Kettles Path Maintenance: 4/22/22

On a blustery day with alternating sun and spitting showers, I made a second trip to my newly adopted trail, the Kettles Path in Waterville Valley --  to clean drainages and check for blowdowns from the high winds of a nor'easter earlier in the week.

Though there were dozens of small branches strewn along the trail, this multi-limbed beech was the only major blowdown from the storm.

Cleared.

This fine spring at the base of The Scaur runs across the trail, and was shown on Arthur L. Goodrich's early maps of Waterville Valley. Goodrich opened the Scaur Trail in the late 1880s and the Kettles Path around 1890. Today's Kettles Path includes the steep upper 1/4 mile of the Scaur Trail; the lower part of the Scaur Trail has been abandoned.

Eleven of the trail's 15 drainages are on that upper 1/4 mile.These are well-built  rock waterbars, constructed in 2007 in a cooperative project of the Waterville Valley Athletic & Improvement Association and the Rey Center.

This is one of several waterbars along the steep climb through spruce forest on the north side of The Scaur.

After completing the work, time for a break at The Scaur, looking south across the valley to Sandwich Dome.

View out towards Lost Pass. Later in the day I would pay a visit to the large maple visible in the hardwood forest at the base of the Scaur cliffs.

Middle and South Tripyramid.

Late in the afternoon I dropped back off the short spur trail to The Scaur and headed east along the ridge on Irene's Path, soon passing Waterville's "Rock of Gibraltar."

Wandering along the ridge on Irene's Path, which was opened in 2014 to replace the storm-damaged Flume Brook Trail.

Where Irene's Path drops off to descend to the Waterville Flume, I continued off-trail along the attractive ridge.

My objective was an open sugar maple glade farther along the ridge.

It's become a favorite spot.

Mt. Tecumseh seen through the trees to the west.

I stayed here for a while, listening to the gusty northwest wind overhead and the song of a winter wren tumbling down from a nearby spruce-covered knoll.

Mossy ledge.

Leaving the glade.

After returning along the ridge, I bushwhacked down below the cliffs of The Scaur, stopping by to admire the big maple I had looked down on earlier in the afternoon.

Nice whacking descending to the Kettles Path.

One of two large white pines that tower over the Kettles Path.

 

Sauntering in Scaur Country

Two days were well spent in the Scaur Ridge area of Waterville Valley, on the west side of the Tripyramids. 

KETTLES PATH/THE SCAUR, 4/17/22: On Easter Sunday afternoon, Carol and I took a hike up the Kettles Path to the viewpoint known as The Scaur. This was my first trip as the adopter for the Kettles Path, a longtime favorite, which I switched to after 16 years as adopter on the UNH Trail on Hedgehog Mountain. I like to change things up every once in a while. 

There are a number of interesting trees seen along the Kettles Path. This weather-beaten white ash may be the champion of its species in Waterville Valley.

 

 

This yellow birch displays tenacity.

A bear tree on the approach to The Scaur.

At The Scaur I snapped a few photos before a heavy snow squall suddenly moved in and drove us back down into the woods.  Sandwich Dome and the other peaks around the valley were sporting a fresh cloak of snow.

Middle and South Tripyramid.

Mt. Tecumseh and the Waterville Valley ski slopes, freshly whitened.

Mt. Osceola.

East Osceola and the Painted Cliff.

Heading back down through the hardwoods.

Dude with sunglasses -- spotted by Carol.

Spruce blowdown.

Cleared.

Beech step-over.

Done.

On an after-hike drive up to the Mt. Tecumseh trailhead to grab a geocache, we were treated to this view of Middle & South Tripyramid and West & East Sleeper.

SCAUR RAVINE, 4/18/22: The next day was a spring beauty, with wall-to-wall sunshine and afternoon temperatures pushing 60 degrees. I headed out on the Livermore Trail, hoping to meet Dan Newton somewhere out near the North Slide of Tripyramid, where he was planning to take a ski run this day. Along the way I dropped down a steep bank for a view of White Cascade on Slide Brook, from the pool at its base.

 

A beautiful day to ramble through the forest.

Peek-a-boo with the North Slide.

As chance would have it, I ran into Dan and his companion, Friday, at the junction of Livermore Trail and the north section of Mount Tripyramid Trail. Dan had skinned partway up the North Slide and skied down, but he said the conditions on the slide, and along the approach trail, were rough. We visited for a long time at the junction, lounging in the sun. 

Dan headed back to his camp in the woods off Livermore Trail, and I launched a bushwhack on mostly bare ground along the north side of Avalanche Brook, following the track of an old logging road. Here, high in the mountains, there was still plenty of snow on the north-facing slopes.

But this open sugar maple glade was snow-free.

From here I repeated a bushwhack I'd done once previously, following a nameless tributary of Avalanche Brook up through the ravine that lies below the Scaur Ridge Trail.

With its hardwood slopes and moss-covered stream, this is a lovely little ravine that reminds me of the upper Sabbaday Brook valley on the other side of Tripyramid. Magical.

The spring sun pours into this valley, and trout lily leaves were already emerging.

Much of the way I could wander right along the brook. In the Catskills they call this "bluelining."

 

A sharper part of the ravine, displaying the difference in sun exposure on either side.

 

High in the ravine are gnarled old yellow birches.

Looking back.

 

A marvelous open glade approaching the Scaur Ridge Trail, which cuts across the head of the ravine at 3100 ft.

 

Guardians of the Scaur Ridge Trail.

The first quarter-mile of trail heading down presented typical April conditions above 3000 ft. Yuk.

The snowline ended abruptly as this moderately-graded trail entered south-facing hardwoods. This is one of the most pleasant of White Mountain trails for descending off a high ridge.

Along one stretch tree-framed views of North Tripyramid and the North Slide are almost continuous.

Zoomed.

 

Leaving the Sandwich Range Wilderness.

Smooth sailing on Livermore Trail. Farther down I rendezvoused with Dan and Friday and we walked the last few miles out together.