buddy
Member
This was a special year for my friends and I. My friend Pat has been winter camping for 30 consecutive years, while my friends Eric and Kim and myself have been going 25 yrs., but we missed one or two due to the births of our children.
We've gone to both the Whites and the Adirondacks and I will say without question that the Dix wilderness is our favorite destination. We've done Dix from every direction, approaching up the Boquet valley being our favorite route, but this year decided to approach East Dix and Wyman from route 73 up the Boquet South Fork to the watershed that leads up to Lindsay Brook,then to the coll between East Dix and Wyman. This is truly a beautiful area with very open woods, lots of little knolls with views of the E. Dix Spotted Mtn. ridge and views of the Champlain valley.
I left my house in W. MA at 4:30 AM on Fri. 25th and headed up to the Davis Hotel in Schroon Lake to meet my friends there who went up the night before. After some silly banter we headed to where the S. Fork of the Boquet passes under Rt. 73. We were packed up and heading in by 10 AM. There's a short road that goes in along the river to a camp site about 50 yrds. in. We followed that to it's end then humped NW up a very steep hillside about 100 vert. feet to flat open woods that followed along the S. Fork watershed to the SE. After passing some really cool terraced beaver flows we hooked back up with the S. Fork and hiked the river to the place where it takes a sharp turn to the NW. We found a beautiful campsite on a low knoll there that looks like it's been used for many generations. We camped under towering hemlocks on extremely flat ground. It had views over the wet area below us and easy access to a knoll (to the SE of where the river turns NW) above us with open views to the SW and NE. We set up camp at about 1:30 PM, then headed up the knoll for some walking without packs. Came back to camp shortly after dark had dinner and hit the sack. There was not a breath of air so despite the 2 degree temps. Pat and I decided to sleep in the open. Kim questioned our sanity then retired to the tent.
Up at 6:30 the nexted morning and after some awful singing ,dancing around and general harrassment managed to rouse the others by 7:00. Breakfast, melting snow for days water and other necessary routines we left camp at 10:00 AM for our days excursion. We beat a trail through ideal snow shoe cond. up to the Lindsay brook watershed to help us on our next days approach to Wyman or E. Dix. After we reached Lindsay brook we went up and over the two Knobs to the NE of Wyman. Beautiful climbing up open slab and snow ramps around ledges to nice snowy views of E.Dix Spotted ridge, then plunging down through open beech,birch forest in deep fluffy snow. That is why we snowshoe, pure simple heaven! We whacked around some smaller water sheds then headed back to camp, arrived around 2:30 PM. We lounged around, ate a little, then bush whacked over to Lilly Pad pond to see if there were any other winter lovers there. We arrived at dark and found no company. We ate a little, watched the stars come out then headed back. Pat hiked back using the light of the winter Mikyway, the moon hadn't risen yet, while the rest of us used lights and speculated whether Pat would have sticks sticking out of both eyes or just one. We found Pat in a clearing near camp and after being chewed out for ruining his night vision with our lights we were sure he made it intact. Headed back to camp ate, went to bed. The next morning repeated the same routine as before and we left camp at 10:00 AM. We headed up to Lindsay brook and up the watershed between Wyman and E. Dix towards the call. It was beautiful open woods with alot of old growth blow down that was easy to navigate around. With the sun blazing and the wind occasionally howling we reached a abandoned camp just north of the call around 1:00 PM. It was your typical sticks and plastic affair lined with alum. offset printing sheets dated 1978. We picked through the lawn chairs lantern and other debris and contemplated when the last it was occupied. 2:00 PM we cont. on. Pat started leading, and he can"t help himself but to favor up hill, which at that point in time headed us up E. Dix. Once we realized we were committed to to E. Dix it was to late to change and consider Wyman, so we cont. on what we new was an undesirable route up E.Dix but local topography dictated we continue on or head back to camp. It was 2:30 by then so we continued on. After an hour and a half of hellish climbing over spruce traps ,that I hate to contemplate how deep, and using language that Darren would surely delete, and traversing some open slopes that we had no bussiness being on(I know nothing of assessing avalanche danger) we finally summited at 4:00 PM. We took in the awesome views, contemplated who was there shortly before us, blew deceased loved ones ashes to the wind and thanked mother earth for our day. We contemplated hiking the ridge back to camp, then regained our sanity, and headed back down our trail. We reached the easy trucking by dusk, and hiked in the purple winter light till dark. We dragged into camp at 6:30. Ate, staggered around bleary eyed, went to bed. Up the next morning at 6:30 and let my tent mates sleep while I hiked up the local Knob, said my good byes, headed back to camp as the others were rising, Packed up and had an easy hike out. We even beat the Nor'easter.
To bad our tracks are covered by this recent storm, denying others easy access to a beautiful area, but that is after all the true beauty of the winter experience. Leave no trace behind. Buddy
We've gone to both the Whites and the Adirondacks and I will say without question that the Dix wilderness is our favorite destination. We've done Dix from every direction, approaching up the Boquet valley being our favorite route, but this year decided to approach East Dix and Wyman from route 73 up the Boquet South Fork to the watershed that leads up to Lindsay Brook,then to the coll between East Dix and Wyman. This is truly a beautiful area with very open woods, lots of little knolls with views of the E. Dix Spotted Mtn. ridge and views of the Champlain valley.
I left my house in W. MA at 4:30 AM on Fri. 25th and headed up to the Davis Hotel in Schroon Lake to meet my friends there who went up the night before. After some silly banter we headed to where the S. Fork of the Boquet passes under Rt. 73. We were packed up and heading in by 10 AM. There's a short road that goes in along the river to a camp site about 50 yrds. in. We followed that to it's end then humped NW up a very steep hillside about 100 vert. feet to flat open woods that followed along the S. Fork watershed to the SE. After passing some really cool terraced beaver flows we hooked back up with the S. Fork and hiked the river to the place where it takes a sharp turn to the NW. We found a beautiful campsite on a low knoll there that looks like it's been used for many generations. We camped under towering hemlocks on extremely flat ground. It had views over the wet area below us and easy access to a knoll (to the SE of where the river turns NW) above us with open views to the SW and NE. We set up camp at about 1:30 PM, then headed up the knoll for some walking without packs. Came back to camp shortly after dark had dinner and hit the sack. There was not a breath of air so despite the 2 degree temps. Pat and I decided to sleep in the open. Kim questioned our sanity then retired to the tent.
Up at 6:30 the nexted morning and after some awful singing ,dancing around and general harrassment managed to rouse the others by 7:00. Breakfast, melting snow for days water and other necessary routines we left camp at 10:00 AM for our days excursion. We beat a trail through ideal snow shoe cond. up to the Lindsay brook watershed to help us on our next days approach to Wyman or E. Dix. After we reached Lindsay brook we went up and over the two Knobs to the NE of Wyman. Beautiful climbing up open slab and snow ramps around ledges to nice snowy views of E.Dix Spotted ridge, then plunging down through open beech,birch forest in deep fluffy snow. That is why we snowshoe, pure simple heaven! We whacked around some smaller water sheds then headed back to camp, arrived around 2:30 PM. We lounged around, ate a little, then bush whacked over to Lilly Pad pond to see if there were any other winter lovers there. We arrived at dark and found no company. We ate a little, watched the stars come out then headed back. Pat hiked back using the light of the winter Mikyway, the moon hadn't risen yet, while the rest of us used lights and speculated whether Pat would have sticks sticking out of both eyes or just one. We found Pat in a clearing near camp and after being chewed out for ruining his night vision with our lights we were sure he made it intact. Headed back to camp ate, went to bed. The next morning repeated the same routine as before and we left camp at 10:00 AM. We headed up to Lindsay brook and up the watershed between Wyman and E. Dix towards the call. It was beautiful open woods with alot of old growth blow down that was easy to navigate around. With the sun blazing and the wind occasionally howling we reached a abandoned camp just north of the call around 1:00 PM. It was your typical sticks and plastic affair lined with alum. offset printing sheets dated 1978. We picked through the lawn chairs lantern and other debris and contemplated when the last it was occupied. 2:00 PM we cont. on. Pat started leading, and he can"t help himself but to favor up hill, which at that point in time headed us up E. Dix. Once we realized we were committed to to E. Dix it was to late to change and consider Wyman, so we cont. on what we new was an undesirable route up E.Dix but local topography dictated we continue on or head back to camp. It was 2:30 by then so we continued on. After an hour and a half of hellish climbing over spruce traps ,that I hate to contemplate how deep, and using language that Darren would surely delete, and traversing some open slopes that we had no bussiness being on(I know nothing of assessing avalanche danger) we finally summited at 4:00 PM. We took in the awesome views, contemplated who was there shortly before us, blew deceased loved ones ashes to the wind and thanked mother earth for our day. We contemplated hiking the ridge back to camp, then regained our sanity, and headed back down our trail. We reached the easy trucking by dusk, and hiked in the purple winter light till dark. We dragged into camp at 6:30. Ate, staggered around bleary eyed, went to bed. Up the next morning at 6:30 and let my tent mates sleep while I hiked up the local Knob, said my good byes, headed back to camp as the others were rising, Packed up and had an easy hike out. We even beat the Nor'easter.
To bad our tracks are covered by this recent storm, denying others easy access to a beautiful area, but that is after all the true beauty of the winter experience. Leave no trace behind. Buddy
