Jeff&Henry
New member
Route: Blueberry Ledge Trail > Rollins Trail > Walden Loop > Dicey's Mill Trail
We started around 9:15 AM heading up Blueberry Ledge on dry trail, and were astonished by the sheer number of blow downs, especially around the newly routed trail in the lower sections. The moose activity was obvious on the trail as well, and I found myself constantly scanning the areas around the trail for dark shadows for the next mile or so…
Although still dry at the first set of ledges, we soon encountered trace amounts of snow along the shaded sections. We completely missed the intersection of Tom Wiggins, probably due to exhaustion while climbing the seemingly endless staircases -- although we’re always so grateful that someone has taken what must be hundreds of hours of effort to construct, for our enjoyment.
Once above the staircases, the ice came, first in patches, then longer sections. The poles came out and our MicroSpikes went on/off at least 10 times. As you’ll see in some photos, the “ice flows” in the narrower sections made for some difficult scrambling. We passed one hiker headed down and I thought that was crazy.
The south summit of Whiteface was lovely, dry and offered some great views to Lake Wini…and beyond. Blueberry Ledge Trail, even though very tough in sections, definitely ranks as one of our favorites in the Whites.
Heading towards the Whiteface summit on Rollins, the monorail was easy to move on quickly, but very “lumpy” and icy. We had at least one hiker in front of us and three behind us NOT using MicroSpikes -- we have NO IDEA how they made it through the day without taking falls constantly as we kept the spikes on the entire ridge. The ice flows at times covered the entire trail, and there must have been a lot of butt-sliding.
We headed left at the Dicey/Rollins junction, and soon encountered probably the most impressive ice flows on the trail all day. We opted to do the eastern side of the Walden loop to the summit of Passaconaway (mistake!- it’s a very steep .6 and the western side was a much nicer trail). We passed the three other hikers coming up without spikes and were happy to see they survived the ridge from Whiteface. ;-)
We rejoined Dicey’s Mill Trail and began the long slog back down to Ferncroft…Dicey’s is definitely NOT one of our favorite trails, especially after a long day, but we were grateful for a nice easy trail.
We made it back to the parking lot around 4:45 and added numbers 34/35 to our list!
Photos from the hike: http://jcwheel.smugmug.com/Hikes/WhitefacePassaconaway
Jeff&Henry
[email protected]
We started around 9:15 AM heading up Blueberry Ledge on dry trail, and were astonished by the sheer number of blow downs, especially around the newly routed trail in the lower sections. The moose activity was obvious on the trail as well, and I found myself constantly scanning the areas around the trail for dark shadows for the next mile or so…
Although still dry at the first set of ledges, we soon encountered trace amounts of snow along the shaded sections. We completely missed the intersection of Tom Wiggins, probably due to exhaustion while climbing the seemingly endless staircases -- although we’re always so grateful that someone has taken what must be hundreds of hours of effort to construct, for our enjoyment.
Once above the staircases, the ice came, first in patches, then longer sections. The poles came out and our MicroSpikes went on/off at least 10 times. As you’ll see in some photos, the “ice flows” in the narrower sections made for some difficult scrambling. We passed one hiker headed down and I thought that was crazy.
The south summit of Whiteface was lovely, dry and offered some great views to Lake Wini…and beyond. Blueberry Ledge Trail, even though very tough in sections, definitely ranks as one of our favorites in the Whites.
Heading towards the Whiteface summit on Rollins, the monorail was easy to move on quickly, but very “lumpy” and icy. We had at least one hiker in front of us and three behind us NOT using MicroSpikes -- we have NO IDEA how they made it through the day without taking falls constantly as we kept the spikes on the entire ridge. The ice flows at times covered the entire trail, and there must have been a lot of butt-sliding.
We headed left at the Dicey/Rollins junction, and soon encountered probably the most impressive ice flows on the trail all day. We opted to do the eastern side of the Walden loop to the summit of Passaconaway (mistake!- it’s a very steep .6 and the western side was a much nicer trail). We passed the three other hikers coming up without spikes and were happy to see they survived the ridge from Whiteface. ;-)
We rejoined Dicey’s Mill Trail and began the long slog back down to Ferncroft…Dicey’s is definitely NOT one of our favorite trails, especially after a long day, but we were grateful for a nice easy trail.
We made it back to the parking lot around 4:45 and added numbers 34/35 to our list!
Photos from the hike: http://jcwheel.smugmug.com/Hikes/WhitefacePassaconaway
Jeff&Henry
[email protected]
