Hiking in the White Mountains: Fire Wardens Trail

Showing posts with label Fire Wardens Trail. Show all posts

Mount Hale Via the Abandoned Mount Hale Trail (AKA Fire Wardens Trail)

Date of Hike: 4/11/15

Logging Road: 1.0 miles / North Twin Trail: 1.0 miles / Fire Wardens Trail: 4.0 miles / North Twin Trail: 1.0 miles / Logging Road: 1.0 miles Total Miles: 8.0 (2,480 feet elevation gained)

Route for the day, click here for details

In the winter and early spring Haystack Road is closed so I drive to the end of Little River Road and cross the bridge where I take an immediate left into the woods. Please do not block the bridge, do not wear spikes on bridge, and respect the the area and the local home owners who let us use their property to access the mountains.

Walking along and old railroad grade to the beginning of the North Twin Trail.

After a mile on the North Twin Trail and the little River bypass herd path I spot the little tree and bang a left up the embankment and make my way up the old Fire Wardens Trail.

The Trail travels through a beautiful Birch glade.

After the birch glade it's back to pine which is draped in old man's beard.

Summit of Mount Hale and the Lend-a-Hand Trail.

With a high snow pack there are views that usually aren't seen. On this day it was cloudy so there wasn't much to see. After the outlook it's back through the Pine tunnel part of the trail!

Jumping off the old trail and following ski tracks through the glades.

After heading through more glades I hope back onto the old trail corridor.

Heading back down the 'ramp' to the end of the Fire Wardens Trail and the lil' tree!

Spring is slowly starting to melt the snow along the Little River and along the North Twin Trail.

Spooky cobblestone fireplace and foundation located near the bridge at the end of Little River Road.

Breaking Out The Birch Glades . . . Mount Hale Fire Wardens Trail

Date of Hike: 1/30/15

Herd Path: 1.0 miles / North Twin Trail: 1.0 miles / Mount Hale (FW) Trail: 4.7 / North Twin Trail: 1.0 miles / Herd Path: 1.0 miles
Total Miles: 8.4 (2,470 feet elevation gained) GPS Garmin Forerunner 910XT

Trip Report:
- The last day of January brought an arctic chill and brutal winds to the White Mountains. Whitney works every Saturday afternoon so in order for us to hike we have to get up early and hit the trails. This is usually a great thing as we beat the crowds and get to stuff our faces full of food after the hikes. The downside to this is early morning drives through the notches which can be a white knuckler as the sun fights to come up. On Saturday morning as we headed up and through Crawford Notch blowing snow flew across Route 302 making visibility minimal. Luckily, as we turned down an unplowed Little River Road in Twin Mountain we became shielded from the wind, which was a good thing since it was below zero.
- We quickly geared up and headed along the old Little River Railroad grade. The Little River Railroad was only in existence for six years or so during the 1890's. It was about a six mile long track which headed into the Little River Valley for logging purposes. The railroad paralleled the Little River below the mountains of Hale, Zealand, North Guyot, South and North Twin. Even though the railroad has been gone for over one hundred years the grade and 'tunnel' is still visible as the herd path from the end of the Little River Road and the first mile along the North Twin Trail still lets a hiker walk over the same ground where the tack once existed. When parking at the end of Little River Road, Please do not block the bridge, do not wear spikes on bridge, and respect the the area and the local home owners who let us use their property to access the mountains.
- One of the gems in the Little River Valley are the Birch Glades of Mount Hale. The old Fire Wardens path, named the Mount Hale Trail, used to take the warden through the birch glades over easy grades through the beautiful glades up to the summit of Hale where a fire tower used to stand. The Mount Hale Fire Wardens Trail has been abandoned since the 1960's, however, it still sees a lot of use and is easy to follow. The only catch is knowing where to locate the start of the old trail!
- On this day, Whitney started off breaking fresh powder along the railroad grade until the start of the North Twin Trail at the end of Haystack Road. From there I took over breaking trail for a mile until leaving the North Twin Trail and hook onto the FWT just before the third water crossing over the Little River.
- From here the snow levels increased and Whitney took the lead breaking trail for a little bit until I took over for good once we hit the middle of the Birch glades. It was my third time breaking out the Fire Wardens Trail. It's one of my favorite trail to break out as it heads through the beautiful open glades where we could see faint ski and snowboard tracks cutting through the trail and heading down through the Birch glades.
- Above the birch glades the trail transitions back to pine gains the ridge where it travels through a section of evergreens draped in Old Man's Beard before heading over a bump, followed by a slight decline before making it's way to the summit. The snow along the last half mile was becoming more and more drifted and the last quarter mile was some dig time breaking trail, including the last fifty feet before reaching the summit.
- We were the first to summit Mount Hale so it was a cool sight seeing untouched snow which was pretty deep as most of the summit cairn was buried below the snow. We took a few pics but did not stay too long up there as it was well below zero and you have to keep moving to stay warm in temperatures like these. We motored down he mountain where I took a few mini shortcuts through the glades down deep snow to cut off some of the switchbacks.
- When we reached the North Twin Trail I froze my hands up really bad, my hot hands were dead, as I probably squeezed them to death. Luckily, Whitney gave me hers which warmed me up for the quick hike back to the car. On the way out we finally ran into a few other people, two hikers and two skiers.
- We made it back to a now plowed Little River Road just after 11am and high tailed back to North Conway for a yummy brunch at the Sunrise Shack!

Whitney admiring her snow art work!

We start off by heading along the old railroad grade

When we reach Haystack Road we jump onto the North Twin Trail and over to the tree that marks the start of the Fire Wardens Trail

Whitney makes her way into the Birch Glades

Unbroken snow through a winter wonderland

Breaking trail up through the Birch glades

Above the Birch glades the woods transitions back into pine

There is a pretty cool view over to the Presidential Range along the ridge

Presidential undercast to the north

Mount Hale in untouched snow

Trudging over to the summit (photo is from Whitney's collection)

On top of the summit

Looking out towards the Willey Range (I think)

Back down the mountain with a frosted Tip-Toe!

One last section of the glades

The lower end of the Fire Wardens Trail is a 'ramp'

Back out over a now well packed down North Twin Trail

The Little River

Heading back to the car we stop at the old fire and stone storage space. Please do not block the bridge, do not wear spikes on bridge, and respect the the area and the local home owners who let us use their property to access the mountains.

Route for the day, click here for details

Hale . . . Again . . . and Again : Mount Hale to Zeacliff Out n' Back

Date of Hike: 12/7/14

Little River Herd Path: 1.0 miles / North Twin & Herd Path: 1.0 miles / Mount Hale Trail (AKA Fire Wardens Trail): 2.3 miles / Lend-A-Hand Trail: 2.6 miles / Twinway: 2.4 miles / Len-A-Hand Trail: 2.6 miles / Fire Wardens Trail: 2.6 miles / North Twin & Herd Path: 1.0 miles / Little River Herd Path: 1.0 miles
Total Miles: 16.1 (5,150 feet elevation gained) Garmin GPS Forerunner 910XT

Trip Report:
- Sunday I was invited to join Denise, Heather & Kali on a Hale-Zealand-Bonds Traverse. The weather called for bluebird skies by late morning, the only catch, it was going to be brutally cold and a bit gusty. Luckily, as we started our hike around 6:45 a.m. the wind was non-existant and it seemed quite pleasant out as we snowshoed our way over the old logging road and the North Twin Trail along the Little River. When parking at the end of Little River Road, Please do not block the bridge, do not wear spikes on bridge, and respect the the area and the local home owners who let us use their property to access the mountains.
- The snow depths increased as we ascended the old tractor road up the abandoned Mount Hale - Fire Wardens - Trail. It was a lot of fun breaking out the trail through the beautiful birch glades which were covered in the previous days snow.
- Breaking trail is great because it gets your body warmed up, the only set back is you sweat, and on a day like this that can make it extremely difficult to stay comfortable and warm. Today definitely was one of the more difficult days to stay warm, I had to keep changing into dry layers more than I wanted to, and knowing that the worst parts to stay warm were ahead of us, Guyot and Bond to Bondcliff, I made sure to save my thicker layers for the latter half of the hike.
- We made decent time to Mount Hale's summit and were happy to see someone had broken out the Lend-A-Hand Trail. We quickly caught up to the hiker breaking trail, he spent the night camping under a tarp near the summit, which is crazy awesome!
- I couldn't shake the chilled feeling descending so I once again had to put on dry layers. As I made the approach to the junction of the Twinway my enthusiasm sunk pretty low, The Twinway was unbroken. I was really hoping that hikers who spent the night at the Zealand Falls Hut would have broken the trail up to the summit, no dice!
- Our pace up to the Zeacliff outlook slowed up and I was starting to notice Denise wasn't her usual upbeat self as we took a few pictures at the outlook. Her fingers and toes had become really cold and she was unable to find her second gear. I told her we should expect to be breaking trail for another threeish miles to the West Bond Spur junction. She decided it would be best to turn back. Not wanting her to have to re-hike Hale back to her car, I told her to head to the hut, warm up and then hike out via Zeeland Road to the winter lot off Route 302 while I would go back up Hale and bomb down the Fire Wardens to the Jeep and then pick her up at 302. I then ran ahead and caught up to Heather and Kali who were breaking trail and told her what was going on. She said her and Kali were going to proceed ahead, they went about another quarter mile before they turned around and descended and caught back up with Denise. Heather didn't want to have to break all that trail alone, she definitely could as she had all the proper gear and is experienced having completed the Grid, but she made the smart move to play it safe and called it a day at the ladder step section.
- Meanwhile, I was back ascending Hale...again. Having done it last Sunday, then this morning, it was time to tackle the big hill one more time! Hale, oddly enough has supplied me with some of my toughest trail breaking days out, May (yes May) 2010, December 2011, January 2012, January 2013, and the past two weekends!
- The hike back up was not too fun as it was friggan cold, to make things worse the hike / jog down the Fire Wardens Trail was even chillier. Luckily I made great time as the trail was packed down perfectly from six other hikers.
- At the bottom of Hale I ran into four hikers enjoying their hike of Hale. I was happy to see other hikers out and about enjoying the winter wonderland of the birch glades route up Hale. They asked where I came from, I let them know of my route with my friends and the change of plans, they had heard from two others about our group going for the HZB Traverse.
- Over the last two miles I thought of how Heather & Kali were going to catch an amazing sunset from Bondcliff. I also thought that I'd probably run into them somewhere on the lower end of the Bondcliff Trail as my plan was to head to Lincoln Woods and hike in to keep her company on the long walk out in the dark.
- However, that plan was scraped as I saw she was waiting with Denise at the Winter Zealand Road Lot off Route 302. I was happy to see her there, even though it would have been a great night walk under a full moon, It was nice to be able to head home a little earlier!
- It was an adventurous day breaking trail, I liked the challenge even though the bitter cold axed our big plans. Still, heading over to Zeacliff from Little River Road and then retracing those steps was pretty kick ass and a lot of fun!