The Baldface Circle: my warmest ever November hike

This week, I found yet another hike I hadn't done before.  The Baldface Circle.  It is a trail I had heard of before during last winter's musings in preparation for winter adventures.  Baldface is known for, well, its bald face.  This is a feature that many hikers strive for on their hikes, though this is a less common hike primarily because it lies outside the criteria for the 4000-footer list.  There are two (technically three) peaks to this loop, North and South Baldface, each sitting at 3606' and 3547' respectively.  The third peak would be Eagle Crag, at 3020', though I chose an alternative route that just avoided this peak in favor of a nice ridgeline walk down to a waterfall.

Baldface is accessed from Rt. 113, which jumps back and forth along the Maine-New Hampshire border between US-2 to the north and US-302 to the south.  FYI, Rt. 113 is not maintained in the wintertime from North Chatham, NH northward, so access I believe is from the south.  I can see why they don't maintain it - the road is about as wide as I single lane ought to be, with zero shoulder.  Though most of it was recently repaved, so it was a spectacular drive through Evan's Notch, with high cliffs to either side and leaves covering much of the pavement.

One of the cliffs from a turnoff along Rt. 113

And here is the road I had arrived on, looking through the birches (or aspen...I can't tell).

The view south into the Saco River watershed

There is a high point in Evans Notch where the Androscoggin and Saco River watersheds diverge.  I thought this was an interesting hydrological fact, not to mention that now is a great time to drive through there because you can look up to the cliffs that would otherwise be obscured by summer foliage.

Here is the trailhead for the hike, it's just before the parking area on the right (if coming from the north), and you park just past it on the left.

This time of year, it is very evident what kind of forest you are hiking through as you gain elevation.  Typically in this region, you have a mixed forest of conifers and deciduous trees at lower elevations, suddenly giving way to an exclusively deciduous forest at medium elevations, and then to a fir-spruce mixture above that. The fir-spruce will turn into krumholtz and eventually to barren rock and scrub brush if there is any, and they call this the alpine zone, where you can't even make faces at the small plants or they will perish.

This time of year, you can tell almost by smell and sound alone what forest you are in.  With most of the leaves off the trees, the mid-level beech and aspen forest has a thick coating of leaves, which is good in that it softens the footbed, but also bad because it covers up tricky rocks that want to trip you!

Entering into the mid-level beech forest

I took a small detour along the way to Chandler Gorge, which was a longer detour than expected (it's not marked with a mileage, but it adds about 0.4 miles to the trip).  There is a nice stream that you follow uphill for awhile until you get to the gorge.  I haven't got any good pictures of that, so it's on you if you want to see it.

Roughly three miles in, there is the Baldface Shelter, a well-maintained lean-to that could probably sleep 8-10 people depending on the snuggle-comfort level of those involved.  (A primitive tentsite is off to the right as well, and could probably fit a one or two-person tent.)

Immediately after the shelter, the trail makes haste in climbing the remaining elevation to be covered to summit South Baldface.

The first of the slabs that make up the "bald face" of Baldface

This part of the trail gets the heart rate up, but it isn't without reward, because within a few minutes, you have a gorgeous view out toward the valley and up to Evans Notch (on the left side of the photo).

Continue following the cairns and/or yellow blazes up to the top of South Baldface. Though once above treeline, you can easily see where to go: up.  Rock-hopping can provide some nice views off to either side of the ridge if one was so inclined.  (Was that a pun?)

North Baldface peeking behind the rocks.
(Was that another pun...?)

From South Baldface, the hills to the south were holding in an interesting layer of fog, quite unusual considering the time of day.  It was already past noon by now, and it still hadn't burned off.  Made for a good picture I suppose.

A short ways further will bring you up to North Baldface, just a touch higher than the south peak.  The distance between them is 1.2 miles, weaving in and out of exposed rock.

Me at the top, with Mount Washington in the distance and
Carter Dome right next to my head

Let me mention that it was extremely warm for this time of year, and oddly calm on the summit.  A slight breeze made me put on a light fleece, but other than that, I could have been fooled that it was late August or maybe September.  (If I ignored all the leaves on the ground, that is.)  I believe it was mid 60s, which is my highest ever November hike.  I choose to omit that I have one hiked in November twice, and the first time in 2013 I froze my butt off.

I saw some vivid plants on the way.  They are red, and they look like mini poinsettias.  But I don't think they are really mini poinsettias.  Because then they would smell horrid, and these smelled fine.

Plants

As I mentioned before, I cut off Eagle Crag from my loop, mainly because the Bicknell Ridge Trail was of peculiar interest, lined with many overlooks on my map, so I thought it was worth checking out.  It was a great trail, though I have no point of reference as to what the remainder of the Baldface Circle Trail might be like. There is a cross-link between them that passes by some cascades, so I took that on my way down and met back up with the Baldface Circle Trail.

Here are the aforementioned cascades

Coming down the last few miles of this hike in the beech forest was very fun because you can almost slide down on the leaves on every step, hence making your progress and rate of speed much faster.  You just have to not break your ankle on a hidden rock.  Life is filled with risk!

I caught the last few rays of direct sunlight passing through the trees in the last 1.5 miles or so.

I finally rejoined with the trail I had come up on, a 0.7 mile section, and all was easy from there.  I made it out safely and with no limbs or extra bones left behind on the trail.

I present you with the Google Earth track and elevation profile, debatably one of my favorite parts of every hike.  (I tell you, Google Earth is worse than dome drugs - addiction is a serious issue and should be addressed by trained professionals. (Unless you are me.)

Hike Details
Miles hiked: 10.1 miles
Time elapsed: 4.5 hours
Total ascent: 3570'