1HappyHiker
Well-known member
OK! No photos or fame for this one, but lots of fun and frolic!!
This past weekend, Z-man & I decided to hike along the Carrigain Notch Trail since neither of us ever hiked this trail. We had a loosely constructed plan to go as far as time and circumstances permitted. We even thought we might possibly do a few short whacks along the way to some low-altitude potential viewpoints. We definitely were NOT intending to bag any peaks!!
HOWEVER, during some of our “trail chatter”, we discussed postings on this forum about whacks from this area to remote peaks such as Vose Spur, and Mount Lowell. After hiking about 15 minutes along the Carrigain Notch Trail, we came to a point where others have reported leaving this trail for a bushwhack to Mt. Lowell from the south. So, we thought that we’d just do a little exploratory work for some future attempt at Mt. Lowell.
We headed easterly to get up on the Lowell ridge. Our whack up to the ridge was basically through open woods, and so it went very quickly. Since our whack was going so well, we decided to go just a bit further by changing direction and following a northerly bearing in the direction of Mt. Lowell. Things continued to go well. HOWEVER, we eventually hit thick spruce and other nasty stuff. In hindsight, we should have stopped our exploratory work right then and there!! But, we were being “lulled by Lowell” into a false sense of security.
Neither of us are avid peakbaggers. However, we couldn’t help but notice the GPS reading which showed less than a quarter mile to the summit. Aha! We thought we could probably bag the summit of Lowell well before our turnaround time. Surely we could circumvent or withstand the “spruce-attack”!! Ehhhh! Bzzztt! Wrong!! The battle with the spruce took a lot of precious time. After conquering the false summit, we eventually lugged our spruce-bloodied bodies to the base of the true summit of Lowell.
As we stood at the base of the true summit on its south side, the GPS showed less than 500 feet to go. Now, anyone who has ever been at that particular spot on Mt. Lowell should be able to relate to this. Looking up toward the summit from this vantage point is darn near equivalent to looking up at a very tall skyscraper from street level. And, the spruce was thick as far as we could see!!
We did some rough guesstimates as to how long it might take for this final super-steep whack to the top. Even our shortest guesstimate put us beyond our pre-determined turnaround time for a safe descent back to the trail in daylight. So, in the interest of safety, we opted to forego the final ascent. The words from that famous Kenny Rogers song came to mind: "You got to know when to hold 'em, know when to fold 'em”. (Of course, it might have been nice if those words had come to mind earlier . . . like at the onset of the “spruce-attack”!!)
Anyway, we know we made the right decision. Mt. Lowell will always be there. And, since bagging Lowell was not even our original objective for the day, it was difficult to feel any great disappointment. With lessons learned from our exploratory rampage, we now know what to expect should we opt to approach Mt. Lowell from this same direction on some future adventure. And perhaps most important of all, it was still a great day of fun and frolic in the woods!
Oh! Although we had some views along the way, as stated at the beginning, there are no photos . . . too busy “exploring” to take any!!
1HappyHiker
15-Sep-2008
This past weekend, Z-man & I decided to hike along the Carrigain Notch Trail since neither of us ever hiked this trail. We had a loosely constructed plan to go as far as time and circumstances permitted. We even thought we might possibly do a few short whacks along the way to some low-altitude potential viewpoints. We definitely were NOT intending to bag any peaks!!
HOWEVER, during some of our “trail chatter”, we discussed postings on this forum about whacks from this area to remote peaks such as Vose Spur, and Mount Lowell. After hiking about 15 minutes along the Carrigain Notch Trail, we came to a point where others have reported leaving this trail for a bushwhack to Mt. Lowell from the south. So, we thought that we’d just do a little exploratory work for some future attempt at Mt. Lowell.
We headed easterly to get up on the Lowell ridge. Our whack up to the ridge was basically through open woods, and so it went very quickly. Since our whack was going so well, we decided to go just a bit further by changing direction and following a northerly bearing in the direction of Mt. Lowell. Things continued to go well. HOWEVER, we eventually hit thick spruce and other nasty stuff. In hindsight, we should have stopped our exploratory work right then and there!! But, we were being “lulled by Lowell” into a false sense of security.
Neither of us are avid peakbaggers. However, we couldn’t help but notice the GPS reading which showed less than a quarter mile to the summit. Aha! We thought we could probably bag the summit of Lowell well before our turnaround time. Surely we could circumvent or withstand the “spruce-attack”!! Ehhhh! Bzzztt! Wrong!! The battle with the spruce took a lot of precious time. After conquering the false summit, we eventually lugged our spruce-bloodied bodies to the base of the true summit of Lowell.
As we stood at the base of the true summit on its south side, the GPS showed less than 500 feet to go. Now, anyone who has ever been at that particular spot on Mt. Lowell should be able to relate to this. Looking up toward the summit from this vantage point is darn near equivalent to looking up at a very tall skyscraper from street level. And, the spruce was thick as far as we could see!!
We did some rough guesstimates as to how long it might take for this final super-steep whack to the top. Even our shortest guesstimate put us beyond our pre-determined turnaround time for a safe descent back to the trail in daylight. So, in the interest of safety, we opted to forego the final ascent. The words from that famous Kenny Rogers song came to mind: "You got to know when to hold 'em, know when to fold 'em”. (Of course, it might have been nice if those words had come to mind earlier . . . like at the onset of the “spruce-attack”!!)
Anyway, we know we made the right decision. Mt. Lowell will always be there. And, since bagging Lowell was not even our original objective for the day, it was difficult to feel any great disappointment. With lessons learned from our exploratory rampage, we now know what to expect should we opt to approach Mt. Lowell from this same direction on some future adventure. And perhaps most important of all, it was still a great day of fun and frolic in the woods!
Oh! Although we had some views along the way, as stated at the beginning, there are no photos . . . too busy “exploring” to take any!!
1HappyHiker
15-Sep-2008
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