Hiking in the White Mountains: Whie Mountains

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!

North Twin Trail

Herd Path water crossing and Fire Wardens Trail

Fire Wardens Trail

Birch Glades

Kali!

The upper section of the Fire Wardens Trail

Mount Hale summit and trail junk right below it!

Lend-A-Hand Trail

Twinway, Zeacliff Outlook, Descending the Fire Wardens Trail

Whitwall Slide

Mount Carrigain under a bright late morning sun

Carrigain Notch

Route for the day, click here for details

Date of Hike: 8/2/14

Great Gulf Trail: 6.1 / Sphinx Trail: 2.2 miles / Great Gulf Trail: 6.1 miles
Total GPS Miles: 14.4 (3,950 feet elevation gained)

Trip Report:
- Spent close to five hours doing trail work on the Sphinx Trail. The trail is easier to ascend than descend so I will go over the trail description descending from the Gulfside Trail (A.T.) in detail and the 'problem' areas where hikers may have been leaving the trail.
- The Sphinx Trail starts off in the Clay (Sphinx) col and for a few tenths of a mile is above treeline. The trail is easy to follow and there are medium sized cairns leading the way. After this the trail enters the scrub and descends steeply, this section of the trail is narrow, I trimmed back a lot of branches creating an open but still narrow path. The trail then passes by a rock face (on the left) with water streaming and splashing from it. From here the trail coincides with Clay Brook for a few tenths of a mile over rocks and boulders. The trail is wet and slippery, however it's a great place to filter for ice cold water. The trail leaves the brook and descends a rugged dirt, rock, and rooty path.
- Problem Area #1: As the trail descends it parallels the brook and eventually takes a sharp right and crosses it over a slab that has water rushing over it. Where the trail takes the sharp right to cross the brook there were faint herd paths to the left and straight ahead leading to an illegal campsite. Hikers were following this and getting dead-ended. I blocked out the beginning of the herd paths and put mini cairns on the other side of the brook.
- After the crossing of the brook the trail travels above the cascade and flume over slab then back into the woods. It descends steeply over more rugged terrain of rocks and roots before coming out to the landslide section of the trail.
- Problem Area #2: The landslide is to the right of the trail and comes in from an above embankment then goes over the trail. The landslide wiped out the trail and the surrounding trees and vegetation. The trail passes straight over the landslide section, over dirt, gravel, and logs for about one hundred feet then back into the woods.
- Once back in the woods, the grade becomes moderate and the footing becomes better.
- Problem Area #3: The trail was obstructed by a blowdown. There seemed to be a start of a herd path going around it but hikers may have become disorientated and gotten lost as there was a water crossing, going left, shortly after the blowdown. I sawed off all the branches and blocked off the herd path. The trail is easy to follow again, all that is left is the branchless tree across the trail, you can go under or climb up over the tree.
- The trail crosses left over the brook (marked by cairns), then gradual descends a tenth of a mile or so until taking a right and crossing the brook one last time (marked by cairns). The trail is now almost level with the brook flowing just off to the left of the trail. The woods are pretty open and there is another area where it looks like the trail crosses the river, but it doesn't, this may be confusing so I put a cairn up. Over the last tenth of a mile the trail goes through a rocky flat section, then a dirt section, then along the side of the brook where there is a hop, skip, and a jump along the side of the banks of the Clay Brook a few feet away from the Great Gulf Trail junction.
- The Sphinx Trail is in a designated Wilderness area. It is a wild, remote, steep, and beautiful trail. There are no blazes allowed on the trail, although if you look closely you can find three very old and fainted ones! Some sections are very narrow and a little overgrown, if you find yourself confused at all, STOP, then turn around and go to your last sure spot of being on the trail instead of continuing and doing a bushwhack. The cairns that I put up below treeline to help may or may not be there. If a ranger comes through they may knock them down, so do not rely on them being there....Enjoy!

Collage of a bear that was just hanging out and having breakfast off Route 16.

Great Gulf Kiosk

Great Gulf Trailhead

Peabody Suspension bridge

Peabody River

The Great Gulf Trail is generally level and has soft footing over the first two miles

Entering the Great Gulf Wilderness (1.5 miles in)

West Branch Peabody River Bridge

Approaching the Madison Gulf Trail Split

Clam Rock (around 2.6 miles in)

The Great Gulf Trail has a north west feel to it with the old pine and moss covered boulders and roots.

West Branch with Mount Jefferson in the distance

The Great Gulf Trail.

Tensite just after the Six Husbands and Wamsutta Trail junction.

Site of the old Great Gulf Shelter and the current tensite area. Great spot to camp!

Hmm, I spy a remote slide below the knee of Jefferson!

The West Branch has numerous cascades as it approaches the Sphinx Trail Junction

Another cascade

Pretty decent flow for a mid summer day.

Triple Cascades

Upper and lower part of the triple cascade

Upper Cascade

Looking back at the crossing of the West Branch. If you're good at rock hopping you'll love figuring out this puzzle to stay dry!

Another crossing of the West Branch, many end up getting lost here once they cross

Sphinx Trail Junction

Lower end of the Sphinx Trail

The Sphinx Trail crosses the Clay Brook numerous times, there are three medium/large ones and one or two very small ones.

This was the blowdown that obstructed the trail. I cleared everything but the tree

The bottom of the landslide. The trail got wiped out and travels straight across this mess

Looking back down. The trail goes over the slide and back into the woods straight ahead

Landslide

The flume / gorge part of the trail

Upper crossing, the trail goes over and to the right

A nice little cascade just off the trail

Entering the Alpine Zone, this sigh seems to be lower than it should but it's in better shape than most!

Traveling over the brook portion of the trail. Notice the blue blaze, number 1 of 3 left

The Sphinx Trail, watch your footing or you're going to get wet and maybe twist and ankle and bash a knee!

One of my favorite spots!

The trail goes below and to the left where it gets narrow before popping up above treeline.

A mini chimney that is fun to climb

Breaking out of the scrub

The trail is narrow but easy to follow

Above the trees!

Medium sized cairns to help lead the way

Looking to the Sphinx

A nice little open alpine meadow

Great place to camp in the winter when there is sufficient snow. No camping allowed when there is no snow.

Blue blaze #2

Glen Boulder's cousin, Clay Boulder

A short little scramble up to the right

One last section before gaining the ridge

Approaching the col

Sphinx (Clay) Col

A.T.

The beginning of the Sphinx Trail

Hikers heading to Mount Clay

Great Gulf Wilderness

Descending as the clouds and rain come moving through.

It you look real close you can see blaze #3

The Alpine meadow

Hikers above me on the A.T.

Heading back down into the scrub

The trail was scratchy. I trimmed back but left it narrow.

Descending the Sphinx Trail

Love this trail, this boulder hangs right over the trail and drips water on passing hikers

This is a good place to cool off

Back into the brook section of the trail

Moss covered boulders will test your balance

Here was the major problem area. At the bottom of this photo the trail takes a sharp right across the brook. Hikers were going left and straight and getting lost.