Bushwhacks in Acadia

[jreckard]

After a great first-time Acadia bushwhack last year - McFarland Mountain northeast of Eagle Lake - I climbed Youngs Mountain, its northern neighbor this year. Both times with our 60-pound Britanny/EnglishSetter mix - on a leash! (more below)

(Wish I knew how to include photos inline rather than as a link.)
Photo shows Youngs Mt over the northern Breakneck Pond, where we started. A 680' summit (yes, above sea level) doesn't make for a very impressive shot! The roughest part was probably crashing through the first couple hundred vertical feet. Then some fun connecting one "clearing" with another until I found surprisingly open views at and near the top, which I decided was a nondescript boulder.

Photo shows a typical view from an Acadian summit, but Youngs' viewpoint is distinct, I guess, by being maybe the northernmost in the Park.

* If you've done whacking like this, you may know about the difficulty in route finding while avoiding treading on fragile flora. The moss/lichen that covered most of the "clearings" in the woods were lush, and several inches thick. I rock-hopped as much as I could, but my goal of reaching the top took precedence over more conservative concerns. Selfish I suppose, and/or lazy.
* Surprised two grouse near the top.
* Earlier the same day, we also surprised a good-sized deer while doing a much easier whack up Great Hill, a couple miles away.
* McFarland Mountain, last year's "whack", isn't much of one if you approach from the south. I didn't know this until, after crashing west from Breakneck Ponds, I found the very-slightly-cairned and ancient? way south to a road off of 233.
* Yes, all the whacks mentioned here were done with Buddy on a retractable leash. This energetic rescue would run and not stop if we unleashed him. Makes whacking a bit more challenging! "Nope, back up. Nope, other way. Nope, sit, stay. OK, go. Wait. Nope, back up." etc. All in all, though, a dog seems to be able to pick out a decent way through the woods ... if you're 30" tall and have four-on-the-floor.

 

[DougPaul]

(Wish I knew how to include photos inline rather than as a link.)

See http://www.vftt.org/forums/misc.php?do=bbcode

Doug

 

[BlackSpruce]

I]* If you've done whacking like this, you may know about the difficulty in route finding while avoiding treading on fragile flora. The moss/lichen that covered most of the "clearings" in the woods were lush, and several inches thick. I rock-hopped as much as I could, but my goal of reaching the top took precedence over more conservative concerns. Selfish I suppose, and/or lazy.[/[/I]"

 

[jreckard]

Re: replies

Thanks, Doug, for the link to BB code tags.
BlackSpruce, if you had a comment, it was perhaps too subtle for me.

 

[BlackSpruce]

By chance I was climbing in Acadia National Park for a few days of last week and it stroke me as a place where one should stay on the trails as much as possible it's not only an extremely fragile environment but exceptionally busy, I was told the mountains get over a million visitors every summer and while it was slow going on the trails due to the incredible traffic I did not have the heart to go into the woods as it’s easy to understand why there are signs all over asking climbers TO STAY ON THE TRAILS!

 

[psmart]

I believe that off-trail hiking is allowed in Acadia, except where specifically posted, such as revegetation areas. Of course, LNT practices dictate that we should stick to the trail as much as possible, especially in high-use areas where others are likely to follow our footsteps. However, there are also a number of low-use areas where careful off-trail travel doesn't have these problems.

 

[jreckard]

Ethical bushwhacking?

Caveat #1: this will probably sound self-defensive, but I honestly want to know differing viewpoints
Caveat #2: this discussion has probably happened (and may belong) elsewhere
So, should bushwhacking be illegal? Should trail-less peaks - in Acadia or anywhere - remain not only trail-less, but unvisited?
In the Presidentials and other areas, it's pretty easy to stay on trail and avoid sensitive areas, because trails are practically everywhere. But what if there are <b>no</b> trails?
If some park ranger had been in the area (also off-trail) and caught me on this trail-less mountain, should I have been fined? or just lectured to? or what?
Is "ethical bushwhacking" an oxymoron when the options are step on moss or stay off the mountain?
On a site like vftt, I wouldn't be surprised if someone said "if you had swung around to the north side of Youngs Mt, you would have found flags marking a clear bare-rock track to the top". (And then someone could ask how that track got there.)
The environment at the top of Youngs Mt seemed to be either dense stands of spruce/hemlock/birch or pockets of "open" areas with (I'm not a botanist) lush carpets of moss with only isolated patches of bare or lichen-covered ledge. A path <b>could</b> be cut up there, connecting these open pockets, with a judicious use of a shovel, cutting a footway through the moss to ledge. This is exactly how trails look in that environment - either deliberately cut or worn by many feet.
Jon
PS Re: over a million visitors. True. And during my "1000-footer" hike, I met a "ridge runner" whose job was to count visitors at three different sites in the park - Dorr, South Bubble and Acadia - during a specific three-hour period. Nice work if you can get it! (Oh, and he also was doing nice public service things, like reminding people to stay on trail!)