Whiteface & Passaconaway 6/18

Outside of my hiking up Mt. Washington and Cannon to ski this spring, my prior two hikes have been Welch-Dickey in late November and Sandwich Notch over Columbus Day week. Keeping with exploring the Sandwich Range of the WMNF, I hiked Whiteface & Passaconaway - both 4,000 footers. My route was Blueberry Ledge Trail, Rollins Trail, a loop trail up to Passaconaway and then down Dicey's Mill Trail.

Drove over via 113A from Sandwich and will say this is a very pretty part of NH. Blueberry Ledge was an easy hike up until I reached a series of ledges which provided some very nice views of Squam Lake and Winnipesaukee. The ledges were tough tossing my 4-legged companion up and over and I was sucking wind pretty good. The top of Whiteface has minimal views although I was able to glimpse a peak of the top of Waterville Valley Ski area. A long ridge line (Rollins Trail) of easy hiking follows which looks down into a bowl. The steepness into the bowl is pretty amazing and one gets views occasionally.

The hike up Passaconaway from the intersection of Rollins and Dicey's Mill trail was pretty easy - a few steep sections and I took a loop trail back down. The Passaconaway has no views however there are a couple of ledges that look out in a NW, North and East direction. Hike down was uneventful although over the last mile had rain and thunder chasing me. I got back into my car just as the heavier rain started.

There was a parking lot full of cars but I met up with only a few people and all commented on how isolated this section of the National Forest seemed - in a nice way! I made a note to maybe hike the Tripyramids via the Kate Sleeper trail which can be accessed near the top of Whiteface. The Kate Sleeper trail goes over a couple of near 4'Kers. Of course, this would require some serious transportation logistics.

I've now hiked two trails in the WMNF that I would not recommend for dogs - Caps Ridge (Mt. Jefferson) and Blueberry - I would not have gotten up Blueberry without the help of some other hikers - thank you. The hike measures 11-12 miles - it took me almost exactly 6 hours. I suspect the dog on the ledges and other places where assistance was required added an hour.

Anyway, this was a very enjoyable, relaxing day and highly recommended. I plan to do more exploration of the Sandwich Range throughout the summer and fall.

Nice! I did that route four years ago and I concur that the ledges are not good for dogs or even kids. I did it with a friend and was glad that I did.

Are dogs prone to falling off cliffs? That kind of freaks me out I always assumed they had some kind of instinct to avoid edges.

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I get real nervous when my children get too close to an edge where a slip would cause injury/death. Going up King's Peak in Utah (state highpoint) with my 13 year old with only a few feet separating him and a several thousand foot drop was nerve wracking. Even last year going across Knife's Edge at age 14 got me nervous a few times. I get nervous too when I have him at Tucks b/c the kids aren't as cognizant of getting a good foothold.

Dogs seem to have a pretty good sense of where they shouldn't venture. Saturday, my dog didn't want to go up the ledge b/c it was too steep so I had to pickup/push, etc. But they can be stupid/unpredictable, too. A few years back, the same dog didn't want to climb down off the Tuck's headwall (10-20' of snow) in late June so instead climbed up (a couple of hundred feet) and was at the edge of a big crevasse when finally captured.