Double Bow
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- Apr 29, 2005
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This past Saturday, against any kind of sound judgement we might have had, a few of us friends planned to do Carrigain with Gator as he attempted to complete his 48. Since he will soon be relocating to Seattle, we felt we couldn't put it off any further.
Five of us started the day with the intention of doing this. Our friend Sadie decided on the drive up that she was just feeling too sick to do it and she know she'd be draggin' arse so, she bailed out. The remaining four of us met at the trailhead ready for a wet but fun day on the trail. Soon after we started, we reached a tributary and Whiteface Brook. The brook was a raging river! There was absolutely no way to cross. I looked up the tributary and saw a tree that had fallen and was suspended over the tributary. Climbing up, I shimmied across it, straddling the tree. That was... ummm... interesting!
Once on the other side, I scouted ahead to see if I could find a place where we could cross the brook. Kathy and Sarah decided they didn't want to cross on the tree and so they decided to call it quits. This was a good decision since Kathy had her dogs with her. Gator crossed over and we bushwacked up the shore of the brook. After crossing a landslide and poking around that area for a good while, we still couldn't find a decent place to cross. The one downed tree that we saw looked way too dicey to try.
We then headed back to the trailhead and crossed the bridge on the road just before the trailhead and bushwacked in to pick up the trail on the correct side of the brook. That worked well, but now we were on the trail which was literately flowing. It was hard to believe just how much water was coming down the trail. As we made our way along, we passed areas that normally would have been dry problems but were now interesting crossings.
When we got to the other major crossing, Carrigain Brook, we had more issues. No way around this one and it was raging just as much as the earlier one. They both looked like white water rivers! Gator thought he was as wet as he could possibly get (in spite of his rain gear) and so he decided to just ford it and so he walked through very deep water. He soon regretted that as he realized that he was nowhere near as wet as he had thought he was. I opted to look upstream and found a tree that I could cross on. It was fresh and a bit risky but it seemed the better option to me. Slowly but safely, I made my way across.
Eventually, we worked our way up to where the ice still remains and stopped to change gloves and put on an additional hat before the exposed part of the ridge. Of course, we had no views. We kept on to the summit where normally you can see 46 of the 48 4Ks. We could see only the one we were standing on. We stopped for a few minutes to wring out our socks, have a snack, and layer up before heading the 5 miles back out. Not too much of a summit celebration! During the break, we cooled down considerably and if we weren't so well prepared with extra layers, hats, and gloves, we would have been in a good position to catch hypothermia. We were very wet, despite our rain gear, and the temp was in the low 40s and windy. Thankfully, we know what we're doing (most of the time).
Heading back down, we warmed up and our spirits rose. We went back to our normal joking silly selfs. This was fitting as anyone that's hiked with us can tell you that hiking with us is truly an entertaining experience! We were making good time although the delays earlier in the day had us coming down a little too late for comfort. We knew it was going to be close as to whether or not we'd get out before dark. On the way down, the rain lightened a little and we were able to see Lowell and most of Vose Spur, which are both pretty close, but it was nice to see something!
Back at Carrigain Brook, Gator once again forded across. I looked for the tree I had crossed on earlier only to find that the water level had risen further and had moved my tree downstream a ways and that it now no longer spanned the distance I needed it to. It stopped in midstream! I scouted around for a better crossing but found none. Meanwhile, on the other side, Gator looked for a way to help. He positioned a limb on that side to sort of meet the end of the downed tree. I went for it. There was no better way to do it without soaking myself and my gear.
All this while, I had a premonition about falling in. I knew that I should tuck my hat away if I wanted to keep it and that you should always undo your waist and sternum straps when crossing that way if you fall in deep water you can get out of your pack and it won't sink you. I made my way out to the end of the tree and onto Gator's limb. I could see that his limb was too narrow and that there was no way I could keep my balance on it. It didn't even make it all the way across! I decided to try some tocks that ordinarily would have been fine for crossing but were now about 1.5-2 feet under water. I stepped off onto one of them but was immediately swept off my feet by the current and was carried down the stream a short ways until I was able to regain my feet, stand up and fight my way to the shore.
In reality, I was only being carried for a matter of seconds, but that's all it takes for something bad to happen.
Needless to say, this scared the crap out of me! I was kinda shaken up but my adrenaline was really pumping and I was laughing and joking about it for the rest of the way out. Thankfully, I didn't hit my head on a rock or anything. In fact, I didn't even lose my hat! From that point, we only had 1.7 miles left and we made it to the parking lot without any other issues. There, I changed into my dry clothes and we both breathed a sigh of relief. We were glad it was over and that we had done it.
We went to The Moat for dinner afterwards and to celebrate Gator's accomplishment and our making it back safely. I'm sure that although this wasn't the day he hoped it would be, it wound up being an adventure that he'll never forget. It was an incredible, exciting, and dangerous day out with a great friend that I'm going to miss.
I took a few photos and once my camera dries out, I'll post them (hopefully!)
Five of us started the day with the intention of doing this. Our friend Sadie decided on the drive up that she was just feeling too sick to do it and she know she'd be draggin' arse so, she bailed out. The remaining four of us met at the trailhead ready for a wet but fun day on the trail. Soon after we started, we reached a tributary and Whiteface Brook. The brook was a raging river! There was absolutely no way to cross. I looked up the tributary and saw a tree that had fallen and was suspended over the tributary. Climbing up, I shimmied across it, straddling the tree. That was... ummm... interesting!
Once on the other side, I scouted ahead to see if I could find a place where we could cross the brook. Kathy and Sarah decided they didn't want to cross on the tree and so they decided to call it quits. This was a good decision since Kathy had her dogs with her. Gator crossed over and we bushwacked up the shore of the brook. After crossing a landslide and poking around that area for a good while, we still couldn't find a decent place to cross. The one downed tree that we saw looked way too dicey to try.
We then headed back to the trailhead and crossed the bridge on the road just before the trailhead and bushwacked in to pick up the trail on the correct side of the brook. That worked well, but now we were on the trail which was literately flowing. It was hard to believe just how much water was coming down the trail. As we made our way along, we passed areas that normally would have been dry problems but were now interesting crossings.
When we got to the other major crossing, Carrigain Brook, we had more issues. No way around this one and it was raging just as much as the earlier one. They both looked like white water rivers! Gator thought he was as wet as he could possibly get (in spite of his rain gear) and so he decided to just ford it and so he walked through very deep water. He soon regretted that as he realized that he was nowhere near as wet as he had thought he was. I opted to look upstream and found a tree that I could cross on. It was fresh and a bit risky but it seemed the better option to me. Slowly but safely, I made my way across.
Eventually, we worked our way up to where the ice still remains and stopped to change gloves and put on an additional hat before the exposed part of the ridge. Of course, we had no views. We kept on to the summit where normally you can see 46 of the 48 4Ks. We could see only the one we were standing on. We stopped for a few minutes to wring out our socks, have a snack, and layer up before heading the 5 miles back out. Not too much of a summit celebration! During the break, we cooled down considerably and if we weren't so well prepared with extra layers, hats, and gloves, we would have been in a good position to catch hypothermia. We were very wet, despite our rain gear, and the temp was in the low 40s and windy. Thankfully, we know what we're doing (most of the time).
Heading back down, we warmed up and our spirits rose. We went back to our normal joking silly selfs. This was fitting as anyone that's hiked with us can tell you that hiking with us is truly an entertaining experience! We were making good time although the delays earlier in the day had us coming down a little too late for comfort. We knew it was going to be close as to whether or not we'd get out before dark. On the way down, the rain lightened a little and we were able to see Lowell and most of Vose Spur, which are both pretty close, but it was nice to see something!
Back at Carrigain Brook, Gator once again forded across. I looked for the tree I had crossed on earlier only to find that the water level had risen further and had moved my tree downstream a ways and that it now no longer spanned the distance I needed it to. It stopped in midstream! I scouted around for a better crossing but found none. Meanwhile, on the other side, Gator looked for a way to help. He positioned a limb on that side to sort of meet the end of the downed tree. I went for it. There was no better way to do it without soaking myself and my gear.
All this while, I had a premonition about falling in. I knew that I should tuck my hat away if I wanted to keep it and that you should always undo your waist and sternum straps when crossing that way if you fall in deep water you can get out of your pack and it won't sink you. I made my way out to the end of the tree and onto Gator's limb. I could see that his limb was too narrow and that there was no way I could keep my balance on it. It didn't even make it all the way across! I decided to try some tocks that ordinarily would have been fine for crossing but were now about 1.5-2 feet under water. I stepped off onto one of them but was immediately swept off my feet by the current and was carried down the stream a short ways until I was able to regain my feet, stand up and fight my way to the shore.
In reality, I was only being carried for a matter of seconds, but that's all it takes for something bad to happen.Needless to say, this scared the crap out of me! I was kinda shaken up but my adrenaline was really pumping and I was laughing and joking about it for the rest of the way out. Thankfully, I didn't hit my head on a rock or anything. In fact, I didn't even lose my hat!
From that point, we only had 1.7 miles left and we made it to the parking lot without any other issues. There, I changed into my dry clothes and we both breathed a sigh of relief. We were glad it was over and that we had done it.We went to The Moat for dinner afterwards and to celebrate Gator's accomplishment and our making it back safely. I'm sure that although this wasn't the day he hoped it would be, it wound up being an adventure that he'll never forget. It was an incredible, exciting, and dangerous day out with a great friend that I'm going to miss.
I took a few photos and once my camera dries out, I'll post them (hopefully!)
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