When you get an extra day off for a holiday, what do you do? hike of course!! This time I wanted to try something new, it doesn’t always have to be in the White Mountains so wanted to explore what the Belknap Range was about. Apparently there is a patch awarded on the honor system after one accomplishes all 12 peaks 😯
Its a easier drive for me than the whites taking only 1 hour and 40 minutes but I wasn’t familiar with the good eats so asked around, there was great fanfare for Winnipesauke Bay Gulls so went with them:
I had me an everything bagel with egg and cheese and now ready to go!!
Plan today was to climb 2 mountains:
- Piper Mt (2,044 ft)
- Whiteface Mt (1,565 ft)
^ Not to be confused with the other Mt Whiteface situated in the Sandwich Range and standing 4020 ft and counted as one of the NH48 4Kers. If that’s not confusing enough, there is even a third one in the state standing 1,339 ft in Wolfeboro NH
Overall plan was to traverse a trail of ~ 6 miles as below:
I had to do some research to figure out the trailhead options. It turned out that my best bet was parking over at the Belknap Mountain Rd trailhead. It was a small area that tends to fill up quikly and then people start parking on the side of the road. We managed to secure a spot in the lot itself and then suddenly many other cars started showing up; there was a large organized group of hikers meeting up and attempting the same things as us.
We quickly change into our hiking boots and down the dirt road we go as pass by the trail sign and kiosk:
The first part of the route is the Whiteface trail in blue blazes. Its a wide trail we follow until we reach a junction with an arrow pointing to Piper and arrow pointing to Whiteface, we choose to complete Piper first since it was harder of the two.
From there we follow the Piper-Whiteface Link trail marked by green blazes. It was a strenuous climb and required spikes most of the time and eventually we see an arrow that we are near the peak:
From one of the ledges we get a rewarding view of the Belknap Mt, I could tell because of the fire tower at its top. Also at its top is a communications tower providing cell service which explains why I had full 4G bars on my phone most of the hike.
At this point I wasn’t sure I reached the true summit so kept proceeding forward following cairns:
Eventually I find the throne cairn and get seated on it like I was the king.
Feeling accomplished of goal #1 we decide to turn around to proceed back to the junction to take the route towards Whiteface Mt. Somehow we go past the junction and without realizing start following yellow blazes. Suddenly we are following the vista trail. It was worth it as the views from that ledge were worthwhile:
If we decided to continue this path, we would have reached Swett Mt. (1,535 feet). Tempting! but we didn’t plan to get there originally so decided to turn around to get back to our original goal.
For the rest of the hike it was not a struggle whatsover. We reach the ledge of Whiteface mountain and enjoy the views but there wasn’t any prominent cairn to identify the location but we’re sure it was it.
There you have it 2 hours 12 minutes later we are 1/6th of the way for attaining the Belknap Patch goal. For those that have read my past entries you know I like to hit up old renovated barns or mills turned restaurants to reward myself post-hike and lo and behold there was one in the vicinity: Ellacoya Barn & Grille
It is a restored barn dating back to 1843. Ellacoya is synonymous with the area on the southwest shore of Lake Winnipesaukee. It is Native American and named after a chieftain’s daughter that fell in love with a brave warrior from another tribe.
The restaurant itself must have been a stable and a country store at some point based on the artifacts around the edifices. (you could tell I had ample time to explore around as the wait was 40 minutes before we got seated at our tables)
Once we got seated, I ordered the special for the day (it was a Monday) which was cheeseburger with hand cut fries for $8. I paired it with a 603 Brewery Winni Ale
Before I leave the restaurant, I leave you with a fun fact. In 2014 paranormal activity was detected in the form of glass object flying off a counter and breaking with no one around. It was eerily all recorded on video and you could see it here. It even got the attention of the hit tv show Ghost Hunters and perhaps an episode was made of it.
