dr_wu002
Well-known member
On Saturday, Sleeping Bear and I wandered in on the Gale River Trail. Our intention was to find the tributary that went to Hawthorne Falls and continue on to the Garfield Ridge Trail and then Garfield. Unfortunately, we missed the drainage (just couldn't find it) and my ankle, which has been hurting for the past few weeks, was throbbing and I wasn't interested in 'whackin through thick crap to go find it. So we continued on the trail, with the intention of going to Garfield and back.
Lucky for us, I scoped out a slide in the distance. Sleeping Bear and I talked about it for a minute (I didn't feel like going any further anyway because of my ankle) and decided to go "look" at the slide. There were a lot of false outlets to the slide and eventually required bushwhacking through blowdowns and some other nasty stuff but we found the small-ish slide and immediately began climbing... me with my MSR's and skipole and SB with her axe and crampons. It was not yet 10am, I think, and not snowing yet so the slide provided spectacular views North and also over to North Twin, South Twin etc.
Slides are always a lot of fun... off trail, maybe a little dangerous, little used areas. Why bother going up this slide when you have a trail so close, right? So we kept going up and the slide probably topped off at 2900' and we entered into the steep woods which were gorgeous and open. The area was mostly tall hardwoods intermixed with short (knee-high) spruce. Travel was slow and fun through the snowy spruce traps, kicking and smashing the little trees with snowshoes was a blast as was chopping away sticks and branches with my hands. Along with the slide, this was the most fun part of the hike. The woods here were to die for.
We easily found and crossed the AT after several hours of 'whackin and decided to just continue on to the trail-less Garfield Ridge Peak East 3590' which was obviously directly ahead (when we started up the slide we decided that this should be our ultimate destination). It took a few minutes to find the high point and then the ledgy area (awesome!) and then I gave the tree sitting on the high point a good wack to dislodge the snow and show us its canister. The canister unfortunately was frozen solid. I considered urinating on it but worried that the stream would deflect and the dirty water would go in my mouth so we just photographed it (the register), admired the view which was quickly fading due to an impending snowstorm and left.
The trip out on the Gale River Trail was leisurely through light snow falling and fairly mild conditions. It was an incredibly satisfying feeling to have adhoc come up with this hike, tackled a slide, an incredibly fun bushwhack (I felt foolish fer not bringing my crampons but had a blast thrashing around the bushwhack with my trusty MSR's), and a visit to a (probably) rarely visited NH100 with great views and a pretty little summit area. Nice place for relaxin' in the summer!
Pictures: http://community.webshots.com/album/548092924qmRmXR
-Dr. Wu
Lucky for us, I scoped out a slide in the distance. Sleeping Bear and I talked about it for a minute (I didn't feel like going any further anyway because of my ankle) and decided to go "look" at the slide. There were a lot of false outlets to the slide and eventually required bushwhacking through blowdowns and some other nasty stuff but we found the small-ish slide and immediately began climbing... me with my MSR's and skipole and SB with her axe and crampons. It was not yet 10am, I think, and not snowing yet so the slide provided spectacular views North and also over to North Twin, South Twin etc.
Slides are always a lot of fun... off trail, maybe a little dangerous, little used areas. Why bother going up this slide when you have a trail so close, right? So we kept going up and the slide probably topped off at 2900' and we entered into the steep woods which were gorgeous and open. The area was mostly tall hardwoods intermixed with short (knee-high) spruce. Travel was slow and fun through the snowy spruce traps, kicking and smashing the little trees with snowshoes was a blast as was chopping away sticks and branches with my hands. Along with the slide, this was the most fun part of the hike. The woods here were to die for.
We easily found and crossed the AT after several hours of 'whackin and decided to just continue on to the trail-less Garfield Ridge Peak East 3590' which was obviously directly ahead (when we started up the slide we decided that this should be our ultimate destination). It took a few minutes to find the high point and then the ledgy area (awesome!) and then I gave the tree sitting on the high point a good wack to dislodge the snow and show us its canister. The canister unfortunately was frozen solid. I considered urinating on it but worried that the stream would deflect and the dirty water would go in my mouth so we just photographed it (the register), admired the view which was quickly fading due to an impending snowstorm and left.
The trip out on the Gale River Trail was leisurely through light snow falling and fairly mild conditions. It was an incredibly satisfying feeling to have adhoc come up with this hike, tackled a slide, an incredibly fun bushwhack (I felt foolish fer not bringing my crampons but had a blast thrashing around the bushwhack with my trusty MSR's), and a visit to a (probably) rarely visited NH100 with great views and a pretty little summit area. Nice place for relaxin' in the summer!
Pictures: http://community.webshots.com/album/548092924qmRmXR
-Dr. Wu
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