buckyball1
New member
Like many of you, I've been chomping at the bit for a week trying to find a decent hiking day (bushwacking in the rain holds little charm for me).
I decided to take a chance and see if I could squeeze one in today before the expected noonish thundershowers-left at 230AM for Jackman area with #6 in mind. I headed in the Spencer Rd off Rt 201 at Lake Parlin which is a bit south of Jackman, The road was in pretty decent shape (actually worst near the start), but 23 miles in gives you too much time to think re everything that can go wrong. I carry 2 spares and a saw, but for me the lonely dirt road drives sometimes seem more difficult than the actual climbing.
A moose decide to "pace" me and ran about 20 yards in front of the car for 0.7 mile before heading into the woods. Also saw a nice fox. I think the "standard" route for #6 (an old fire tower peak, thus the #) used by most 3K hikers these days is up #5 on the "trail", down into the col and up #6 and then grab "Crispo" on the way out. Since I did #5 years ago (looked over and noted, "who would ever climb #6?"
) and have no reason to climb Crispo (however on the hike in,it did look inviting and #6 didn't), so I looked for a different line. I was going to try the peak from the SE off the horseshoe shaped logging road going north off Spencer, but several people felt that it was very cliffy/thick that way-the road in was "rocked" when I passed it and the approach did look ugly. I was lucky on the weather as I got above the ground fog I encountered much of the trip up and on Spencer Rd -- the sun was shining.
I decided to try from the southwest (suggestion by jt/bigMoose-thanks) and continued past #6 on Spencer (about 21 miles from Rt201) and then hooked north and east about 2 miles on some old logging roads. I parked about 2 miles from the peak (huge, deep washout)and was able to walk a road for the first 0.85 miles that ended in a slash area from whence I started up old, overgrown roads for a bit, then into the woods-very wet under foot. I'm not sure there is a "decent" route up #6. Many complain re the 5/6 col, the SE approach looks ugly and my way was no picnic, continually thick and at times almost impassable for short stretches-also a cliff to negotiate/go around. This is where a "group" has all the advantage as they can search out different tracks as they move, but alone, that's not a reasonable option time/effort wise. I'm glad I've done a few of these as it would have been discouraging if you weren't used to the mess. While I had no rain on #6, the woods were very wet from past rain and all the grass/foliage (and shortly me) were also soaked.
There's a great view ledge SE of the summit, but the top itself is in thick stuff. I was "sure" the top was about 100 yards south of where I finally found the jar (those bumps are probably less than 6-8' lower, but "look" right). The register (in a pretty non-obvious, thick spot)is a DC from 88? and while the old pages are almost destroyed, the newer pages show a lack of signins of some I know have climbed (some very recently)--I saw Marc/Albee/Nate/jt/the Paisleys/dms (the older entries are almost illegible, but i could figure out the names) + a few others--I am guessing a fair number of people don't find this jar. Descent was even uglier than the way up-yuck--I was wet and very dirty--was happy to be down and pretty whipped.
Of course with the thunderclouds just forming, I got the bright idea to give Sandy Bay a go--it's north of Jackman on the boundary swath. As I passed north of Jackman, my planned seemed a no-go as buckets of rain hit the area-was short lived and very localized. About 12 miles north of town, just past the Old Kelly Dam Rd, you turn left and use the Farm, River and River #2 roads to reach a sugaring operation northeast of Sandy Bay where I parked (thanks to Nate and Bill Jarvis, a Jackman forester, for help on this). I used old log roads and an easy "whack thru an extensive sugaring operation to hit the border swath and headed south. Route finding was a breeze on this hike and the swath was fairly slash free and walkable, but really really steep (ski slope steep) in spots. Had it been the first hike of the day, I'd see it as a "good workout", but after #6 and racing to beat the now threatening thunderboomers, it was just work. The top was obvious and the jar is located about 10-12' into the woods on the US side. The area is covered with bottles/cans and the last part of the swath is a mess due to a 4 wheeler trail that comes up from the Canadian side about 0.15 from the peak. In the new register were Nate, Marc, Albee, and DR among those I knew. Raced back down as the thunder was now all around me--nothing eventful.
Absolutely poured on way home from south of Jackman to almost Bingham-Spencer Rd was running with water--i was really lucky today.
I checked out Attean from Rt 201-cool peak rearing up from "nowhere" in middle of lots of water. Does anyone have any beta on a way to approach without walking maybe 7.5 miles one way before starting up the "whack? (conservation land, no motorized vehicle issue i think)
jim
I decided to take a chance and see if I could squeeze one in today before the expected noonish thundershowers-left at 230AM for Jackman area with #6 in mind. I headed in the Spencer Rd off Rt 201 at Lake Parlin which is a bit south of Jackman, The road was in pretty decent shape (actually worst near the start), but 23 miles in gives you too much time to think re everything that can go wrong. I carry 2 spares and a saw, but for me the lonely dirt road drives sometimes seem more difficult than the actual climbing.
A moose decide to "pace" me and ran about 20 yards in front of the car for 0.7 mile before heading into the woods. Also saw a nice fox. I think the "standard" route for #6 (an old fire tower peak, thus the #) used by most 3K hikers these days is up #5 on the "trail", down into the col and up #6 and then grab "Crispo" on the way out. Since I did #5 years ago (looked over and noted, "who would ever climb #6?"
) and have no reason to climb Crispo (however on the hike in,it did look inviting and #6 didn't), so I looked for a different line. I was going to try the peak from the SE off the horseshoe shaped logging road going north off Spencer, but several people felt that it was very cliffy/thick that way-the road in was "rocked" when I passed it and the approach did look ugly. I was lucky on the weather as I got above the ground fog I encountered much of the trip up and on Spencer Rd -- the sun was shining.I decided to try from the southwest (suggestion by jt/bigMoose-thanks) and continued past #6 on Spencer (about 21 miles from Rt201) and then hooked north and east about 2 miles on some old logging roads. I parked about 2 miles from the peak (huge, deep washout)and was able to walk a road for the first 0.85 miles that ended in a slash area from whence I started up old, overgrown roads for a bit, then into the woods-very wet under foot. I'm not sure there is a "decent" route up #6. Many complain re the 5/6 col, the SE approach looks ugly and my way was no picnic, continually thick and at times almost impassable for short stretches-also a cliff to negotiate/go around. This is where a "group" has all the advantage as they can search out different tracks as they move, but alone, that's not a reasonable option time/effort wise. I'm glad I've done a few of these as it would have been discouraging if you weren't used to the mess. While I had no rain on #6, the woods were very wet from past rain and all the grass/foliage (and shortly me) were also soaked.
There's a great view ledge SE of the summit, but the top itself is in thick stuff. I was "sure" the top was about 100 yards south of where I finally found the jar (those bumps are probably less than 6-8' lower, but "look" right). The register (in a pretty non-obvious, thick spot)is a DC from 88? and while the old pages are almost destroyed, the newer pages show a lack of signins of some I know have climbed (some very recently)--I saw Marc/Albee/Nate/jt/the Paisleys/dms (the older entries are almost illegible, but i could figure out the names) + a few others--I am guessing a fair number of people don't find this jar. Descent was even uglier than the way up-yuck--I was wet and very dirty--was happy to be down and pretty whipped.
Of course with the thunderclouds just forming, I got the bright idea to give Sandy Bay a go--it's north of Jackman on the boundary swath. As I passed north of Jackman, my planned seemed a no-go as buckets of rain hit the area-was short lived and very localized. About 12 miles north of town, just past the Old Kelly Dam Rd, you turn left and use the Farm, River and River #2 roads to reach a sugaring operation northeast of Sandy Bay where I parked (thanks to Nate and Bill Jarvis, a Jackman forester, for help on this). I used old log roads and an easy "whack thru an extensive sugaring operation to hit the border swath and headed south. Route finding was a breeze on this hike and the swath was fairly slash free and walkable, but really really steep (ski slope steep) in spots. Had it been the first hike of the day, I'd see it as a "good workout", but after #6 and racing to beat the now threatening thunderboomers, it was just work. The top was obvious and the jar is located about 10-12' into the woods on the US side. The area is covered with bottles/cans and the last part of the swath is a mess due to a 4 wheeler trail that comes up from the Canadian side about 0.15 from the peak. In the new register were Nate, Marc, Albee, and DR among those I knew. Raced back down as the thunder was now all around me--nothing eventful.
Absolutely poured on way home from south of Jackman to almost Bingham-Spencer Rd was running with water--i was really lucky today.
I checked out Attean from Rt 201-cool peak rearing up from "nowhere" in middle of lots of water. Does anyone have any beta on a way to approach without walking maybe 7.5 miles one way before starting up the "whack? (conservation land, no motorized vehicle issue i think)
jim
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