Mount Whiteface and Mount Passaconaway

Date: 9/26/2020

Mount Whiteface Elevation: 4,020’

Mount Passaconaway Elevation: 4,054’

Miles: 11.8 miles

Time: 7 hours, 8 minutes

Trails: Blueberry Ledge Trail to Rollins Trail to Dicey’s Mill Trail

Over halfway to 48 and the New England fall foliage is going OFF, so really what more could you ask for in a hike? How about two rockstar friends and some protein pancakes?!

Swags, Alex, and I left Brookline at 5:30am on Saturday in a sleepy trance. I was so excited to get out of the city and to the mountains, we just needed a quick stop at Dunkin’ to kick start our energy. Once we got off at exit 24, we wound past Squam Lake where Swags spent all summer, so we got to soak in some beautiful golden hour views around the lake while reminiscing about warmer days :) Honestly just the drive alone was gorgeous, which only made me more excited for the views we were going to get later in the day.

We got to the Ferncroft Parking Lot around 8:20am. I had read about how full this lot gets, and we were early enough to snag one of the last spots. The lot is near a lot of private property and really cute homes, so there are signs up everywhere saying not to park on the road and I’ve heard about people getting ticketed if they break that rule. (side note: when we left the parking lot at the end of our hike, tons of people had just parked further up the road before the parking lot)

Soon we got going and headed towards Blueberry Ledge Trail; to get there you walk along the dirt road for a bit, passing some homes nestled at the base of the mountain. We even passed someone on their way back from the hike who just strutted right up to his house and in—how nice to get to be able to do that! Just go for a quick morning hike and get to leave directly from your front porch…goals.

It’s pretty easy to find the trail with all the homemade-looking signs around. The sign at the very base of the mountain says that it’s 3.4 miles to the peak of Mount Whiteface, so we put our heads down and got going. The hike up is pretty straightforward; you can take the Blueberry Ledge Cutoff at one point, but it just rejoins with the main trail so we stuck with that. As expected, it gets steep after a while, and we had an unseasonably hot day, so we were sweating and going through our water at an unfortunate pace. Eventually we got to the slabs just below the summit, which look more challenging than they really are. A man behind us offered us some guidance about where to put our hands and feet, and we quickly scampered up. There are some really pretty views around here, so make sure to stop and look around :)

We decided to break on one of the lookout ledges before we reached the summit (around 10:30am), which I think was definitely the right choice. We enjoyed some pretty insane views to ourselves with lots of orange foliage throughout the valley. Alex whipped out some protein pancakes that she had made the night before; they were surprisingly very good, we just decided they might need some chocolate chips next time. The summit was about 10-15 minutes from the ledge we stopped at and it was much busier with less impressive views. We stopped again for a few minutes for Swags to do some great watercoloring. By now, water was pretty tight soooo that really wasn’t great.

^swipe thru!

From the Whiteface summit, it’s another 2.9 miles to Mount Passaconaway. We followed Rollins Trail for two miles and then Dicey’s Mill Trail for 0.9 mile to the top. Altogether, this hike has an elevation gain of 3,800 feet, which I’m pretty sure is a good chunk more than my hikes in the past. In between Whiteface and Passaconaway, I was definitely feeling it and I really appreciated the flat sections. I was sore going into this hike, so it kicked my butt a bit, but the trail was really lovely and being with Swags and Alex helped too.

We reached the summit of Passaconaway, but went past it to reach the outlook that is 0.3 mile beyond (there’s a sign that says “View,” so it’s hard to miss). It’s a bit of a steep descent down that at that point might make you question going since you know you’ll have to come back up, but trust me, it’s worth it. There’s a slab to sit on and enjoy the amazing view with Mount Washington right at the center. The red foliage here was even better than at the Whiteface ledge before.

Coming down from Passaconaway is another 4.3 miles, which definitely seemed like a long trek at that point. We left the Passaconaway viewpoint around 1:30 and made it back to our car around 3:30, so we made good time (I think we were just rushing to get some water back in us). A park ranger came by us too and she was really great to talk to; she told us how the drought makes us really susceptible to forest fires right now, so her job is to hike through the mountains and check campsites that may have illegally burned campfires the night before. She then got to witness both Swags and Alex take diggers on completely flat ground back-to-back, so I’m sure that gave her some good entertainment too.

We finally made it back to the car after just over seven hours of hiking and we headed out to find water asap. Note to self to always bring a third water bottle for drinking in the car beforehand so you don’t deplete your hiking water. Usually I'm well prepared, so please don't come for me.

On Swags’ suggestion, we stopped at Squam Lake Marketplace on the way back and let me tell you, that was the absolute right call. They have amazing sandwiches and really cheap baked goods, so I will definitely be going back there after my next hike. Thanks Swags, ily.