Belknap Redlining - final stretch

We're so close!  Only two hikes to go!  
It was another hot and humid day, but it finally stopped raining, so we hit the trails for a big productive hike.

I had to break out my big pack for this, simply to balance the weight of extra water.  Thankfully I don't think it drained me much more than I would have been with the little sling pack - the weather conditions were our hardest hitting factor.  It was very dead air with only a rare light breeze, which was always short lived.  I also had just barely enough water for what we did, so if I were to repeat it, I might bring a third container.  Even Hummingbird, who is notoriously bad about hydrating, drank most of her water supply too.  I'm so proud of her. haha

Of course we won't repeat this hike, at least not half of the trails we hit, and hopefully not in this kind of heat!  But we did discover some enjoyable trails we'd happily do again.  We also found less than enjoyable ones, but that's how redlining goes.  

We started by hiking up Belknap Mt. itself.  Well, we thought we started on that, but actually our feet first hit Wayne's Way, a tiny spur off the Carriage Rd. parking lot.  It's not on the map, so we weren't clear on if we were headed the right direction or not.  We weren't, but it's a good thing we took it because not only did we quickly get a taste of the views, this trail is also on the redlining list, so we needed it anyway. 

After that short detour, we found our way to the main Belknap trails.  They all start out together, forking off as you go.  We took the Red Trail today.  Reviews mentioned it being steep, but we found it pretty manageable; maybe upper moderate level of difficulty.  Not so bad that you wouldn't want to descend on it.  I would definitely use this route again to summit Belknap.  Although, there were lots of signs of runoff areas, so I imagine it's not great in springtime or immediately after a lot of rain.  But with a couple fairly dry days before us, it was relatively non-mucky, so drainage there seems to be decent.

The fire tower on the summit is not as exciting as some other towers I've been to, but it's fine.  Admittedly, views continue to be extra hazy from the wildfire smoke, so it's definitely a bit more impressive up there in clearer conditions.  I've only been there one other time, several years ago, when Hawk & I hit it along with Gunstock for the peaks patch.  A winter storm was blowing in, and between the icy wind and timing to get out of there, I didn't get to linger on the tower to absorb the views.  But I remember them being better then.

Today at the tower, Hummingbird and I beat a large crowd there by approximately two minutes.  Everyone seemed friendly and cheerful, as more often than not fellow hikers are.  We chatted with a nice lady, a solo hiker, who we met up with again later, then we began our descent on the White Trail.

Eventually we came to another fork, where we veered onto East Gilford/Yellow Trail, which we'd also heard was steep, but we again found it reasonable enough for hiking in either direction.  We followed the trail to the junction for Boulder Trail and the remaining section of Yellow, both of which will be included in our next loop hike, then turned around and hiked back up Yellow to finish the rest of White Trail.  We didn't realize at the time that we'd be here again later!  Good thing we liked it quite a bit.  It was a pretty area and there were multiple viewpoints.

Now, the official description for the White Trail mentions it having arguably the best views in all of the Belknap range.  We say that's very arguable. LOL  The views were fine, but certainly not as expansive as many other locations.  I wonder if it's simply the uniqueness of them that earned them that label, with both distant peaks and close by mountains that you almost feel you could reach out and touch them.  Almost.  In any case, it's lovely, but was slightly underwhelming given the hype.

Moving on from the White Trail, we turned onto Piper Round Pond Link, which I still needed to clean up.  Hummingbird had gotten it last year while doing a traverse with the guys, but was happy to repeat it to give me company.  And mainly to point out the location of a rock slide where my brother-in-law Parched had said he thought it'd be cool to see the rock slide - basically an avalanche but with boulders - actually happening.  (Which both my cousin and partner found crazy and hilarious, because that would definitely be a dangerous situation. Perhaps Parched was delirious with dehydration at that point?)  

I say Hummingbird was happy to repeat the Link trail, but she was definitely not happy about it today.  It absolutely is not something either one of us care about ever doing again.  It's one of those trails to nowhere; just an access point/connector to other locations.  (All of which are more easily accessed from elsewhere.)  And it's a slog.  It was frequently mucky, somewhat buggy, unlike most of the other trails today, and just really not all that pretty overall.  It wasn't overly difficult, but it was just… not fun.  As we got into the second half of it, Hummingbird half joked that she was seriously considering going up Boulder Trail at the junction simply to not have to go back on the Link.  Ok, maybe she wasn't joking at all.  Her point did have merit.  We discussed the options and decided to assess when we reached the junction.

Beginning of the Link trail.

How I feel about the overall experience. LOL

So far conditions seemed reasonable to attack the Boulder Trail, which is a steep rock scramble, so is likely unsafe when wet.  It would add a bit of elevation and distance, but not significantly.  It was still uncomfortably hot out, but we had made it this far.  We decided it was worth trying rather than doing an out and back on the mildly annoying Link trail.  We did not regret our decision.  

At first the Boulder Trail has a small section of rock scramble, after which you hit a section of actual trail.  I wondered if that was it.  We've been on trails before with the expectation of the technical parts being longer than they are, so it wasn't unrealistic to question if this was the case here as well.  It was not.  After a reprieve on fairly normal, but still very hikey trail, we found the next section of rock scramble.  It is basically a steep slide of large jagged boulders.  It reminds me quite a bit of Mt. Percival (of the "Terrifying 25").  I was very glad to have my extra grippy Solomon trail runners on today.  (My feet prefer Brooks, but mostly do ok in these, which I save for conditions like this that require surer grip.)  This section of scramble was longer, but not so long as to start hating it.  We definitely needed to take a few breathers on the way up, and begged the universe for any amount of breeze, but we made it despite melting.  Near the top, we were rewarded with another nice viewpoint, making our choice to take this route even more worthwhile.  We agreed that we don't regret having to repeat this section on our next redlining hike.  Hopefully we won't be in the middle of a heat wave then.

Well, it keeps things interesting, at least!

Once again we found ourselves at the East Gilford Trail junction, and continued on that route - for the third time today!  The tracks of redliners sometimes get weird like this.  At least we knew it was a fine trail.  We were very much ready for a break though, and I kind of trudged my way up near the end.  Finally we hit the junction near Belknap summit again, and we found a shady spot to rest and refuel.  I'd been picking a few wild blueberries as we hiked, but obviously needed more than a tiny handful of fruit.  Not that I wanted to eat anything else in this heat, but I knew my body needed something.  Plantain chips offered a satisfying boost of carbs and electrolytes.  My water was starting to get low at this point, and washing down chips didn't help that situation, so I hoped this would hold me for the rest of the descent.

From there we made our way down White again, which honestly is not the most memorable trail.  Even though we had literally just done it, there were many parts that seemed unfamiliar, especially in the middle section.  It's another perfectly fine trail; I think it just is so similar to much of the terrain elsewhere around the Belks that only a few pieces of it stand out.  Regardless, I would not object to doing it again, even if it wouldn't be the main attraction.  I am perfectly fine with an unexciting but decent trail to get me where I want to go!

Once we found ourselves down at the Piper trail split again, we assessed our final move.  We had planned an optional add in of Piper summit at the end of our hike via Old Piper Trail, which would add a little over a mile and a couple hundred feet of elevation.  Though those stats were only to the north peak, and I assume we'd likely hike to the south peak as well, so realistically, the detour would probably add closer to a couple miles.  We both felt like, despite being half melted, we could probably make it, but for me especially it would have been pushing it.  We also still had to hike back up part of Carriage Rd, and that is certainly a hike of a road walk.  Also, the later we got into afternoon, greater were the chances of pop up storms (which did indeed roll in, if briefly).  So all considered, we wisely decided to end it there and just head back to the car.  We were happy to be nearly done for the day, and not push our limits further.  Maybe we'll even have enough energy for a quickie hike tomorrow morning.  

Fingers crossed for better weather patterns in the near future so we can wrap up our redlining goal soon!  We will always return to the Belknaps, our home range, but that patch is so in reach now that we're excited to finish.


7/8 Belknap Red-White + Piper Green + Boulder-East Gilford Trail, 6.11 mi, 1775 ft, 4:05 hrs