Nif
New member
From BF Oct 11th Trip Report.Bob Kittredge said:
I just about died laughing when I read Bob's Trip report. Except that we were a day later and Unfrozen Caveman with us, that fourth paragraph could have been taken for us....except ours was by design for the most part....I will note here that 3 out of 4 of us have rock climbing experience. Dry slab is not unfamiliar territory. It is however not for everyone. (Wet slab we hate)
Darl58, Juniper, UFC and I decided that Sunday would be the perfect day for the Baldfaces. Darl and I had not done it before and it was on our list of things to do. UFC and Juniper had done it before via Bicknell Ridge. As we headed down 113 looking for the trailhead it was a gorgeous day. I commented to Juniper that I couldn't believe there wasn't more traffic, it was mobbed everywhere else. Come to find out they were all already there. The parking lot was full and a tour bus from Montreal was just unloading....more on that later.
We polled a few people at Barnes prior to taking off. They advise to us was look at our map and "follow" the stars (ie the route with all the viewpoints). We all had our maps packed however and decided we weren't going to be bothered to fish them out until we got to the summit. We'd look while we ate our Sandwiches. So we headed off and took the circle trail North to South. That's what we remembered people telling us to do and it would keep us out of the crowds, everyone else was choosing South to North.
"BRING ON THE BALDNESS"
We got about 3/4's of the way up to the junction with the Mt. Meader trail, etc when the whining started to kick in. This is longer than I thought. I'm Tired. Man its hotter than yesterday. Where is the breeze? When is this forest going to end? We were ready for the woods to be over. This was finally capped off by Juniper's exclaiming from behind, "Bring on the Baldness, already"..... and shortly thereafter we emerged from the trees and began to climb into the views. We climbed slowly to North Baldface, taking in the views, snapping pictures, and breaking the next in Darl's string of camera's. Fortunately she had two.
We arrived at North Baldface and I immediately bee-lined for the cutest, fluffy dog hanging out by the sign. The dog's owner looked at us and asked "You came from North and you're going South?" Yes, that was our plan, we replied. "No one goes from North to South". "Are you going over to Eastman?" Eastman? We were going the circle trail. "You should consider Eastman and Slippery Brook, don't go down the slabs, let's just say I four-wheel up the slabs" Hmmmm....so I got out my sandwich and my map.
The Stars Do Not Align
The first obvious thing was that we had missed 4 out of 5 stars. As it turned out the Bicknell trail had the largest population of stars. Oh well. We weren't exactly starved for views. I noted that the contours on the south peak did appear to be a little steeper than those on the north as well. Did people say North to South or South to North? I also located Eastman and the Slippery Brook Trail. Rebecca and UFC had done this before though, no worries they said.
Departing for Points South
As we headed off North Baldface, we met a group of the Canadians. "Practicing your footing for the sketchy decent off the Southside one asked" I start envisioning what slab I would need to crab-crawl up would look like and starting conjuring up images of what lie ahead.... Worst case scenario however, there was a bail available should the need arise. Slippery Brook would save me.
Absolutely Slab-ulous
The views continued and did not disappoint. We had a fairly easy cross to South compared with the ascent after we emerged from the trees to the North Summit. It went by whine-free. We lounged there for a while until the sun when behind a little haze. From the peak the decent did not look too imposing. I could see Eastman, but we were going down the slabs. We decended and crossed the flat section. As the slabs approached it became obvious I was not about to down climb slidingboard or anything similar. It was a slab to ledge, slab to ledge and perfectly within our capabilities, especially given the dry conditions.
We Meet Again
As we were coming out in reverse the sign-in sheet at the South Junction was our sign-out sheet. We took this opportunity to count the number and 95 and 1 dog had registered for the day. We however saw at least 5 dogs, so this was not exact, but probably close.
When we passed between the peaks we encountered several groups from the tour bus, but one guy in particular had a cool T-Shirt that perplexed us. It became a topic of conversation as we went along and tried to decipher it. As we emerged from the woods we noted it was "him again". So we asked what it meant. He could not tell us either, but he thought it was cool too. The T-Shirt was from Iceland and he was from Belguim, he couldn't read it either. We spent a little time talking to the four of them. Turns out they were quite cool. Up for the long week-end and headed for Jefferson the next day. They visit VFTT and have done a fair amount of hiking. Maybe soon they will be some of our newest members.
Given dry condition I believe I would choose North to South again via the ledges (Bicknell perhaps?). Its more knee friendly I believe. Given wet conditions I think I would try to figure out exactly how slippery, slippery brook is, or go South to North. If you don't like slab, you will find it easier to ascend, absolutely go South to North.
Pictures Shortly, as soon as I get to a high speed wireless connection....
http://outdoors.webshots.com/album/567976007GbvuWs
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