Sunday River Whitecap 4/10

I was in the mood to do something different today. I had hiked with someone from the Bethel Maine area recently and he wasn't aware of the dayhike route to this summit. Given the winds, I hoped that we would stay out of the wind for much of the trip. For those not familiar with Sunday River Whitecap, it is normally accessed via the Grafton Loop Trail but given the distance in from the road I expect it rarely gets visited in the early spring via the GLT. Its been a few years since I last visited the informal path to the col north of the summit. This path cuts out significant mileage and in general makes it a short day hike. When heading up the logging road to the trail we saw tracks in the mud from most likely yesterday so the trail does get used. The turn off the logging road is now marked with a couple of cairns and the trail through the woods is now far more distinct and marked with several colors of flagging. The area around the col has a lot of blow down and there are signs of recent saw cutting on both the GLT and the side trail. There is now a stone cairn at the junction with the side path. The hike through the woods south on GLT was well graded as usual, the trail in the woods was definitely ice covered but once out of the trees it was bare rock all the way. It was breezy but clear. There were signs of significant use of the trail.

The views from the summit were great as usual, there are 360 views and the great view of the presidentials from a distance. The wooden benches at the summit are a nice plus although the wood is starting to get a few years on it. Due to the wind we didn't stay long but it was 100 plus mile view day. We took our time heading down the icy section and then headed down the side trail. Overall it was 4.5 hour round trip at a casual pace.

Sunday River Whitecap is definitely an underappreciated summit, due to its distance from the southern NH and Mass. I expect the typical New England hiker tends to forget about it and since its not on any of the major lists I expect most folks head to its larger neighbor to the North, Mt Speck. I also expect that some folks get confused with the summits name and the ski area located a few miles south.

In general a nice Sunday trip to a underappreciated summit.

Here you go, complete with the controversy

http://www.vftt.org/forums/showthre...ay-Hike-Route&highlight=sunday+river+whitecap

That's the discontinued yellow blazed trail that one sees coming off of SRW? I adopted that part of the trail. If I can find a shorter route to it rather than climbing over that mountain, I'm going to take it. Those camp sites on that side of the loop trail look abandoned. Last Memorial Weekend, my GF and I saw several people running that trail and people do it as a day hike. Having another access point to slide mountain isn't going to affect Sunday River Whitecap any.

I have never seen any yellow blazes on this maintainer route. If you look at older Maine Mountain guides, the unofficial route followed the same logging road directly up towards the summit. The maintainers route diverges off the newer logging road onto a much older logging road that leads to Miles Notch. If you look at the Old Speck Provisional Quad (dated 2000), there is distinct drainage brook running north from Miles Notch to Screw Auger Falls, the logging road to the east of the drainage that runs up towards the summit is the one you want.

Park at the obvious logging road just west of Screw Auger Falls. Walk up hill on the road past the impressive gate to an obvious "T" intersection. Take a left and walk until you pass a large clearing and keep going past a couple of I beams and down across a bridge, stay on the road and walk up a hill keeping an eye out for a small cairn on the left and smaller cairn on the right at the edge of the road. Follow the very obvious cut path which is marked with 3 different colors of flagging. At some point the newer road bears left and the trail takes a right onto the older road. As it approaches Miles Notch the trail is less distinct but it does have infrequent flagging. There is no missing the Grafton Loop Trail and there is cairn at the junction. Take a left and enjoy the trail work.

I have considered doing Speck from this route

Doing Old Speck from there would probably be less strenuous. Switchbacks and a gently graded trail from that side of Old Speck makes a huge difference in effort expended. Not much for views if I remember correctly, but the woods are very pretty.

I did the west side of GLT as a long day hike one day. I stashed a bike at the AT parking lot and then drove back to the lower parking lot. I agree that the views are lacking with the exception of Sunday River Whitecap. It is an incredibly well built and graded trail the endless switchbacks up the Speck summit cone is quite a nice bit of trail work. I am not a trail runner but expect the smooth grades is probably something that a runner could crank on.