Copy/Repost Hike

On Saturday, July 22nd, Tom and I along with Tom's dog, Bailey, drove down to the Greely Ponds Trailhead on the Kancamagus Highway to meet up with another member of GO.  Since we had camped overnight with Robert and Jim at the Blackberry Crossing Campground and there is no cell service in the area, we were unaware that the other participant had removed himself from the trip.  We waited for about 20 minutes and then drove down to the East Pond Trailhead, just 0.9 miles west along the road.

We got ready and by 9:25AM we set out on the East Pond Trail.  It was warm with partly cloudy skies.  This was mostly flat until we crossed Pine Brook in 20 minutes.  After this the trail climbed slightly to where a boulder with a small spuce tree atop of it was located.  The woods here were mostly open and we headed off trail in the direction of Pine Brook.  At 10:10 we reached the brook again, but we were a little further north than anticipated.  We jumped into the brook and followed this south to where the slide began at the confluence of two brooks.  We headed south.  The last time I had been to this junction the Pine Brook heading up the slide was dry, but this time it was full of water.  We rock-hopped and climbed over small granite ledges and the slide opened up.  Due to the water running through here, the moss-covered rocks were very slippery in areas.  By 10:40 we were starting to get good views back to the north into the Pemigewasset Wilderness and by 11 we could see the Dogleg before us.  This was still fairly easy going until about 11:30 when we reached the first of many wet granite ledges.  Initially, we were able to climb along the side of these, but by 12:40 we reached the toughest of it and had to bushwhack around the steepest part for Bailey's sake (he wouldn't be able to pull himself up the ledges, like we could have).  The banks of the slide were steep and densely wooded.  We made our way through the woods and dropped back into the slide just prior to the turn towards the summit.  The main portion of this part of the slide was loose scree, but it was manageable for all of us.  We finally reached the top of the slide at 1:10 and took a break to take in the amazing views northward.  We headed into the woods at the top of the slide using the bootleg ski trail.  This was fairly easy to follow, but we lost it for a very short distance before the ledge.  We had quick push through the dense pine and immediately we could see a herd path, which led out onto the open Osceola summit (4340').  As we emerged from the trees, the summit was very crowded, as you'd expect on a beautiful day.  The views over Waterville Valley and over along the ridge and eastward towards the Tripyramids was wonderful.  We stopped and had our lunch over a much-deserved break.

After lunch, we made our way over to the true summit just a little distance to the west.  There was also a limited northward view off on a small spur trail here.  We then returned to the summit, got pack up again for on return via the Osceola Trail, which we began at about 2:20PM.  This descent was much easier on Bailey and for Tom and myself.  Along the way there were good views back to the summit of Mount Osceola and at the top of the Chimney, great views over to the Tripyramids.  Tom descended the steeper portion and the Chimney, since he had never done it before and I took Bailey down the bypass trail.  After this we climbed up East Osceola (4156') and reached the summit cairn by 3PM.  Since this peak's summit is in the trees we stayed only long enough for a couple of pictures and then we continued on.  There was a viewpoint just east of the summit along a short spur trail, but this was inaccessible, since there was a group camping here.  We descended down the east side of the mountain and after 10 minutes we came to another spur trail out to a view of the Osceola Ridge.  We rejoined the trail and turned down the trail, which descended steeply down the eastern side of the mountain.  About a third of the way down, there were views looking down on Mad River Notch and it's Greeley Ponds and over toward the Tripyramids.  We reached the Greeley Ponds Trail junction at 4PM and we turned north to return to the trailhead.  This was a fairly easy walk out...making it to the parking lot by 4:40PM.  We initially thought we'd bum a ride back to the East Pond Trailhead, but since there was noone else leaving at the time, we just started walking the road back to our car, which we reached at 5PM.

Afterwards we headed back to the campground.  We cleaned up in the Swift River just below the Albany Covered Bridge (across from the campground) and had our dinner by the campfire.

The Dogleg Slide is such an amazing route up to Mount Osceola!  The slide is challenging, but provides awesome open views up the slide and northward into the Pemigewasset Wilderness.  While I did check into the suitability for a dog doing the slide and found a couple of trip reports, I would say that portions of the slide are definitely not particularly dog-friendly...it's just too steep and slippery on some of the ledges.  Still, Bailey did a great job, even though he was clearly nervous on parts of it!  Thanks to Tom and Bailey for sharing in the adventure!  Also, these were peaks 33 and 34, respectively, for Tom and Bailey...congratulations!  They certainly earned these two the hard way!

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