A Trip to Whitewall Mountain (21-Nov-2009)
There have been many Trip Reports about bushwhacks to Whitewall Mountain which forms the eastern wall of Zealand Notch. But nonetheless, here is one more report.
Due to a variety of situations, it has been awhile since my friend Marty & me have hiked together. But at last our "stars aligned" and we sat off at mid-morning for one of our adventures with no firm game plan in mind. Since it won't be long before the Zealand Road will be closed, we opted to take advantage of this situation and head up the Zealand Trail. The cloud cover was being stubborn about clearing, and so we considered just do an out & back trek to Shoal Pond. Or, if the cloud cover appeared to be lifting, then we were also considering a bushwhack up to Whitewall.
Despite a rather "iffy" lifting of the cloud cover, we ultimately decided to whack up to Whitewall. I had been there once before, but this would be Zman's first time. We left the Ethan Pond Trail just a bit west of the junction with the Thoreau Falls Trail. We skirted the eastern slope of Whitewall while trekking northward through open forest and some beautiful birch glades. Eventually we headed westward for a short climb up to the wide open ledges at the southern end of Whitewall.
Upon arriving at the ledges, the cloud cover was still lingering in most directions. However, the view southward toward Carrigain Notch was open for business, which was great! It was sort of like going to a candy store and discovering that they were sold out of everything except for your favorite treat!
So, below are just a few views you've all seen before from marvelous photos posted by others when viewing conditions were much brighter than those we experienced on this particular day.
Carrigain Notch (zoomed)
Carrigain Notch (not zoomed)
Notch & Birch
Birch Glade Trekking
The bushwhack portion of our trek took less than 2 hours (round trip). Our entire round trip journey took just over 6 hours at a leisurely pace. It was a near perfect length of time to spend enjoying the woods on a November day when daylight hours are so short.
1HappyHiker
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