While the short trail up to the 1,337' Glassface Ledges from Rumford Center is a popular hike, far less people visit (or even know about) the main peaks of Glass Face Mountain to the northeast. The cluster of four small bumps that make up the main peaks of Glass Face range from 1,880 to 1,920 feet in elevation. At least one of the peaks used to have a communications tower on it. After doing some scouting of potential access route on the way back from other trips, today we headed to Rumford Center to attempt to make our way up to the top of Glass Face.
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| The start of Blackberry Lane |
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| Hawk Lane near the top of the mountain |
We parked near the start of Blackberry Lane on Andover Road. Blackberry Lane is one of the roads within the sprawling network of roads maintained by the Red Hill Road Association above Rumford. The road is gated and can only be driven by property owners. We started our hike up the road, eventually connecting to Bobcat Lane and Hawk Lane. Although not particularly interesting, the roads made for fast and easy hiking.
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| The old communications tower building |
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| Summit viewpoint |
Hawk Lane eventually narrowed and became a grassy two track road as it approached the top of the mountain. I was hoping to find a trail or way to bushwhack east off the top part of the road to the highest peak on the mountain, but the property in that direction was posted "no trespassing." The road gained the 1,882' peak where there are remains of the former communications tower. Most of the tower structure itself has been removed, but the adjacent buildings which housed the generator and equipment remain. I was surprised to find a cleared viewpoint northeast. There were pretty good views across Rumford and towards the Weld area, but they were unfortunately limited by the wildfire smoke today.
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| Bald Mountain and Saddleback Wind |
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| View towards the Tumbledown-Jackson Range |
