BLUEBIRD DAY ON MT. WILLARD: 2/9/12

What an incredible string of days for winter hiking: sunny, 30s, and all the popular trails packed out as smooth snowy sidewalks. I figured the south-facing ledges atop Mt. Willard would be a fine place to bask in the sun and gaze out over Crawford Notch in comfort. I was not disappointed.

The Mt. Willard hike is 3.2 miles round trip with 900 ft. of elevation gain, at easy to moderate grades with nothing tricky - a good choice for hikers just starting out in winter, or for anyone looking for an easier jaunt. The trail ducks into the woods across the railroad tracks behind the Crawford Depot/Macomber Family Information Center.


In 0.1 mi. the Mt. Willard Trail splits off from the Avalon Trail.

Sunny hardwoods at the bottom. The little brook that the trail crosses was completely buried.

Centennial Pool is a nice little spot along the brook a half-mile up; a small cascade in summer.

At 0.7 mi. the trail joins the old carriage road, originally built by innkeeper Thomas Crawford (Ethan Allen Crawford's brother) in the 1840s. In 1937 the CCC upgraded this road with the intent to make it passable for automobiles, but the 1938 hurricane damaged it so badly that the project was abandoned.

A glimpse of rugged Mt. Avalon through the trees.


Down in the saddle between Mt. Willard and Mt. Avalon is a small open boggy area that the late Ray Evans, who grew up beside the railroad tracks at the base of Mt. Willard and knew every nook and cranny of Crawford Notch, called "Avalon Flats." I've visited this spot several times in winter, most recently with my wife, Carol, in 2008. That day we had a misty view up to Mt. Avalon from the bog.


Nearing the top of Mt. Willard, the old carriage road leads through a tunnel of trees.

About 0.1 mi. before the top, there were tracks leading left along the old abandoned spur trail to the top of Hitchcock Flume. The spur trail was rough, and at its end rather dangerous for inexperienced hikers, with a big dropoff into the flume.

The Mt. Willard Trail emerges dramatically onto the clifftop ledges.

The wide-screen view down the gaping maw of Crawford Notch is, as they say, a "jaw-dropper," and has been extolled by writers since the mid-1800s. In a peculiar analogy, the classic White Mountain prose-poet, Thomas Starr King, wrote, "A man stands there as an ant might stand on the edge of a huge tureen."

The sun was balmy, and this ant basked here for an hour with no one else around.

On the east side of the notch, the long line of battlements of the Webster Cliffs.

On the west side, the ominous slide-scarred mass of Mt. Willey.

Looking across the Willard ledges to Mt. Field.

A dazzling down-look to Route 302.

Looking left to Mt. Pierce with Mts. Eisenhower and Washington behind.

By dropping carefully down a bit you can see Mt. Clay and Mt. Jefferson.

The little snow-cone of Mt. Jackson.

The slab known as the Willey Slide, where four ice climbers were ascending in the chilly shade.

The notch view from a slightly different angle.

Peak ID for the distant southern view.

These two young and enthusiastic ice climbers came clanking up from the left, having enjoyed a several-hour ascent through Hitchcock Gully. They checked out the view for a few minutes, then headed down the trail. I followed shortly after them. The trail was perfect for an easy-on-the-knees descent.

On the way home, I stopped to admire the classic view of the Mt. Washington Hotel - where I worked for a number of years in the 1970s and 1980s - and its magnificent Presidential Range backdrop. What a great day in the mountains!

HARDWOOD RIDGE BUSHWHACK: 2/3/12

Firm, crusty snow conditions had set up for some possible decent bushwhacking, and a rare chance to use snowshoes this winter at lower elevations. I opted for a mellow, close-to-home whack I'd done a couple times before - from the east side of the Flume Covered Bridge up to a couple of meadow/ledge openings on the lower end of Hardwood Ridge, a western spur off the ridge between Mt. Flume and Whaleback Mountain. The meadows (elevation about 1950 ft.) are located at the small patch of spruce visible in the center of this photo taken from Mt. Pemigewasset.


Even on a Friday, there were quite a few folks heading around the Flume-Pool Loop. Here Mt. Liberty rises above the Flume Covered Bridge, a classic White Mountain scene.


Looking up the Pemigewasset River from the bridge.

From the far side of the bridge, I headed up the slope and into the hardwoods. The crusty snow was pretty good for whacking - I was only sinking in a few inches in some spots and hardly at all in others.

A big old sugar maple at about 1700 ft. The upper part of this route is in the "Pemigewasset Roadless Area," which wraps around the perimeter of the Pemi Wilderness. Of course, here there is highway noise coming up from I-93.

An old logging road cutting across the slope just beyond the big maple.

The hardwoods go ever on....though there were plenty of beech saplings to contend with.

After a mile or so of slowly-paced whacking, finishing with a sidehill traverse, I reached the bottom of the upper meadow, a bright and cheery place in the midday sun.

Just below is the lower meadow, tucked into the spruce patch.

The meadows provide restricted but interesting views, here looking towards Mt. Wolf.

A closer look at Wolf and its long, bumpy northern ridgecrest.

From the upper meadow, a view of cloud-capped Moosilauke.

Here is the return view from Moosilauke. The spruce patch on Hardwood Ridge and a bit of the snowy meadows can be seen in the lower R part of the photo, centered amidst a vast hardwood area.


From the meadow, looking towards Mt. Waternomee and the Blue Ridge.


Leaving the bright sun at the upper meadow.

On the crest, Hardwood Ridge lives up to its name.

Sidehill traverse, awkward on the crusty snow.


Following my winding snowshoe track on the descent.

A random open pool of water in the forest.

Part of the way down I paralleled a set of bear tracks. Perhaps the bruins are restless during this relatively mild and snowless winter.

This is good bear territory, with lots of beeches. This photo of a bear tree was taken on a visit to Hardwood Ridge a couple of years ago. On that trek, I followed the ridge east to a 2300-ft. bump and a little ways beyond, near the upper end of the pure hardwoods on Hardwood Ridge. From there to the main ridgecrest could be quite a tussle through the conifers; at the top, you could swing north and connect with the upper Osseo Trail. Could make an interesting long loop, continuing over Flume and Liberty and back down to the Flume parking area.

GREELEY PONDS: 1/26/12

This day was one of the picks of the winter: sunny, 30s, with light winds. A fine day to head in to an old favorite, the Greeley Ponds in Mad River Notch between East Osceola and Mt. Kancamagus.

There were a half-dozen cars in the small parking lot when I set out late morning, but most of those folks must have been doing the Osceolas, as I saw only one group of four on my trek to the ponds.

Normal for this winter, the trail was a packed sidewalk, ideal for Microspikes. It makes for a more pleasant hike than the muddy, rocky, rooty footing found on parts of this trail in summer.

Some nice old hardwoods on the final approach to the height of land in Mad River Notch.

The trail junction in the notch.

The peakbagger's pathway towards East Osceola. The majority of the boot traffic had headed this way.

Midday sun floods the woods at the height-of-land.

Cool fortress rock beside the trail.

A single log foot bridge spans the infant Mad River. Hard to imagine that just a few miles south, down towards Waterville Valley, this stream devastated a long section of the Greeley Ponds Trail, which remains closed and will require major reconstruction/relocation before it reopens.

The trail hugs a high bank above the west shore of Upper Greeley Pond.

First view of the pond through a gap in the trees.

From the SW corner of Upper Pond, near the outlet, there's a neat view up to the ice-draped ledges on the western knob of Mt. Kancamagus.

The best view at Upper Pond is found along an overgrown side path that leads left from here and crosses the outlet brook. Surprisingly, no one had headed this way recently.

From an opening on the SE shore there's an impressive look at the long line of cliffs fronting a northern arm of East Osceola. Peregrine falcons sometimes nest here.

Looking north down the pond, the rock-faced western spur of Mt. Huntington peers over the trees. Although I've crossed the ice on Upper Greeley many times in the past, I stayed off it today with a recent rain/thaw event in the back of my mind.

I especially like the view up towards the top of East Osceola. The two slides on the L are sometimes descended by hardcore backcountry skiers. The small slide patch that the Mt. Osceola Trail crosses high up on the mountain is on the R, directly above the prominent snowy ledge.


Here is the view back down to the ponds and notch from that slide patch.


Returning to the main trail, I continued down to Lower Greeley Pond, an easy half-mile of gentle descent. Along the way you pass this brook, the runout from one of the East Osceola slides.

Tracks leading off through the woods - coyote?

My favorite spot in Mad River Notch is the viewpoint on the NW shore of Lower Greeley Pond. This pond is more open and expansive than Upper Greeley, and is very shallow with suspect hollow ice at its north end. The K1 Cliff, named by early 1900s Waterville hikers, is located on this southern spur of Mt. Kancamagus, where it drops off on the R. For a few years there was a primitive path up to the cliff. A few years ago I tried to get down to the cliff from the top of the ridge, but the terrain was too steep and rough on snowshoes.


I did, however, get a good view up to the K1 Cliff from a remarkable ledge that juts above the trees on the flank of the mountain.



Another look at the western knob of Mt. Kancamagus from the shore of Lower Greeley.

This was called the K2 cliff by the Watervillians, and for a few years there was also a rough path up there. Must have been quite the rugged route!

The skeletons of ghost-trees rise from the bog at the north end of Lower Greeley.

I continued down to the viewpoint at the SW corner of Lower Greeley, where a long view north up the pond places Mad River Notch in profile.

I had lugged my snowshoes, and put them on for a while, skirting around the shore.

Heading back up the trail between the ponds.

A great gnarled old yellow birch crown. There are some old trees in this inner sanctum. When a logging railroad was planned through the notch in the 1920s, the Society for the Protection of NH Forests spearheaded a campaign to protect the area, and it was acquired by the Forest Service in 1928, with a 770-acre tract around the Greeley Ponds set aside as a permanent scenic reserve. Today the area is known as the Greeley Ponds Scenic Area, and it is a place I like to return to often, winter and summer.