Hogback Mountain: 4/11/22

I lucked out with a gorgeous spring day for a bushwhack to Hogback Mountain, one of the several wild, ledgy peaks on the long southern spurs of Mt. Tecumseh. Hogback has an elevation of 2770 ft. on the USGS quad, while the LiDAR map places it at 2749 ft. It has only ~50 ft. of prominence, so it is not on any of the regular peakbagging lists. I'd been to Hogback several times in winter over the years, but never via the approach via the Shattuck Brook valley. This route provided me with a full day in the woods.

 

I started the trek from the Welch-Dickey trailhead and followed the mellow Brown Ash Swamp Mountain Bike Trail (aka Dickey Notch Trail) into Dickey Notch, the gap between Dickey Mountain and Cone Mountain.

I always enjoy the stretch of trail that passes several small beaver ponds on the floor of the notch.

A former home, sweet, home.

Beautiful hardwood forest in the notch.

These woods resemble the magnificent hardwood forest of the Catskills.

From the end of the trail through Dickey Notch, where it meets FR 23C, I started whacking up the valley of Shattuck Brook. For a while I was following what looked like the old USFS Shattuck Brook Trail. It was shown as a rough woods road on official WMNF maps from 1917 through the 1930s, and as a trail in 1941 and 1942. It dead-ended high in the valley. It was never described in the AMC White Mountain Guide, but the 1945 Supplement noted that it had been abandoned by the USFS.

 

 

 

 

 

 This looked like a very old fire ring.

 

Continuing up the valley through a rocky hardwood forest.

One of many boulders strewn amidst the trees.

 

A stout old sugar maple.

A nameless tributary of Shattuck Brook.

Heading up to the Fisher-Hogback col through open woods.

Park-like forest.

Yellow birch and red spruce are the predominant trees in these south-facing woods.

Boulder trio.

A favorite open glade at 2370 ft. I had ascended Fisher Mountain twice via this route, but this was the first time using it to access Hogback.

Into dark spruce woods for the last half-mile to Hogback's summit, with intermittent patches of ice and old crusty snow.

Prickly going through flattish, confusing terrain.

What a gift to break out onto the expansive open ledges of Hogback's summit! The pointy nearby peak is the SW spur of Green Mountain. In back on the left is the West Peak of Mt. Tecumseh. Obscured from roads and civilization by intervening ridges, this spot has a supreme sense of remoteness. A fine place to lounge for a while in the warm spring sun.

Wide view to the NW: Mt. Moosilauke, Mt. Wolf, the Kinsmans and Cannon. Underneath South Kinsman is the NW spur of Hogback, a ragged ledgy hump that gave the mountain its name. There are great views there as well, but a peek down towards the col revealed deep rotten snow, promising a quarter-mile of misery to get there. Time better spent enjoying the spot I was on.

A fresh snowcap on the Moose, with the ice cliffs of Jobildunc Ravine to the right.

To the SW, Stinson, Carr and Kineo beyond the nearby hump of Fisher Mountain.

Cone Mountain and Dickey Notch, with Mt. Cardigan on the horizon.

A blurry zoom on snow-caked Mt. Lafayette.

The descent off the summit was slow and careful, due to the slick and sometimes hidden icy patches, and the it-all-looks-the-same terrain. Along the way I heard the first winter wren of the spring.

Back down in the open woods, I paused to admire this rock overhang.

Another bushwhack, another birthday balloon.

Love these woods!

Easy roaming here for the moose.

Back down on the floor of the valley, inviting woods looking upstream.

One of a number of fine hemlocks along the Dickey Notch Trail.

Evening at the beaver ponds. Here two Barred Owls were hooting, one on either side of the notch. Nice ending to a fine day in the forest.

 

ASAP Hikes: 4/4-4/6/22

During a three-day stretch of fine spring weather I began my annual ASAP hiking journey: April Snow Avoidance Program. It could also be called BGB: Bare Ground Beckons. 

LAFAYETTE BROOK: 4/4/22

A late-day bushwhack up a familiar hardwood and birch-clad slope on the north side of Lafayette Brook, ending at an obscure vantage point looking up the valley to snow-capped Mt. Lafayette. To my delight, this slope was about 95% snow-free.

A spacious opening in the forest where birches that grew in after a 1903 fire have died off, having reached the end of their lifespan. The ridge of Eagle Cliff is in the background.

A sunlit birch graveyard.

Contorted.

A pair of large red maples.

After a steep and thick descent, I reached the vantage point, which offers a veiled look down at Lafayette Brook Falls.

From here there is a striking view of Mt. Lafayette presiding over the wild, twisting valley of Lafayette Brook.

Lafayette's long summit crest, with rounded North Peak on the left.

I dropped farther down for a brief visit to this precarious ledge perch.

Much of the acreage on this slope is awash in a sea of hobblebush. I usually do this whack on snowshoes, when the hobblebush is partly or wholly buried. It's a different ballgame with the snow gone!

BOULDER LOOP TRAIL: 4/5/22

Carol and I enjoyed a leisurely hike around this three-mile loop trail, with a bit of geocaching mixed in. This south-facing trail at the lower edge of the Moat Range is one of the first trails to melt out in the spring. Only a few avoidable patches of ice were encountered in shady spots.

Carol is a determined geocacher with nearly 5,000 finds. Despite our best efforts, we didn't come up with this one and suspect it may be missing.

First view, partway up the west side of the loop. White Ledge, a spur of Mt. Chocorua, in the distance.

Peering down into an inviting hardwood basin.

A spur from the loop trail leads out to the top of these cliffs, with excellent views. This is known to rock climbers as the Sundown Far Cliff.

From the ledges atop the Far Cliff you enjoy a sweeping view over the Swift River valley to the Sandwich Range.

Whiteface and Passaconaway.

Tripyramid, with Hedgehog and Potash in front.

Down-look.

The viewpoint looks down on the Sundown Main Cliff.

We watched a climber, and then another in turn, negotiate a difficult route on a part of the cliff known as the Alcohol Wall.

In keeping with the theme, this specific climb is known as Have Annutha Drink, rated 5.11b.

Boulder cave alongside the lower part of the loop.

Before heading out, I made an unsuccessful attempt to find a geocache stashed at the top of this cliff. I followed a climber's path up through a talus slope, then on a traverse along the base of this cliff, and a narrow path doubling back across the top, with another cliff looming above. Slippery leaves made the footing rather precarious. Maybe next time I'll find it.

SCARFACE MOUNTAIN: 4/6/22

On the third consecutive gorgeous day I undertook a late afternoon/evening bushwhack to Scarface Mountain, a 2819-ft. northern outlier of Mt. Lafayette. After a short walk up Skookumchuck Trail, I headed up the slope towards the lower spur known as Bickford Mountain. This slope is cloaked in wonderfully open hardwoods, and there are glimpses through the trees to Mt. Lafayette.

 

I reached the ridgecrest at an open fern glade just west of the 2400-ft. summit of Bickford Mountain.

It seems every hardwood ridge has an ent tree.

A few lingering snow patches on the north edge of the ridge.

A nice half-mile eastward whack along this ridge, with Scarface (L) and Big Bickford (R) glimpsed through the trees.

Hardwoods continue along the base of Scarface, with another peek at Lafayette.

Ascending up the steep cone of Scarface through darker, thicker woods.

I found a route up through some rough, cliffy terrain to the first of three small view ledges on the SW edge of the broad summit.

A framed view of Cannon Mountain from the first ledge. There was a similar limited view from the second ledge.

 

As I remembered from my last visit here maybe 20 years ago, the third and lowest ledge was more open.

Long vista out to the Green Mountains in Vermont, including Camel's Hump and Mt. Mansfield.

Nice look at Cannon with North Kinsman peering over in back and I-93 below.

Eagle Pass to the south.

The ledge is well-guarded by long, prickly branches.

Before heading home I traversed across the summit plateau to the high point and its register. There  was a surprising number of entries, the last was in February.

A view to Vermont's Northeast Kingdom from an open birch-and-fern glade.

Fiery sunset through the trees.