Hiking in the White Mountains: Wild River Wilderness

Showing posts with label Wild River Wilderness. Show all posts

Many Many Delightful Miles . . . Wild River Loop

Date of Run: 8/10/19

Basin Trail: 2.2 miles / Basin Rim Trail: 1.4 miles / Meader Ridge Trail: 2.0 miles / Eagle Link: 2.7 miles / Wild River Trail: 4.8 miles / Wildcat River Trail: 1.7 miles / Appalachian Trail: 10.9 miles / Kenduskeag Trail: 2.7 miles / Shelburne Trail: 3.2 miles / Wild River Road: 0.6 miles
Total Miles: 32.2 (9,408 feet elevation gained) AMC White Mountain Guide

Trip Report:
- the annual MMD 50K run with a fun group of trail runners took place along some of the most lightly used trails (Eagle Link, Wild River Trail, Shelburne Trail), along with the heavily used Appalachian Trail from Carter Notch past Mount Moriah.
- The weather was nice and cool in the morning with a few showers along Meader Ridge and heading up Carter Dome. The trails were slick so we all used caution, especially for the nasty descent off North Carter which has been the scene of a few bad hiker falls over the years.
- For the first half of the run to Carter Notch Hut I ran with Ben and Hilary, along with Ben's dog Wish. During the second half I ran with Nate and Todd, and Nate's dog Piper.
- Some of the highlights of the run; the clouds lifting and staying just above us for some nice views into the Wild River Valley, watching rain showers close in on us from the Presidential Range, the post run BBQ, Kyle meeting me at the finish with Sarge, and waking up the next day with a fun rash on my right leg, most likely Poison Oak, the first time I have ever gotten any rash on or off trail in the Whites!
- For backpackers, hikers or runners, I would definitely suggest checking out the trails branching off from the Wild River. Some of these trails are Eagle Link, which heads up to the Baldfaces / Meader Ridge, between June and late September expect summer growth encroaching the trail. Shelburne Trail which heads to Shelburne Moriah Mountain via Kenduskeag Trail, which is an open summit with tremendous views, much better than 4K Moriah to the south. Moriah Brook Trail, very lightly traveled as you will most likely will not see anyone, it leads up to the Carter-Moriah Trail just over a mile south of Mount Moriah, it can be very muddy and overgrown in spots but still not hard to follow if you pay attention. Black Angel Trail leaving from the Rim Junction this trail heads down and across the Wild River then up to just north of Carter Dome's summit, the trail up to Dome has a very wild feel to it. Wildcat River Trail, the southern terminus of the Wild River Trail, a much quieter and attractive approach to Carter Notch Hut compared to the Nineteen-Mile Brook Trail. Last but not least, Rainbow Trail, this heads up to Carter Dome's summit, traveling through one of the best on trail Birch glades in the White Mountains!

Map of the route

Elevation profile

Ben and Hilary taking a look over to the Baldfaces

Running Meader Ridge

Eagle Link, it's a jungle in there!

The gang heads up the steep ascent to Carter Dome

Running past the Dome's summit

Taking a break on Mount Hight

Hilary and Nate taking in the views from Hight

Carefully making our way over the slabs along the A.T.

Todd leads the way to Middle Carter

Very well placed but very slick bog bridges

Nate drops in on the nasty descent off North Carter

Piper, Todd, and Nate on Mount Moriah

Piper, his second MMD!

Piper and Todd head up Shelburne Moriah

Leaving Shleburne

We catch up with Justin and cool off in the Wild River

Piper goes for a swim!

Post Run BBQ group pic. In case any of the "old guard" yell at clouds types see this and start to assume a bunch of BS, no we did not run all together ignoring wilderness group size regulations. There were groups of eight that started at 5-6-7AM. which quickly spread out to even less than that. :)

Volunteers did a great job painting the rocks this year for us runners :)

On Monday, Sarge headed into Tucks to take the last turns of the 2018-2019 ski season!

Scoping out a line...about to drop in...

Send it Sarge!!!

So You Want to Redline . . . Mount Moriah via the Wild River Widlerness

Date of Hike: 8/17/15

Wild River Trail: 2.7 Miles / Highwater Trail: 2.6 miles / Moriah Brook Trail: 5.8 miles / Carter-Moriah Trail: 1.4 miles / Kenduskeag Trail: 4.1 miles / Shelburne Trail: 3.0 miles / Highwater Trail: 1.4 miles / Wild River Trail: 0.4 miles
Total Miles: 21.4 (4,545 feet elevation gained)

Trip Report:
- Whitney is working on her redlining (hiking every trail in the A.M.C White Mountain Guide) so we are always checking the maps and looking for new trails for her to hike. While I am not redlining I find it fun to join along and revisit trails I've already been on and check out trails that are new to me. On Sunday we did a hike where I had not been on twenty of the almost twenty-two mile hike. The real interesting thing about redlining is sometimes you end up on trails that are lightly used, very overgrown, and in rough shape, making for quite the adventure.
- Joining us for the first part of the hike was our friend Denise who we picked up at the Stony Brook Trailhead. From there we drove over to the Wild River trailhead and started our hike along the Wild River Trail.
- The first two and a half miles of the hike was an easy flat stroll along an old logging railroad grade. At times the trail skirted the Wild River which was heavily damaged during the 2011 tropical storm, It's quite the site as the river looks like it had been ripped to shreds and trees still clog up some areas along the washed out riverbanks. We crossed the river just past the old Spider Bridge, which was washed out from a different storm back in 2005, and hooked onto the Highwater Trail.
- Unlike the Wild River Trail, the Highwater Trail is a narrow path, sometimes overgrown, and has numerous small up and downs. It does not run along the river and has no viewpoints and while it is more remote I didn't really enjoy this stretch of the trail as we hiked it back to the Moriah Brook Trail junction.
- At the junction we headed back to the Wild River Trail and turned around, it was a half a mile down and back up, when your redlining you do not want to leave tenths of a mile here and there, you might as well grab them while you can. I probably would have stayed at the trail junction while Denise and Whitney hiked back down and up but there's a really cool suspension bridge I wanted to check out.
- Once back to the junction we made the gradual climb up to the Carter-Moriah Trail south of Mount Moriah's summit. This stretch of the trail is five miles long and is absolutely beautiful as it passes by cascades, gorges, and pools of water. At the Moriah Gorge we all took a break and went for a swim in a nice pool of water just below where the trail crosses the river. There are plenty of other swimming holes of all sizes as the trail easily climbs up the Wild River Valley that looked tempting but we had a lot of miles left to hike so we only made the one swim break at Moriah Gorge, but I have a feeling we'll be back some day to take a swim in these other pools of water!
- When we reached the Carter-Moriah Trail, Denise descended back to her car at Stony Brook and Whitney and I continued on up to Moriah in the hot and humid day. There was barely any wind but luckily the clouds started to come in and was a welcome reprieve from the barrage of the blazing sun.
- From Moriah's summit we made quick work of the Kenduskeag Trail around Middle Moriah and past the Rattle River Trail junction. I was excited for the next part of the hike over Shelburne Moriah's summit because I had heard so many amazing things about this stretch of trail and the great views. Unfortunately what no one mentioned about the hike over and down the Kenduskeag Trail was how overgrown, scratchy, and muddy the trail was in spots. We were both really surprised that the trail was kind of in crappy shape for about half of it. Luckily the views from the summit where spectacular even if there was a heavy haze limiting the views.
- Once past the summit we had a few minor up and downs to go over until making our way to the Shlburne Trail junction. The trail was still scratchy in spots and Whitney bashed her knee on a branch on the last stretch of overgrown trail heading up the last PUD. The day before she bashed her other knee on a rock, ouch! After gathering herself we continued on, she's a trooper and can tough anything out, the joy of redlining, overgrown trails with booby traps!
- When we hooked onto the Shelburne Trail I really didn't know what to expect, if the trail was going to be overgrown and hard to follow or if it was going to be ok. It ended up being really easy to follow as it looks like there has been some trimming back with blowdown removal over the past few years. I was really happy the trail was in good shape and we made great time covering the three miles to the Highwater Trail which we jumped back on and hiked a mile and a half back to the suspension bridge. Luckily this section of the Highwater Trail was much more enjoyable as it hugged the river bank for most of it's length and we even got to see the river and more of the destruction from the 2011 storm.
- Once back across the bridge we made our way back to the Jeep and headed into Gorham to stuff our faces at Mr. Pizza! It was another big mile hike, back to back twenty mile days in the heat and humidity, we both had plenty of scratches on our legs from the miles upon miles of hiking overgrown trails over the previous two days and it was worth every scratch and fall!

Hiking along the railroad grade on the Wild River Trail.

The Wild River is very wide but was running very low on this day as we passed by the site of where the Spider Bridge used to be

The Highwater Trail travels up and down high above the Wild River

Wild River suspension bridge, it's old and moves quite a bit while walking on it. There is a two person (one fat person) at a time limit!

Wild River suspension bridge

The Wild River

Hiking up the lovely Moriah Brook Trail

Moriah Gorge, this is where we took a dip

Denise and I relaxing at Moriah Gorge and Whitney inching her way in!

Passing by a swampy section along the Moriah Brook Trail

Crossing a ledge over the Moriah Brook and then by a small waterfall

I was really fascinated by the size of the boulders in the Moriah Brook, they were pretty impressive in spots

Before making our final push up to the ridge we pass by a muddy overgrown flat section

Whitney makes her way up to the summit of Mount Moriah

Heading along the Kenduskeag Trail

As we make our way to Shelburne Moriah the trail becomes narrower and narrower

Shelburne Moriah, even though it was significantly overgrown in spots it is a very pretty hike through a nice sub alpine meadow

Looking back to Middle Moriah and Mount Moriah (top), and the town of Gorham (bottom)

Descending from Shelburne Moriah with the Mahooscuc Range in view

The Kenduskeag Trail was a mix of decent footing to overgrown and muddy

Heading down the Shelburne Trail, a nice hike back down into the Wild River Valley

The Highwater Trail along the Wild River

Signs spotted along the way

Route for the day, click here for details

Wild River Wilderness Marathon

Date of Hike: 10/12/14

Mount Meader Trail: 3.0 miles / Basin Rim Trail: 1.5 miles / Black Angel Trail: 7.7 miles / Cater-Moriah Trail 0.5 miles / Rainbow Trail: 2.5 miles / Wild River Trail: 3.0 miles / Eagle Link Trail: 2.7 miles / Meader Ridge Trail: 2.2 miles / Mount Meader Trail: 3.0 miles:
Total Miles: 26.2 miles (7,850 feet elevation gained)

Trip Report:
- Denise and Whitney are perusing their Red-Lining list. Red-Lining is where you hike every mile of trail that is listed in the White Mountain guide, around 1,400.  I don't know how much of it I have completed, I highlight the trails I've hiked on my old paper maps and I'm guessing I'm somewhere around 40%. The neat thing about red-lining is you get to hike on some pretty cool off the beaten path trails. As of right now, I don't have too much interest in red-lining but I am always up for exploring new trails so I was more than happy to join in on marathon hike in the Wild River Wilderness.
- Along with myself, Whitney and Denise, Heather and her lab/retriever/shepard mix, Kali accompanied us. Heather, recently completed the Grid in August (hiking all 48 - 4,000 footers in each calendar month) Congrats to Heather, and Kali is close to completed her grid, too!
- This was to be an all day affair as we first hiked up to Mount Meader, it's only 2,780 feet high but it packs quite a punch for such a low elevation mountain. There's a grueling half mile switch back stretch followed by a steep burst before gaining the ridge. From here we dropped down the Basin Rim Trail and hooked onto the Black Angel Trail. Virtually all of the Black Angel Trail lies within the Wild River Wilderness, it is lightly used and travels through some beautiful secluded Birch tree woods over old logging roads. There are a couple of water crossings, one of which is pretty wide where the trail coincides with the Wild River Trail. After the water crossing the trail easily ascends through more Birch woods for a few miles before the grade moderately increases in steepness as it enters scraggly pine woods before reaching the A.T. just south of Mount Hight a half mile north of Cart Dome's summit.
- We took a nice long break on Cater Dome before heading down the Rainbow Trail. The Rainbow Trail heads over the eastern shoulder of Carter Dome with a pretty cool open view from a small alpine meadow. From here the trail drops down and travels through huge open Birch glades.  The trail was narrow and overgrown in spots but it was still easy to follow and probably one of the most beautiful stretches of trail in the White Mountains.
- Unfortunately, the next part is three miles on the Wild River Trail which cuts through Perkins Notch and then parallels the Wild River. It's not the prettiest of trails and is really muddy and narrow with rotted bog bridges. Luckily, it was a quick three miles of mostly flat trail to the junction with the Eagle Link Trail, which is an easy and beautiful climb up to Meader Ridge, located just north of the Baldfaces. The Eagle Link Trail passes through a side hill Birch glade with some of the oldest and biggest Birch trees around.
- Once gaining the ridge we took in the great views to the south of the Baldfaces and to the west over to the Carter-Moriah Range. From here we hiked the Meader Ridge Trail and then descended the Meader Trail back to our cars.  The sun set on us with about a mile and a half to go along the old logging roads so it was a pleasant walk out to the cars under a beautiful cloudless night with thousand of stars shining bright in the cool autumn night!