The route: Blueberry Ledge Trail --> Rollins Trail --> Walden Trail/East Loop --> Dicey's Mill Trail
Total hike distance/time: 11.9 miles, 6:51 moving time (~7:45 total time)
Summit beer: Woodstock Inn & Station Pig's Ear Brown Ale
Hard to believe it's been a month since our last summit! That's technically not true for me, since I ran the Mount Washington Road Race a couple of weeks ago, but it feels like it's been awhile since our last hike. While some really awful storms thwarted our initial plan to head up to the Whites over the weekend before July 4th, the forecast for the 4th itself looked perfect so that was our day! We chose Whiteface and Passaconaway as our goal mountains for this hike for a few reasons - we wanted something in the southern Whites (aka closer to Boston, since we were only coming up for the day), and something with an "unexciting" summit. Add in the Blueberry Ledge trail with it's promises of excitement and challenge, and we were sold.
We were up bright and early and left Boston by 5:45 for the trek up to the Ferncroft trailhead. After a meandering drive on NH 113, we found it - and what a lovely trailhead! The porta potty was also a nice and appreciated touch. It was actually quite a bit warmer than the forecast suggested so we spent a few minutes trying to figure out what to bring or not bring, and then by 8:45 we were off!
Pre-hike shot
Heading into the Sandwich Wilderness
The hike starts with a very pleasant road walk, and soon after that a left turn into the woods takes you down another private road and onto the trail itself. Everything is well signed and it would be hard to get too confused. We headed off onto the Blueberry Ledge trail, which started fairly gradually. We were power hiking at a pretty quick pace over the first stretch and I actually found myself getting uncomfortably warm! After the first mile or so, things start to climb a little bit, and soon we found ourselves on some slabby ledges. You get a couple of peekaboo views through the clouds but nothing to write home about, although I kind of enjoyed the change of pace of climbing up the stone ledges as opposed to your typical rocky trail.
Peeking back on the ledges
After a little while, the Blueberry Ledge cutoff trail pops back in on the right, and things start to climb a little bit more. The trail has some inclines and some flat sections, but things do gradually get steeper (I mean, we are climbing a mountain after all!) There was one section where things got pretty steep and challenging, and we elected to take a break for some refueling near the top - I was surprised at how tired my legs felt! Looking back I think I was a little dehydrated and probably running low on glycogen, because the cherries really did the trick. As we continued upwards, I found myself wondering when this trail was going to take a turn for the intense. We were nearing the 3 mile mark and still in the trees, but I knew the ledges were approaching. And sure enough, after a short scramble, there we were on essentially a cliff! Much to my pleasure, my feelings about this cliff mostly leaned toward the "astonished by the view" as opposed to "afraid for my life". We chatted with another hiking pair who had 2 adorable dogs and they gave us some tips on the scramble that was to follow - much appreciated!
Beautiful ledge and some happy puppies
That first glimpse of sky and mountains on a bluebird day = perfection
The only part of the day where I felt mildly uncomfortable - standing on the heavily slanted ledge to take a photo! Hence the fact that I'm awkwardly gripping Andrew's leg and laughing at how stupid I look
Next up was THE scramble that I think Blueberry Ledge is known for - the one that used to have a ladder, but now just has some holes in the rock. I had spent the past week psyching myself up to be terrified for this scramble, and so what a delight it was to find myself feeling no fear and only excitement while navigating it! It took me a second to figure out an initial path but I loved solving the puzzle, and came up and over the rock with a smile on my face. The ledgy scrambles continued, and they continued to be a blast. This may have been one of my first hikes in the Whites where I never really felt afraid! Big thumbs up. I had a blast trying to choose the best path and clambering up the ledges, where the views seemed to get better all the time.
THE scramble (the key is, it actually goes to the left and not straight up!)
Taking in the views post scramble #1
Andrew vs. Wild
Happy humans
This is what we call fun
Spectacular views over the Bowl from one of the ledges
Looking over at our next destination, Passaconaway
Cliffs on the side of Whiteface
After completing the ledges (with a break for some trail mix and enjoying the views) we continued on to the junction of the Rollins trail, where we found one more ledgy area that I think is the south summit (not to be confused with the much, much lamer true summit) of Whiteface. The perfect weather inspired some rock hopping and while we didn't stay too long due to an onslaught of black flies and mosquitoes, we definitely enjoyed the views.
We left the ledges and headed onto the Rollins trail, which would take us across the ridge to Passaconaway. While it was a little bit of distance at 2.4 miles to the next junction, with some interesting ups and downs, for some reason I had gotten it into my head that this trail was going to be a pain, and quite frankly I found it delightful! Early on, we passed the extremely *thrilling* true summit of Whiteface - literally a tiny cairn off the side of the trail, not even a clearing. I almost didn't believe Andrew when he was like "uh, I think this is the summit" but he pointed out that you never build cairns on wooded trails, and so this had to be it. The ledges definitely had made up for it, so it was almost hilarious how underwhelming the true summit was.
It is a summit.
SO EXCITED (#11 for me, #9 for Andrew)
The traverse to Passaconaway seemed to pass pretty quickly - the scenery was lovely, there was a seriously pleasant breeze, the temps were perfect, and there was nothing that was really too challenging in terms of terrain. It felt really secluded and sort of mystical in a fairy forest sort of way. We did run into our friend KAREN (mud) a few times but I think we're so desensitized at this point from our trudge through the swamps of the Porcupines that the occasional mud pit on a trail really doesn't even faze us anymore. There were also a couple of nice outlooks and some peekaboo views through the trees as we went along.
We reached the junction with Dicey's Mill trail and picked the opposite fork (we'd be back to Dicey's later) up to Walden trail and the summit of Passaconaway. The climb up to the summit was probably the steepest hiking (besides the ledges) we'd encountered all day! Big boulder falls with some minor scrambles got the heart rate up again in a good way - I think one thing I really enjoyed about this hike was the variety of terrain we covered.
View from the lookout just below Passaconaway summit
And another super exciting summit (admittedly better than Whiteface!) #12 for me and 10 for Andrew - both in double digits!
We headed down off the summit and over to Walden trail to make the rest of the loop around the summit and back to the junction with Dicey's Mill. I had read that there was an overlook off of this trail - I had thought it was 0.3 into the trail (turns out it was 0.3 off of the trail). Either way, when I saw a sign that said "view" with an arrow, I literally leaped in that direction. The 0.3 mile journey was slightly unexpected, and for awhile I thought I was being led on by the wilderness, but we finally reached a small ledge with an outlook that is described in different places in the White Mountain guide as being "secluded", "spectacular", and "splendid". All VERY apt descriptions of the nicest private lunch spot I've ever seen.
Yeah nope I have no idea why anyone would ever enjoy hiking. Nooooo idea whatsoever.
You can see Mt. Potash which we hiked back in June on the left behind the pine tree - such a little nubbin at 2700 ft!
THE 0.3 MILE JAUNT IS SO WORTH IT
We enjoyed some pretty stellar ham and cheese sandwiches, trail mix, and our summit beer, and spent some time trying to pick out what mountains we could see in the vista - this isn't one of our strengths, but we're working on it! We headed back to the main trail and continued to make our way around the summit. The descent on this side was probably one of the most challenging parts of the day - it was STEEP and pretty rough, with some wet rocks where you really needed to take your time. Since both of us took diggers on Eisenhower neither of us were in any mood for a repeat performance, so we maintained a pretty casual pace. After about a half a mile we were back on less intense grades and soon enough we were back at the junction of Dicey's Mill trail where we would make the 3ish mile descent back to the car.
There's nothing too exciting to say about Dicey's Mill trail - compared to the rest of the day, it felt incredibly easy, although on tired legs that was actually quite welcome. We kept a pretty brisk pace and just chatted about various life things as we meandered through the forest. It was an incredibly lovely way to spend the afternoon. One devastating thing was that we had forgotten to bring our meat sticks for the time honored "way down meat stick break" so we actually didn't even stop - we ate some gummi worms as we walked haha. I have to mention how easy to follow all of the trails were - despite being in a wilderness area and therefore more sparsely blazed, etc, we had no difficulty pathfinding all day. Just before the intersection with the Tom Wiggin trail (I can't not say that in a southern accent) there was a river crossing, but luckily there was also a conveniently placed tree.
We pretty much power walked the last mile out of the trails - if I'd been a little less tired, I totally would have thought about trail running this one! Soon the trail left the wilderness and popped out onto the dirt road again. I have to say, the road walk in/out of these trails was just delightful!
We packed up and prepared for the trek back to Boston - luckily holiday traffic didn't turn out to be as bad as expected - and made it back by 7 pm, perfect timing to eat some pizza and have a celebratory beer outdoors at Mike's. It was a wonderful way to spend the 4th! I really loved this hike (I know I say that about pretty much ever hike, but still...). The ledges and scrambles were a really fun challenge, there was a great variety of terrain to keep you on your toes but not completely wear you out, and the views may have sometimes taken a little extra effort but they were spectacular! This was our longest day hike ever at nearly 12 miles and I feel pretty good about getting that kind of distance in in a day with the drive to/from the city! We're over halfway in our goal of hitting 10 4Ks this summer and have already picked our next adventure - Jefferson. I have a feeling that one may be one of our favorite peaks yet!
