Our second hike of our 2015 N.H. Squam vacation was Mt. Whiteface (4020 ft) and Mt. Passaconway (4043 ft). The entire loop was 12.5 miles and took us 6:15 of hiking. This was done on Thursday August 6. This ended up being one of the most difficult hikes we have done, not only for the distance but for the elevation gain in a relatively short distance. It is made more difficult because you must come down Whiteface 800 ft and then back up 800 ft to Passaconway. After checking the AMC guide, we later found that this is considered one of the most difficult hikes in all of the White Mountains climbing over 3700 ft.

We got up early and were at the Ferncroft  parking lot (1140 ft) at 7:47 am. This parking lot is adjacent to farm fields just out side the town of Sandwich. There was already a couple of cars at the parking lot with an older man sitting on the back of his truck putting on his gear and another couple chatting with him all ready to hike. We said “Hi” and exchanged some small talk. The older gentleman by himself introduced himself as “Ed” and we would find out later that he was Ed Hawkins and very accomplished hiker well known in the Northern New England hiking circles and maintaining the website to track the “Grid” completers at http://www.48×12.com. More about him later.

We made a good decision to talk with Ed as I had planned on taking the Tom Wiggin Tr. based on a blog post of climbing Mt. Whiteface. This would have been a big mistake and Ed dissuaded us from taking it. It turns out that Tom Wiggins is extremely steep, loose rocks, not maintained, and potentially dangerous. We ended up taking the Blueberry Ledge Tr to Mt. Whiteface instead of taking the shorter route with Tom Wiggin Tr.

We finished this hike at 2:47pm and had the following for fluids during the hike: Jacob (20oz Gatorade and 32 oz water), Dad (20 oz Gatorade and 48 oz water). We hydrated well in car on prior to hike.

 

As you leave the Ferncroft parking lot, you walk up a dirt road with beautiful farm fields on the right and woods on your left. At 0.3 mi (9 min) you take a left across a bridge continuing to follow a dirt road for another 0.2mi until the trail goes into the woods.

Jacob led the pace on this hike and he was moving along very well. We came to the junction of the top of Blueberry Ledge Cutoff tr (2.0 mi from parking lot and 2125 ft) at 8:43 am (55 min). At this point a young woman and her dog came by us at a very fast pace. I would find out later that she is an extremely accomplished hiker (completed the grid) and was doing this climb before going to work.

At this point the trail becomes very steep and we will gain 1870 ft in 1.9 mi., almost twice as much elevation over the same distance we had already climbed. It would take 1:21 to cover this distance and we reached the top of Mt. Whiteface (4020 ft) at 10:03 am.

 

The final push to the top of Mt. Whiteface was tough. It was above treeline with open ledges. There was one area that we thought we lost the trail as it was a big open bolder with no apparent markings. I noticed what appeared to be man-made holes and what likely held a ladder in the past. Upon closer inspection we could see a cave/tunnel at the top of this open bolder. We were vary careful climbing up this large open rock face and discovered the trail under a bridge through the rocks.

We had a much deserved snack at the top of Mt Whiteface where I noticed a US geological survey marker. It turns out this wasn’t the actual summit of Mt. Whiteface, but was actually 30 ft lower than the actual summit which was in the woods further down the trail. It was a beautiful day and cooled off with the elevation and a light breeze. The open faces and ledges were giving me vertigo and I was having a problem getting anywhere close to the edge of the ledges and wouldn’t allow Jacob to go within 10 feet as it made me nervous.

At 10:20 am we left the open faces of Mt. Whiteface on the Rollins Ridge Tr and covered the 2.4 miles in 1:20 over to the junction of Dicey’s Mills tr. We know we went by the actual summit on the trail but didn’t see the cairn marking the summit in the woods. This trail would take us back down 800 ft and was pretty tedious in length.

We arrived at Dicey’s Mills Tr at 11:40 and ran into Ed Hawkins who we had met in the parking lot at the beginning of our hike. I was surprised to meet him as he had gone the other direction and had already climbed Mt. Passaconway and come back town to this junction and he started sometime after we had. In talking to him we found out that he hikes just about every day and he has completed what they call “The Grid” more than 5 times. This is an astounding feat! The Grid means they have climbed every one of the 48 four thousand footers in each of the 12 months of the year or 576 ascents. He has done this more than 5 times so he has over 2880 summits. CRAZY!

While we were talking with Ed Hawkins, the young woman who has passed us earlier around the Blueberry Ledge Cutoff, was coming back down from Passaconway. She was more than 1:15 min of hiking ahead of us! I assume she never stopped when she passed us earlier.

 

We started the ascent from the Rollins Ridge Tr intersection (3250 ft) at 11:48 am. It took us 30 min to complete the 0.7 mi and 800 ft elevation gain to the top of Passaconway (4043 ft). It was very steep at the top and required climbing with hands and feet.

We spent 20 minutes at the top eating our lunch and enjoying the views. We started down at 12:37 pm and it took us 35 min to get back to the intersection of Rollins Ridge Tr, taking us a little longer than it took to get up. We had to be very careful coming down with a very steep trail.

We were 50 minutes (1.8 mi) back to the Tom Wiggins intersection arriving 2:00 pm and then covered the remaining 1.9 min in 47 minutes arriving at the Ferncroft parking lot at 2:47 pm.

Poor Jacob complained about having to do a #2 for the last 1.5 hours and we was quick to find an outhouse in the parking lot for the next 10 minutes.