Hiking in the White Mountains: Hale Brook trail

Showing posts with label Hale Brook trail. Show all posts

Boulder Loop / Church Pond / Hale

Date of Hike: 6/19/15

Bouler Loop: 3.0 miles / Church Pond Loop 2.3 miles
Total Miles: 5.3 (1,480 feet elevation gained)

Mount Hale Trail: 4.0 miles (2,370 feet elevation gained)

Trip Report:
- Whitney is working on her Red-Lining (hiking all the trails in the White Mountain Guide Book). She is just under 50% complete, with a goal to reach 75% by the end of October. What I find fascinating about red-lining, thanks to Whitney, is researching trails that for the most part I've glanced over and never even noticed on the map. Basically there are trails everywhere, some really tiny ones, too!
- On Friday morning we did two relatively easy but nice hikes. First up was the Boulder Loop Trail which is located just off the Kangamangus Highway on Passaconaway Road at the Albany covered Bridge. It's a quick loop with a steady moderate ascent over good footing to a few open ledges. There is a great view over to Chocorua, Passaconaway, and the Tripyramids to the south, to the east there is a unique view of the eastern flanks of the Moat Mountain Range.
- After the Boulder Loop we headed up the Kanc, with dozens of our favorite biker friends, it's bike week in NH, I like bike week until the last day or two of it when the noise starts getting to me.
- The Church Pond trail used to be a loop but the eastern half of it was decommissioned after beaver activity flooded it.
- There are three highlights to this hike; One, crossing the Swift River, it's a small crossing but you have to wade, not tough at all and very refreshing. Two, the bog bridges, they have been masterfully placed, in perfect shape, and go on forever. Three, Church Pond, it was a lot bigger than we expected, we'd figured it would be a muddy boggy pond but was wide and clear that looked prime for a relaxing canoe ride.
- It was tough to get a good view from Church Pond, there really is no shore to speak of but we found some herd paths and got a decent view over to Mount Potash and Hedgehog. From the pond we retraced our steps and headed as quickly back to the car as possible to avoid getting eaten alive by uber mosquitoes!

- Later in the day Whitney had to head into work for four so I decided to take a drive up through Crawford Notch to hike Mount Hale in the early evening. I decided to hike the Hale Brook Trail, it's not my favorite trail, and to be honest it's one of the most ho-hum trails that heads up a 4,000 footer. There's nothing really exciting about the trail or anything it passes. In the fall when the leaves fall you get a nice obstructed view of the Presidential Range from certain spots, but in June, all you see is tree and leaves from the bottom to the top.
- Still, getting in a late day hike on a 4,000 footer with no one else on the trail was very enjoyable and a perfect way to start off the weekend!

Boulder Loop and Church Pond Trail, click here for more info

View from one of the ledges

Nice view of Chocorua from the summit

Albany covered bridge

Signs spotted along the way

Church Pond Trailhead and signs

Whitney crosses the Swift River

Church Pond Trail

Church Pond

Mount Hale Route, click here for more info

Hale Brook Trail

The trail does pass through a nice little Birch staircase section

But for the most part the trail is kind of on the ugly side

Mount Hale summit

If you climb up on top of the summit cairn you get a partial view over to the Twin Range

Heading back down the Hale Brook Trail

Mount Hale

Date of Hike: 1/19/13

Logging Roads: 1.7 miles	North Twin Trail: 1.0 miles	Mount Hale Trail (AKA Fire Warden's Trail): 2.5 miles
Hale Brook Trail: 2.2 miles	Zealand Road / Route 302: 2.6 miles	.
Total Miles: 10.0	.	2,000 feet elevation gain

Trip Report:

- The weather report for Saturday was a little iffy, calling for high winds so we decided to stay below treeline. Our original plans were to hike Hale and Zealand, spotting a car at the Zealand Road winter lot and heading over to Little River Road so we could hike up the abandoned Mount Hale Trail (Fire Warden's Trail). However, we got a late start and since we had to book it back to RI and back to Mr. Smackers the Golden Retriever we just decided to hike up Mount Hale.

- I was really excited to hike up the Fire Warden's Trail in the winter, I had been on it twice before but during the summer so I was looking forward to hiking through the Birch Glades.

- The hike into the Fire Warden's Trail is pretty easy, the only difficult thing about it is finding the beginning of the trail which can be found on the herd path bypass between the first and second water crossings on the North Twin Trail. All you have to do is find the sturdiest little tree in the middle of the path and bang a left up a ten foot embankment and BAM! you're on the old Mount Hale Trail.

- Right before we jumped on the old trail we passed a group heading to the Twins, they were having fun and ended up having better than expected weather for their hike and probably caught some good views!

- The Fire Warden's Trail was not broken out but luckily there were only six inches of light fluffy new snow on top of hard packed snow so it was pretty easy to stay on the trail. The only part that could get iffy is the last half mile when gaining the ridge as it can look like a maze if you're not paying attention.

- The trail is much more enjoyable than the Hale Brook Trail, it has easy grades and you pass through a beautiful patch of Birch glades before heading into a forest through a Pine Grove.

- Once at the top we took a snack break before booking it down the Hale Brook Trail passing by a couple of hikers on their way up to the summit.

- Next was the road walk back along the Zealand Road, this would have been the slog part of our hike if we did Zealand but it was a ton of fun and went by quickly!

- It was a fun little first hike of 2013 for me and we made it back to RI in time for Mr. Smackers to enjoy his dinner...dog food - YUM!!!

Abandoned Mount Hale Trail, AKA Fire Warden's Trail

Birch Glades

Entering the Pine Grove

Unbroken Fire Warden's Trail

Mount Hale Summit

Hale Brook Trail

Zealand Road

Mount Hale and Jackson

Date of Hike: 9/23/12

Hale Brook Trail: 4.4 miles
Webster-Jackson Trail: 5.2 miles
Total Miles: 9.6 (4,500 elevation gain)

Trip Report:
- Sunday Alton and I headed up to the mountains to finish hiking a round of the 48 - 4,000 together. We only had Hale and Jackson left so we decided to hike Hale first since it has no views. Originally we were going to hike the Fire Warden's Trail but rain from the night before meant we'd get soaked on the parts of the trail that were narrow so we opted for the Hale Brook Trail.
- The Hale Brook Trail was in great shape and the Birch Trees were starting to change colors and parts of the trail were blanketed with colorful leaves. Alton set a great pace which kept us warm as it was chilly out early in the morning.
- We made it to the summit a little before 10 a.m. and climb on top of the rock pile to catch some obstructed views over to the Twin Range before booking it down the mountain and over to Crawford Notch to hike up Mount Jackson.
- It was windy as we drove down Route 302 to the trailhead just past the Highland Center, so much so that Alton put on her gloves and wind breaker but within minutes of hiking in the woods she sheded her layers and we both were sweating up a storm.
- The Webster Jackson Trail has a nice outlook overlooking Saco Lake and the Highland Center, other than that it's not really exciting until the last half mile where you get a view of the summit and the ledges below it which are a lot of fun to climb up. The trail shortly after the Webster branch of the trail is in horrific shape in a couple of spots with running water, exposed roots, and nasty rocks. luckily neither of us took a nasty fall and got off easy with just getting our sneakers muddy.
- The wind was whipping on the summit but the views were exceptional for all summits below 5,000 feet. The summits above 5,000 feet were blanketed in thick ugly clouds where it must have been hellish conditions.
- There were a couple of other hikers on the summit, a few back-packers who Alton had a little fun with telling them that it was out first hike and if they were any other mountains like this. They seemed kind of puzzled to hear that and thought we were crazy.
- Alton and I got out of the wind and enjoyed the views on our final summit of hiking the 48 - 4,000 footers together. After about fifteen minutes we both started to get chilled so we headed back down into the woods and enjoyed our hike back to the car.
- It was a fun morning and early afternoon in the White Mountains and we both were happy that we have been able to hike all 48 together. We never had the intention of doing this but in July we went over the mountains we hiked together and noticed we were well over 30 so we figured it would be fun to hike the rest of them. It's been a great bunch of hikes to get there, from our first hike in the middle of the winter back in 2011 doing an out and back of Madison, Adams, and Jefferson where we lost the trail, ran into spruce traps, and had to climb over a sub peak of Mount Adams to get back to a safe trail, to a bunch of endurance hikes like MMD, 24 Hour H2H attempt, Pemi Loop, Double Presi, to exploring some abandoned trails like the Downes Brook Slide and the old Mount Cabot trail. We lucked out with some terrific weather making for some great views and memories that will last forever!