MOUNT MOOSILAUKE VIA GLENCLIFF TRAIL: 9/4/14

I hadn't been up the Moose via this route from the SW in a few years. The Glencliff Trail - a link in the Appalachian Trail - is in excellent shape. Kudos to my friends who maintain this trail (with its 200 waterbars!) - Steven Martin and Thom Davis.

On a late summer morning, the fields along the lower part of the trail were humming with insects.

Above the junction with the Hurricane Trail, the Glencliff Trail passes through ranks of dusky birches.

Higher up, there's some fine hardwood forest.

This massive yellow birch towers above the left side of the trail. The footing is quite good up through the hardwoods to about 2750 ft.

Around 3000 ft. you enter the boreal conifer forest and the trail becomes quite rocky. On the upper steep section, nicknamed "The Agony" by Dartmouth Outing Club crews who once packed supplies to the Summit House, I saw what looked like a patch of snow but was actually a chunk of quartz.

A hiker ascending "The Agony." I found this steep rocky section more agonizing coming down.

At  4250 ft. a short rocky path leads up to an open talus slope just above the trail.

Wide westerly views are gained with a careful scramble up the jumble of rocks. This was a great place to hang out in the sun for a while.

A short additional climb up Glencliff Trail and a little rocky scramble up a side trail brought me to the beautiful and usually quiet South Peak.

Looking north to the main summit.

A plaque at the end of a short side path honors J. Pennington Haile, a Dartmouth alumnus whose generosity added much of the 4,500 Moosilauke acres now owned by the college.

South Peak offers views that you don't get from the main summit, especially looking into Tunnel Brook Notch and Slide Ravine. I was joined here by a thru-hiker named Raven from New York City.

A closer look at Mud Pond and the nameless ponds to its north.

A zoom on the big slide on the north side of Slide Ravine.

Approaching the summit on the Carriage Road.

I found the old Mount Moosilauke summit benchmark from the U.S. Coast & Geodetic Survey in 1873, placed under the direction of Dartmouth professor E.T. Quimby.

The more recent summit benchmark, placed in 1958.

Amidst the stone ruins of the Summit House (1860-1942) was this rusted old bed frame.

This rock appears to be inscribed "Bradford VT Aug 6 1911."

An Appalachian Trail thru-hiker heading north. I ran into about a dozen of them during the day, plus a couple of southbounders.

Looking north along the summit ridge. Moosilauke's horizons are vast!

The high peaks of the Whites.

From the north ridge, looking back at the summit.

Peering down into Lincoln, with the Hancocks and Mt. Carrigain beyond.

Summit signs and Moosilauke's East Peak.

Heading down after a nice long stay up top, looking back up at the summit.

Another thru-hiker hustling up to the summit.

Hazy view to the west.

A view down into the Gorge Brook valley from an outlook reached by a short rocky side path off the Carriage Road.

New signs at the Carriage Road/Glencliff junction, replacing those stolen last winter.

Rocky descent along The Agony.

A two-thirds moon hangs above the fields.

KINSMAN NOTCH EXPLORING: 9/2/14

On a hot and humid day I spent six hours bushwhacking on the northern slopes of Mt. Waternomee in the company of fellow Kinsman Notch enthusiast Erin Paul Donovan. A variety of historic and natural features made for a very interesting day.

I started out solo on a hunt for two large metal wheels probably used in a snubbing set-up to lower logs down a steep slope during the Gordon Pond Logging Railroad operation in the early 1900s. We had thought they were in the Stark Falls Brook drainage to the north, as mentioned in several logging history books. But thanks to intel from local resident Russ Clark, who saw the wheels in the 1980s, we learned that they were in an area on the north side of Mt. Waternomee. Erin and I had spent six hours looking for them two weeks ago, and as it turned out had just missed them. Erin went back a couple of days later and found them. Now it was my turn to have a look.


After bushwhacking some distance up along a brook, I hopped onto a steep washed-out old sled road, and there up ahead through the brush I could see the object of my quest!

These wheels (drums) were built for heavy-duty use under the direction of legendary woods boss Jakey McGraw.

While I was starting to look them over, I heard some crackling in the woods. It turned out to be not a bear or a moose, but Erin, coming back up for another look after doing some reconnaissance on the other side of Route 112.

Erin examines a long spike used in the snubbing operation.

More ironware in the old sled road.

A length of the thick cable used with the wheels. This must have been quite a sight when in operation.

We continued up to  a familiar brook, with a developing carpet of red maple leaves.

On previous visits this was a lovely cascade, but today the brook was nearly dry.

A calm pool deep in the forest.

An old sled road leading across the slope through fine paper birches.

We bushwhacked rather steeply up the slope through open hardwoods.

More birches!

Looking back down the slope.

Another amazing old sled road led us higher up into the valley.

A gorgeous glade at 2800 ft.

A yellow birch with a healthy crown.

Late summer wildflowers adorned this glade: asters and goldenrod.

A peek out at lower Kinsman Ridge and Mt. Wolf.

We wondered what created this wide shrubby swath up the slope. An ancient landslide?

Here also were tall stands of white snakeroot, a poisonous perennial.  In earlier times a number of people - including, apparently, Abraham Lincoln's mother - died after drinking milk from cows that had eaten snakeroot.

Looking down into a rocky gorge.

Erin, a professional photographer, shoots a lovely mossy reach of the brookbed.

Coming back down the brookbed.

A nice open stand of sugar maples.

A yellow birch spreads above a sea of hobblebush.

Interesting large old stump - struck by lightning?

A towering boulder, which we have dubbed Kinsman Notch's own "Pulpit Rock."

Erin stands beside the rock for scale.

From the other side, Pulpit Rock is perfectly cleaved. One of many interesting things to see in Kinsman Notch.