SteveHiker
New member
This was going to be the tale of my trip to bag Jefferson, Adams and Madison on Saturday. But on the drive up 93 I noticed the clouds being very low everywhere. It didn't look promising, but I continued anyway. When I got to the turn for Base Road on 302, I asked the two people with me if they really wanted to stumble around in the fog above the treeline. Agreeing that wasn't the best use of our time, I suggested we could go to Isolation, figuring it was lower and likely shielded from the clouds by the larger behemoths to the west, plus it was one I still needed to climb, too. "you're driving" was the reply. So off we went. Emerging from Crawford Notch into mostly sunny conditions in Bartlett, the day looked promising.
We got to Rocky Branch parking area a little after 9:30. Not as early as I would have wanted, but it was unplanned. It was very humid climbing up Rocky Branch Ridge but the bugs weren't too bad. Doesn't seem to be a very popular trail, one of my companions noted. We reached the top of the ridge will little trouble and began descending. Now the fun began. It started raining lightly as it would continue to do off and on all day. And this part of the trail is so wet that Rich asked me if we were still on the trail or if I was following a stream. Eventually we emerged on slightly drier ground. I think each of us put at least one foot into the drink on the way down. My question to anyone who has been this way before is: Is it always this wet?
Arriving at the first Rocky Branch crossing, we couldn't find an obvious place to cross. Remembering that I read somewhere about a short bushwack to avoid two crossings, we started following what looked like a pretty well-defined herd path along the east bank. Again, is it always this wet? Eventually losing the path, or maybe there was no path, we turned back. Now completely soaked from head to toe, we returned and found a way across, not the easiest but we were motivated now. And I am no longer allowed to suggest "shortcuts". We stopped for lunch at the second crossing as the sun had come out. I dumped about a cup of water out of each of my boots. From then on it was pretty soggy but uneventful. Just before the Davis Path intersection, there is quite a little maze. You're supposed to follow the yellow blazes, but we didn't see any. But before we really looked too hard, a guy with a bright orange raincoat appeared at the far end, so again no problems. He also gave a tip to find the spur to Isolation, which was qutie helpful.
Davis Path. Is it always this wet? Finally we reached the summit. Looks like there would be a very nice views to the west and north, except the fog never lifted. To the east and south was spectacular. After empty out the boots again and changing socks, we returned the way we came. Despite getting hit with a couple of downpours, it was pretty uneventful and we were out of the woods around 7:30.
All week long at work, Rich was asking about going hiking. I go every Saturday I kept telling him. Well, he wanted to go somewhere where there were some brook crossings since the last time he went with me there weren't any. I think he's had his fill of those for a while. I think this was by far the wettest trip I've taken.
We got to Rocky Branch parking area a little after 9:30. Not as early as I would have wanted, but it was unplanned. It was very humid climbing up Rocky Branch Ridge but the bugs weren't too bad. Doesn't seem to be a very popular trail, one of my companions noted. We reached the top of the ridge will little trouble and began descending. Now the fun began. It started raining lightly as it would continue to do off and on all day. And this part of the trail is so wet that Rich asked me if we were still on the trail or if I was following a stream. Eventually we emerged on slightly drier ground. I think each of us put at least one foot into the drink on the way down. My question to anyone who has been this way before is: Is it always this wet?
Arriving at the first Rocky Branch crossing, we couldn't find an obvious place to cross. Remembering that I read somewhere about a short bushwack to avoid two crossings, we started following what looked like a pretty well-defined herd path along the east bank. Again, is it always this wet? Eventually losing the path, or maybe there was no path, we turned back. Now completely soaked from head to toe, we returned and found a way across, not the easiest but we were motivated now. And I am no longer allowed to suggest "shortcuts". We stopped for lunch at the second crossing as the sun had come out. I dumped about a cup of water out of each of my boots. From then on it was pretty soggy but uneventful. Just before the Davis Path intersection, there is quite a little maze. You're supposed to follow the yellow blazes, but we didn't see any. But before we really looked too hard, a guy with a bright orange raincoat appeared at the far end, so again no problems. He also gave a tip to find the spur to Isolation, which was qutie helpful.
Davis Path. Is it always this wet? Finally we reached the summit. Looks like there would be a very nice views to the west and north, except the fog never lifted. To the east and south was spectacular. After empty out the boots again and changing socks, we returned the way we came. Despite getting hit with a couple of downpours, it was pretty uneventful and we were out of the woods around 7:30.
All week long at work, Rich was asking about going hiking. I go every Saturday I kept telling him. Well, he wanted to go somewhere where there were some brook crossings since the last time he went with me there weren't any. I think he's had his fill of those for a while. I think this was by far the wettest trip I've taken.
