Neil
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- Apr 26, 2004
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Not as in Calamity Jane.
As in Calamity and Adams Mtns.
Tom H. and I started up the Calamity Brook trail at 7:40 this morning and had nearly 3 miles of warming up behind us when we turned our snowshoes southwards up towards Calamity. We roughly followed S and B's descent route and it was cake. Open woods most of the way with nice views back to the Mac Range and Colden. Near the top we stuck close to the drainage which, lower down, was full of blowdown. Near the top we crossed some blowdown fields which were buried under well consolidated snow. We agreed that neither of us would want to cross those fields in summer. We explored three summits, one of which had a sign. We were only about 600 meters from the trail and to turn around and follow our tracks back, head down the trail , drive over to the Allen parking lot and follow ANOTHER trail up to Adams seemed too anticlimatic. By pure fluke, Tom had a nice map of the route to Adams from Calamity all printed up and I had Adams waypointed into my gps so what the hell, it was only a mile and a half or something - who could pass up a shortcut like that.
A GOTO to Adams pointed the way and we began our steep descent. Within 10 minutes we hit a cliff band and climbed back up and headed east only to realize we were heading towards more very steep terrain. The map showed us that we should head west and indeed this proved to be the best route. (ie. 100-200 yds west of a bearing line from Calamity to Adams.) Still, the descent was pretty steep and tiring. The terrain alternated back and forth from tough to easy with no middle ground. Not tough due to thick growth but due to steep slopes. At one point a branch poked me real good right in the eye and I watched as my contact lens rolled off my cheek and fluttered to the snow and rolled downhill coming to a stop against a rock. Very carefully I managed to pick it up out of the snow and put it back in which was a new cold sensation . My cornea is killing me as I write this though. It feels like the stick is still in there.
It seemed to take forever to reach flat ground between the 2 mountains and from the col we got a view of blowdown city on Adams' lower reaches. There is some serious blowdown in there but we skirted the worst of it before zigzagging our way up. The route up was never very difficult, there was almost always a "seam" to follow through the thick stuff. Occasionally, we had the luxury of blowdown fields but these were always short lived. Maybe that's because we moved much more quickly through them. The fire tower kept mocking us from its perch on high. The last 3 or 400 feet of height gain was pretty tough due to the accumulated fatigue and the steepening pitch. We kept winding our way along like laboratory rats but as we neared the top our progress slowed way down. My neck was getting sore from looking for the tower when Tom said he could see the "effing tower" 4 hours after leaving Calamity. What a great shortcut! The hike was over now but unbeknownst to me there was more to come. Crossing Lake Jimmy I eschewed the planking and walked on the ice, so did Tom. At one point Tom's snowshoe broke right through the ice so he got back up on the planking. Just as I was telling him he should go on a diet I broke right through the ice and found myself lying flat with my entire left leg submerged. With Tom's help I was soon standing on the planking as the freezing cold water drained into my boot. We hiked from there back to the car and checked the time. 9 hours total.
As in Calamity and Adams Mtns.
Tom H. and I started up the Calamity Brook trail at 7:40 this morning and had nearly 3 miles of warming up behind us when we turned our snowshoes southwards up towards Calamity. We roughly followed S and B's descent route and it was cake. Open woods most of the way with nice views back to the Mac Range and Colden. Near the top we stuck close to the drainage which, lower down, was full of blowdown. Near the top we crossed some blowdown fields which were buried under well consolidated snow. We agreed that neither of us would want to cross those fields in summer. We explored three summits, one of which had a sign. We were only about 600 meters from the trail and to turn around and follow our tracks back, head down the trail , drive over to the Allen parking lot and follow ANOTHER trail up to Adams seemed too anticlimatic. By pure fluke, Tom had a nice map of the route to Adams from Calamity all printed up and I had Adams waypointed into my gps so what the hell, it was only a mile and a half or something - who could pass up a shortcut like that.
A GOTO to Adams pointed the way and we began our steep descent. Within 10 minutes we hit a cliff band and climbed back up and headed east only to realize we were heading towards more very steep terrain. The map showed us that we should head west and indeed this proved to be the best route. (ie. 100-200 yds west of a bearing line from Calamity to Adams.) Still, the descent was pretty steep and tiring. The terrain alternated back and forth from tough to easy with no middle ground. Not tough due to thick growth but due to steep slopes. At one point a branch poked me real good right in the eye and I watched as my contact lens rolled off my cheek and fluttered to the snow and rolled downhill coming to a stop against a rock. Very carefully I managed to pick it up out of the snow and put it back in which was a new cold sensation . My cornea is killing me as I write this though. It feels like the stick is still in there.
It seemed to take forever to reach flat ground between the 2 mountains and from the col we got a view of blowdown city on Adams' lower reaches. There is some serious blowdown in there but we skirted the worst of it before zigzagging our way up. The route up was never very difficult, there was almost always a "seam" to follow through the thick stuff. Occasionally, we had the luxury of blowdown fields but these were always short lived. Maybe that's because we moved much more quickly through them. The fire tower kept mocking us from its perch on high. The last 3 or 400 feet of height gain was pretty tough due to the accumulated fatigue and the steepening pitch. We kept winding our way along like laboratory rats but as we neared the top our progress slowed way down. My neck was getting sore from looking for the tower when Tom said he could see the "effing tower" 4 hours after leaving Calamity. What a great shortcut! The hike was over now but unbeknownst to me there was more to come. Crossing Lake Jimmy I eschewed the planking and walked on the ice, so did Tom. At one point Tom's snowshoe broke right through the ice so he got back up on the planking. Just as I was telling him he should go on a diet I broke right through the ice and found myself lying flat with my entire left leg submerged. With Tom's help I was soon standing on the planking as the freezing cold water drained into my boot. We hiked from there back to the car and checked the time. 9 hours total.
