Piper & Whiteface (Belknap Range)
"Okay, this is going much better than yesterday."
Distance: 4.9 miles
Elevation: 1332 feet
Time: 2 hours, 33 minutes
Hiking Challenges: Belknap Range Hiker, Summit Beer Society
The Hike
Time to complete the Belknap Range Hiker challenge! I was feeling SORE from the events of the previous day - primarily some solid whiplash and normal leg soreness. My final destination for the day was the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont, so it made sense to push through the pain to get it done! I drove to the end of the paved section of Belknap Mountain Road, got all my ducks in a row, and started the short, but sketchy gravel road walk past someone's home and then into the woods.
The trail starts by closely following private property lines and very clearly marked for no trespassing and making note that cameras are in use. That first bit ends at a trail kiosk welcoming hikers to the conservation land, and then more normal hiking begins. The blue trail trail is a wide trail with easy footing with only a few steeper sections, but nothing too drastic. I noticed the woods were very quiet today - just a few chipmunks doing their afternoon chores. The blue trail begins to level out and then hits a junction with the green-blazed Piper-Whiteface Link.
At the junction, I turned left to hike Piper first. It was clearly the harder of the two mountains elevation-wise, so I wanted to tackle that on "fresh" legs (fresh is in quotes because I'm basically a walking corpse at this point anyway). The trail meanders through some beautiful woods with grassy patches, and then hits the longer stretch of slabs. I was very nervous going up these slabs after my continual slips and falls yesterday, but the rocks were dry and had fine traction, no slipping at all.
As the slabs climb, the views start appearing, and they are quite lovely! Whiteface Mountain and Kearsarge South are the two mountains that stuck out to me from the first viewpoints. The trail continues to climb up one notably steep section which gives a great view, and then levels out to the summit. It was unclear where the actual summit was, so I hiked to the high point on the trail according to the topo maps and then took a break. Great views of Gunstock and Belknap, and then further with the rest of the range on the right.
Now it was time to backtrack - I took in some more views and quickly checked out the yellow-blazed Vista Trail. I had read on Facebook that there are some great views off of that trail, but I did not want to add too many miles/elevation to the day, so I'll save that for later. Slow and steady down the slabs, and soon enough I was back at the junction with the Whiteface Mountain Trail (blue)!
The trail from here descends a little more and then enters a meadow where an ATV trail joins. The trail from here wasn't my favorite - deep ruts, mud pits, and overall just not a wilderness feel. It felt like it took forever to get to the summit area, but in reality it wasn't too bad. The best part was there were plenty of frogs living their best lives in the muddy ruts. The summit of Whiteface Mountain was wide open and provided really excellent views of the Belknaps and then the Whites in the background. I spent a good amount of time on the PeakFinder app seeing what mountains I could identify. I then took a nice break where I had my summit beverage (another vodka mule), had a lovely snack of a honey stinger waffle and some prosciutto/mozzarella roll ups, and slowly got myself moving again.
The return trip to the blue/green junction truly felt like 5 minutes, so I'm not sure why the trip up felt so long (probably because I was tired and cranky). I wasn't complaining! The trip down the mountain to the road also felt super short and quick - still no complaints! I took some time to dry off and change my clothes, and off to Vermont I go!
Step-By-Step
- Park at the end of the paved portion of Belknap Mountain Road.
- Walk along the gravel road, past the first house, and enter woods on left (sign points to trail).
- Start hike on blue-blazed Whiteface Mountain Trail.
- At junction, turn left onto green-blazed Piper-Whiteface Link.
- At junction with yellow-blazed Vista Trail, continue on Piper-Whiteface Link to summit of Piper Mountain.
- Turn around, retrace steps to junction with blue-blazed Whiteface Mountain Trail.
- Continue on blue-blazed Whiteface Mountain Trail to summit o
f Whiteface Mountain. - Turn around, retrace steps to junction with green-blazed Piper-Whiteface Link.
- Turn left to descend on blue-blazed Whiteface Mountain Trail, retrace steps to car.
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