ebbinghaus
Member
Some hikes blend into others so seamlessly it is hard to remember which is what. The bushwhack up Nippletop will not be one of those. It will persist in memory as long as memory persists.
4:00 am: Meet the gang at Exit 9 Park & Ride. Ansel volunteers to drive. As gas prices have doubled in the last 3 summers someone proposes, and we all agree, to double our gas contribution to the driver from $5 to $10 pp.
5:30 am: We arrive at the parking lot off of 73, closest to the Ausable Club. There we meet Dave from Binghamton.
5:50 am: Start walking. Crisp morning. Long sleeves and vests are out for the first time since the spring. The sun is not quite up, but it is bright enough so we do not need headlamps, though dark enough that we think about needing headlamps in the weeks to come.
We tear up River Road. Five strong hikers. Five veterans of the ADKs and many other mountains. Reaching the turn off to Indian Head, Wonder Woman (WW) proposes that we turn off and have a look. Turns out that three of us have never paused to gander. As we all expect the day to be a short one, we decide to go and look.
8:00 am: On top of Indian Head -- gazing out over Lower Ausable. The sun is streaking the head of Indian Head, but the mountain canyons that surround the lake are still dark though the lake is reflecting the brightness of the sky above. In the distance we can see the fog catching the sun as it rises from Upper Ausable. Beautiful!
8:50 am: At the intersection of Colvin with Ellk Pass trail.
10:05 am: at the bottom of the slide. We did well in going down the river from the bottom of Elk Pass. We were lucky in that the day was dry and the week had been dry. Being Sept the river/creek was low and easy to walk in.
Two of us had climbed the slide to NT at least twice before. But all of us were glad to find the bottom of the slide. It seemed pretty obvious, but more overgrown than any of us had remembered.
Up the slide. Skirting the first cliff by climbing to the right thru the forest. Then back up. Great photos of Allen!! Wow. A very nice mountain from this direction!! Hey, what is that?? Blake really looks like a peak from here, not just a lumpy knob along a ridge line. Glorious day! Wow.
We do the logical. Climbing up the slide along the path of least resistance. Filled with the glory of the day. Not paying much attention to our path as, heck, its pretty obvious isn't it??
At some point the path of least resistance takes us towards the left. Later some of us will remember this point. The way to the right looked overgrown and unfriendly, but the path left led up and we followed.
Hmmm, the slide becomes a creek bed. The creek bed ends ? ? ? !!!
How far have we come? Where did the slide go? How could we have lost the slide up Nippletop halfway up? Makes no sense. Perhaps memory has failed and we need to go left or is it right or maybe up a little farther. Five hikers skilled in the ways of map and compass. But not knowing where we are and making a few false assumptions (as we would find out) about how the slide went, well -- guess what?? Time to BUSHWHACK NIPPLETOP!!
Well -- as bushwhacks go this one was not too bad. It was, however, unexpected. It also had a subtext - FIND THE SLIDE -- HOW COULD WE HAVE LOST THE SLIDE??!!
So we ended up doing more traversing than we would have or should have if this were a straight bushwhack up NT.
We also had to deal with gear inertia. Yours truly took at least an hour of bushwhacking before he stopped and put on his long sleeved shirt so as to shield his now bloody arms from the ravages of the wicked spruce!! (To my credit I ate as much spruce as I could --- um, um good, my favorite vegetable -- but way too much to eat to chop my way thru!)
Took another half hour before I took my poles out of the back of my pack where they were catching and being caught by every spruce in the forest. T'was easier to drag them along than carry them! (Have any of you tried out those compact poles? The ones that compress to 24"?)
This was a full-bodied workout! Who needs a g*& d*^n#d gym when ya got bushwhacking up NT to keep you stretched and supple!!??
12:55 Made it to the top of NT. Almost 3 hours!!! I am sure we frightened to near death the nice lady and her 13 (?) yr old daughter who were there before us. Five crazed spruce covered dazed and confused hikers who babbled about slides, bushwhacks, and Nippletop. Oh well. They seemed to be doing better than we were.
13:20 Leave NT. Stayed on top a full 25 min. Ate lunch. WW ran into some old friends -- maybe even crazier than we were though not as scary!!
The trip from NT to Dial is really a walk in the woods. Wow. Nice.
14:20 Dial summit. Hang out here a long time. WW, Ansel, BD, and I sitting around gazing at the gorgeous scenary. Eventually it became clear that two of us were waiting for the Wandering Roman to come by. Apparently they missed the long conversation between WR and WW about 20 min earlier (spacey? us? why would you think that? must be something in those spruce!! Hmm, if I were 30 years younger I might try to put some ADK spruce in my pipe and smoke it.)
15:10 Bear Den
15:40 Noonmark Shoulder. Wow!! I thought that trail looked different. Ansel says it is a new trail. Hah! Tricky Rangers. Actually it is a very nice trail.
We make good time. Beautiful trail going down to the River Road. My first time going this way.
17:00 (or maybe a bit earlier -- I forgot to write the times down ) back to car.
Wow!! What a day. I wonder if this is how Colvin and Blake got started? Don't know bout that, but do not that if we had to bushwhack all of the 46 there would be a heck of a lot fewer 46ers!
Wonderous day!! We were worried about finishing early. Must have all been a subconscious urge to stay out in the woods as long as possible.
4:00 am: Meet the gang at Exit 9 Park & Ride. Ansel volunteers to drive. As gas prices have doubled in the last 3 summers someone proposes, and we all agree, to double our gas contribution to the driver from $5 to $10 pp.
5:30 am: We arrive at the parking lot off of 73, closest to the Ausable Club. There we meet Dave from Binghamton.
5:50 am: Start walking. Crisp morning. Long sleeves and vests are out for the first time since the spring. The sun is not quite up, but it is bright enough so we do not need headlamps, though dark enough that we think about needing headlamps in the weeks to come.
We tear up River Road. Five strong hikers. Five veterans of the ADKs and many other mountains. Reaching the turn off to Indian Head, Wonder Woman (WW) proposes that we turn off and have a look. Turns out that three of us have never paused to gander. As we all expect the day to be a short one, we decide to go and look.
8:00 am: On top of Indian Head -- gazing out over Lower Ausable. The sun is streaking the head of Indian Head, but the mountain canyons that surround the lake are still dark though the lake is reflecting the brightness of the sky above. In the distance we can see the fog catching the sun as it rises from Upper Ausable. Beautiful!
8:50 am: At the intersection of Colvin with Ellk Pass trail.
10:05 am: at the bottom of the slide. We did well in going down the river from the bottom of Elk Pass. We were lucky in that the day was dry and the week had been dry. Being Sept the river/creek was low and easy to walk in.
Two of us had climbed the slide to NT at least twice before. But all of us were glad to find the bottom of the slide. It seemed pretty obvious, but more overgrown than any of us had remembered.
Up the slide. Skirting the first cliff by climbing to the right thru the forest. Then back up. Great photos of Allen!! Wow. A very nice mountain from this direction!! Hey, what is that?? Blake really looks like a peak from here, not just a lumpy knob along a ridge line. Glorious day! Wow.
We do the logical. Climbing up the slide along the path of least resistance. Filled with the glory of the day. Not paying much attention to our path as, heck, its pretty obvious isn't it??
At some point the path of least resistance takes us towards the left. Later some of us will remember this point. The way to the right looked overgrown and unfriendly, but the path left led up and we followed.
Hmmm, the slide becomes a creek bed. The creek bed ends ? ? ? !!!
How far have we come? Where did the slide go? How could we have lost the slide up Nippletop halfway up? Makes no sense. Perhaps memory has failed and we need to go left or is it right or maybe up a little farther. Five hikers skilled in the ways of map and compass. But not knowing where we are and making a few false assumptions (as we would find out) about how the slide went, well -- guess what?? Time to BUSHWHACK NIPPLETOP!!
Well -- as bushwhacks go this one was not too bad. It was, however, unexpected. It also had a subtext - FIND THE SLIDE -- HOW COULD WE HAVE LOST THE SLIDE??!!
So we ended up doing more traversing than we would have or should have if this were a straight bushwhack up NT.
We also had to deal with gear inertia. Yours truly took at least an hour of bushwhacking before he stopped and put on his long sleeved shirt so as to shield his now bloody arms from the ravages of the wicked spruce!! (To my credit I ate as much spruce as I could --- um, um good, my favorite vegetable -- but way too much to eat to chop my way thru!)
Took another half hour before I took my poles out of the back of my pack where they were catching and being caught by every spruce in the forest. T'was easier to drag them along than carry them! (Have any of you tried out those compact poles? The ones that compress to 24"?)
This was a full-bodied workout! Who needs a g*& d*^n#d gym when ya got bushwhacking up NT to keep you stretched and supple!!??
12:55 Made it to the top of NT. Almost 3 hours!!! I am sure we frightened to near death the nice lady and her 13 (?) yr old daughter who were there before us. Five crazed spruce covered dazed and confused hikers who babbled about slides, bushwhacks, and Nippletop. Oh well. They seemed to be doing better than we were.
13:20 Leave NT. Stayed on top a full 25 min. Ate lunch. WW ran into some old friends -- maybe even crazier than we were though not as scary!!
The trip from NT to Dial is really a walk in the woods. Wow. Nice.
14:20 Dial summit. Hang out here a long time. WW, Ansel, BD, and I sitting around gazing at the gorgeous scenary. Eventually it became clear that two of us were waiting for the Wandering Roman to come by. Apparently they missed the long conversation between WR and WW about 20 min earlier (spacey? us? why would you think that? must be something in those spruce!! Hmm, if I were 30 years younger I might try to put some ADK spruce in my pipe and smoke it.)
15:10 Bear Den
15:40 Noonmark Shoulder. Wow!! I thought that trail looked different. Ansel says it is a new trail. Hah! Tricky Rangers. Actually it is a very nice trail.
We make good time. Beautiful trail going down to the River Road. My first time going this way.
17:00 (or maybe a bit earlier -- I forgot to write the times down
) back to car.Wow!! What a day. I wonder if this is how Colvin and Blake got started? Don't know bout that, but do not that if we had to bushwhack all of the 46 there would be a heck of a lot fewer 46ers!
Wonderous day!! We were worried about finishing early. Must have all been a subconscious urge to stay out in the woods as long as possible.
