Boil, but not Onion, from the East

[onestep]

At 7:30 AM I met JimC at the Stratton Diner. Our plan for the day was to bushwhack Boil - 3601' & Onion - 3392' from the East. After coffee we headed north on Rt 27 towards Coburn Gore. We turned left onto Alder Stream Rd and 11 miles later parked in an old logging yard 1.36 miles from Boil & 1.1 miles from Onion.
The forecast called for temps in the 50's with showers developing. We where hoping the showers would hold off till after noon but that would not be the case. We started off for Boil at 9 AM, looking to bushwhack what we considered to be the more difficult peak first. Initially we crossed through a cut-over area following old twitch trails without much difficulty. After reaching the uncut woods travel was initially easy. This helped off-set the fact that a cold drizzle had started. By the time we reached the col things where scrappy, and quite often crappy. Add cold showers to the mix and things where getting difficult for me.
We reached the first of two summit bumps at 11:30, cold and wet. No jar in sight so we moved on quickly to the second bump. After a short search we found the jar on the ground embedded into the moss. Next to the jar, allmost completly covered with moss, was a plywood sign "Boil Mtn - 3601" (any idea who might have placed that sign up here?) We rehung the jar and leaned the sign up against the tree.
At this point we made a decision to call it a day and save Onion for later. Under the cold wet circumstances is was the right call.
Our route back was easier than our ascent. We decided to fall off the ridge sooner and cut the corner instead of retracing our steps. It was steeper but the woods where definitely more open.
AT 2PM we where back at the car.

Onestep

 

[dms]

Kurt, from experience I know that bushwacking under those conditions is virtually impossible. Every step is a new spruce bath! And from the col up Onion Hill is total scrap and crap. I remember this pair of hills to be amongst the worse I ever encountered. It's tough enough in dry conditions, in rain it's horrible.

 

[audrey]

Boil, oh boy! Nice to know Alder Stream Rd is passable. We climbed Boil back in 1993 from the SE - we drove up the South Branch of Alder Stream when there was a good road, parked soon after taking a left, then headed NW and found another road that took us across the West Branch on a beautiful beaver dam. We strung a bunch of zigzag logging roads together and found a good herd path to the top.

The trouble started when we tried to retrace our steps. By now there was a steady cold rain and we dropped off the ridge too soon and had a couple of hours of the worst balsam-blowdown travel. We could see our beaver pond now and then, but getting there was a long slog. By the time we got back to the car, we had turned a different color from the wet balsams, and our underwear was permanently stained grey.

Thanks for the memories! Onion Hill is laughing at us.

 

[Gamehiker]

Glad to hear my decision to sit out yesterday was the right one. Its pretty bad when you have already decided not to go and you get up, go look at the weather radar and say "it had better be raining up north". Sorry. Thanks for the info on Alder Stream Road. I always wondered how far in it went from 27.
Gamehiker

 

[dms]

Kurt, the Boil Mountain sign was there in 1988 when I did the peak. Maybe Dennis C. has some info on it.

 

[Papa Bear]

I have a technical question:

What is "scrap" (n.), "scrappy" (a.)?
and what is "crap" (n.), "crappy" (a.)?

And how do these differ?

Thanks

 

[dms]

PB, my advice is to immediately hike into the Boil/Onion col and all definitions will be made perfectly clear! But, I consider thick spruce to be scrap, and thick spruce and blowdown to be crap!

 

[onestep]

Scrap & Crap

I consider thick spruce to be scrap, and thick spruce and blowdown to be crap!

Dennis thats a good explaination!

I consider scrap what I have to push out of my way to make progress. There are several degrees of scrappyness, ie kinda scrappy, sorta scrappy, frikkin' scrappy. Neighbor, Chickety, & I bushwhacked Little Wildcat last spring. The open hardwood forest floor was littered with lots of downed limbs & branches. It was scrappy.

Crappy is a whole other story! Throw blowdowns into scrap and one sure does have crap!, but when scrap becomes so thick you can hardly move... well thats crap too!!

Is this getting any clearer?

Onestep

 

[mhrsebago]

Smart decision to abort because of the lousy conditons. Next hike together we'll have to work out a scoring system for thickness/scappy/crappy!

 

[dms]

Just got a call from Jim C., he did Onion Hill today! No rain! Sounds like coming in from the east is now the way to do these two scrap heaps.

 

[Dennis C.]

Yes, I remember well ... BOIL-ing my ONION with some POTATO NUBBLES in three ROUND pots back in the mid 1980s! "Scrappy crap" .... all the same to me! I don't remember the Boil Mountain sign. It may have been placed there originally by Ray Chaput, an early 80s New England 3000 peak bagger.