WELCH MOUNTAIN LEDGE: 1/19/12

A gorgeous winter day, sunny, twentyish, and light winds. A good day for a short hike up to the first open ledge on the south shoulder of Welch Mountain near Waterville Valley.

I was surprised to find an empty (and well-sanded) parking lot on such a nice day.

A familiar trail sign.

The brook crossing a short way in on the Welch side of the loop was fairly well-frozen.

The trail was a sidewalk of crusty snow - perfect for Microspiking.

This was the only nasty ice flow on the way up to the ledge. Thought there'd be more of this.

A trailside look at the nameless brook that drains the Dickey-Welch bowl.

Neat boulder beside the trail.

Where the trail makes a right turn at about 0.9 mi., the cliffs on the SW ridge of Dickey can be seen up through the trees.

Tread lightly on the ledges.

The final approach to the big flat ledge at 1.3 miles.

Major revegetation efforts have been ongoing up here.

The revegetation areas are well-delineated.

Looking back to the Dickey SW cliffs. The Dickey side of the loop runs along their top edge.

For a short hike with an 800-ft. climb, this ledge on the south shoulder of Welch rewards with fine views, especially looking up the Mad River valley to the Tripyramids, with Scaur Peak on the L and the Sleepers on the R.

A closer look at the Tripyramids and West Sleeper, with the long ridge of Snows Mountain below. You get a good angle on the Tripyramid South Slides from here.

Looking up at Dickey (L) and Welch (R).

The big snowy slabs of Dickey.

The steep, ledgy south face of Welch.

The huge spread of Sandwich Mountain seen across the Mad River valley, with Acteon Ridge below in front.

Sharp Jennings Peak and the summit of Sandwich. Ledgy Sachem Peak is below the summit.

The two Black Mountains - the massive shoulder on the L is the Black Mountain traversed by the Algonquin Trail, with many great views. The lower peak to the R is also called Black Mountain and has a good view ledge accessible by a fairly short bushwhack. The Algonquin Trail comes up into the col between them. The dark ledge-spotted hump in front is Bald Knob at the lower end of Acteon Ridge.

Rocks and oaks along the trail just beyond the Welch ledge.

The flat expanse at the brink of the ledge. With bright sun and little wind, I was able to spend an hour up here, part of the time chatting with a local couple who were the only other hikers I encountered.

Afternoon light in the hemlocks on the way down. This short hike is highly recommended in winter, and has no steep and potentially tricky sections like those found on the upper cone of Welch.

WEST RATTLESNAKE LOOP: 1/10/12

Two days before the first snowstorm of 2012, I headed down to Holderness for a walk up West Rattlesnake, which ranks near the top in any "biggest bang for the buck" list of hikes in New Hampshire. An easy mile's climb up the Old Bridle Path rewards with a stunning view over Squam Lake. A new parking area was created at the trailhead a couple of years ago - testimony to the immense popularity of this trek.


This well-constructed trail is maintained by the Squam Lakes Association (SLA), which maintains 50 miles of trails in the Squam area.

The early winter snow drought made this more like a November hike than 1/3 of the way through January. This section of trail has a nice birch corridor.

There was one long ice flow 0.3 mi. up that brought out the Microspikes, but except for a couple other shorter icy sections, it was a bare ground hike.

Farther along, a short side loop passed this neat split boulder.


Near the top, a well-worn, faintly blazed side path led to the right to this cool granite ledge.

Through some snow flurries,the long, flat crest of Mt. Webster in the Squam Range could be seen to the west.
The summit of West Rattlesnake is maintained as a Natural Area by the University of New Hampshire.

A gnarled old red pine at the back of the summit ledges. According to an interesting brochure about West Rattlesnake produced by the New Hampshire Natural Heritage Bureau, the summit area is dominated by a red oak-pine rocky ridge plant community.


The open granite outcrops at the summit.

Benchmark placed by the U.S. Coast & Geodetic Survey.

The classic view over Squam Lake and its many coves and islands, with the Belknap Range on the misty horizon. Strange to see it iced over with no snow on top.


Looking east across the north end of Squam to Red Hill. Five Finger Point (which has its own interesting trail) is in the middle of the photo.

Looking south over the SW section of the lake. In the foreground a hardy juniper clings to the rock.

After a nice break at the summit, sitting on dry rock in relative comfort at a breezy 35 degrees, I decided to make a loop hike back to the trailhead. I descended SE on the Pasture Trail. At the very beginning, this path briefly passes through an unusual red oak-ironwood-Pennsylvania sedge woodland community.

This trail makes a steady descent, and was completely dry with not a spot of ice.

White pines lower down on Pasture Trail.

I turned R on East Rattlesnake Trail to head for Pinehurst Rd., passing this wonderful old sugar maple.

There is very limited parking in front of a stone gate on Pinehurst Rd.

After a short road walk, I headed back into the woods on the lightly-used but well-marked Undercut Trail, which briefly coincides with the Ramsay Trail. (The latter trail is the steepest on the Rattlesnakes, with a bit of ledge scrambling.)

Undercut was a pleasant, piney walk with a bit of climbing, and one brief break of sun.

Halfway along it passes the base of an interesting talus slope.


A major blowdown. After passing through a couple of stone walls, Undercut Trail turns L on a woods road and ends up on NH 113 just a short walk south of the Old Bridle Path trailhead, completing a very enjoyable three-mile loop with about 700 ft. total elevation gain.

ICY EAST SIDE TRAIL: 1/5/12

The early winter snow drought has left the trails at lower elevations in the Whites treacherously icy. Traction is needed on even the easiest of trails. To check the conditions at Lincoln Woods, I took a morning walk up the East Side Trail. On a midweek morning in early January, the place was nearly deserted.


A new composite material sign for East Side Trail.

Wall-to-wall ice on the gravel road, which is open in summer for vehicle use only for Forest Service folks for management of the Franconia Brook Tentsite, 2.6 mi. up the road. Microspike material from start to finish.

This view of the East Branch a half-mile in was opened up by Tropical Storm Irene.

As shown on a post-Irene post on this blog, parts of the Pine Island Trail were obliterated by the storm. The Forest Service does plan to reopen this delightful, easy path, which Carol and I had just adopted in July, by moving it farther back from the river.

At the one-mile mark, the road crossed a small brook coming off the slope of West Hitchcock. Amazingly,during Irene the brook moved this culvert some distance downstream...

...creating this washout. Latest word from the Forest Service is that there are plans to construct a bridge here in spring/early summer of 2012.


One the way back I did a little whacking in the open hardwood forest on the east side of the trail. These open woods extend quite a ways up the slope of West Hitchcock, which I took advantage of years ago on a couple of whacks to the steep, slabby, slide on the west face of West Hitchcock.


That slide, seen in the upper left of this photo from Lincoln Woods Trail, is pretty tricky to get out on because of overlapping slabs. I did find a perch near the top with a view west down the valley towards Lincoln. That was during pre-digital camera photo days, so no pics to share here.


As I made my way parallel to the East Side Trail, I passed this little feeder brook coming off West Hitchcock. Just a nice little forest vignette.

I worked my way down to where Pine Island Brook (on the R) feeds into the East Branch.

Looking downstream on the East Branch. A long way to go before the river freezes over.


A tangle from Irene seen below the Lincoln Woods Trail. It's always amazing to see the power of the water from that storm.