Whiteface & Passaconaway

Take the bridge to Blueberry Ledge Trails

Hi!!! 

Whiteface and Passaconaway were my #12 and #13 so now I am 1/4 done the 4,000 footer list! It was good to get these two done but it was a long and steep trip. Laura, Moriah, and I did at least 12.5 miles! This is a hard trip for dogs. Make sure you are in shape and like to climb!

The parking lot is on the right side of the road and you have to walk to some of the trailheads. For the one we started on, you have to walk down the dirt roads and private driveways to the trailhead, but they are nice and let hikers in. We started on the Blueberry Ledge Trail and then took the Cutoff. It was the same distance, but it went a different way. The cutoff went near the water for a little bit and then starts climbing. It was STEEP! It was also dirt and not much rocks or roots so it was sometimes slippy. The whole cutoff was flat then STEEP then flat the STEEP.

one of many climbs

When you get back to the blueberry ledge trail, there are rocks and stairs. Then you start getting LEDGES! There are lots of rocks to climb. My Moriah tried to get me to go the way she went on one of them but I didn’t like it and got up easier another way. Other ones were big jumps so My Laura took my backpacks off for the narrow spots. They both had to give me some help on the big ones, but since I have four feet, some of it was easier for me than for my humans.

Oh yeah, blueberries! The Blueberry Ledge Trail is supposed to have blueberries on it. We took the cutoff for most of that part so it also cut off the blueberries. There were a few scraggly bushes when we came back to the main trail at the ledges but there wasn’t a good snack.  Luckily, Laura brought Backup Blueberries!

not many blueberries on the ledges... bring your own!

not-quite-peak marker

We had lunch on top of the USGS peak marker. It’s a nice spot to stop hiking if you don’t keep track, but the peak marker is NOT the real peak. It’s mean to put a peak marker there if it is not the real peak! You have to keep going on the Rollins Trail even though it goes down before going back up to the high point of Whiteface. We went right away after lunch because of dark clouds. I didn’t want rain again! At least there are trees almost everywhere on this hike.

Whiteface official summit

After you go down and up again it flattens out when you are trying to find where the top is. If you feel like you went over a speed lump, turn around and look for a pile of rocks. The pile is on the east side of the trail. There is also a smiley face in a dead tree so you can be happy to know that you found the top!  :)

There was a lot of up and down on the Rollins Trail and when we got to the little loop for Mt Passaconaway it started out looking nice but sure got STEEP again. There was also water on this beginning part of Dicey’s Mill Trail. And by water on it I mean the trail was the water or the water was the trail. (Laura note: I don’t know if this is normal, but it was a shallow stream down a short section of the trail.)  At the top, there is a mini-trail to the summit with a sign that is trying to point in the right direction. There is a tiny tiny pile of rocks in the woods to say you made it. It was so small that it only was as high as my chest! 

tiny Passaconaway summit cairn

We kept going in a loop back down to see a different trail. There is a trail that goes opposite the mini-summit-trail, but since it was cloudy we did not bother. (Laura note: I hear it has great views but it is .3 miles one way and loses elevation.) There were different views just around the corner anyway on the Walden Trail. Going down this side still had lots of steep. I almost did some headstands because it was so steep.

Once you get back to the Dicey’s Mill Trail and get below the ridge, it is a very nice trail. It was fairly smooth too, thought it took a long time to get back. There was one river crossing that had a fat log to use if you don’t like getting your paws wet. When you get to the end of the trail, you come out at someone’s farm yard. You just keep going on the dirt road back to the parking lot. We took a quick foot-dip in the river which was nice after the long long hike.

log bridge

Phew, I am tired just writing about it! I wrote a long blog for a long trek. This was fun but challenging. It is not easy at all for new dogs. Even if you are an old dog learning new tricks, it is very hard. There might be other options to get there that I haven’t tried. Do some good practice hikes before this one and work on distance if you do both at once!

Bye!

~Frisco

Whiteface, Passaconaway
Elevation: 4,020 ft, 4,043 ft
Trails: Blueberry Ledge Trail, Blueberry Ledge Cutoff, Rollins Trail, Walden Trail, East Loop, Dicey’s Mill Trail, Ferncroft Road
Distance: ~12.5 miles

Created with flickr slideshow.

Falling Waters Loop

Hi!!!

one of many waterfalls

Lincoln and Lafayette were my first 5,000 footers! But they still count on the list for 4,000 footers even though they are really 5,000 footers. This is confusing. Anyway, they are the 6th and 7th highest peaks in New Hampshire and they are #10 and #11 that I have done!

We hiked these mountains using the falling waters loop. It is very popular and had lots of people even though we didn’t go on the weekend. We started by going up the Falling Waters Trail. You can probably guess that there are waterfalls on this trail! There is plenty of water to drink for at least halfway up to the ridge. You also get wet feet a lot because the trail is next to the river and crosses it a few times. There was one spot that I needed a boost because it was slippery steep steps cut into a rock. Other than that, it was a fun trail.

Rocking out in my hiking boots!

When you get to the ridge you are actually on Little Haystack Mountain. Even though that one is a 4,000 footer, it doesn’t count on The List. I don’t know who makes the rules. We had a snack and then put on my hiking boots! This was the first time I have worn my boots on a big-mountain. They protect my paws from the sharp rocks and lichens. I like getting extra attention for being a super-cool hiking dog in boots.
The ridge is above tree line.

made it to Lafayette!

That means there are no trees up there! The clouds came over the ridge the whole time we were hiking across. It also started raining hard and there was even a little big of hail. I said we should just keep going since we were above tree line and had to go a long way and didn’t know how long it would last. We only took a few quick pictures in between the rain showers and at both peaks. Of course it stopped raining when we were finally going down again. We took the Greenleaf trail to Greenleaf hut and had lunch, dried out, and looked up at the cloud-free ridge.

sunny on the way down

After the hut you take the Old Bridle Path. It is supposed to be a trail for horses or at least it was when it wasn’t Old. I’ve met some horses and they are a lot bigger than me, but I don’t think they could get up and down the top half of that trail. I think being shorter made it easier on the steep stuff because I had better balance than the humans. Halfway down it got much better and maybe horses could still do it.

 

Check out my other photos!

Created with flickr slideshow.

Bye!

~Frisco

Lincoln, Lafayette
Elevation: 5,089 ft, 5,260 ft
Trails: Falling Waters Trail, Franconia Ridge Trail, Greenleaf Trail, Old Bridle Path
Distance: 8.9 miles

Waumbek

Trailhead

Hi!!!

Wow, I have three whole trips to catch up on! The First one I’ll tell you about was my #9: Mount Waumbek. This mountain is up north, but not the most northly mountain. That one is Cabot but we didn’t do it yet.

This was a nice and easy hike. It was over 7 miles but it did not get steep and wasn’t very rocky either. It is dog friendly! I met 3 labs that were running all over the trail WITHOUT carrying their own backpacks. I just kept going with my people because we were on a mission to summit this mountain!

Trees

My people on this trip were my Laura, my Moriah, and the New Kid. We were Team Red because we wore red! The girls wore red bandanas to match my red feather and backpack.  I don’t like wearing bandanas when I’m hiking because it gets hot. My fur stays out of my eyes on its own. Anyway, the New Kid did really good since it was her first big-mountain! I liked teaching someone my size what to do on the trail. She loved me. 

Starr King Marker

Fireplace on Mount Starr King

Back to the trail. It is just one trail so you shouldn’t get lost. It is called the Mount Starr King Trail because someone decided that Mount Starr King is cooler than Waumbek even though Waumbek is taller and is the one that counts. There is a spring right next to the trail maybe halfway up where I got a good drink even though I brought my own water. At the first top, Mount Star King has a marker in a rock and then a fireplace around the corner. We stopped at the fireplace clearing for lunch before going on to bag Waumbek. Bag means you put it in a bag, but I don’t know how you are supposed to put a mountain in a bag!!  That would be a really REALLY big bag.

To go to Waumbek, you keep going on the Mount Starr King Trail which is hiding to the

Waumbek pile of rocks in the woods!

right of the fireplace. They don’t even change the name when you keep going to Waumbek! It doesn’t have a cool marker at the top either, just a big pile of rocks in the woods. If you want to see something besides trees, you can go just a little bit further past the pile of rocks. We did but it was cloudy and blurry in the distance. We turned around and it dripped on us. The humans put on rain coats and it stopped. After the hike, we finished up by finding a river to do a foot dunk! It was nice and cold and refreshing.

Post-hike foot dip

Extry photos:

Created with flickr slideshow.

Bye!

~Frisco

Waumbek
Elevation: 4,006 ft
Trails: Mt Starr King Trailf
Distance: 7.2 miles