Blue (Trailwrights) and Moosilauke - Fri 6/15/2012

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bikehikeskifish

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Weekends have been filled with baseball, dance, and yard work of late. While I have had some nice bike rides, I haven't really been hiking since winter ended. After staring out my office window on Thursday, with Friday looking to be just as nice, and plans for both days this weekend, I made a last-minute decision to take a personal day on Friday. I figured Moosilauke was close, relatively short, and offered me the chance to tag Jim or Blue, plus I'd never been up the Beaver Brook Trail before. On the matter of Beaver Brook, it did not disappoint, steep, challenging, and with spectacular cascades and falls to keep one's attention.

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Two of the larger cascades

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A small bathtub causes a bit of a fountain

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Two of the taller cascades

The summit of Moosilauke was its usual beautiful self, with a lot of people, including a family flying a kite. I won't spend any more time on this.

Since I had made a last-minute decision to go, I didn't do much research on routes. I found a photo or two of tracks and they looked like they just made a half-circle off of the Beaver Brook Trail. I did the same. The first half of the ascent is very thick and spindly and of course there are a million black flies here. I followed a few very small drainages (which were dry) and tried to avoid the thickest stuff. Once above the visible fir wave, things got easier. On the top, there were occasional traces of a herd path and then, when you get to the actual high point, there is a much more obvious herd path heading roughly WSW. I lost it, and just took the easiest route down hill back to the AT. Again, it was kind of nasty below the fir wave. Here is the track:

Google%2520Earth.jpg


I noticed, on the return trip, what looked like a very nice herd path heading east from the AT in the western col. It is marked on the map above. Does anyone know for sure that this is the optimal way to head up Blue?

Also, I found a very small cairn on the north side of the trail, shown on the map, which didn't seem to mark anything in particular and which was too low to indicate the start of any bushwhack (although the woods here looked better). It could have marked a campsite somewhere near by.

All photos/video

Tim
 
cool report, Tim.

The herd path could be the old route of the AT, which used to run closer to the lip of Jobildunc ravine?
The cairn may mark the top of an old trail which used to head down into the ravine as well, although I am just guessing here. I have seen old maps somewhere that showed a trail which descended in to the ravine from this vicinity, I believe.
 
The herd path was uphill (north) of the AT, and pointing towards Blue. It would start at the place (on the map) indicating the least elevation gain. It seems very likely it goes to the summit of Blue. I was tempted to try it on my return from Moosilauke, but wasn't interested in coming down through the thick stuff to the east (again).

I do remember seeing an old trail / trail re-route, that was blocked off by branches, but I could not tell you where it was, sitting here in my office ;) For some reason, I did not push the waypoint button. My recollection was that it was rocky, and there was side-hilling involved. Definitely looked like a trail re-route.

Tim
 
The cairn looks like roughly the right spot for the top of the Asquachumauke trail, which follows the Baker river. That's also the launching point for the Ridge Trail to Mt Jim and Mt Waternomee. The trail reroute you remember may the one further west, where the old trail continues into the ravine but the Beaver Brook trail has been rerouted to the north to join up with the Benton trail. The old route is very obvious: the trail takes a short, sharp zigzag, but the old route just keeps going, sidehill along the ravine - wide at first and blocked only by an intentionally set pile of branches, but it seems to be crumbling quickly as it's a steep sidehill.
 
My track in red, official trails in blue (Benton, Beaver Brook and Asquam). The Asquam Ridge Trail is still a ways away from the cairn. I do not have a track for Asquachumauke in the free trails collection. Is it abandoned?

You are probably right about the trail re-route around Joblidunk. The terrain was similar to the area just beyond Blue.

Google%2520Earth.jpg



Tim
 
A reader contacted me this morning to say that the herd path, while occasionally faint, took him to the summit in ~5 minutes. That is obviously a better choice than pushing through the stuff I pushed through.

Also, I zoomed way in with Google Earth and I can see the old trail going across Joblidunk much lower than its new location. I also could not see any signs of an old trail near the cairn.

Tim
 
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Hm, I'm obviously not very good at reading Google Earth projections. That cairn is farther uphill than I thought. It's not even a very good match for the top of the old Asquachumauke trail. Maybe if you go north from there you can avoid the fir wave on your way to Blue.

http://mapper.acme.com/?ll=44.02279...arker0=44.02444,-71.83139,Mount Moosilauke NH
Switch to Terrain view to see the new trail. (Hey, that steep sidehill section on the old trail doesn't last all that long - definitely worth exploring further next time!)

Also visible on the USGS map: the old Gorge Brook trail, looks like fun.
 
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