Hiking in the White Mountains: Bushwhack

Date of Hike: 10/28/17

Gale River Trail: 2.2 miles / Bushwhack: 2.2 miles / Garfield Ridge Trail: 0.9 miles / Garfield Trail: 3.6 miles / Snowmobile Trail: 1.1 miles / Gale River Road: 1.0 miles
Total Miles: 11.0 miles (3,100 feet elevation gained) Garmin Forerunner 920XT & A.M.C White Mountain Guide

Trip Report
- After two months of 50K mountain runs, I was looking forward to resting my legs and getting in some bushwhacking until the snow starts flying, and with the recent deluge in rain it made for a perfect time to check out one of the best White Mountain waterfalls, Hawthorne Falls.
- Hawthorne Falls is located along Garfield Stream, which drains from a deep col to the east of Mount Garfield. Interestingly enough, the original cut of the Gale River Trail used to parallel Garfield Stream, passing by Hawthorne Falls as it made its way up to Garfield Ridge. During this time, the present day Gale River Trail was called Galehead Trail. Then, sometime between 1955 and 1960, the Gale River Trail was abandoned, and the Galehead Trail was renamed the Gale River Trail, got all that, good!
- On Saturday morning I headed back to Hawthorne Falls for the first time since 2013. Joining me for the off trail adventure was my friend Todd, who moved up north to the mountains this past spring, and enjoys similar long mile hikes/runs in the White Mountains.
- We started our hike along the Gale River Trail for the first two miles until crossing Garfield Stream, here we started the buswhack. We hiked in the woods close to the stream and dropped down to it on a few occasions to check out the numerous pools, cascades, and small waterfalls. There are a few spots while bushwhacking where it seems we are on the remnants of the old trail, but I'm not 100% sure. I'm confident that at the start of our bushwhack we are definitely on the old trail corridor, but this peters out quickly. There are other spots along the way that I think are remnants of the old trail, but honestly it's 50/50. Most of the time it's just a straight bushwhack, easy to moderate whack, (if you're used to bushwhacking) with a couple of thick spots, but no "knife fights." The worst part is the hidden holes between boulders; grass, moss, and rotting leaves that you punch through if not paying attention.
- Some of the highlights of the trek up to Hawthorne Falls were stopping by Staircase Falls, Garfield Stream Cascade, Commandment Pool with Tablet Rock, and Mini Hawthorne Falls. I don't know if each of these have official names but it's how I refer to them at the moment, see pictures below, and click here for Todd's pics.
- After about a mile and a half we made it to Hawthorne Falls, which was flowing at a good rate. We carefully made our way towards the pool at the base of the falls and snapped pictures. What can I say about the falls? It's beautiful and a lost hidden gem from the first half of the twentieth century, a visit to the past of the early days of White Mountain hiking, one that seems to be long forgotten by many, but can be discovered by reading old guides books and studying maps.
- Once done admiring the falls, we started our way up to Garfield Ridge. Here, we ran into the thickest stuff of the day, mostly when we ventured too close to the bank of the stream, further away from the stream the woods were more manageable, eventually the woods opened up and we popped out on the Garfield Ridge Trail a few hundred feet east of the Franconia Brook Trail junction.
- Back on the trails we made our way up to the summit and took in the great views as the wind was whipping at about a 40MPH clip, which felt very refreshing.
- After about ten minutes we started our descent where I promptly rolled my ankle, it actually buckled on me, which hasn't happened in years. At first I thought I really screwed it up, but I got off really lucky, just a nasty roll and a slight sprain. A day later it's tender with very minor swelling, no pain on forward movement, although some pain with lateral movement, should be 100% in a week with rest! What is funny about this is I'm pretty sure on the ascent up to the summit while Todd and I were talking about trail running I said something along the lines of, "Descending is where I make up time on my runs, I'm able to descend quickly, I'm lucky in that I just have great balance and never ever roll my ankles." I guess I jinxed myself pretty good! But it's just a reminder to never take mountain running, especially in the rugged terrain of the northeast, for granted and to always pay attention and use extreme caution. No one is invisible!
- Even with the ankle scare we quickly made our way down the Garfield Trail to the Spruce Brook crossing where we hooked onto the snowmobile trail angling our way over to Gale River Road for a short road walk back to the car.
- It was a enjoyable day in the mountains with Todd, and a great start to my bushwhacking season. Now it's time to look over maps, guidebooks, and articles to see what off trail adventures from the past to head to next!

1955 AMC Guide Book entry for the Gale River Trail

1955 AMC Guide Book Map. Couple of abandoned trails can be seen on this map if you look closely.

Start of our bushwhack. I'm pretty confident this is the old trail corridor, this stretch last about 0.2 miles then petered out

Other spots of the bushwhack looked like this!

A quarter mile in we pass by Staircase Falls

Staircase Falls

Further along we pass by Garfield Cascade

Garfield Cascade

Commandment Pool

Tablet Rock

Mini Hawthorne Falls

Water cascading down from Mini Hawthorne Falls

Mini Hawthorne Falls

Pano of Mini Hawthorne Falls

Approaching Hawthorne Falls

Hawthorne Falls

Wide view of the falls

Hawthorne Falls

Zoom-in of the falls

Pemigewasset Wilderness as seen from Mount Garfield

It was windy at the summit, winds around 40MPH, this puddle had ripples in it from the wind!

Owl's Head, the love-able lump in the middle of the Pemi :)

Views from the top (Owl's Head, Franconia Ridge, Galehead and the Twins, Franconia Brook Valley and the Bonds

Pano of the Pemi Wildernes

Owl's Head and Franconia Ridge

Date of Hike: 10/11/15

Lincoln Brook Trail: 3.0 miles / Franconia Brook Trail: 2.3 miles / Bushwhack: 3.7 miles / West Bond Spur: 0.5 miles / Bondcliff Trail: 7.5 miles / Lincoln Woods Trail: 3.0 miles
Total Miles: 20.0 miles (4,385 feet elevation gained) Garmin Forerunner 910XT

Trip Report:
- I consider myself pretty good at finding off trail targets without a GPS mapping device or compass (slides, ponds, waterfalls, logging camps, abandoned trails). However, there is one slide that I am now 0 for 2 in climbing, and it's one of the easier ones to find, too! I don't know how I pulled it off but for the second consecutive year I missed West Bond's Guitar Slide. In May of 2014 I overshot it and went up the super steep Monster Slide, and Sunday I undershot it and whacked initially through a beautiful open forest that eventually closed all around me, and then I went fern swimming.
- The bushwhack along the bottom of Hellgate Ravine is pretty easy, I hooked onto an old haul road which I followed for a good distance, then followed a herd path for a little bit. Initially I had planned to cut up around mile 7.5 but started uphill around mile 7.0 at an angle to cut off the Guitar Slide. However, I ran into what I thought was the start of the slide track when I came across a few boulders above and below moss. I thought there was a clearing in the woods above me which I took up, wrong decision!
- Soon the grade became really steep...excessively steep, and the nice open pine and birch woods closed in all around me and became and ugly and tangled mess of thick and nasty looking pine trees. The highlight of this stretch was I hit a tiny batch of talus that had an interesting view across to Bondcliff.
- I knew I had screwed up but figured I was close to the slide, within a quarter of a mile, however the thick, steep, and rotten footing made heading to the right exhausting, so I just decided to 'swim' up through the nasty stuff until gaining the secluded western ridge of West Bond. From here I whacked over to the true summit through some dense woods mixed with ok woods. It's only a few tenths of a mile but even this part takes forever as you really have to watch for sharp branches that could easily land some damage. In May of 2014 I wasn't as cautious and both my ears took jabs from broken and very sharp branches, cutting up my ears pretty good
- Anyway, I finally made it to the summit four hours after starting my hike from Lincoln Woods. On the summit there was a family of four and a nice solo hiker. The weather was beautiful and I took a much needed break to relax, refuel, and remove hundreds of pine needles from my pack, shoe, shirt, head, back, etc.
- Other than a few surface cuts I made it through relatively unharmed, however, for the first time in a very long time I felt defeated and exhausted! Initially I had planned to drop down the West Bond talus field into Redrock Ravine, head over to Bear Pond, ascend the Bear Pond Slide to the Twinway, and hike the trails back out. Instead, I just enjoyed the summit of West Bond for awhile before taking the trails back out over Bond and Bondcliff.
- On the way out I saw several hikers, including Eugene, his friend, and Eugene's dog Max. They were doing a two day Pemi Loop on what will probably be the last two outstanding back to back weather days in the White Mountains for a long time.
- When I reached Bondcliff I saw how I goofed up and also saw the mini talus field I stumbled upon. I just shook my head and couldn't believe that I screwed up, again. Even though I didn't accomplish what I set out to do it still was a cool way to grid out the Bonds!
- The hike out below Bondcliff was uneventful as usual. The closer I got to Lincoln Woods the more the crowds started to build, eventually to a level of absurdity. I have never seen that many people at the Lincoln Woods trailhead, and the traffic was a nightmare heading back to NoCo over the Kanc.
- Leaf Peeper season is in full swing, prepare yourself to getting stuck behind some really slow drivers!

I start my hike by crossing the Lincoln Woods suspension bridge and hiking close by to the East Branch of the Pemigewasset River

Some really nice birch trees line the Lincoln Woods Trail just before Camp 8 clearing

After three miles I cross the Franconia Brook Footbridge and enter the Pemigewasset Wilderness and hike along the Franconia Brook Trail

A nice little pond the trail skirts around

When I reached the Hellgate Brook crossing I headed into the woods and found an old haul road that I hiked on

Old iron pan next to Hellgate Brook, railroad junk from Camp 9 off Franconia Brook Trail, and a fire ring that probably hasn't been used in a very long time on a haul road in Hellgate Ravine

As I bushwhacked into Hellgate Ravine I stayed close to the brook and dropped down into it for this shot near a nice patch of Birch glades

I started heading up and thought I was about to stumble upon the bottom of the Guitar Slide (left). All I ended up finding was a mini talus field (right). I pretty much knew my error right away.