Flat Top Mountain via Hawthorne Falls Slide Loop

vftt.org

Help Support vftt.org:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

NeoAkela

Active member
Joined
Jun 17, 2008
Messages
551
Reaction score
177
Location
Bethlehem, N.H.
Flat Top Mountain via "Hawthorne" Falls Slide Loop

Beech Slapped and Hobbled - the failed second Galehead attempt and the Wrong Falls Adventure!

What a fine Tuesday! Unfortunately, circumstances occurred early in the morning that put a damper on my original plans in the Wild River valley, so at the late hour of 1 PM I was finally free and searching for something to take up a short afternoon. I finally settled tentatively on Galehead, since it is nearly in my backyard, and despite several visits to Galehead hut, I have never actually climbed the Frost trail to the summit. I have some crazy aversion to actually completing the 48 list.....

Ten minutes from home and I was at the Gale River trailhead. As I walked along the well-worn trail, my mind wandered a bit, recalling the history of the route. Back in 1954, a massive landslide necessitated the re-routing of this trail, which originally ran up a ravine further to the west, passing long lost Hawthorne Fall on its way up to the ridge. Somewhere up ahead was the turnoff for the old trail, just past the first crossing of Gale River and running up a western branch of the river to Hawthorne Falls. Perhaps I could go find it....

So, once again, Galehead was again thrown out the window (don't ask about the first time!) and new plans were made! Well, maybe I would do Galehead afterward....

With less than 2 miles to the first crossing, and an easy grade, the distance was covered quickly. The Gale River trail is extremely muddy, but not so much that a few rock hops wouldn't do the trick getting by. At the intersection with the river, a worn path appeared to continue straight ahead. I decided to follow that for a while and see where it led, since it was heading in the right direction.

The herd path followed the west side of the river for a while, slowly climbing the bank on the side as it got steeper and steeper. The river dropped further and further below, and the path finally seemed to peter out. I continued onward for a while through the tight scrubby trees. Just about the time I was about to head down the embankment and try to pick up the Gale River trail again, I spotted a pink ribbon tied to a tree. Then another one. This line of pink ribbons took me along a merry chase through the woods, up and down the embankment, before ending abruptly. I wondered again about people and their ribbon mazes in the middle of nowhere...

Cutting down the bank, I emerged on the edge of the western branch of the river. A few hops across and I was in the V between the two branches. A few moments later I came across an obvious old trail, complete with cut marks on branches and muddy footprints. The trail was well worn and easy to follow. Ahead, the woods got brighter and brighter, until the trail emerged into a large clearing on a huge slab of rock. The river streamed down the rock, falling over several cascades before settling into a pool at the bottom. Unless I was completely mistaken, this must be Hawthorne Falls!

small7115.jpg

The slabs above the falls were also beautiful, and I had a relaxing lunch. (Later, I realized that this was NOT Hawthorne Falls... oh well! Still, a very beautiful waterfall! Gives me something to check out again at a later date!)

small7120.jpg


Looking up, from the edge of the slab I could make out the cliffs of Flat Top Mountain over the trees. I could see several great perches right at the top, and it wasn't that far away. I decided to try and find the old slide that I had seen from photos from across the way. It wasn't very hard to find... at the top of the falls, the old slide comes down and almost touches the stream. At first, the slide was slippery slabs of rock, but there were enough handholds and branches that this was not a problem to navigate. Higher up, the slide switched between a rocky stream and wide open dunes of gravel.

small7132.jpg


small7138.jpg

In the largest gravel field, the cliffs above were easily visible and looked very close!

small7128.jpg

This was too easy! The slide got narrower and narrower, but was not difficult to scramble up, and seemed to be leading all the way to the top.

As usual, I realized I had spoken too soon when the slide came to an abrupt end a few hundred feet below the summit rocks. In front of me was an imposing, impossible-looking phalanx of blowdowns, dead spruce, and rocks. With great pain, I scraped, pulled, and heaved myself over, under, and through the mass, until finally emerging at the top, bleeding and bruised. The hard won view was worth it, though!


Galehead Hut in the saddle under South Twin
small7139.jpg


Garfield
small7141.jpg


I sat for a while and relaxed in the sun, enjoying the beautiful panorama. Several hundred feet straight below, I could see the slide I had just climbed. The shining slabs of the falls were also visible through a break in the trees. I could see the windows of Galehead Hut with my binoculars. What a nice little perch!

All too soon, it was time to leave. Rather than attempt the horrible descent through the scrub and slide, I opted instead to head down the northern ridge and make it back to the trail. I took a NE bearing which according to the map would follow the ridge down and bring me back to the spot on the trail that crosses the Gale River. Along the descent, I found a few more viewpoints by poking around through the trees.

The way down was damp, with many rotting logs and blowdowns, tons of hobblebush and "sons of beeches", all attempting to untie my boot laces and knock me down. About half way down the slope, I crossed a few open areas that looked like old logging roads. These I followed for a short while, but they were heading in the wrong direction. In a tree near one of these "roads" was an old oil can. There must be a story here somewhere!

small7216.jpg

Despite all the adversity with the underbrush, the way down was fairly straightforward, and by following the ridge I came out of the woods about 100 feet from where I had started the bushwhack adventure.

Out of curiosity, I followed the Gale River trail upwards for a while, past the area where I had previously left it, to find the proper beginning of the old trail. After a few false starts, I found the trail and followed it up until I met the spot where I had discovered it a few hours earlier. The Waterfall/Flat Top Mountain loop was complete!

Later on at home, I did some research on the falls which any smart person would have done before trying to reach them! It was a surprise to see a photo looking nothing like what I had found. A little more digging here on VFTT revealed the location to be not too much further upstream from where I had been, so someday soon I'll have to return to complete this trip!
 
Last edited:
A most interesting story and whack!

Thanks for posting. What a cool adventure! I can see from your pics there's a lot more valley to drain to the south. Must be where Hawthorne Falls is. The real Hawthorne Falls would appear to be a worthwhile objective.
 
The summit of Flat Top has/had a Ray Chaput sign
 
Wow! Amazing photos! I've eyed Flat Top for awhile, but never bothered to make the trip. Someday!
 
A few moments later I came across an obvious old trail, complete with cut marks on branches and muddy footprints. The trail was well worn and easy to follow.
Chris, those muddy footprints were mine!!

I was just at that cascade on Monday of this week! It's a favorite place that I go to quite often when I only have a few hours to hike. However, I get there via a different route than you. Basically, I recross the Gale River again about 10 minutes after the first crossing on the Gale River Trail. Sounds complicated, but it's really not (PM me for details if you wish).

Anyway, I have been to the actual Hawthorne Falls and will post a photo later today. Right now I don't have access to my photos since I'm at a public computer waiting for my HappyHonda's brakes to be worked on (they were just fixed yesterday . . . long story).

///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

OK, the HappyHonda brakes are fixed (again) and so here’s the photo, etc that I mentioned earlier today.

First of all Chris, trust me, I’m not trying to hijack your thread. I just happen to have a lot of info on Hawthorne Falls, and just thought that perhaps you and others might be interested. So, here are two photos as follows:

LEFT: I took this photo of Hawthorne Falls in the summer of 2007.
RIGHT: This is an old photo of the falls given to me by a friend. Possibly this old photo was taken when there was still an official trail to this spot.
%21HawthorneFalls_3.JPG
Book%20Photo.jpg

Here’s one other bit of trivia. The trail that used to go by Hawthorne Falls was called the Gale River Trail. Branching off of that old Gale River Trail was a trail called the Galehead Trail (not shown on map below) which was used for accessing the Galehead Hut. When the old Gale River Trail was abandoned, then at some point in time the present-day trail that goes to the hut became known as the Gale River Trail and the name "Galehead Trail" was dropped. At least that’s my understanding.

Concerning the location of Hawthorne Falls, the old map below shows where it is (circled in red) in relation to my best guess as to where the cascade is located (blue arrow).
HawthrnTrailMap.jpg
 
Last edited:
We were up on Flat Top a couple of years ago. Ray's sign is still there but laying on the ground and broken apart. You can still make out "Flat Top" though. The back of the sign has a date on it 5-27-79. That makes the sign 30 years old. No wonder it's falling apart.

To get up to the actual summit was a tough little push and then to find the true summit of "FLAT TOP" was also a little tough.

0_0_caf07820c928bbc16f0f368f21deb8b3_1


0_0_40c641598d5f32cb77e4a23e070d1c42_1
 
Thanks all for the comments! Boy did I feel silly after writing up that whole trip report when I realized I had never found the real waterfall! :eek: Lots of last-minute embarrassed editing on this one!

Wow! Amazing photos! I've eyed Flat Top for awhile, but never bothered to make the trip. Someday!

The slide was really cool. However, the last bit was horrible! Sleeping Bear had a similar experience a few years back - wish I had read that report before!

Chris, those muddy footprints were mine!! I was just at that cascade on Monday of this week! It's a favorite place that I go to quite often when I only have a few hours to hike. However, I get there via a different route than you.

First of all Chris, trust me, I’m not trying to hijack your thread. I just happen to have a lot of info on Hawthorne Falls, and just thought that perhaps you and others might be interested.

Concerning the location of Hawthorne Falls, the old map below shows where it is (circled in red) in relation to my best guess as to where the cascade is located (blue arrow).

John, glad I found some of the trail you had told me about! I believe I found the other starting route you are talking about at the end, but I will PM you later to confirm. I'll be going back up there very, very soon to find the rest of the way past the faux falls! Hopefully the trail is easy to pick up past the ledges... I never bothered to look, thinking I was already there...

Great information, and much appreciated - certainly not a hijack by any means! :D

The rock slab and waterfall are easily seen on Google Earth, right below the equally visible Flat Top slide. I think you have the location just right on your map!

We were up on Flat Top a couple of years ago. Ray's sign is still there but laying on the ground and broken apart. To get up to the actual summit was a tough little push and then to find the true summit of "FLAT TOP" was also a little tough.

Tough is a good word! I tramped around a bit at the top but did not see anything resembling a sign, cannister, or any other man-made item. However, the scrub was extremely thick, so I did not wander too much, so I cannot really confirm if I actually stood on the "true" summit. The west facing ledges were much more appreciated and a welcome relief from being shredded!
 
Last edited:
Great report! The falls photo is outstanding! Did you have a tripod when you took this shot?


The slabs above the falls were also beautiful, and I had a relaxing lunch. (Later, I realized that this was NOT Hawthorne Falls... oh well! Still, a very beautiful waterfall! Gives me something to check out again at a later date!)
 
Top