A quiet day in the Great Gulf - GG trail and Wamsutta

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peakbagger

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This loop has been on the agenda for a few years. I had planned to do a variation of presi traverse but elected to do this loop. We did the loop clockwise. Heading in GG trail we encountered a confused south bound AT thru hiker near the cable bridge. He was not happy with the lack of whiteblazes. He had missed the sharp turn off The Old Jackson Road and had continued up the Great Gulf trail. We explained it was a Wilderness area so blazes are not allowed. Heading up GG trail to the Wamsutta junction was pretty quiet. Wamsutta trail is very well trimmed. The scrambles mentioned in the guide are not long but can be interesting as several require climbing up and over protruding boulders that lack significant handholds up top. There are no alternative route to avoid these spots. As we ascended there are frequent views back over to Adams and eventually Jefferson and Madison. The steep part of the trail ends at open area with great views of the gulf before heading back in the woods. Far earlier than expected we hit an alpine zone sign. There is a small patch of alpine zone well short of the Autoroad, walking through this area, the lack of use of the trail is apparent. There are many patches of moss which typically is worn away on more used trails, we tried to avoid the patches but in many places its difficult to impossible. Once pass the little patch of the alpine zone, the trail is back in the woods with no views until popping out near the auto road. We met one birder heading down the upper section and that was it for encountering other folks.

We headed across the auto road over to Nelson Crag Trail and headed past the Alpine Garden junction to Ball Crag. Rather than visit the zoo at the top we cut over to the Great Gulf trail carefully sticking to the rocks to avoid damage to the plants. This was rather futile effort as there were numerous folks who appeared to have taken the cog or the autoroad walking in the meadows. We headed over the lip of Great Gulf trail and started heading down. I was expecting a large stable boulder field similar to Ammo, Jewell, Tucks or Lions Head, this was not the case, this slide is far looser, even with care its easy to start rocks sliding and sticking to the larger rocks is no assurance or firm footing. In general the approach is stick to the left at the base of the adjoining cliffs. Despite this area being wilderness there are remnants of old yellow blazes and occasionally orange but they are in no way complete. Eventually several streams appear in the rock field and they consolidate into channels and for awhile the trail runs in and along these channels. Eventually the trail turns out of the stream channel and turns into a boulder hop along Spaulding Lake interspersed by long stretches of flooded trailbed. Given the dense growth on the sides, avoiding these stretches is not optional we got our feet wet. This continues on until the Sphinx trail intersection. The stretch of GG trail between the Sphinx trail and the Six Husbands Junction got hammered by Hurricane Irene and is challenge to navigate in spots, More than a few folks have gone the wrong way at stream crossings establishing dead end paths. There are a couple of small cairns at a few crossings but I sure wouldn't want to try to find my way out with headlamps. Eventually the trail bed becomes more apparent. It was getting late and as we hiked past the designated camping spots we didn't see any tents. We met a few folks at the Wamsutta junction who were planning to camp. and from there to RT 16 we had the trail to ourselves except for a couple camped out at the Bluffs. We ended up using headlamps despite the full moon but the view from the bridge near the parking lot was great with the full moon. We hung up at parking lot for a bit and noticed that fire flies were out which like many things are early this year.

Overall this is a very wild and quiet underused loop. It took us far longer than expected and picking our way down the GG headwall was slow as the footing was treacherous. Definitely not great for trail running past the six husbands junction on GG trail.
 
Great hike. I did this loop (well a variation of it going up Great Gulf to Washington and down Wamsutta) two summers ago on a hot June day and the flowers were in peak bloom everywhere. One of my favorite hikes of all time.
 
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