Mt. Whiteface- 4020' & Mt. Passaconaway - 4043' (8/48)

Leaving the Ferncroft lot

What a way to start September!  A nice twelve mile round trip hike up Mt. Whiteface and Mt. Passaconaway!  Paloma, Joe, Julie, and I left Somerville at around 7:15AM on Saturday, September 1st, and met up with my parents along Rt. 93 in Salem, NH.  Our destination - Wonalancet, NH, to park in the Ferncroft parking lot and take the Blueberry Ledge Trail up to the summit of Whiteface, before taking the Rollins trail to the Dicey Mills trail to the top of Passaconaway and then down to the base.

The ride up 93 was uneventful, but once we got off 93 and drove through Sandwich, NH on 113/a, the scenery became beautiful.  Huge hills, massive farms, and gorgeous farm houses lined the roads all the way to the Ferncroft lot.  The Ferncroft lot is right off of a dirt road in the middle of a field.  By the time we arrived at the lot, it was a few minutes to 10:00AM, and the lot was already quite full.  We made our final preparations and left the lot at 10:10AM, beginning our long hike.

Steep Sections

I recently switched to a new (yet old) backpack which was considerably heavier than my usual day pack, so I spent the first 100 yards adjusting the straps and making it comfortable.  The weather was a beautiful seventy degrees and partly sunny.  I was siked.

We decided to take the Blueberry Ledges "cutoff" trail, which though the same distance as the standard route, offered a bit more exciting terrain and river views.  The first mile or so of the hike was very mild and we were keeping a good pace, until all of a sudden we came to an extremely steep, fifty or so meter "hill," that we had to scramble up.  That got the heart going!  After this first tough section, the trail evened out a bit, yet again, we came to a another steep spot.  This was even steeper than the first, and about triple the distance.  We were all a sweaty mess at the top of it and decided to eat some trail mix and drink some water for a bit to recover.  Wow, I wasn't expecting this!  On the ride up, my brother had mentioned that he read the hike we were doing was one of the tougher ones in the Whites - I was beginning to see why!

Enjoying the Views

After a few more steep sections, we came out into big open, flat, rock faces that offered us our first views.  It was beautiful.  Knowing that we had quite a long hike ahead of us, we took in the views rather quickly, fueled up with some Powerbars, and continued on the way.  I had read that there were some sections coming up that required you to literally scale rock ledges, so I was more than excited to continue on.  We finally broke through the trees, and officially entered the "scramble zone."

I was in danger...Yeah..

This was awesome.  In front of us were a series of rock ledges that we had to maneuver up.  This was what I was looking forward to.  Being somewhat of a thrill seeker, I clearly tried to avoid the "easy" way up these sections, and much to my mothers dismay, took some questionable routes (sorry, Ma!).  It was a lot of fun climbing around on the rocks, and the views were incredible.  This section quickly propelled Mt. Whiteface to the top of my list of favorite hikes.  We decided to eat lunch on one of the ledges, as we had read that the true summit of Whiteface was just a cairn in the middle of the woods.  We took a quick lunch and headed up the remainder of the way, reaching the summit of Whiteface at exactly 1:45PM.  Our sense of accomplishment was a bit clouded as we realized we still had a good eight miles to go, but we anticipated that the remainder of the hike would be relatively easy.  Boy, we were wrong!

Sorry, Mom!

Summit of Whiteface

The Rollins trail, which we took to get over to the Dicey Mills trail is a meandering, roller-coaster type trail that seems to go on forever.  It was a relatively easy two-and-a-half miles, but still took a while.  We reached the junction with the Dicey Mills trail, and began to head to the summit of Passaconaway.  "Not too bad, we will be up there in a few minutes," we all were saying.  WRONG.  We passed a few hikers who were descending, and all of them told us that there were some steep sections ahead.  This was an understatement. The approach to the summit of Passaconaway is a beast - especially after already hiking a long way.  The trail travels at about a seventy degree angle, and just when you think it is going to flatten, it takes a quick turn and ascends some more.  Brutal.  My legs were screaming for some reprieve, but deep down I knew we had to muster through this.  At 3:45PM, we had finally reached the summit of Mt. Passaconaway.

Summit of Passaconaway

You would think that after such a brutal, painfully steep approach, that the summit of Passaconaway would be covered with beautiful blonde Swedes waiting to give you a cocktail and a massage.  Perhaps an ice-cream parlor and a hot tub.  Nope.  The summit was nothing but a dead end trail in the middle of the trees.  No sign congratulating you, no view to take a picture of, not even a rock to sit on!  What a slap in the face.  Oh well, the hike up Whiteface was so nice that it more than made up for it.  Regardless, I am on a mission to hike all sixty-seven 4000's in New England, and this brought me one mountain closer to completion.

Paloma's Descending Skills

After spending all of one minute on the summit, we began our descent.  The first part of the descent was slow, as we were hiking back down the steep rocky sections of the climb up, but the remainder of the Dicey Mills trail was rather quick on the way down.  Along the way we came across a few campsites that people had set up for the night.  Some of them had nice fires going and you could smell the baked beans and hot dogs cooking.  It took all of my might to not walk into those camps, push the people aside, and devour their food like a savage beast.

A few hours into the descent, we came across a group of people camping who warned us that there was a huge fallen tree with a monster paper-wasp nest about a quarter of a mile ahead. Sweet.  Now we had to be super careful since Joe is allergic and none of us wanted to get stung.  I decided to play scout and took the lead, scrutinizing every downed tree for this legendary nest.  About three quarters of a mile in, we still didn't see anything.  Luckily, another hiker was coming up (to meet with the group that warned us), and told us that the nest was a few hundred yards ahead of us.  Boy was he right.  The rest of our party took the low road, bushwhacking through the trees, while I was an idiot and decided to get close to the nest to "inspect."  All of a sudden a huge wasp came bee-lining (no pun intended) straight for my face, and I ran like a little schoolgirl one hundred yards back up the trail.  At that point, I too, decided to take the low road.

The Nest

About another quarter of a mile down the trail, we broke through the trees and began walking across the property of someones beautiful country farmhouse towards the car.  This area was absolutely gorgeous.  It made me honestly consider dropping everything to move out there.  We made it back to the car at 6:30PM.  No bee stings, no broken bones, but lots of blisters, sore muscles, and stench.  This was a beast of a hike, but nonetheless it was awesome!

Beautiful Finish to the Hike

We freshened up a bit, and headed back home.  Along the way we stopped at a Chili's for dinner since it was too late to go home and cook, where we had a few beers and some mediocre food.  Mom and I both got corn on the cob as a side, and let me tell you, Chili's makes the absolute worst corn on the cob.  In general, veggies are pretty hard to mess up, but Chili's consistently produces this soggy, chewy, golden devil that I would feel bad feeding to an animal, let alone a human.

Anyways, in summary, I highly recommend this hike to everyone who is looking to put themselves through some punishment.  The views and rocky sections of Whiteface make it all worth it!

Hike Stats
Trails: Blueberry Ledge, Dicey Mills, Rollins
Total Time (Including Breaks): 8:15
Distance: 11.9 Miles
Elevation Gain: 3800'