Redline Wrap-up, Belknap Mt. & The Crash

And that's a wrap!  Hummingbird and I have officially hiked every trail in the Belknap Range, and qualified for the Redlining patch! 🏅 It was a relatively short finish hike, however it was definitely not quick…

Before even arriving at the trailhead we ran into a slight roadblock.  Literally.  Belknap Mt. Rd. was barricaded off for Gilford Old Home Day events, and we got detoured back in the direction we came from.  After circling around, we passed Belknap Mt. Rd. once again, this time staying straight, and took an alternate turn (Hoyt Rd.) which, come to think of it may have been an even easier route.  It's a pretty area too, so no complaints.

We did complain a bit, however, making our way up Carriage Rd.  Certainly driving is better than road walking it, but the road is very windy and steep, with blind turns, and we encountered unpleasant washout that required wide veering (as wide as one can veer on that narrow road).  We almost regretted bringing my car instead of Hummingbird's SUV.  But we made it unscathed, and were only the second vehicle in the upper lot, which typically fills quickly.  More surprisingly, there were still few cars when we finished as well!  It was a very nice Saturday, so we expected to see more hikers out.  Even Mt. Major had less overflow than usual on our way home.  Perhaps "the on season" is winding down.  Like most locals, we won't complain about that either.

Our route up was the green/Warden's Trail.  Right off the bat it started climbing.  My legs definitely would have appreciated a warmup, but this was the loop we needed, so we bore on.  Conditions were not ideal after recent rain, so that also impacted our first impression, as the trail mainly consisted of wet, slippery rocks and roots.  At least we weren't descending this way.  

One pretty spot that may have been more enjoyable in drier conditions.

New tower in the works!

Once we hit the summit, where they are installing a new fire tower, we had to bushwhack around the construction.  Honestly, it may have been the nicest part of the "trail" so far.  Walking through the woods was refreshing after dealing with the sketchy green trail.  From there we popped out onto the blue trail, which was the final stretch that we needed for redlining.  But first, we wanted to find the plane crash.

In 1972, a small plane went down near the summit of Belknap Mt. due to inclement weather.  Sadly, the pilot did not survive.  The wreckage was not discovered until a year later, but logistically it was unable to be removed from the side of the mountain.  Apparently though, some people have taken out small pieces as souvenirs over the years, which seems very disrespectful to me.  Truthfully, it's probably enough of a gray area just hiking to the crash site to snap photos and post online.  But at least most of us just go with human curiosity, and don't disturb the site.  

The debris field is quite large.

There is a geocache planted in the wreckage.

The bushwhack trail down is very steep, and not entirely pleasant - again, made worse today by wet rocks.  Some of it was kind of interesting, but even in the best conditions it'd be slightly tricky.  Thankfully, there are at least some small ribbons on tree limbs to mark the way, so it's mostly easy to follow.  Mostly.  We were glad to have done it, but once was probably enough.

After climbing back up to the blue trail from the crash site - as Hummingbird put it, "the longest 2/10 of a mile ever" - I stopped for a quick snack and hydration.  After that we began our final descent.  I was looking forward to a trail that one alltrails review described as so easy "you could jog down it!"  Um, yeah, no.  Aside from a couple very short smooth sections, most of blue consisted of yet more slick wet rocks and ankle-twisting roots, although it was at least less steep than green.  We did not make great time on any part of this hike, that's for sure.

At least many of the rocks on blue were more organized as steps.

.1 mi from the parking lot, at the end of Wayne's Way trail, there is a pleasant little open area and viewpoint.

It only seemed appropriate to end our hike with a view.

In the end, how much time it took doesn't matter.  Overall it was a good hike despite conditions, and most importantly, we finished!  We obviously have zero intentions of no longer hiking in our home mountains, but we are excited to be done with all of our official trail chasing in the Belknap Range.  

Well… except of course for gridding.  I'm still keeping track each time I hit a peak in a unique month, casually for now, but you just never know if and when the urge to actually focus on getting that patch will hit.  I mean, it's a local challenge, and the patch is super pretty, so that urge is admittedly fairly likely.  (Much as I dread a couple of those hikes; mostly Whiteface's nasty ATV trail. 11 more times! Ugh.)  And hey, I just added another checkmark for August.  I now have 43/144 summit tags; that's nearly 30% of the grid!  So… yeah, the temptation is growing.

8/26 Belknap green-blue + plane crash bushwhack [redline finish], 2.59 mi, 958 ft, 2:22 hrs