Episode 2 - So You Wanna Hike - Welch Dickey

[00:00:00] Oh, yeah.

[00:00:30] Hecker Studio in the great state of New Hampshire. Welcome to the Sounds Like A Search And Rescue Podcast. So You Wanna. A video series where we share post-hike reflections, challenges, lessons learned, and essential insights to prepare you for your next adventure. And let's get started.

[00:01:34] Welcome to So You. This episode is called So You Wanna Hike Welch Dickey. Yeah, so this is Stomp. I am sitting at home looking out the window. It's early March and it is pouring out. I think we're expecting like, I don't know, two and a half, three and a half inches of rain. Who knows?

[00:02:04] It's been a wild winter. This is 2025. It's been a great winter. I mean, it's been steady. Not tons of snow, but it's been consistent. Several inches here and there every few days, which is great. Snowmobiling has been wild.

[00:02:23] So, basically, we really make it into March, if not past the February vacations. But this year we made it into March. I just did my last tour probably yesterday. I'm not anticipating this snow lasting after this rain that's coming in.

[00:02:41] But anyway, back to the task at hand. So, as you know, this show is all about sort of deep diving, hikes, trails, mountains, experiences, post-hike debriefs, all that good stuff. So, I love Welch Dickey. I'm a neighborhood guy here. I live right in Thornton, right at the foothills of the mountain range itself.

[00:03:10] And it's one of my favorite places to go. I think I've hit it a couple hundred times now over the last several years. Clockwise, counterclockwise, it always, always impresses. And it's so beautiful and never gets old. It's probably absolutely one of my top five hikes in the White Mountain National Forest, which it is. It is located in the southwestern tip of the White Mountain National Forest.

[00:03:40] And it's really interesting because it is in the town of Thornton. And Thornton is like, I mean, half of it has to be in the White Mountain National Forest. Thornton's a really neat town. So, we're going to get into some information here to help you prepare for your Welch Dickey hike. I've got a ton of stuff here lined up to talk about.

[00:04:02] I do have the script that we put together, but unlike this slasher format, I love to just let it rip and see what happens here. So, how do you get to Welch Dickey? Welch Dickey is pretty much off of 93, so it's in Thornton. If you're on 93, you're going to be taking exit 28 and heading down towards Waterville Valley. Yes, Waterville Valley. Down Route 49.

[00:04:32] And there's several ways to do it, but if you're heading down 49, you're going to come to that six-mile bridge just after the Smarts Brook Trailhead. You take that bridge, head up about a quarter mile, and you're going to come to Orris Road. And the trailhead is maybe half a mile down or 0.6 down on Orris. There's, you know, it's like partly paved, partly dirt. There is a privy.

[00:05:00] There's a year-round privy that's really clean generally. Your U.S. Forest Service parking kiosk is there, so I believe it's $5 a day. $30 a year for a year-long pass, or $40 for a year for a household is available at the White Mountain National Forest website. But $5 is not a bad cost for this place. Excuse me.

[00:05:30] The town of Thornton. Let's get back to Thornton for a minute. So Thornton is in Grafton County. It's a fairly small town. Back in the 2020 census, we had about 2,700 people living here. After 2020, you know, the migration, the numbers have increased. So that should be interesting to see where we are with the next census. The town was incorporated in 1763.

[00:05:57] I did not know this, but it was a doctor named Matthew Thornton, who was an Irish-born founding father of the United States, who signed the United States Declaration of Independence as a representative of New Hampshire. That's fascinating history. I had no clue. That's super cool. Most of the town follows along the Mad River, which you may be aware of.

[00:06:24] The Mad River, I believe the origin is up in Greeley Ponds area. So the Greeley's just pour down into the Mad River. And then the Mad River, of course, dumps into the Pemi. And it's part of the Merrimack River watershed. Very interesting stuff there. So let's see. Go down a little lower here. We have other characters that are notable. Moses Chaney. Let's find out about this guy.

[00:06:56] Let's see. He was an abolitionist, a printer, and legislator from New Hampshire. Chaney entered the paper printing business in a region of nearby Holderness, which was later named Ashland, which is right near where my folks live in North Ashland. They're probably thawing at the moment. They just had a substation transformer blowout.

[00:07:24] And the whole town, like two towns, are just out of power. No electricity. No nothing. So all the generators were going. We offered for them to stay with us, but I guess they had to stay and manage the generator, which is understandable. It makes sense. Safety first. Let's see. So Chaney. Moses Chaney died on July 17, 1875, and was buried in Ashland. Interesting.

[00:07:53] Who else? Who else do we have here? Carl Drerup. More recent, 1904 to 2000, was a German-American enamels artist. A leading figure in the mid-20th century American enamels field, trained as a painter. Drerup taught himself to enamel in the early 1940s, fusing glass to metal through a high-temperature firing process. Interesting, huh? Let's see.

[00:08:22] This is more recent, too. Nevin Scrimshaw was a nutritionist and the winner of the World Food Prize. American food scientist and institute professor emeritus at the Mass Institute of Technology. Wow. Interesting. So during the course of his long career, he developed nutritional supplements for alleviating protein, iodine, and iron deficiencies.

[00:08:52] Wow. So there you go. There's a little bit of history there. Now what about food around here? There's... Oh, God. So the old... I'm in the woodpecker studio, quote-unquote, which is just essentially where I live. But the original woodpeckers is down at the Campton Dam. And it has since become this cool seafood market called Bergie Jr.

[00:09:21] And they have an incredible menu. Great prices. You can order online. They get their food fresh. They literally get it right off of the boat and bring it up to us. And they highlight their captain's platter, which is deep-fried haddock shrimp, whole belly clams, scallops. Oh, man. It sounds so good. Shrimp plate.

[00:09:48] Ten deep-fried shrimp with french fries and coleslaw. Oh, yeah. And fish and chips. Those are their main dishes. But I've had their fish fillet sandwich. It's so good. So good. So Bergie Jr.'s, phenomenal. There is Tartaglia's. They make some great brick oven-fired pizza. Excuse me. There's also the pizza place. I forget the name of it. It's in Waterville. It's in the lower level there.

[00:10:18] They cater to a lot of the hockey games and skiers that come through. Great pizza. Great, great pizza. It is slipping my mind at the moment. But also, a new place that Mr. Stormp and I have been checking out is the Valley Chop House. And it's also in the lower section of the Waterville Town Square. Great bar. Let's just say that.

[00:10:47] One of the waitresses, her name is Nancy. She's fantastic. She has a lot of fun to talk to. Makes a killer drink. Some of the menu items are really cool too. You have sweet and spicy calamari, some classics, shrimp cocktail. Let's see. Chop House Burger. Oh, man. Yeah, they've got some great stuff. But the bar is not to be missed. And speaking of bars, if you head south to Plymouth, it's like 20 minutes from here,

[00:11:18] you have Tenney Mountain Drive, which is just loaded with restaurants, great bars. You have The Last Chair, Edge of Town, you name it. Downtown Plymouth is cool as well. And then, of course, there's the classic Fugaki, which is Chinese and Japanese food on Tenney. And probably the best Mai Tai in the region, without question. So there you go.

[00:11:46] There's some tips for you for some food. In terms of... Oh, I can't forget the Dan Brew House. So Dan Brew House is also right here in Canton, which is nearby. It's right down the road. It's accessible by Route 49. The moment you get off exit 28, off 93, you're going to be heading down to the first set of lights, take a left, up the road about a quarter mile. So they make all kinds of great beer.

[00:12:16] And... Oh, you know what? I just remembered. There's Crucial 10 Cider, which is exit 29 in Thornton. So let's not forget about them. Crucial 10. Mrs. Stump has been there. I've yet to go there. I did try one of their four packs. She brought back a four pack for me to try. And it was great. Really great. Very similar to the Stormalong series,

[00:12:44] if you want to get a sense of what their ciders taste like. So Crucial 10. Let me click out there. So I guess you want to hear about Welch Dickey. Let's talk about mountains for a moment here. It's a 4.4 mile loop. People call the Welch side the Welch Mountain Trail and the Dickey side the Dickey Mountain Trail.

[00:13:15] All together, you can tackle it either way, clockwise or counterclockwise. I really have no preference, but I generally tend to go clockwise when the weather is dry. Reason being is there's a ton of slabs on both sides. And when they're wet, they can be a little treacherous. So the Dickey to Welch route for me is my personal favorite.

[00:13:45] It's just stunning. Because as you're coming past Dickey heading towards Welch, you get that view of the Tri-Pyramids, the Wiedemuse, Algonquin Trail. I mean, it's just awesome. And Welch right there as well. So it's pretty cool. But if you're looking for a butt kicker, counterclockwise, it'll do it to you every single time. It's so great.

[00:14:13] So let's talk about that first. So if you're going counterclockwise, you're going to be following along a small brook that leads into the horseshoe bowl that essentially makes the Welch-Dickey loop. And at about 1,600 feet or so, the trail takes a sharp bank leading up to what Mrs. Stomp and I call the overlook.

[00:14:41] And the overlook is at about 1,800 feet. And it just has this really expansive view of Jennings Sandwich Dome, the Action Ridge, and Tripyramids, Lost Pass, you name it. So that's a nice spot. I mean, it's like 1.3 miles in. I mean, for people that aren't avid hikers or don't want to take that last quarter mile

[00:15:10] steep ascent up to Welch, perfect, perfect option. It's another great spot for those intermittent meteor or asteroid showers that come through the Perseids. Great, great spot. Let's see. Total elevation gain, 1,800 feet. Pretty modest. Not too bad.

[00:15:39] Cell coverage. Let's talk about cell coverage. There is cell coverage once you get past maybe the first quarter mile as you're ascending up Dickey Trail. It's a little bit different for Welch because you're sort of buried into the horseshoe, the deep ravine here in between the two mounds. But once you get up to the overlook, you do have some spotty service. Trail options.

[00:16:10] Let's see. You can do an out and back. Yeah, sure. You can do an out and back. You could do so many options. You could do out to Welch and back. You could do out to Dickey and back. You could do clockwise, counterclockwise. If you want to get really fancy, you can tack on the six miles of the Grand Traverse, which you can either start at the Dickey or Welch end or the Tecumseh end. And that's a whole other story that we'll get into, I think.

[00:16:39] I think the Grand Traverse itself deserves its own little highlight because there's a lot of nuance and variation in there. And it's a work of its own. So let's save that for another time. Trail description. Trail width. It's standard trail width. According to the Hiking Project website, the average grade for the hike

[00:17:07] is 9 degrees or 15%. And the maximum grade, which I'm assuming is probably the one giant slab below the summit of Welch, is listed as 21 degrees or 39%. 39%. That's awesome. That's super cool. Let's see here. Obstacles. Less so on the Dickey side.

[00:17:37] On the Welch side, as you're ascending or descending, you do have like a wannabe lemon squeeze that's above the first major slab. And then beyond that, there are some scrambles. There's probably two or three sections of scrambles that you have to get your feet up to your waist or pull yourself up or push yourself up. They are somewhat challenging. Notable views and features.

[00:18:07] Holy moly. I mean, you just don't get better than Welch Dickey. No matter what side you go down or up. It's stunning. It starts right at that 1800 foot mark and as you're ascending up to Welch, it's a view every 100 feet or so. It's just unbelievable. And even from the call in between Welch Dickey, the view from the call is amazing.

[00:18:36] You get this northward view of the Grand Traverse and Tecumseh and West Tecumseh. It's just awesome. You can't beat it. Once you're on the Dickey side, then you start getting the more northwesterly and westerly views. So you can actually see the Kinsmans, Cannon, Franconia Ridge, Musalak, you name it, you can see it. And then as you start to look more southwest,

[00:19:06] then you can see Cardigan. Let's see what else is out there. Stinson, Mount Carr. The view's amazing. So don't worry about the views. You're going to get them. Signage and blazes. The trail is well blazed without doubt. There are a couple cairns as you move along, more so on the Dickey side. Dickey is more prominent for cairns. There are no cairns

[00:19:35] to mention on the Welch side. Registers, no registers. There are plenty of registers on the Grand Traverse, but again, we'll touch upon that some other time. Unique spots. I think the one unique spot that stands out is on the Dickey side. When you're approximately a quarter mile from the summit of Dickey, ascending Dickey, there's this wall

[00:20:03] of granite that you have to just navigate around. But in the winter, every single year, it forms this wall. It's like 50 feet long horizontally of ice, thick ice, icicles. And it's really cool. Water sources. No water sources that I'm aware of. Water crossings, yes, there is one crossing and that is just after

[00:20:33] the trailhead as you're ascending counterclockwise towards Welch. Now, that one can actually be somewhat challenging. I've noticed over the last several years that people have made bootleg trails upstream to find a narrower point to cross because it can be somewhat daunting depending on how high the water is or, you know,

[00:21:02] the ice bridges and whatnot. So, yeah, one crossing, generally okay, generally pretty, you know, not slippery. Let's just say that. Uh, switchbacks? Uh, nope. I mean, there are a couple minor switchbacks on the Dickey side but Welch is a straight shooter. It just likes to go straight, straight, straight. Yeah, switchbacks are not a major issue.

[00:21:33] Trail maintenance notes. One thing has been interesting the last few years on the Welch side, just about a tenth of a mile in, there has been this massive beehive that has been left alone but it's been flagged off with flagging tape literally five to ten feet off trail. I think it's gone now but just be aware of that. Uh, you don't want to stumble upon uh, some angry bees. Um, and ambiance and noise not generally

[00:22:02] an issue. You don't really get much um, traffic noise unless you're on the the overlook on the Welch side. One interesting point I will mention, um, I'm recording this on a what's, what's today? Wednesday. Today's Wednesday. So usually like Tuesdays or Wednesdays you will have uh, helicopter trainings whether it be Coast Guard or, you know, the, the Army National Guard. Um, they like to use the

[00:22:32] northern ledges of Dickey which is another very unique spot. So from the Dickey Summit if you look north and actually just sort of meander north uh, you're going to look upon this expanse maybe 100 yards 200 yards long of uh, just flattish granite slabs and um, if you're, if you're attentive enough you'll find the foot traffic that leads you out to those areas and that's essentially the start of the Grand Traverse from the Dickey end.

[00:23:02] Um, really nice time. If you take the extra five minutes and go out to the northern ledges I think you'll be really pleased because it's, it's just a massive flattish wide open uh, place to sit down, have lunch, uh, get away from the crowds on the Dickey Summit. Um, beautiful. Uh, let's see, let's see, bugs, eh, bugs, bugs are bugs, bugs come and go like everywhere else. No comment there. Seasonal closures, there are no seasonal closures. I will

[00:23:32] say that, um, the Welch side during mud season is a nightmare. The lower mile before you get to the overlook is very wet, even in drier seasons. It's just a wet trail. Um, I would not want to be a trail maintainer on Welch. during these particular seasons. I would suggest going to the Dickey side to avoid all that nonsense because it's much drier in general.

[00:24:02] Let's see, bailout options. I mean, bailout options? I don't know. Yeah, I mean, it's, it's going to be easy enough for you to get out one way or the other. Um, huts, shelters, platforms, hammocks, and camping. No, no, no, yes, yes. So, yeah, you could, you could find ample, uh, tree coverage for hammocks if you were, uh, savvy enough and wanted to

[00:24:32] bushwhack a little off-trail. Camping, tons, tons of it, tons of it, I mean, just off-trail, two hundred feet, you got it. It's good stuff. Um, I'm gonna poke around here for a few, let's see if I can dig up any more information out of some of these websites. Do, do, do, do, do, do. Okay, we don't want to talk about that. We talked about Thornton, Thornton, um,

[00:25:03] most popular trail, oh, estimated time for hiking the loop is three hours and nine minutes. How's that sound? Three hours and nine minutes. I guess that's about accurate. I've been cranking it out in two. Um, super proud of that. Um, but that was like months ago and now I'm in snowmobile mode so I will probably get that back soon I hope. But yeah, three hours nine minutes.

[00:25:33] How about dogs? Can you bring dogs up there? Yep, dogs are welcome but must be on a leash and I think we've talked about this on Slasher. Make sure you take the dog shit out please. people leave their bags and they're getting lazy about it. It's just nasty. Um, so, yeah, dogs are cool. And let me check the recording, make sure we're still recording my Melifluous voice.

[00:26:03] We are still recording and, yep, all looking good. Okay, cool. Back to the action. I tried to find some geological information about Welch Dickie but I flunked that test. Back to the script we go. Let's see, additional resources. There's a ton of information about Welch Dickie up here so you'll be fine.

[00:26:33] I think that about covers everything. Final thoughts? I think whether you are, a beginner hiker or an expert hiker, Welch Dickie can give you everything. It's year-round, it's accessible, you can modify how long you want to go whether it's the full 4.4 miles which

[00:27:03] they're estimating at three hours down to a mile or less and still get a lot of bang for your buck. The views are killer. The parking is ample, easily accessible off of 93. There's a bathroom there. You really can't beat it. So, that is it for Welch Dickie. I hope you found this helpful and we will

[00:27:33] talk to you soon. If you enjoyed the show, you can subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify,

[00:28:02] or wherever you listen to podcasts. If you want to learn more about the topics covered on today's show, please check out the show notes and safety information on slasrpodcast.com. That's S-L-A-S-R podcast.com. You can also follow the show on Facebook and Instagram. We hope you'll join us next week for another great show. Until next time, on behalf of Mike and Stomp, get out there and crush the peace.