Ghost Trail: Mt. Whiteface to Flat Mountain Pond

Heading up Mt. Whiteface on the Kate Sleeper Trail

This was the best day of backpacking. Perfect weather, no crowds, no bugs, amazing scenery, and the trail was just challenging enough to be interesting (and no more). And it ended with a bull moose grunting and scraping near my tent. Can't beat that. 

Cladonia Lichens near the summit

It was a pretty short and tranquil morning hike up Mt. Whiteface on the Kate Sleeper Trail/Rollins Trail from the col at the base of East Sleeper. I was surprised to find a dayhiker already up there. It was 9:00 am. This is a 4000-footer. All the 4000-footers have peakbaggers at their summits. 

Mt.Whiteface summit

The views were great. I hadn't appreciated the view the prior day on Tripyramid because they are from the top of an almost-cliff I was about to descend in a state of near-terror. This was much more civilized. There were old carvings in the hard rock dating back to the 1800s. Graffiti is ageless. Cell phone was good, so I backed up some photos in case something happened to my phone before continuing on. The sign post for the McCrillis Trail was easy to miss, but I found it and followed the trail south down the mountain.

Mt. Whiteface view

After the Tripyramid trauma the previous day, I was worried about the Mt. Whiteface descent. It's all the same ridge, so presumably the same geology and the same mountain goats laying out the trails.  There did turn out to be one tricky part early in the descent where I played it safe and lowered my backpack with some rope before sliding down the rock on my butt. That was the only challenging spot for the day. 

The only tricky part of the day

Fearing the worst as I headed down this mountain, I was continually elated at each moderate descent. Steep, but not big scrambles. And dry. When the grade finally began to lessen and the worst was over, I was all smiles. The ridge was over with. Piece of cake. 

Reindeer moss and mushrooms, McCrillis Trail

Looking back at the Mt. Whiteface summit

Indian Cucumber, slopes of Mt. Whiteface

I passed a group of older men starting up the mountain as I arrived at the junction with Flat Mountain Pond Trail. And that was the last of human beings for the next two days. 

Whiteface River, Flat Mtn Pond Trail

Flat Mountain Pond Trail was a joy to hike. It follows the lovely Whiteface River gradually uphill for awhile before turning west towards Flat Mountain Pond. No need to carry much water. 

Red-Belted Polypore oozing water drops (guttation)

There were a ton of mushrooms decorating the trail, but the one that caught my eye was a bracket fungi growing on a tree that was covered with glistening drops of water on a completely dry day. I later learned that this is called guttation, and it's something some species do more often than others, helping with identification. The Red-Belted Polypore is well-known for guttating clear drops. Some other species ooze out colored drops. The Bleeding Tooth fungus oozes out drops that are blood red. 

Flat Mountain Pond

The walk along Flat Mountain Pond was lovely. Beautiful and peaceful. Bits of fall color. Ducks. Parts of the trail were super easy and other parts climbed up the steep slope above the pond and navigated boulder fields. 

Flat Mountain Pond inlet

There is a designated tenting area at Flat Mountain Pond Shelter, and it was very tempting. I hung out for ten or fifteen minutes pondering on whether to stay in this glorious spot or continue on a few more miles. 

Tenting site at Flat Mountain Pond

It was still early, so after taking in the view of the pond and the Tripyramid-Whiteface ridge behind it, I bid farewell to the pond and continued down the Flat Mountain Trail. 

Looking back towards the Sleepers and Tripyramids

From this point on, the trail followed an old railroad bed cut into the side of the hill, so it was nearly flat. Amazing how much work was done just building an infrastructure to haul out logs. After a few miles the cross slope eased up and it was easy to find a nice flat spot to tent for the night. 

Flat Mountain Pond Trail following an old logging RR line

After setting up the tent, I came upon a moose scraping while scouting for a spot to hang my bear bag. This was about 100 feet from the tent and looked pretty active. The moose tracks and scrape marks were obvious. Moose scrapings are where a bull moose scrapes the ground and urinates onto it, and then return to see if any females have been attracted (deer also make scrapings). Any chance the moose would return that night?

Moose scraping near my tent site

Yup! As soon as it was dark, I could hear the moose stamping and scraping, brush crashing, and so forth. The tent seemed pretty vulnerable for a charged up bull in excess of 1000 pounds, but I've never heard of a moose attacking a tent. I finally unzipped the tent and looked out with the headlamp, but there was too much brush and I couldn't see anything. The noise stopped, but maybe twenty minutes later he was back at it again.