docross
In Memoriam to a Deceased Member
Self and Annie led AMC hike up the Fool Killer today. 10 of us altogether. Since the 1st crossing was do-able but not ideal, and we had had a report of open woods on the ridge, we opted for the ridge bushwhack. Started at 8:15.
Followed a bearing of 255 degrees up to nearly 3000 feet and summit of "Northeast Foolkiller", then followed the ridge around over the first bump at 3450 to the true summit at 3545 or so. The ridge was indeed pretty open; while we had our share of thick stuff and blowdowns and steep slopes, it was better than we had any right to expect.
We traversed the entire FK ridge, and no canisters were to be seen. (There apparently was a thread on VFTT that stated they had been removed by the Forest Service). Anyway, we definitely bagged the peak.
Descended (?fell) on a 234 deg bearing down a precipitous slope to the trail below the last crossing. Time was pressing. We left the summit at about 2:30, and we knew that we had those lower crossings to do after about a 3.5 mile hike. As it was we did pretty well, coming out at about 5:30.
In retrospect, we think going up the trail to the 7th crossing then straight up the steep slope would probably not have saved time, and we would have had the potential for wet feet early in the hike on the crossings. The sun was warm and the light breeze allowed us to stay layered down for the whole hike.
A big contrast to last week, when we had to abort a Huntington BW because of heavy snow (see report).
I will post a GPSr track of our route on my website.
Followed a bearing of 255 degrees up to nearly 3000 feet and summit of "Northeast Foolkiller", then followed the ridge around over the first bump at 3450 to the true summit at 3545 or so. The ridge was indeed pretty open; while we had our share of thick stuff and blowdowns and steep slopes, it was better than we had any right to expect.
We traversed the entire FK ridge, and no canisters were to be seen. (There apparently was a thread on VFTT that stated they had been removed by the Forest Service). Anyway, we definitely bagged the peak.
Descended (?fell) on a 234 deg bearing down a precipitous slope to the trail below the last crossing. Time was pressing. We left the summit at about 2:30, and we knew that we had those lower crossings to do after about a 3.5 mile hike. As it was we did pretty well, coming out at about 5:30.
In retrospect, we think going up the trail to the 7th crossing then straight up the steep slope would probably not have saved time, and we would have had the potential for wet feet early in the hike on the crossings. The sun was warm and the light breeze allowed us to stay layered down for the whole hike.
A big contrast to last week, when we had to abort a Huntington BW because of heavy snow (see report).
I will post a GPSr track of our route on my website.
