Desperate to check something off my trace during the slow season, I searched my list of remaining hikes. Of them, I sent several winter-capable picks over to Liz to select for our "trail hike" after many bushwhacking sessions. To my surprise, she chose the Israel loop she'd done a few Halloweens ago- and it was a very different hike in the winter!
As per Ken MacGray's recent post about Israel, we enjoyed an easy bare boot up to Israel. Taking the classic Wentworth Trail from Mead Base, there was a well-packed highway, providing support even through the steep switchbacks between 2000 and 2400 feet. Past the switchbacks and delightful outlook to Squam, we enjoyed a quick ridge walk to the 180-degree views atop Mount Israel.
We looked directly at a cloud-obstructed Sandwich, which at first looked too far away relative to trails I'd been on in the area. Knowing we'd be dropping down to Guinea Pond- a spot I last visited on my loop hike of Sandwich Dome, I gained a new perspective on how wide the valley is. If you haven't been down there- it's darn cool. While pretty intense at times dropping down to the mountain pond between Israel and Sandwich, the Black Mountain Pond trail provides some amazing viewpoints and a quiet time in the wilderness. On the flip side, the old railroad bed along Guniea Pond Trail made for a calm and quick hike out to the same pond. There's even a waterfall down there! But... I can't recommend that one too strongly (see my post from July 2022).
The beauty of this loop is that despite coming in over 8 miles, we only had to ascend for 2 miles. From the top of Israel, we dipped onto the Mead Trail where I ate it on ice (turtle style) and switched into my mountaineering snowshoes. Though the snow was dry enough to neglect the use of snowshoes, the ice underneath called for traction. With me in my snowshoes and Liz in her microspikes, we glided down Mead Trail. I loved this trail, I'm not sure if it was the sun coming through the birch glades or playing connect the dots from blaze to blaze, but this was the perfect descent!
After we lost the bulk of our elevation, Guniea Pond Trail packed one little surprise for us. While I had completed most of the trail, I was putting off the notoriously wet section between Mead Trail and Sandwich Notch Road. To my surprise, Guniea Pond Trail had been thoroughly rerouted. Marked with a sign pointing towards the power line, we awkwardly skirted under the lines until we caught sight of flagging on the ground, and eventually a yellow blaze. As we entered the woods, close to where the old high water bypass re-enters, we rolled up and down for a while on the freshly blazed reroute. We never strayed too far from the original path on the reroute, however, it is not updated on Gaia so pay close attention to the yellow blazes.
Once we got off the reroute, we had a quick 2/3 of a mile left on even terrain and soon reached Sandwich Notch Road. Unsurprisingly, the road was more than groomed by snowmobile tracks. As we approached the bottleneck of the notch towards the height of land, the wind and sudden snow got us nice and awake. Though short, the uphill to the HOL after miles of downhill was a little tough on the legs! This was mostly short-lived, as the downhill went quickly thereafter. As we closed in on the end of the closed road, we could either take a long road walk back to Mead Base or cut over on Bearcamp River trail, for about a fourth of the distance.
Choosing the shorter path, we were delighted to find that this too was tracked out. We made a quick crossing- passing a frozen Beedee Falls & snow-covered Cow Cave along the way. Of everything we'd seen today, I'd say this was the one part of the route that was "less awesome" in winter compared to summer. But only because Beedee falls is so cool when it's flowing & swimmable. Still, though, it was a lovely way to round out the day!
Final Stats:
8.14 miles
1,793 gain
Sounds like January is a much better time to do this hike than April (which is when I did it, several years ago). Were the wet sections of Guinea Pond Trail frozen? In April, we did a lot of postholing through soft, slushy, melting snow, and the sections without snow were mud bogs. And the only other time I've been to Beede Falls was in early June, when every cubic inch of air contained ten black flies. Compared to that, doing this hike when you did sounds like the better option! 😀