onestep said:
At that time I'd never heard of "3000 footers", let alone canisters on trail less summits. Didn't think much about it for 30 years...
But then Onesteop caught a fever... and the only cure is MORE bushwhacking!
Anyway, I bagged Sunday River Whitecap and Slide over the weekend. I bushwhacked up from the logging road near Screw Auger Falls. Heading into the woods, I soon hit a network of skidder paths, which went quite a ways up toward Miles Notch. Then again, they were mostly overgrown with at least waist-high bushes and weeds, so it wasn't quite easy going. Reaching the top of the skidder roads, I then wasn't in the open woods very long before I found a series of herd paths that led me the short distance to the the Grafton Loop Trail, where it passes through the col.
Once on the trail, I had a straightforward ascent of Sunday River Whitecap. Needless to say, I had the peak to myself. I poked around two of the highest cairns on the summit, but I wasn't able to locate the canister. It's either very well-hidden, or it's finally been removed. As it was, I soaked in what views there were, since the sky was overcast and I could see dark rain clouds passing over Old Speck. I was left to imagine how much better the views are when the sky is clear.
But I had business left to attend to, and soon enough I was descending down toward Slide. I was most of the way back to the col when the showers reached me. I knew they were coming, too, but because of the outing's bushwhacking sections I hadn't bothered to bring my umbrella, and hadn't thought to bring my rain jacket. I tried to duck under the forest canopy, but the trees aren't as thick as one would like in the col. Accepting the fact that I was going to get drenched regardless, I kept going. Thankfully the slopes of Slide aren't densely vegetated, and were it not for the fact everything was wet and making me drencher, this would have been a very tolerable bushwhack. But, I kept going, not soon enough reaching the elongated summit, and turning right, locating the canister proved to be straightforward. I did my best to keep the canister's contents dry (an endeavor in which I was mostly successful). However, due to the conditions, the pen I had on me wasn't writing worth anything, and so I had to settle for using a less permanent pencil. I scratched out a message as quickly as I could, then returned everything to the jar.
On the descent, I encountered more blowdowns and low cliffy areas than I had on the ascent (having strayed slightly too north on my bearing), but I ultimately reached the trail again okay. During this time, the rain even stopped, and the sun seemed to be trying to make an appearance by the time I reached the trail. But, this experience still underlined the fact that for me that it's preferable not to be bushwhacking in the rain.
I guess I could have made a beeline from Slide back down to my car, but in those conditions I preferred battling brush to making my way through wet trees. As it was, once back at the trail, I wasn't on it for very long before I turned left to retrace my route back to the skidder roads. Emerging at the highest one, I found descending through them to be a much easier than climbing through, even though the weeds weren't any less dense on the return trip. This part actually reminded me a bit of my descent of the overgrown ski slopes on Burke last October, overcast skies and all. Needless to say, from this point on it was a straightforward walk back to the car.