Neil
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- Apr 26, 2004
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After spending a recovery day (after Kilburn) chilling out on Nun-da-Gao ridge Sylvie and I rose early and drove over to where the North Fork of the Boquet River crosses Route 73 and left the car. We had organized our packs after Nun-da-Gao the day before but for some reason didn’t start hiking until 8:30. Camping is one helluva time sink.
10 minutes up the trail and I was pissed because my pack was too heavy. We had a syl-nylon tarp tent, freeze dried food, a jet boil stove, my new sleeping bag weighed a pound and still my lightweight pack was too heavy. I dropped it right on the trail and emptied all the contents right there. The worst offenders were my flute, the bear container and too much food. We had almost no change of clothing. I gathered up maybe a pound and a half of food and raced back to the car while Sylvie waited for me. It seemed to make a difference and we continued on our way.
Instead of crossing the creek we remained on the south bank which was fine until I told Sylvie we would now drop off the ridge and bushwhack toward Elizabethtown # 4 until picking up the herd trail where it re-crosses the North Fork’s major tributary further upstream. She was a great trooper, bushwhacking Kilburn 2 days previously but she didn’t appreciate this unexpected whack with a 25 pound pack. Shorts and short-sleeves didn’t help matters and I pretended not to here the “ouches!” and swear words. I kept insisting we were on a trail which was true some of the time due to the game trails that appeared and disappeared. I had been up this way in very late fall and at the end of winter and was amazed at how different it all looked with all the vegetation. No views either.
We got to the herd trail and Sylvie declared our bushwhack to be a complete waste of time but I mollified her with pretty views of Lilypad Pond. We arrived at the campsite where the South Fork splits in two only to find 7 packs leaning up against the log seats. I figured the owners were done camping but we staked a claim by laying a tarp over our packs and got our daypacks ready. I wanted to go up Spotted mtn. which rises 1500 feet directly above the camp. It was hot and humid and getting near noon. Sylvie took one look at it and said no way so we headed up the trail to the Great Slide. The plan was to load up on water at the slide base which would give us the option of descending to Spotted from Grace.
The hike gets really pretty from the campsite on and it was indeed nice and cool in the shadows. We got to where the creek is part creek-part slide and worked our way through the willows to the true slide base. My previous summer ascents were from 2 years ago and it seemed a lot steeper than I remembered it. Having done it in March when it was a sheet of ice it didn’t seem as steep. Now I was surprised at how easily we had cramponned up it. Sylvie loved the slide and the views. We had perfect weather. As we neared the top I upgraded my subjective rating from easy to medium thinking that some people might feel uncomfortable on it, especially between the slide top and the summit. We got to where we encountered an ice bulge last winter which we all got up using a length of rope (not Dominic who dry-tooled up the rock to the left or Glen who went right up it unaided) and it was nothing difficult of course.
Sylvie took a nap on Grace’s summit while I scouted the route down to Spotted. I explored for 15 minutes finding fairly thick scrub but with a very faint trail leading down off of Grace. I rushed back to get Sylvie and persuaded her to come at least as far as I had gone and then she could decide whether we would continue or retreat back up and then down the slide. Down we went sticking to a combination of faint herd trails and dogwood carpets interspersed with thick scrub. I only had shorts and my skin got torn up but it was a beautiful trip.
Between Grace and Spotted there is a major bump with a col on each side. There is plenty of open rock once you get down off of Grace’s summit ridge and the views of the Dix cirque and the valley up to Wyman and it’s exposed summit are breathtaking. The heat and the black flies were intense as we slowly ambled our way along the ridge. Giant and Rocky stood out in the late afternoon sun. Up and over the middle bump and on to Spotted`s summit we continued and the Beckhorn Slide came into full view. There were many plump ripe blueberries and many, many more still green. We had left Grace at 4 and I predicted 2 hours to Spotted and that was exactly what it took. You mustn’t hurry on this traverse.
We sat with the map and made a compass course about 10 minutes upstream of our camp so we would know for sure which way to turn once we hit the herd trail. We were still in full sunlight as we made our way down through open hardwoods, picking our way through and around some little and some not-so-little cliffs. It took an hour to get to the Boquet and we were well in the shadow of Dix so it seemed very dark as we pulled into camp just after seven and set up our tarp tent, pumped water, cooked supper etc. We had been at it for nearly 11 hours and at nine we crawled into our sleeping bags and went to sleep.
Pics are still in the camera.
Stay tuned for a brief account of a trip up the other tributary that leads to the Beckhorn…..
10 minutes up the trail and I was pissed because my pack was too heavy. We had a syl-nylon tarp tent, freeze dried food, a jet boil stove, my new sleeping bag weighed a pound and still my lightweight pack was too heavy. I dropped it right on the trail and emptied all the contents right there. The worst offenders were my flute, the bear container and too much food. We had almost no change of clothing. I gathered up maybe a pound and a half of food and raced back to the car while Sylvie waited for me. It seemed to make a difference and we continued on our way.
Instead of crossing the creek we remained on the south bank which was fine until I told Sylvie we would now drop off the ridge and bushwhack toward Elizabethtown # 4 until picking up the herd trail where it re-crosses the North Fork’s major tributary further upstream. She was a great trooper, bushwhacking Kilburn 2 days previously but she didn’t appreciate this unexpected whack with a 25 pound pack. Shorts and short-sleeves didn’t help matters and I pretended not to here the “ouches!” and swear words. I kept insisting we were on a trail which was true some of the time due to the game trails that appeared and disappeared. I had been up this way in very late fall and at the end of winter and was amazed at how different it all looked with all the vegetation. No views either.
We got to the herd trail and Sylvie declared our bushwhack to be a complete waste of time but I mollified her with pretty views of Lilypad Pond. We arrived at the campsite where the South Fork splits in two only to find 7 packs leaning up against the log seats. I figured the owners were done camping but we staked a claim by laying a tarp over our packs and got our daypacks ready. I wanted to go up Spotted mtn. which rises 1500 feet directly above the camp. It was hot and humid and getting near noon. Sylvie took one look at it and said no way so we headed up the trail to the Great Slide. The plan was to load up on water at the slide base which would give us the option of descending to Spotted from Grace.
The hike gets really pretty from the campsite on and it was indeed nice and cool in the shadows. We got to where the creek is part creek-part slide and worked our way through the willows to the true slide base. My previous summer ascents were from 2 years ago and it seemed a lot steeper than I remembered it. Having done it in March when it was a sheet of ice it didn’t seem as steep. Now I was surprised at how easily we had cramponned up it. Sylvie loved the slide and the views. We had perfect weather. As we neared the top I upgraded my subjective rating from easy to medium thinking that some people might feel uncomfortable on it, especially between the slide top and the summit. We got to where we encountered an ice bulge last winter which we all got up using a length of rope (not Dominic who dry-tooled up the rock to the left or Glen who went right up it unaided) and it was nothing difficult of course.
Sylvie took a nap on Grace’s summit while I scouted the route down to Spotted. I explored for 15 minutes finding fairly thick scrub but with a very faint trail leading down off of Grace. I rushed back to get Sylvie and persuaded her to come at least as far as I had gone and then she could decide whether we would continue or retreat back up and then down the slide. Down we went sticking to a combination of faint herd trails and dogwood carpets interspersed with thick scrub. I only had shorts and my skin got torn up but it was a beautiful trip.
Between Grace and Spotted there is a major bump with a col on each side. There is plenty of open rock once you get down off of Grace’s summit ridge and the views of the Dix cirque and the valley up to Wyman and it’s exposed summit are breathtaking. The heat and the black flies were intense as we slowly ambled our way along the ridge. Giant and Rocky stood out in the late afternoon sun. Up and over the middle bump and on to Spotted`s summit we continued and the Beckhorn Slide came into full view. There were many plump ripe blueberries and many, many more still green. We had left Grace at 4 and I predicted 2 hours to Spotted and that was exactly what it took. You mustn’t hurry on this traverse.
We sat with the map and made a compass course about 10 minutes upstream of our camp so we would know for sure which way to turn once we hit the herd trail. We were still in full sunlight as we made our way down through open hardwoods, picking our way through and around some little and some not-so-little cliffs. It took an hour to get to the Boquet and we were well in the shadow of Dix so it seemed very dark as we pulled into camp just after seven and set up our tarp tent, pumped water, cooked supper etc. We had been at it for nearly 11 hours and at nine we crawled into our sleeping bags and went to sleep.
Pics are still in the camera.
Stay tuned for a brief account of a trip up the other tributary that leads to the Beckhorn…..
