poison ivy
Well-known member
After a flurry of last minute emailing, we had an intrepid group of 12 (and one dog) ready to tackle the Vose Spur on Saturday morning. Gathered at Sawyer River Road for the 13-ish mile hike were Bob & Geri, Bunchberry, Donna, Big Earl, Steve, Amicus, NH_Mtn_Hiker, Dugan (both the two-legged and four-legged variety,) Youngblood, Jen and myself.
As late as Thursday, we were getting reports that Sawyer River Road was still open -- but when we arrived it was gated. As we were gearing up (after making the unanimous decision that snowshoes wouldn’t be needed) for our 8:30 a.m. start, we watched a couple of men in a red pickup, drive up to the gated road and start fiddling with the lock. Big Earl went over and tried to sweet talk them into letting us drive up to the Signal Ridge trailhead. However, he was told that the gate had to be closed because they were worried about snowmobilers coming in -- even though there was only an inch or so of snow lining the road. We resigned ourselves to the extra four miles of road walking and headed out on our way. The road walk actually went fairly quickly except for a few de-layering and picture breaks.
We arrived at the Signal Ridge trailhead in short order and regrouped. Geri led us on the bushwhack around Whiteface Brook by following along the south bank instead, enabling everyone to keep their boots dry. Then, it was an easy cruise up the Signal Ridge Trail to its junction with the Carrigain Notch trail, which was untracked and covered with just an inch or so of snow. We stopped for a little snack break and then carried on a few yards before hitting the brook.
Fortunately, this one was fairly easy -- some of the team were able to reposition a downed log so it spanned most of the deeper water. With a few rock hops and some careful balancing on the icy log, we all made it across without any trouble. Dugan (four-legs) needed a little coaxing to make it across but also did just fine. We then continued the 1.7 miles or so up the Carrigain Notch trail, which was just beautiful. I imagine during the summer it’s a tunnel of trees -- but with all the leaves off we had great views of Mt. Lowell, Carrigain and Vose Spur, making it a fun little trip through a tunnel of mountains instead.
We soon reached the big four-foot rock, that signals the start of the 1.25 mile bushwhack to the Vose Spur summit. Bob said the herd path starts 14 steps after the rock… so I counted. It was 20 giant Ivy steps until the turnoff… which is probably 10 regular person steps. I probably should have put herd path in quotes -- there were lots of scrubby areas and I got pine needles in the eye a bunch of times. I also had a little trouble with my trekking poles, which got frozen and could not telescope. I hiked with them on my pack, hanging over my head like television antennae. Unfortunately for me and Big Earl who ended up behind me a few times, I was often the cause of snow showers because I was knocking snow off the higher branches. There were also a few times when I was bent over and they became Bob-kabobs because I did not leave quite enough space between me and NH_Mtn_Hiker. I should have left the trekking poles at the big rock, I guess.
Those in the front of the line did an excellent job leading and brought us right up to the base of the slide. It was a little tricky crossing the slide because the rocks were super wobbly. We crossed to get over to the herd path on the left of the slide and Dugan (four-legs) had some trouble with the slide… so the two Dugans called it quits just past the slide and waited for the rest of us to return. The rest of the hike up Vose was along a herd path that got increasingly steep. I was relieved when I heard we had .3 miles to go… until someone else added “and 800 feet of elevation gain.” Luckily there were a lot of hardwood trees and we ended up just pulling ourselves from step to step using trunks and branches.
As usual, I was last to arrive on the summit and we had some lunch before heading down from the clearing. Vose was my 85th peak on the New England Hundred Highest list. Soon after my arrival, another hiker named Pierre popped out of the trees -- he had come over to Vose after hiking up Carrigain and was planning to follow our tracks down.
Ah down… heading down that top half-mile of Vose Spur was just absolutely terrifying. It was just so steep… we considered using crampons but it wasn’t really icy… just steep and snowy. At one point I fell and slid about 20 feet down the slope, hitting a tree with my knee before I stopped sliding. It hurt but wasn’t too bad… I know others also had a tough time making it down that part as well. We made back out to the big rock at 4 p.m. and pulled our headlamps out for the final walk out.
It was pretty amazing hiking down Carrigain Notch trail in the fading light -- the wind had really picked up and we could hear it rushing behind us like a freight train as it caught up to our position. I think we were all pretty tired but we made pretty good time, stopping to regroup at the brook crossing, bushwhack and road.
Although I wasn’t happy about the road walking in the morning -- at night it was really one of my favorite parts. As usual, I fell a bit behind the group… so I switched off my headlamp and did some star gazing on the way down. I was the last to arrive at the cars at about 7 p.m. Nine of the 12 of us headed out to Mooseland for dinner before heading off on our separate ways.
All and all this was a great day with a really fun group!
My pictures are up here.
- Ivy
As late as Thursday, we were getting reports that Sawyer River Road was still open -- but when we arrived it was gated. As we were gearing up (after making the unanimous decision that snowshoes wouldn’t be needed) for our 8:30 a.m. start, we watched a couple of men in a red pickup, drive up to the gated road and start fiddling with the lock. Big Earl went over and tried to sweet talk them into letting us drive up to the Signal Ridge trailhead. However, he was told that the gate had to be closed because they were worried about snowmobilers coming in -- even though there was only an inch or so of snow lining the road. We resigned ourselves to the extra four miles of road walking and headed out on our way. The road walk actually went fairly quickly except for a few de-layering and picture breaks.
We arrived at the Signal Ridge trailhead in short order and regrouped. Geri led us on the bushwhack around Whiteface Brook by following along the south bank instead, enabling everyone to keep their boots dry. Then, it was an easy cruise up the Signal Ridge Trail to its junction with the Carrigain Notch trail, which was untracked and covered with just an inch or so of snow. We stopped for a little snack break and then carried on a few yards before hitting the brook.
Fortunately, this one was fairly easy -- some of the team were able to reposition a downed log so it spanned most of the deeper water. With a few rock hops and some careful balancing on the icy log, we all made it across without any trouble. Dugan (four-legs) needed a little coaxing to make it across but also did just fine. We then continued the 1.7 miles or so up the Carrigain Notch trail, which was just beautiful. I imagine during the summer it’s a tunnel of trees -- but with all the leaves off we had great views of Mt. Lowell, Carrigain and Vose Spur, making it a fun little trip through a tunnel of mountains instead.
We soon reached the big four-foot rock, that signals the start of the 1.25 mile bushwhack to the Vose Spur summit. Bob said the herd path starts 14 steps after the rock… so I counted. It was 20 giant Ivy steps until the turnoff… which is probably 10 regular person steps. I probably should have put herd path in quotes -- there were lots of scrubby areas and I got pine needles in the eye a bunch of times. I also had a little trouble with my trekking poles, which got frozen and could not telescope. I hiked with them on my pack, hanging over my head like television antennae. Unfortunately for me and Big Earl who ended up behind me a few times, I was often the cause of snow showers because I was knocking snow off the higher branches. There were also a few times when I was bent over and they became Bob-kabobs because I did not leave quite enough space between me and NH_Mtn_Hiker. I should have left the trekking poles at the big rock, I guess.
Those in the front of the line did an excellent job leading and brought us right up to the base of the slide. It was a little tricky crossing the slide because the rocks were super wobbly. We crossed to get over to the herd path on the left of the slide and Dugan (four-legs) had some trouble with the slide… so the two Dugans called it quits just past the slide and waited for the rest of us to return. The rest of the hike up Vose was along a herd path that got increasingly steep. I was relieved when I heard we had .3 miles to go… until someone else added “and 800 feet of elevation gain.” Luckily there were a lot of hardwood trees and we ended up just pulling ourselves from step to step using trunks and branches.
As usual, I was last to arrive on the summit and we had some lunch before heading down from the clearing. Vose was my 85th peak on the New England Hundred Highest list. Soon after my arrival, another hiker named Pierre popped out of the trees -- he had come over to Vose after hiking up Carrigain and was planning to follow our tracks down.
Ah down… heading down that top half-mile of Vose Spur was just absolutely terrifying. It was just so steep… we considered using crampons but it wasn’t really icy… just steep and snowy. At one point I fell and slid about 20 feet down the slope, hitting a tree with my knee before I stopped sliding. It hurt but wasn’t too bad… I know others also had a tough time making it down that part as well. We made back out to the big rock at 4 p.m. and pulled our headlamps out for the final walk out.
It was pretty amazing hiking down Carrigain Notch trail in the fading light -- the wind had really picked up and we could hear it rushing behind us like a freight train as it caught up to our position. I think we were all pretty tired but we made pretty good time, stopping to regroup at the brook crossing, bushwhack and road.
Although I wasn’t happy about the road walking in the morning -- at night it was really one of my favorite parts. As usual, I fell a bit behind the group… so I switched off my headlamp and did some star gazing on the way down. I was the last to arrive at the cars at about 7 p.m. Nine of the 12 of us headed out to Mooseland for dinner before heading off on our separate ways.
All and all this was a great day with a really fun group!
My pictures are up here.
- Ivy
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