woodland wanderings: South and North Baldface

To save time, I decided to drive up and sleep in the car. I wanted to get an early start on the trails knowing it was going to be a long day of hiking. I didn’t know what the trailhead parking situation was, but it turned out to be a large, off the road, parking area with a bathroom! Sleeping in the car is something I never need to do again. I remember it being a relatively comfortable thing in my 20’s, not so in my 50’s.

At midnight, I was woken by my dog making gasping sounds and I see him knocking one of my water bottles around with his feet and nose. I turn on the flashlight to figure out what’s going on and noticed he opened the storage space between the seats and ate an entire bag of Pepperoni dog treats. I get his bowl and give him water – my 10 lb Chihuahua drank 20 ounces of water. I shut off the lights, crawl back into the trunk and try to get back to sleep. I can’t, my dog is now snoring like a 500 lb. gorilla. Ugh.

I got up at 5:00am with only 3 hours of sleep, and set off on the hike at 5:30. The 2.5 miles up the Baldface Circle trail to the shelter is a moderate, easy grade hike. The trail rises steeply from here. I read many postings about these ledges preparing for this hike, words like ‘difficult rock scramble’, ‘thigh-burning scurry’, are used in many postings. I would add that you need at least some minimal bouldering skills. I love bouldering but I don’t think I had any business taking my dog on this section of the trail. It added an unnecessary level of danger. I had to balance myself as I picked up my dog, placed him on the ledge above, climb up and do the same thing over and over. There were places I thought he could manage without help only to turn around to see him staring at me two levels down. I had to climb back down and get him. One section of the ledge had running water on it making it difficult to find a safe place to balance as I lifted my dog onto the ledge. If you have a dog, I recommend Slippery Brook trail to avoid the steep ledges on this section of the trail.

The ERD after I drenched him in water at the summit.

As I sat on the South Baldface summit, I thought about what I was going to do next. Continue on, or go down to summit Eastman Mountain returning via Slippery Brook back to the car. As I sat, I thought about what I tell my yoga students (I teach a challenging yoga class). “If your body is done, you have to come out [of the pose]. If your mind is done, keep going.” Sometimes the resistance to continue is mental and we have to break through the psychological boundaries that hold us back. I asked myself how I felt; physically I felt great. Good. I practiced some yoga, drank some water and I continued on. Once I made the decision to continue on, the resistance melted away. It was so wonderful to have the summits and views to myself. I could not have chosen a better day to hike 4 miles of open ledges. Clear skies, cool breezes and 360 views. Everywhere you looked were incredible mountainous vistas.

At the top of the ledges on the way up to South Baldface

The trails are very well marked with blazes and/or cairns. There was only a short section descending the Bicknell Ridge trail, below treeline (where the trail narrows) is a bit overgrown and has very few blazes. There is also one fallen tree (around 1200 ft elev) that’s an easy walk over. A lovely waterfall follows the trail near the intersection of the Bicknell and South Baldface trails, and what should be an easy walkover at Charles brook (near the Emerald pool). However, I decided to jump from rock to rock and ended up knee-deep in water.

I was disappointed when I got to the Emerald pool. There were two dozen people there, kids and their families. I didn’t want to barge in on their fun, so my plans of jumping in with my hiking clothes didn’t seem appropriate. Next time when I head up to hike Eastman Mountain I’ll have another chance.

This loop has everything, beautiful lazy rivers, emerald pools and 4 miles of open ledges with impressive vistas and great challenging ledges. It should be on every avid hiker’s to-do list.