Whiteface - Passaconaway Jan 2010

Whiteface - Passaconaway

TRAILS: Blueberry Ledge, Rollins, Dicey's Mill

January 15, 2010

Made the 90 minutre drive from Twin Mountain to the Ferncroft parking area where I met Tom and Mark. Today was a cloudy day, but with warm temps and low wind to hike a pair of mountains in the Sandwich Range - Whiteface and Pasconaway. Our loop had us ascending Whiteface via the Blueberry Ledge trail, then traverse to Pasconaway via the Rollins trail to the Dicey's Mill trail where we would hike to the summit and then take this trail back to our cars. The loop is 11.9 miles in length.

The trail maintains a gentle grade to begin passing through woods and open slabs where you will find blueberrys in the Summer. The trail was mostly pack snow, but we did find several areas where swow had drifting wiping away all previous tracks.

Continueing up the trail we arrived at the ledges that this mountain is famous for. Here we decided to put on our micro spikes which is just what was needed for the packed snow.

After reaching the top of the cliffs where many take their summit photo, we started down the Rollins trail passing by the true summit of Whiteface. Soon afterwards we decided to switch to snowshoes in the deeper drifted snow.

At the junction of the Dicey's Mill trail we met a group of young hikers from a wilderness program that were spending 3 nights out in this area. After a few minutes of conversation we continued on the the summit of Passaconaway choosing to do the loop in a clockwise direction.

Coming off the summit and continueing clockwise we encountered some very steep, straight sections of trail that would make for good glisading with another foot of snow to cover a few rocks.

Back at the junction we headed down the trail back to our car. At 4:30 we dicided to put headlamps on for the last 30 minutes of the hike. Strea crossings were no issue and by 5:10 we were back.

Directions to Trailhead
From exit 24 on Rte 93, follow Rte 113 East to Rte 113A. Turn left on Ferncroft Rd at Wonalancet Village.

Length of Hike:
8:10 hours
11.9 miles