Chocorua's 3 Sisters 4/30/11

"A Spring Mosaic of Color" (pictures)

Difficulty: Hard/Expert (Piper trail is the easier and well maintained trail requiring some rock scrambling. Carter Ledge trail is steep and difficult with loose gravel pitches, rock scrambling and spots where climbing is required on steep granite ledges and cliff faces.)

Directions: From Rt. 28 and Rt. 16 Junction in Ossipee take Rt. 16 (White Mountain Highway) North for 16 miles. Turn left onto Moulton Drive next to a currently closed gift store (Brown Sign will read "Piper Trail". Continue shortly a few hundred feet and fork right at a private residence to a large parking lot. Parking is $3.00 unless you display a seasonal pass.

Report: Oh what a picture perfect day! With the last day of April looking really nice we were all psyched up to get up early and get a decent day hike in. Chocorua was the first from Scott's mouth and though I considered others peaks I finally agreed. Conditions were probably still yucky up North and Chocorua and it's Sister peaks and ledges never disappoint us. We arrived at the parking lot already piling up with 8 or so cars! Sky's were mostly sunny and temps already at a comfortable 60 degrees!

We began our hike at 8:30am on Piper Trail. Like always it felt great to be out in the fresh air amidst the forest! But today felt all the better. We were excited for the upcoming hiking season and all the White Mountains of NH has in hold for us! Better yet not a single black fly was to be seen!! We noted recently logged woods just across the small stream that runs along the trail. Further up we took a break after the long climb up the sandy banking/ridge and were passed by an older couple who started out the same time as us. They continued on Piper trail as most do and we took a right onto the Nickerson Ledge trail.

A short steep climb up to the grown in ledge (side trail on right) we passed the small boulder erratics and continued a gradual climb through beautiful pine forests. After making a steep climb up a loose, gravelly banking we began to cross over granite outcrops. Be sure to take a sharp right at the sandy rock slide. Soon ledges will open up ahead and you walk out onto a granite paradise dotted with jack pines. It never ceases to amaze me how quite this area is. So many people pass this trail by, headed for Chocorua's summit.

The colors right now are so amazing! A mosaic of color. Shades of grey, blue, white, tan and black in the ledges. Green, yellow, grey and brown of the pine trees. Light and dark red of new Spring growth on hardwoods and the shrub outcrops. The blue sky dotted, scraped and muddled with white clouds. The many greens, blues, greys and  reds of the thousands of lichen and moss dotting the granite and tree bark. White and shiny blotches of snow and ice in the granite crevices on Chocorua's impressive granite spire jutting up from the valley below it. Such a beautiful sight to behold!

After a welcomed lunch break to eat and take in the majestic wonder before us we returned to our ascent. After passing a whitish, almost circular rock erratic to the right (which I call Carter Rock) the trail descends slightly to a small col. Here the water from melting snow gathered to a large, deep pond taking over a large section of trail. We bushwacked around fairly easily then began the most difficult part of the trip. Here you begin several rock scrambles some of which require walking along steep sided ledges and climbing over granite ledges. I always forget just how tough this trail is. But very exciting and beautiful and well worth the effort if you can handle such conditions. Snow was still deep along the base of the ledges and along certain cool/wet areas, but nothing all that difficult to manage through.

Once over these ledges the trail snakes through granite and pines and slowly climbs up to the Middle Sister peak. Glimpses of snow speckled Mt. Washington were seen with occasional breaks in the clouds that surrounded NH's highest peak. We arrived at the former Fire Tower at 12:18pm. It was a bit windy and cool here so after some pictures we continued around the corner to a sheltered ledge and sat to have lunch. Chocorua jutted up to our left, the Sandwich range beyond to the West and the many peaks and ridges sprawled out to the North up to Mt. Washington. Such a perfect day!

Although I didn't want to leave this spot it was time to make our descent. We followed the trail across more ledge down to another col. then back up to the 1st Sister peak, then back down to another col. where we took a left onto Piper Trail. We passed several other hikers along this area as usual. We didn't bother with a Chocorua summit today. Our biggest hike in a while we felt it best to avoid the crowded summit and take our time going down. Besides, as I have said before, the view from Middle Sister is almost as good as Chocorua and the ledges on Carter and Piper trails are far more picturesque.

We slowly made our climb down various ledges and snow/ice spots with views of Chocorua slowly diminishing the lower we dropped. Once back in the trees our pace picked up and we made good time making it down the always pleasurable Piper trail.We reached the parking lot around 3:30pm. A wonderful, well spent 7 hours on one of NH's most beautiful mountains! Not one single black fly bothered us!! Temps held steady in the low 60's and winds stayed light to moderate. We moved about half-a-dozen or so blow downs off the trail, a couple remain that need to be axed/sawed. Love, love, love this loop hike!

Carter Ledge 7/17/10

Pics of this hike HERE

With the weather forecast calling for hazy, hot and humid conditions with a chance of an afternoon T-Storm, I made the decision as I usually so to head to the Sandwich Range. I decided during the drive to head to Chocorua's Carter Ledge. This would be our 4th or 5th visit but this area never gets old!

We started at 7:30am on the Piper trail, a very gradual and wide. I nice way to start out a hike! Mosquito's were very bothersome however. Mushroom Season is upon us and we were finding them everywhere! I kept and posted (on Flickr) 61 mushroom photo's in all! Already getting humid and sticky, we arrived at the Nickerson Ledge trail and began to climb steeply up to the Head of the Ledge, a side path (right) at the rock boulder erratic's. Onward now through some mossy woods, a small col. than back up the loose, gravelly portion below the Carter Ledges. Trails here are really washing out bad. I foresee some ladders being built here in the near future, or at least some extensive trail work or trail re-routing. Just above the first ledge outlook to Chocorua we came across a small pine blow-down. What I've been hoping for! I had just purchased a pack axe for just such an occasion! I chopped and chopped and the tree was moved off trail, victory!!

Once on the sprawling ledges we hiked up to the uppermost erratic which I call Carter Rock and we dropped our bags. We ate, relaxed and explored the dozens of ledge area's up here. This is truly a spectacular place. Views to Chocorua the best, quite and teaming with erratics, lichen and Jack pine. We hung out on the ledges for over an hour before heading back down. It was slow going on the loose trail but that was OK because we were in no rush and were still searching for mushrooms.

We passed all but 1 group of four below the ledges and three others on Piper trail. It was on Piper that I noticed the shroom jackpot so-to-speak. A large colorful mushroom about 15 ft. in the open woods.

We arrived back at the surprisingly empty parking lot at 1pm. The laugh of the day came when Scott, after finding that his M&M's candy had spilled ad melted in his cooler bag. Just South of Chocorua lake on Rt.16 at the top of the hill he went to dump them out the window when the whole cooler bag went out. It was pretty funny. We turned around and retrieved it without getting run over! Traffic was awful along 16! See all the pics HERE!

Mt. Chocorua 4/24/10 TR

What a perfect day! The sun was shining, a nice light breeze a-blowing. And boots trudging down a lonely trail. Scott and I chose Chocorua as their is still too much snow further up North and with reports of clouding up in the afternoon we wanted a hike we could get to quick and enjoy the day.

Trails: Up, Piper-Weetamoo-Hammond-Liberty; Down, Piper. We started at 8am and finished at 2:30pm. What a great hike. Plenty of rock scrambling, views and Weetamoo rock is something. I even got to climb this 50 ft. tall boulder! We ran into snow in the col. areas particularly between the sister peak. There really wasn't the crowd I thought we would run into. About 6 pairs of people at the top and several coming up Piper. Not bad for Chocorua! Found 1 lonely painted trillium at the start of Weetamoo trail, sweet! Blacflies popped in once-in-a-while but for the most part were non-existant, thanks in part to the wind.

Pics here

Middle Sister (Chocorua) 2/13/10

With reports of clouds possibly hovering over the Northern Peaks and trail reports of deep snow drifts on Mt. Flume's Osseo trail I thought it best to stay more South. The pick for the day would be Mt. Chocorua via the Nickerson Ledge-Carter Ledge-Three Sisters-Piper Trails. When we got to the Piper parking lot we found that it was not plowed. Why? Do we not pay parking fees for trail and parking maintenance. Should not the popular trailheads be plowed? The home right at the spot unplowed was charging $3.00 for parking. Having paid an annual parking pass I wasn't up for paying to park. No where near the road to park I decided to drive over to the White Ledge Campground gate and parked there. This would change our plan of action slightly, we would ascend Carter Ledge trail at it's start here (bypassing Nickerson Ledge - not much of anything anyways) and we would descend Middle Sister trail.

We geared up and took the immediate left down the loop road. The trailhead (signed) was down a bit on the left. We started up the trail at 8:47am. Only one set of footprints were visible but the snow was hardpacked with just a little crust on top. Many sections were bare from water run off. This section of Carter Ledge trail was rather pleasant up to the Nickerson junction. You pass through many boulder fields, it remains gradual to moderate and contains many fine, large Birch stands. A half mile in we were taking jackets off as it was surprisingly warm. We passed the Middle Sister trail junction which was not packed out and continued on arriving at the Nickerson junction. Continuing on up Carter Ledge trail making it to our first ledge and Chocorua view at 10:45am. It was here we were passed by the only two people we would see all day. Temps. were now reading an incredible 46* in February!! And the warm sun was very pleasant.

Onward now through some steep sections past a slide area and arriving at the seamingly endless ledges and rock slabs. Having done this hike Spring of 2009 and now back here in the winter this area is truly my favorite in the White's (Eagle Crag and Algonquin trail ridge. trailing close behind). Outstanding views to Chocorua, the Piper trail ridge, the Hammond trail ridge, the Three Sisters and the rock slabs containing countless stunted red pines and the occasional rock erratic. We took a break here before dropping back into the trees in a minor col. (North Sister jutting up in front of us) finding some deep snow and post-holing our way through. We snaked our way up the trail to the base of the very steep climb up ledge that was covered in several feet of snow. We careful followed the shrub line for something to hold onto and pulled, post-holed and mumbled our way up. Once atop this first section it got a bit icy and, well, a simple slip and your gonna have a long ride down. So I put on my fresh-out-of-the-package micro-spikes. Boy do these things work! We soon came to and climbed a couple other scrambles then made the height of land. We continued on mostly level grades before popping out at the Middle Sister summit (3,340') at about 1:00pm.

The wind was a little cold here but not too bad, we still didn't need our jackets! Views were impressive (and really just as good as Chocorua's summit, minus views to the south). The Sandwich range loomed to the West, the many peaks North up to the Presidential range, North East to the Conway area and East into Maine. We ate lunch and decided we had our fill for the day. Besides, if we continued on to Chocorua that would put us in around 1-2 hours of hiking in the dark, no thanks! We didn't see the Middle Sister trail junction on the way up, nor did we find it on the way down, so we had to back track the way we came. Again the steep snow covered ledges were a lot of work but we hussled down them and back through the col. to the Carter ledges. Removed our micro-spikes and took a last break and took in the sights one last time. Then down and out arriving back at our starting point at 4:00pm.

Total Time: 7.25 hours
Total Mileage: 7.4
Elevation Gain: 2,790 ft.
Weather: Mostly clear sky's, clouded up by 3:00pm. Temps ranged from mid to upper 40's at the base and ledges to mid 30's at the high points. Light winds now and then and at the summit. Beautiful day!
Hike Overview: My favorite hike in the White's. Beautiful, secluded, ledgy and excellent views.

View pics of this hike HERE

White Ledge 12/19/09 Trip Report

With such a nice day forecasted I thought this would be my last chance this year to make another run on White Ledge which Scott & I did back in May '09. The sky's were clear as we came to the White Ledge Campground where we would park at the gate. Unfortunately the entrance was not plowed and there was no place to park on the road. I pulled my trail book out and got the details to the secondary trailhead which starts across the street from the Pine Knoll Campground Sign. We parked on the side of this street and headed across Rt. 16 at 10:00am. The only sign at this spot is a sign saying "White Ledge Campground Ahead", the trail follows an old town road which starts between 2 driveways. The trail was not broken in which made for some tuff footing right off. We passed a house on the left and a cabin on the right before the road narrowed slightly and made it's was past a large boulder on the right.

We made it to the Loop trail at 10:30am. Unfortunately the trail wasn't broken in here either, the problem being we don't have snow shoes which would have made things much easier in the 4-6 in. snow cover. We followed the logging road grade, first gradual before climbing steadily up to the top of the bluff marked by a large clump of rock on the right, a boulder field on the left and an erratic just past this on the right. Now all that work climbing was erased as we made our way down the other side of this bluff, our ankles and feet frozen from snow getting into our boots. Snow shoes and gaiters would have been helpful! We thought about turning back but we were determined to make the loop.

The ledges now visible on our left we trudged on eventually turning left and up the North-East side of White Ledge. I had expected semi-bare rock and some ice on the ledges but we encountered more snow, getting deeper now, knee high in spots. The ledges on this side not being steep, hold right on to the snow apparently! Views now opened up North to the Moat Mountains, Cranmore, Peaked & Middle Mountains and a glimpse towards what looked like Crawford Notch and the Pemi Wilderness. After snaking our way through the various ledge areas we finally reached the White Ledge Head at 1:30pm. We took a much needed break and ate our lunch, views East into Maine at a dramatic, secluded mountain "clump" in the distance which I am going to guess is the Pleasant Mountain Range? We cleaned the snow from the boots and put our foot warmer insoles on that we keep in our bags for just such an ocassion.

Heading back down was nice. We crossed more ledge and views down to Ionna Lake and Whitton Pond. Our feet began to warm up now too, YAY! We soon came to the Chocorua view I was excited for! And even got a tiny patch of a rainbow to the left of it! We quickly decended coming down to the stream which was in prime photo condition with just enough ice to make the running water a photography heaven! Past this the woods open up and after reaching our trail junction made our way back down the road and reached our parking spot at 3:30pm. We barely, bare booted this loop! VERY EXHAUSTING!!

Pics of this hike here> http://www.flickr.com/photos/excape1/sets/72157623032737636/

Trip Breakdown:
Total Mileage - 4.3 miles
Elevation Gain - about 1400 feet
Time - 5.5 hours
Weather - 29-26 degrees all day, no wind / mostly sunny am. to mostly cloudy pm. / Snow 4in.- 1ft.