8 Hour Bushwhack+5 Hour Hike

[HAMTERO]

Try again?

That's one of the best TRs I have read! Want to try it in winter? Suebiscuit and I did it as a backpack last winter but couldn't find the canister so I have to go back. We BW Carrigan the next day. I was toast.

 

[RoySwkr]

Quite an adventure, guys!

I have to admit, I've never bushwhacked with headlamps.

Coming back from Barren, we bushwhacked for an hour after dark without headlamps, basically just swimming thru scrub. You didn't need light as you couldn't see your feet anyway, and if you tripped on something you couldn't fall over if you tried.

 

[OCgirl]

Cath - Thanks for sharing

Back in Oct 1994, a fellow Whackin enthusiast & I decided it was time to visit the Captain. We had heard many stories about the protected summit of this remote jewel, but with most of the foliage off the trees, we decided to give it a try.

We also had a very similar after dark bushwhack experience over in the other side of the neighborhood earlier that month, in the Whiteface Brook area. There are tons of old logging roads in that terrain, which can be very interesting to follow.

Wackin Fun indeed! Thanks for sharing your 1994 trip report(s) it brought back some great memories! It's amazing how something so horrendous at the time is reflected on so fondly, and remembered as a lot of fun usually only just a few minutes after fnally getting back to the trailhead. Ahh, the power of the White Mountains and good companionship is hard to beat no matter how hard it is to crawl through scrub and injure oneself in attempts to find a cannister.

 

[John H Swanson]

Good Times on Bad Terrain

Sounds like quite an epic.

In July of 92, I naively chose the same route to climb the Captain. It was like deja vu, all over agian (to stretch the pun)

I found the water course very interesting and followed it up to nearly the col. Good views and some nice open rock. Then the route up the west side of the Captain was as bad as any bushwhack. I remember slipping and falling only to be caught, and suspended by, the 4mm climbing utility cord used to secure my compass around my neck. I thought to myself, this is a fine mess to get myself in, alone.

At that time there was already 3 canisters - probably the same 3 Cath found years later.

When I finsihed my winter NH100 highest on the same mtn with a group of friends, someone asked about traversing the top and descending the west side. I informed them that they were welcome to do it, but if they do, I would turn around and go out on our tracks because of my memory of how bad that route was.

JHS.

 

[jjo]

Interesting Trip! I've never bushwacked w headlights...Admire your effort. Great report and you lived to tell about it...You are braver than I..

 

[Dr. Dasypodidae]

I was with JHS on his described winter trip to the Captain, which we found to be pretty casual, at least compared to some of the drama described above. We approached from the Kanc, crossed the east basin to its north side, and found the only real difficulty to be the steeper terrain as we topped out onto the ridge just north of the Captain. The last 100 meters or so back south to the cannisters was pretty thick requiring the usual bulldozer bushwhack technique. On the way down, we glissaded the primary stream gully in the basin, which saved a lot of time. I think that this is one whack that just could be easier in winter than it is in non-winter conditions?

 

[Hillwalker]

More description

I was with JHS on his described winter trip to the Captain, which we found to be pretty casual, at least compared to some of the drama described above. We approached from the Kanc, crossed the east basin to its north side, and found the only real difficulty to be the steeper terrain as we topped out onto the ridge just north of the Captain. The last 100 meters or so back south to the cannisters was pretty thick requiring the usual bulldozer bushwhack technique. On the way down, we glissaded the primary stream gully in the basin, which saved a lot of time. I think that this is one whack that just could be easier in winter than it is in non-winter conditions?

I'm a bit unclear on just what your route was. Did you follow Sawyer Run trail in from the Kanc? If so that is the way I first did this whack back in 92. I think I did it that way because the Sawyer River road was still washed out, but maybe just cause I like that particular trail. Your description of the way out sounds more like you went out Carrigain Branch. An easier way in is always an objective at my age (HW, formerly Dalraida on this site)

 

[Dr. Dasypodidae]

I'm a bit unclear on just what your route was. Did you follow Sawyer Run trail in from the Kanc? If so that is the way I first did this whack back in 92. I think I did it that way because the Sawyer River road was still washed out, but maybe just cause I like that particular trail. Your description of the way out sounds more like you went out Carrigain Branch. An easier way in is always an objective at my age (HW, formerly Dalraida on this site)

Good question Hillwalker, as I should have been a bit more specific. We approached from the Kanc on the Sawyer Run Trail, if that is the name, after fording the river because we were all on showshoes as opposed to x-c skis, and I think that the approach from the Kanc is also a bit shorter. As noted in my earlier post, our trip was pretty uneventful except for the thrash near the top. I believe that Cath, who posts once in a while on VFFT, made the same round trip that we did a couple of weeks earlier on hardpack snow in less than 4 hours.