Mt. Rowe, Gunstock, & Belknap - 12/15/13

About a week before Christmas, a few hiker friends of mine were drumming up the idea of Belknap Range Traverse, and maybe in a day.  Mother Nature had other plans though, and decided to unload with a dumping of 6 inches + of fresh powdery snow.  Who knows how the day would go.  Immediately on the access road to the summit of Mt. Rowe, we trudged through shin deep snow, and higher drifts.  Once we passed the summit, we were faced with completely unbroken snow on the Ridge Trail.  I have to say I was pretty impressed at the size of the drifts on the ridge that day.  It wasn't easy, and we had only just started!

John makes his way through the fresh snow

Gunstock Summit

We reached the summit of Gunstock where there was a frigid wind and not much of a view.  After a few pictures, we got back into the woods on the Yellow Trail, and then the White Trail, which would take us to Belknap Mountain.  Still, untouched trail for us to enjoy in the Belknaps. It was my first time hiking in the Belknaps in "winter", so it was pretty cool.

Ridge Trail / White Trail junction (we went straight) 

Xena loved the fresh snow!  

Baha is ready for Mt. Belknap! 

Chilled out for a minute on the summit of Mt. Belknap 

Not sure on this one...there were only two...no other prints around...
My first thought was a Marten, but I don't think it is. Anyone? 

After Belknap, we continued on towards Piper, but this was a tough hike and it was clear we would not be making it too much further on this one.  On the way, near the ledge pictured below, we had some difficulty finding where there trail continued.  We backtracked a couple of times, but at that point the decision was easier to revert to plan B.  Plan B ended up being that we'd loop around back to Gunstock where we started, by skirting Belknap Mountain, almost in a figure eight fashion, which was an even 8 miles, a solid 8 miles of effort.

A ledge on the way to Piper Mountain 

Our tracks from earlier, as seen on our way back on the Ridge Trail 

Baha and Xena had a ton of fun in the snow...we all did! 

Scott gave his knee a good pre-winter work-out!

When all said and done, this tough little hike packed a punch equal to a mean 4000-footer in winter at 3,376 feet of elevation gain through fresh unbroken snow.  This was the perfect first warm-up with the snowshoes in advance of winter, and I'm thankful for it, because I've been breaking trail ever since this hike! It was awesome to meet Baha and Scott and hike with John again, it was a fun day, and the company was great, as we chatted up the start of winter!

Hike Stats

Trails: Mt. Rowe access road, Ridge Trail, White Trail, Blue Trail,

Distance: 8 miles

Elevation Gain: 3,376 ft.

Actual Book Time: 6:33
GPS Track: Garmin Adventures

Belknap Range Finish - Mt. Rowe to Whiteface - 11/24/13

Last November, we did a 7-peak Belknap Range Loop on a nice day to get started on this unique peak-bagging list.  I can't believe a year got in the way of completing the remaining 5 peaks.  Many times this had been labeled a back-up, or rainy day hike, but this past Sunday, we had to get a hike in, and it was the back to the Belknaps. (cover: Gunstock and Belknap Mtn. seen from the Ridge Trail from Mt. Rowe)

The Belknap Range has a funny little L in it.  This is one of the difficulties of stringing all 12 together in a day without having hiked them before really (that had been the hope last year). The five peaks remaining were Rowe, Gunstock, Belknap, Piper, and Whiteface, and the start of the hike brought us to the parking lot at Gunstock Ski Area.  We walked around the front of the lodge, over to the skate park area, and the road started up Mt. Rowe right behind that.  This frigid morning was a test for those mornings to come in a couple of months.  Shivering and antsy, we set off up the road hoping that we would warm up.

Slowly but slowly we started to regulate our temperature.  The walk up the road was perfect though.  It is always nice to warm up on easy terrain.  We drifted toward the olympic ski jump by accident, but bushwhacked over back to the road and continued up to the summit of Mt. Rowe.  It was nothing spectacular, but we had one down and nice view of where we were heading.

Cell phone tower on Mt. Rowe summit  

Ridge Trail, Mt. Rowe

The trail ahead was looking nice, and we were warmed up, so now on with the hike.  The terrain was covered with a dusting of un-touched snow.  There were fox and bird tracks all over the place on the trail. Shortly afterwards, we came up on a plate boundary observatory station.  The Belknap Range is what is remaining of an ancient volcano off the west shore of Lake Winnipisaukee, so it only makes sense to have one here.  Another cool thing about the Belknap Range.

Eartchscope Plate Boundary Station

Belknap and Gunstock 

Nice open woods on the Ridge Trail to Gunstock

Along the way to Gunstock, we had some nice views.  We reached the summit at the same time someone else was from a different trail.  It was the only person we saw all hike.  The summit of Gunstock was a ghost town today as it was freezing, but we took in the view for a few minutes and continued on to Belknap.

A nice view along the way 

The summit chairlift at Gunstock

The Hut at the top of the ski area  

Belknap Mountain Fire tower 

Belknap Mountain summit marker 

We made it to the summit of Belknap, and went right for the tower, but we didn't linger very long at all.  The wind was gusting really good, enough to blow us off our stance. After leaving we had some nice views as we declined elevation on some icy terrain.  The next ascent would take us up Piper Mountain on the Orange trail.  This was another "remote" section that was really nice.  We made it to Piper which was nice with open views and sprawling rock ledge.     

Orange Trail (Old Piper) - Belknap Range 

Piper Summit 

Looking ahead from Piper

The area around Piper and Whiteface had a lot more ice than the rest, so we used microspikes for a good portion of the middle of this hike.  Although we had seen tons of tracks in the snow all day, we came across a really nice set, again on untouched snowy trail.  Most likely fox tracks, or maybe coyote tracks, but not sure.  There were no human tracks around, that's for sure.

Continuing, we came onto the ATV Trail to Whiteface and followed it to the summit, finishing the last of 12 peaks in the Belknap Range to earn a new patch - a pretty cool one, I might add! I have been going up to Lakes Region just about all my life, and had been to Belknap by all trails from the halfway point. I even got lost once, and ended up in someone's back yard about 2 miles away from Belknap Mountain.  It's definitely a unique place to hike.  It's not a walk in the park, and its variety gives you a little bit of everything to keep you on your toes.  Looking forward to getting the patch in the mail (see below).

Belknap County Sportsmens Association

Hike Stats

Trails: Mt. Rowe access road, Ridge Trail, Saddle Trail, Blue Trail, White Trail, Orange Trail, Green Trail, White Trail (to Belknap Access Rd), Blue Trail, Saddle Trail, Brook Trail

Distance: 12.8 miles

Elevation Gain: 4,320 ft.

Actual Book Time: 6:55
GPS

Belknap Range Loop via Mt. Major - 11/18/2012

On November 18th, we had a chance at doing something we've been wanting to do for a long while now - hike the Belknap Range peaks in the Lakes Region. I would like to start by by thanking the good folks at the Gilford Public Library who mailed me the Belknap Range and Ossipee Mountain maps very quickly for me. They even called me to confirm my request, which was nice. We most definitely had in mind bagging all 12 in the day, and we headed up the Main Trail to Mt. Major. As we started out, we were basically racing against the sunrise getting up to Mt. Major. It was a nice warm-up. The weather was great. The rising sun was giving us a show, and as we made it to the summit of Mt. Major, peak one, we were ready for the rest of the day after a nice sunrise summit.

Climbing Mt. Major for sunrise

From Mt. Major, we took the Major/Straightback Link Trail, which starts a good distance down off the summit's backside and the Brook Trail way down. The sign says .7 to Straightback Mountain, but before Straightback Mountain is the junction for the Quarry Trail, which was our route for today. 

First junction after leaving Mt. Major (looks like a summit here, but its not)

Our planned route was a loop over the Quarry's, Rand, Klem, Mack, Anna, and Straightback back to Major. The Quarry Trail was an interesting trail.  It had some up and downs that weren't as anticipated, but as anticipated, we lost the trail once on this section. You can see in the map at the bottom of the post, the loop which is where we had to circle back) On this section of Trail, we zig-zagged up and down the beautiful terrain as we bagged East Quarry Mountain, West Quarry Mountain, Mt. Rand, and Mt. Klem.

Steep sections on Quarry Trail

Quarry Trail sign

Bones of a deceased animal (deer likely)

East Quarry Mountain summit

Along the way, a rouge tree fell on my brother Bill. No, jk, he was pretending that this tree fell on him. After joking around and having some fun, we pushed it off to the side as our offering of a little trail magic for the Belknap Range - what an awesome place to hike, and we were only halfway done.

Havin' some fun in the Belknap Range

A little trail maintenance on the Quarry Trail

If you do get the Dave Robert's maps of the Belknap Range from the library, one will come double-sided with a full list of unique and interesting places and things throughout the Belknap Range. One of those things is an old Quarry Site. I would love to come back and see many of the other items listed throughout the range.

Old Quarry Site with artifcats (more at the top of photo) 

Lovely terrain

Even though, in our opinion, the trails were very well marked, there were random missing blazes, and a couple of huge blow downs that blocked the markers, so watch out for that. Not only that, you may question whether you're on a summit or not, but after about 5 minutes of investigation, we realized we were at the summit, due to small writing and faded arrow pointing to such on a rock. Not quite the summit I'm used to, but, hey, it was another off the list, and we were having a good time.

Mt. Klem summit

After we left Mt. Klem, we had a really nice walk with some views on the way to Mt. Mack (1945'). After Mt. Mack, we passed a really pretty stream that pulled us for a break.

Stream crossing in the Belknap Range 

Mt. Anna summit 

On the summit of Mt. Anna, there was this GPS print-out nailed to a tree. This map might actually be one of the most helpful ones out there for those seeking these peaks.

With Anna in the bag, out next objective was Straightback Mountain. To our delight, Straightback had really nice views, and a ledgy-exposed feel which was nice.

A nice little steep section making our way up toward the ledges

Heading towards Straightback Mountain and back to Mt. Major 

Ledge near Straightback Mountain on Belknap Range 

Straightback Mountain summit (1890')

On the summit of Straightback, we encountered a group of hikers, and one of them was so kind to offer us a homemade pecan cookie of hers. We shared it among the three of us. It was a great treat! After a nice rest on the summit, it was getting a little chilly and we head off on our way back to Major. By the time we reached the Brook Trail on Mt. Major, we were pretty tired, and it was around 1:00pm, so our chance of getting all 12 was out of the picture, but all the way down and home we talked about how it was such a great day hike. We will be coming back very soon for a traverse from Rowe to Whiteface to wrap up the last  five peaks for a Belknap Hiker's Patch.

Hike Stats
Trails: Main Trail, Major-Straighback Link, Quarry Trail, Red Trail, Anna-Straighback Link, Major-Straighback link, Brook Trail

Distance: 12 miles

Actual Book Time: 7hrs