TDawg
Well-known member
Started out the journey on Bear Notch Road, taking Rob Brook Road to the Brunel trail. This was tedious and boring traveling in both directions a la Lincoln Woods minus the rail ties.
Brunel trail is lightly used and beautiful, the trailbed is soft and unbeaten. Route finding required some thought in a couple places. Most notably while beginning to climb out of the col towards Tremont, where the trail is obscured by leaf cover and thousands of Trout Lilies. Blazing is pretty decent, although, faint in these places. Recent blowdown clearing has been done, removing at least 2 that I noticed but a couple still remain. The spur trail to Owl's cliff had a few blowdowns. Very steep going just below Owl's cliff then just below the summit, footing was pretty good though. The entire Brunel trail is loaded with all kinds of moose sign. I stopped at Owl's Cliff for a half hour or so and had my lunch, pretty good look at Green's Cliff and Church Ponds from this spot, pretty.
I sat for an hour and a half on the summit ledge, soaking in the sun and views. What a great spot.
After my summit visit, I bushwhacked from the Tremont/Owl's Cliff col down to Sawyer pond. Woods alternated from open hardwoods with lots of budding hobblebush to thicker, scratchy coniferous forests. Came out on fisherman's paths which I followed clockwise around to the shelter. Chatted here with a nice fellow named Jon, who was out for the night while I put down a Red Bull and had a snack before the last leg of my trip. He was the first person I'd seen all day. I was jealous of him because he had the place to himself, and it was going to be a beautiful night. This was my first visit to Sawyer Pond and loved it.
Sawyer Pond Trail was fairly easily followed for most of the length I took, blazes were all but non-existent. Leaves on the trees may or may not help in route finding here, but as it is now you gotta pay close attention in these spots. Lots of small, medium, and a couple large blowdowns. I didn't mind much because it just makes things interesting, but at this point in my journey it was a little unwelcome going over and around the bigger ones. SPT is pretty wet in one .2 or so mile section.
Took a left off SPT at a snowmobile trail which brought me back to Rob Brook Road. A couple soggy sections through here but not bad.
A couple large bird sightings on the trip, then a couple waterfowl. In the first half-mile on the Brunel trail, I came up on some wood chips on the ground typical of Pileated Woodpeckers. I looked up the Beech tree, and 40-50 feet above me was a round hole with a head sticking out of it!! I stood for a minute then made a sound with my mouth and the sucker comes flying out, which really surprised me! The LARGE woodpecker landed on a tree some distance from me while I stayed beneath his tree. Then after a minute he began calling and flying around wildly, this went on for a couple more minutes until I moved on so he could relax, it was unreal.
Then while nearing the spur to Owl's Cliff I spooked what turned out to be a Peregrine Falcon in the trees, what beautiful birds!! It seemed juvenile because it was fairly small and appeared to be just as curious about me, as I was about him/her. Although, as I understand it, the males of the species are much smaller than the females, so it coulda just been a male. It flew to various roosts in trees near me until the mama (female?) swooshed in outta no where and they both flew off. But I got to observe the initial bird for a good 5-10 minutes, then how the other one flew in was absolutely jaw-dropping. I stood in amazement, alone in the woods, for a few moments after that. God I love hiking....
At the pond, there was a pair of Loons that flew in from the other side, landing near the shelter. They began calling, which is one of my favorite things around New England water bodies, so relaxing. Then as I was leaving, I came across a pair of Mallard Ducks at the pond outlet. I sat for a minute at about 10 yards before they noticed me and flew off, the male was looking good with his distinctive green head.
Today I tallied up the mileage, estimating the bushwhack and snowmobile trail distances, and came up with about 13.5 miles. Was out for 8.5 hours, reaching my car right at dusk. My camera is out of commission for the time being, I'm sending it back to Olympus for repair. This was very unfortunate because aside from the great views, the Peregrine was practically posing for me and the Pileated with his head sticking out of a tree would of been a cool shot. It's alright though, I got all the shots in my head!!
I think I should start counting up 52 With A View peaks. Great afternoon out, life is good.
Brunel trail is lightly used and beautiful, the trailbed is soft and unbeaten. Route finding required some thought in a couple places. Most notably while beginning to climb out of the col towards Tremont, where the trail is obscured by leaf cover and thousands of Trout Lilies. Blazing is pretty decent, although, faint in these places. Recent blowdown clearing has been done, removing at least 2 that I noticed but a couple still remain. The spur trail to Owl's cliff had a few blowdowns. Very steep going just below Owl's cliff then just below the summit, footing was pretty good though. The entire Brunel trail is loaded with all kinds of moose sign. I stopped at Owl's Cliff for a half hour or so and had my lunch, pretty good look at Green's Cliff and Church Ponds from this spot, pretty.
I sat for an hour and a half on the summit ledge, soaking in the sun and views. What a great spot.
After my summit visit, I bushwhacked from the Tremont/Owl's Cliff col down to Sawyer pond. Woods alternated from open hardwoods with lots of budding hobblebush to thicker, scratchy coniferous forests. Came out on fisherman's paths which I followed clockwise around to the shelter. Chatted here with a nice fellow named Jon, who was out for the night while I put down a Red Bull and had a snack before the last leg of my trip. He was the first person I'd seen all day. I was jealous of him because he had the place to himself, and it was going to be a beautiful night. This was my first visit to Sawyer Pond and loved it.
Sawyer Pond Trail was fairly easily followed for most of the length I took, blazes were all but non-existent. Leaves on the trees may or may not help in route finding here, but as it is now you gotta pay close attention in these spots. Lots of small, medium, and a couple large blowdowns. I didn't mind much because it just makes things interesting, but at this point in my journey it was a little unwelcome going over and around the bigger ones. SPT is pretty wet in one .2 or so mile section.
Took a left off SPT at a snowmobile trail which brought me back to Rob Brook Road. A couple soggy sections through here but not bad.
A couple large bird sightings on the trip, then a couple waterfowl. In the first half-mile on the Brunel trail, I came up on some wood chips on the ground typical of Pileated Woodpeckers. I looked up the Beech tree, and 40-50 feet above me was a round hole with a head sticking out of it!! I stood for a minute then made a sound with my mouth and the sucker comes flying out, which really surprised me! The LARGE woodpecker landed on a tree some distance from me while I stayed beneath his tree. Then after a minute he began calling and flying around wildly, this went on for a couple more minutes until I moved on so he could relax, it was unreal.
Then while nearing the spur to Owl's Cliff I spooked what turned out to be a Peregrine Falcon in the trees, what beautiful birds!! It seemed juvenile because it was fairly small and appeared to be just as curious about me, as I was about him/her. Although, as I understand it, the males of the species are much smaller than the females, so it coulda just been a male. It flew to various roosts in trees near me until the mama (female?) swooshed in outta no where and they both flew off. But I got to observe the initial bird for a good 5-10 minutes, then how the other one flew in was absolutely jaw-dropping. I stood in amazement, alone in the woods, for a few moments after that. God I love hiking....
At the pond, there was a pair of Loons that flew in from the other side, landing near the shelter. They began calling, which is one of my favorite things around New England water bodies, so relaxing. Then as I was leaving, I came across a pair of Mallard Ducks at the pond outlet. I sat for a minute at about 10 yards before they noticed me and flew off, the male was looking good with his distinctive green head.
Today I tallied up the mileage, estimating the bushwhack and snowmobile trail distances, and came up with about 13.5 miles. Was out for 8.5 hours, reaching my car right at dusk. My camera is out of commission for the time being, I'm sending it back to Olympus for repair. This was very unfortunate because aside from the great views, the Peregrine was practically posing for me and the Pileated with his head sticking out of a tree would of been a cool shot. It's alright though, I got all the shots in my head!!
I think I should start counting up 52 With A View peaks. Great afternoon out, life is good.
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