BIGEarl
Well-known member
May 15, 2010: Passaconaway
Trails: Dicey’s Mill Trail
Summits: Passaconaway
Hikers: Trail Trotter (Sue) and me
A key part of the hike planning process involves deciding the ending time and from there it’s easy to backward-plan the starting time. I had a wedding to attend on Saturday afternoon which helped decide the ending time for our “hike day”. In the end we had ½ day for hiking and ½ day for the wedding. There would be no coming out of the woods in the middle of the night for this one. Realizing a 1:30 - 2:00pm return to Nashua would be cutting things as close as possible, it was clear we needed an early start.
The plan was simple; we were to meet between 2:00 - 2:30am at the Exit 6 Park & Ride in Nashua, drive to the Ferncroft trailhead lot, hike Passaconaway, make a quick ice cream stop at the Sandwich Creamery, return to the Exit 6 Park & Ride before 2:00pm, and call it a " ½ day". Four hours for driving, seven hours for hiking, and one hour for ice cream was the plan. That’s a full “½ day”.
Aside from beating our deadline, I really wanted to make a stop at the Sandwich Creamery – in my view it’s worth the side-trip. A straight up-and-down via Dicey’s Mill Trail seemed like the best approach. For a while I’ve been looking at hiking to or from Passaconaway via Mt. Wonalancet, but that will have to wait for another time.
After meeting as planned at the Park & Ride lot, and a short detour on the drive north, we arrived at the trailhead lot to find the place empty. The forecast for the day was good and we were pretty sure some company would arrive, eventually. We grabbed our things and set off. Sue and I are both completely comfortable hiking with headlights and needed the early start to hit the rest of the day as planned.
The first big surprise of the day came on the way to the Wonalancet River crossing at the site of Dicey’s Mill. A few weeks earlier when we passed through the area, and in fact on previous hikes, this lower section of Dicey’s Mill Trail was loaded with mud pits. It seemed some were there regardless of the time of year. We found all of the mud dry and the pits solid. We managed to reach the river crossing with clean boots. With the water running low it was easy to reach the other side with dry boots as well. Now we had the long ramp to climb that leads to the junction with Rollins Trail.
This section is also clear and dry. Along the way we found a pretty good population of trilliums but many of them were either dry or nearly gone by – I’m not sure which. Closer to the trail junction the trilliums were in much better condition. We reached the trail junction, briefly stopped to check our progress against plan, and continued on for the final .9 miles to the summit. The only wet area of the trail was above the junction with Rollins Trail. Normally this short section has running water in the trail and there are a number of mud pits. The running water was much less than usual and there were only a couple mud pits that were very easy to get past. We came to the trail split where Dicey’s Mill goes left and the East Loop goes right; we went left for the most direct route to the summit.
Still working with clear trail conditions we quickly made our way through the initial climb from Camp Rich and through the switchbacks. After we made the turn and started the steep climb away from the final switchback we started to come into snow and ice. It was spotty at first and not a concern. As we gained elevation the snow and ice cover became more significant but it was solid and we had no problems with postholing or poor traction. We were able to complete the hike to the summit with bare boots.
We hit the open ledge below the actual summit and found the clouds had blown in and the views were limited. A couple quick pictures to the Tripyramids were all we could get. We continued to the summit area and got those usual pictures, u-turned, and we were on our exit hike.
Of course, while we were still working with good snow cover we stopped for Sue to build a small snowman (and freeze her hands). We got a couple pictures of what might be the final snowman for the ’09-’10 winter season, plus Sue pulled out her cell phone to send the picture to friends and family, we were promptly on our way downhill. As we approached the junction with Rollins Trail we met J&J headed to the summit. Actually, they were hiking Passaconaway, Whiteface, and the Tripyramids – nice traverse. It’s always a pleasure to see some familiar faces on the trail. The last time we bumped into J&J on the trail was on The Kinsmans (I think). We visited for a while but needed to keep moving and soon were on our way.
Between the Rollins Trail and the trailhead we met a very large number of hikers taking advantage of a very nice day. Many asked the same questions concerning snow and ice on the summit. Even though it was tempting we didn’t tell any that full winter gear was needed. We made our way across the field at the end of Dicey’s Mill Trail and onto Ferncroft Road, said hello to the black Newfi and his yellow friend (also big), and finished our road walk to the trailhead lot, which was completely filled. It didn’t take long and we had packed, changed into traveling footwear, and backed out of the lot. There wasn’t enough room to turn around – it was really a busy place.
Next, we made a stop at the Sandwich Creamery. It’s hard to hike Passaconaway and/or Whiteface and not stop for a treat after. The Sandwich Creamery isn’t much of a side-trip on the drive south, they have a terrific product, and they’re always open (24/7). At this point we’ve enjoyed quite a few different flavors of their ice cream and never been disappointed. The Sandwich Creamery is definitely worth the trip. And for those that are familiar with the road leading to the creamery and the potholes that could swallow a Volkswagen, there’s good news. Work was in process as we arrived and a smooth surface was on the way. The job was well over half done and work was continuing as we passed through.
Next, a quicker than usual drive back to the Exit 6 Park & Ride lot with a single stop along the way, Sue and I said our goodbyes, and I headed for home. The gear was unloaded. I made a trip through the shower. My afternoon/evening costume was already laid out by me the day before. I got dressed and we took off for Shattuck Golf Club (at the base of Mount Monadnock) for the wedding of close friends’ daughter. This was a terrific ending to an already great day. Congratulations to Shelly & Jeff – I hope you two have a great life filled with happiness together.
As always, thanks Sue. Even more thanks for turning a hike to Passaconaway crazy. This has got to be the shortest “planned” hike we’ve done in a long time.
I know, we’ll be back to normal on the next time out.
I’ve posted some pictures from the day.
BIGEarl's Pictures
Straight to the slideshow
Trails: Dicey’s Mill Trail
Summits: Passaconaway
Hikers: Trail Trotter (Sue) and me
A key part of the hike planning process involves deciding the ending time and from there it’s easy to backward-plan the starting time. I had a wedding to attend on Saturday afternoon which helped decide the ending time for our “hike day”. In the end we had ½ day for hiking and ½ day for the wedding. There would be no coming out of the woods in the middle of the night for this one. Realizing a 1:30 - 2:00pm return to Nashua would be cutting things as close as possible, it was clear we needed an early start.
The plan was simple; we were to meet between 2:00 - 2:30am at the Exit 6 Park & Ride in Nashua, drive to the Ferncroft trailhead lot, hike Passaconaway, make a quick ice cream stop at the Sandwich Creamery, return to the Exit 6 Park & Ride before 2:00pm, and call it a " ½ day". Four hours for driving, seven hours for hiking, and one hour for ice cream was the plan. That’s a full “½ day”.
Aside from beating our deadline, I really wanted to make a stop at the Sandwich Creamery – in my view it’s worth the side-trip. A straight up-and-down via Dicey’s Mill Trail seemed like the best approach. For a while I’ve been looking at hiking to or from Passaconaway via Mt. Wonalancet, but that will have to wait for another time.
After meeting as planned at the Park & Ride lot, and a short detour on the drive north, we arrived at the trailhead lot to find the place empty. The forecast for the day was good and we were pretty sure some company would arrive, eventually. We grabbed our things and set off. Sue and I are both completely comfortable hiking with headlights and needed the early start to hit the rest of the day as planned.
The first big surprise of the day came on the way to the Wonalancet River crossing at the site of Dicey’s Mill. A few weeks earlier when we passed through the area, and in fact on previous hikes, this lower section of Dicey’s Mill Trail was loaded with mud pits. It seemed some were there regardless of the time of year. We found all of the mud dry and the pits solid. We managed to reach the river crossing with clean boots. With the water running low it was easy to reach the other side with dry boots as well. Now we had the long ramp to climb that leads to the junction with Rollins Trail.
This section is also clear and dry. Along the way we found a pretty good population of trilliums but many of them were either dry or nearly gone by – I’m not sure which. Closer to the trail junction the trilliums were in much better condition. We reached the trail junction, briefly stopped to check our progress against plan, and continued on for the final .9 miles to the summit. The only wet area of the trail was above the junction with Rollins Trail. Normally this short section has running water in the trail and there are a number of mud pits. The running water was much less than usual and there were only a couple mud pits that were very easy to get past. We came to the trail split where Dicey’s Mill goes left and the East Loop goes right; we went left for the most direct route to the summit.
Still working with clear trail conditions we quickly made our way through the initial climb from Camp Rich and through the switchbacks. After we made the turn and started the steep climb away from the final switchback we started to come into snow and ice. It was spotty at first and not a concern. As we gained elevation the snow and ice cover became more significant but it was solid and we had no problems with postholing or poor traction. We were able to complete the hike to the summit with bare boots.
We hit the open ledge below the actual summit and found the clouds had blown in and the views were limited. A couple quick pictures to the Tripyramids were all we could get. We continued to the summit area and got those usual pictures, u-turned, and we were on our exit hike.
Of course, while we were still working with good snow cover we stopped for Sue to build a small snowman (and freeze her hands). We got a couple pictures of what might be the final snowman for the ’09-’10 winter season, plus Sue pulled out her cell phone to send the picture to friends and family, we were promptly on our way downhill. As we approached the junction with Rollins Trail we met J&J headed to the summit. Actually, they were hiking Passaconaway, Whiteface, and the Tripyramids – nice traverse. It’s always a pleasure to see some familiar faces on the trail. The last time we bumped into J&J on the trail was on The Kinsmans (I think). We visited for a while but needed to keep moving and soon were on our way.
Between the Rollins Trail and the trailhead we met a very large number of hikers taking advantage of a very nice day. Many asked the same questions concerning snow and ice on the summit. Even though it was tempting we didn’t tell any that full winter gear was needed. We made our way across the field at the end of Dicey’s Mill Trail and onto Ferncroft Road, said hello to the black Newfi and his yellow friend (also big), and finished our road walk to the trailhead lot, which was completely filled. It didn’t take long and we had packed, changed into traveling footwear, and backed out of the lot. There wasn’t enough room to turn around – it was really a busy place.
Next, we made a stop at the Sandwich Creamery. It’s hard to hike Passaconaway and/or Whiteface and not stop for a treat after. The Sandwich Creamery isn’t much of a side-trip on the drive south, they have a terrific product, and they’re always open (24/7). At this point we’ve enjoyed quite a few different flavors of their ice cream and never been disappointed. The Sandwich Creamery is definitely worth the trip. And for those that are familiar with the road leading to the creamery and the potholes that could swallow a Volkswagen, there’s good news. Work was in process as we arrived and a smooth surface was on the way. The job was well over half done and work was continuing as we passed through.
Next, a quicker than usual drive back to the Exit 6 Park & Ride lot with a single stop along the way, Sue and I said our goodbyes, and I headed for home. The gear was unloaded. I made a trip through the shower. My afternoon/evening costume was already laid out by me the day before. I got dressed and we took off for Shattuck Golf Club (at the base of Mount Monadnock) for the wedding of close friends’ daughter. This was a terrific ending to an already great day. Congratulations to Shelly & Jeff – I hope you two have a great life filled with happiness together.
As always, thanks Sue. Even more thanks for turning a hike to Passaconaway crazy. This has got to be the shortest “planned” hike we’ve done in a long time.
I know, we’ll be back to normal on the next time out.
I’ve posted some pictures from the day.
BIGEarl's Pictures
Straight to the slideshow
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