low, making the three big crossings relatively easy. They still require focus as some of the rocks have awkward shapes and some are very slippery. 

Into the Wilderness at 1.2 miles.

 

A unique triangular rock aids the crossing of one of numerous small drainages along a 1.5 mile section of century-old logging road along the east side of the brook.

Long stretches of good walking here.

 

Mossy rocks at the fourth crossing, an easy one this day.

 

 

Heading into the inner sanctum of the valley between the Sleepers, Mount Tripyramid and The Fool Killer.

A steep bank scramble at the fifth crossing.  

 

 

Washout damage from Tropical Storm Irene in 2011.

One section of the brook was bone dry.

A beautiful valley.

 

 

 

The trail runs alongside a scenic mossy section of the brook.

 

 

I made a short bushwhack up to the last remaining open  patch on an old slide on the flank of The Fool Killer.

An intimate look up at West Sleeper.

 

The wooded wall of Mount Tripyramid looms high above. 

 

 

 

Dwindling brook.

 

 

The seventh and final crossing of Sabbaday Brook.

 

The trail heads up onto the valley headwall.

 

 

An upland hardwood glade at 3100 ft.

 

 

Traversing across the head of the valley.

The trail crosses the track of Tripyramid's second and more northern East Slide. The 1925 edition of the AMC White Mountain Guide noted that this slide fell in September 1924, “and the subsequent flood washed out the valley for some distance.”

 

 

Today this slide is fully revegetated save for a small open gravel patch at 3,400 ft. I followed the track steeply up from the trail to access this patch, which I have visited several times over the last two decades.

 

This apparently was a gravelly slide.

 

 

The open patch still has what the AMC Guide  called "wild and interesting views to Mts. Passaconaway and Chocorua.” The scrubby spruces taking over the slide have been slowly shrinking this vista over the years.

 

 

The picturesque profile of Chocorua.

 

 

 

 

The graceful sweep of Passaconaway. 

 

 

There must have been some serious snow loading up here over the winter.

A peek at The Fool Killer.

 

I traversed across the steep slope to meet the trail where it follows the upper end of the older, more southern East Slide of Tripyramid.

 

The trail scales these steep slabs, which mark the upper end of the older East Slide. Until a 1980s relocation, Sabbaday Brook Trail climbed this slide all the way from its bottom down by the brook.

 

 

This section requires caution, especially descending.

 

 

 

Heading back down the valley.

 

Sled runners from an upper mountain camp of the Swift River Railroad. 

 

 

 

 

Other artifacts from that camp. As always, note that these are historic artifacts protected by law and it is illegal (and unethical) to remove them. 

 

A bucket at the site of the Monahan Camp, farther down the valley.

Stove doors. 

A variety pack of artifacts. On the right are what appear to be pieces of a lantern. 

 

 

 

 

 

  

The "Magnetic Pearl" was a small cookstove manufactured by Southard, Robertson & Company of New York City. It had four holes and was designed to be used with either coal or wood.

Still farther down the valley is this unusually intact stove at the site of the Holland Camp. Thanks go to longtime White Mountains tramper and historian Ben English, Jr. for intel on this camp.

 

 

Sabbaday Falls at dusk. Once past the falls area on my way in, I saw not a single hiker the rest of the day, on a beautiful weekend day in August.