November 28, 2025

Start/End: Little River Road

Peaks: Hale (4,054')

Elevation Gain: 2,530 ft

RT Mileage: 9.70 mi

Duration: 5 hours, 3 minutes

Rock Difficulty: Class 1

Snow/Ice Difficulty: Grade I

The May 23 snowstorm which I hiked to Hermit Lake for was followed by back-to-back weekend washouts in the Whites. June 13 was the next nice day, and I attempted the Six Husbands Trail on Jefferson but was forced to turn back at the second suspension bridge, which was closed. Then, four days later I tore my ACL, which kept me away from the mountains for five and a half months (I had to wait until August 1 for the surgery). I was finally cleared to hike over Thanksgiving weekend, and I decided to start easy with an ascent of the defunct Fire Warden's Trail on Hale, which I last hiked as part of a longer loop over two years ago.

Waking up at 5:15 AM, we left Woburn just after 6:00. Haystack Road closed for the season last weekend, so we parked at the end of Little River Road instead, arriving around 8:20. A short trail connected us to Haystack Road, which we then took the rest of the way to the North Twin TH at the end of the road, totaling 1.4 extra miles of hiking. From there, we set out on the North Twin Trail. Haystack Road was coated in a nice layer of snow but it was much patchier on the trails after rain earlier this week, and I opted to bareboot.

Morning upslope snow gave way to blue skies as we continued on the North Twin Trail. 1.1 miles in, we turned onto the defunct Fire Warden's Trail and finally began to gain some elevation at around a 15% grade for the remaining 1,900 vertical feet to the summit, gentle by Whites standards. Patchy snow began to turn to firm monorail as we entered the coniferous forest around 3,200 ft, and I stopped to put the spikes on. Light upslope snow resumed around this time. The snowpack was noticeably deeper above 3,600 ft, although the trail remained nicely packed.

After cresting a false summit around 3,900 ft, it was just a short walk over to the true summit, which we gained around noon. A solo hiker had passed us earlier on the Fire Warden's Trail heading up and we saw two people on the summit who had ascended the much steeper Hale Brook Trail, but otherwise it was just us on the mountain this Black Friday. The summit of Hale features a small artificial clearing, once home to a fire tower, which allowed for uncomfortably strong winds to mix down from aloft, and we didn't linger long.

Upslope snow picked up in intensity as we began to descend. Conditions were ideal for photogenic dendrites, and I wished I had a macro attachment for my camera. Fairly early on during the descent, at around 3,800 ft, one of the spikes on my left boot caught on my untied shoelace on the other boot and I ended up falling right onto the left (surgical) knee. Fortunately it didn't seem to sustain any damage, and brute force alone is generally not an ACL graft retear mechanism.

The remainder of the descent was fairly straightforward and quick, as was the road and trail walk back to Little River Road. A fresh half inch of snow had accumulated by early afternoon and coated up most of the bare patches on the trails, so I left the spikes on all the way back to the car. We were back at the parking lot just before 2:00 PM, concluding a great first day back in the mountains.