Wild About the White Ledge Loop Trail

The Fat Man and I woke up feeling spunky, so we hopped into Horace the Honda and headed to the White Ledge Loop Trail, which is located inside the White Ledge campground.  It's 4.4 miles with an elevation gain of 1,450 feet, so there's no slouching on this bad boy, like there was on West Rattlesnake Mountain.

The trailhead is located off State Road 16, about 5 miles south of Conway (not North Conway).  It is not well marked, so look for this giant wood pole, that is probably missing its sign.

Turn in for the White Ledge Campground

Unfortunately, the campsite was closed for the season, so we had to park our car outside of the campground.  

You have to walk about a 1/2 mile through the campsite to get to the trailhead. It looks like a nice campground, but being so close to the highway is a bit of a turn off because you can hear the cars.  

The trailhead

You have two choices for this loop.  You can take the longer way up, which is counterclockwise.  I was tempted to take the short way, until the Fat Man reminded me that I don't like heights.  Those who can relate know it is much easier climbing up than going down when you have this affliction.  

A yellow blaze early on the trail

The longer way up has another advantage: the first 15 minutes are fairly flat so you don't have to cough up a lung right away.  The short way up is pretty much all up hill all the time.  Although it is a yellow blaze trail, in many cases the blazes are faded and look almost orange.

Most of the time spent on the trail you are in the deep woods, until the last hump, which is the beginning of the ledges.  

Into the woods you go

  

Beginning of the ledges

 When you reach the ledges, there are several rock cairns, which help you determine which way to go.  I've been on trails that are better marked, but then again, I've been on much worse!

Thanks to those who marked the trail!

The ledges are moderately steep for a short while (nothing that frightened me) and then they flattened out.

About as steep as it gets

The flatter ledge

When we reached the first flat ledge, we weren't sure if it was the summit, so we went a bit further and found another ledge that was.

Nice view for lunch

It was a cool day, but the sun was shining brightly so we lounged on the summit for about a half hour.

We noticed this cloud, which the Fat Man said looked like the head of a dog.  I thought it looked more like a bear.  Guess you could call it nature's Rorschach test.

The trail down

There was another flat ledge above us that was almost like a round about (with signs pointing to the views).  From there we picked up the trail down.

Mount Cocorua in the distance

I had read in a guidebook that there was a view of Mount Chocorua, and sure enough, on the way down there it was.

Bit rocky on the way down

I had felt so great going up that I wasn't prepared for my jelly legs on the way down.  I mentioned to the Fat Man that perhaps I had contracted polio, but he reminded me that I was vaccinated as a child.  

I had to stop and take a breather at one point.  I usually carry apricots, which are good for potassium.  The Fat Man likes Blox squares, but I prefer to avoid so much caffeine late in the day.

It took us about 3.5 hours to make the total loop, which wasn't too bad.  We had an early dinner at the Moat Mountain Smokehouse in North Conway, which was delightful.  I had the spinach salad with grilled chicken (gluten free) and the Fat Man enjoyed a half rack of ribs.  

Heidi's rating: ★★★★ Very diverse trail, which made it interesting.
The Fat Man's rating: 1 pack of wild cherry Blox and 2 helpings of smoked Gouda cheese and crackers.