This is part of the 52 WAV (with a view) hiking challenge.
Alltrails describes these mountains as “Generally considered a challenging route, it takes on average 3hrs to complete. This is a very popular area for hiking and road biking, so you’ll likely encounter other people while exploring. The best times to visit this trail are May through October. Dogs are welcome but must be on a leash.”
This is a loop trail (thankfully), with an elevation gain of 1778 and is roughly 4.4 miles long.
Hikers Log:
May 5th 2022
start: 11:00
summited: 13:30
completed: 15:40
What a beautiful day to hike. It was sunny the entire day yet cool due to the wind. Absolutely perfect.
The hike started roughly around 11:00 and it seemed like any run of the mill trail to start. We started in the woods crossed a small stream. Of course it wouldn’t be a hike if I didn’t get my feet wet. Slipped on a rock and slid right into the stream. Thank goodness over the winter I upgraded some of my gear. So I had waterproof boots and wool socks on so they dried out very quickly. I always pack prepared as well so I had 2 extra pairs of socks in my pack.
We reached the first ledge after about 30 minutes of hiking. We hung out here for about 30 minutes enjoying the view and talking about life. We saw quite a few people either take less than 5 minutes there or not even stop. I still wonder how people can just not enjoy Mother Nature. There were multiple points on this trail where I could’ve stopped and spent the day in that one spot and maybe I will do that eventually. Once we felt that we had taken in as much as we could we moved on. Remember this was only 30 min in or ~1 mile so we knew we had a lot more to go.
Now I know why this trail is ranked hard. After not hiking for 6 months hiking to the top of Welch Mountain was super difficult. First of all pretty much the whole way up Welch is scrambling, secondly it is very vertical and third the rocks had algae on them from the previous day‘s rain so they were slippery in sections. I DO NOT RECOMMEND THIS TRAIL AFTER A STORM! Although the algae makes it slippery it creates an amazing contrast on the rocks and looks like stripes from far away. There was green and purple moss on the rocks on the way up and that was cool and beautiful to look at.
Near the summit of Welch the trail goes between these 2 boulders maybe 3ft wide, so do be careful me and my bag barely fit through. It is short however, once you get on the other side you are all set.
A few more steep scrambles and OH WOW!
We made it to the summit of Welch, here we have full 360 view of the surrounding area. When we reached the top we had met a White Mountain National Forest volunteer. Their job is to ensure other hikers are prepared, answer and questions about the trail or surrounding area, pick up trash left by other hikers along the trail >:(, and help with rescues and events. While talking to the volunteer we learned more about him, that he lives right down the road and that he hikes this loop a few times a week (super impressive for him being in his mid 70s, I had a very difficult time and I am in my early 20s). He also told us about the surrounding area, and some tips and tricks about the trail. He told us that some people did get lost up ahead due to the trail blazers being too long, so a crew went up and chiseled the markings away.
We hung out on Welch for about 15-30 minutes due to the high wind. The climb from Welch to Dickey was pretty easy, not too much decline and the ascend to Dickey was not nearly as bad as the ascent to Welch.
Once we reached the top of Dickey it was absolutely gorgeous, the wind was less here due to the trees. We layed here using our packs as pillows and just enjoyed the view with the sun smiling down on us.
Once we got our fill of nature again we started our descent, thankfully it is not the same way we came up so it was much easier. At one point we got lost, this is why I always have the alltrails navigation running while I am on the trail. After 5 minutes of not seeing a blaze I checked the app and saw we were off trail so we backtracked and got back on the trail. You walk along a large ledge and we actually saw a rescue helicopter fly by. According to other hikers this helicopter was from Canada doing Search and Rescue drills on the mountain. While still descending we saw one small patch of ice along a natural wall of rock, It was very interesting (I wish I had a picture of it). Once we got past this section it was a run of the mills trail and remained this way all the way back to the parking lot.
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