Jazzbo
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AMC Boston Chapter Excursion expertly led by Joe C and Geoff M; party of 7 … Joe, Geoff, Bill, Jodee, Steve, Cathy, and me.
Bucklin TH on Wheelerville Road for 8:00 meeting time; -7 F at the TH, but no wind made it bearable. Off and hiking at 8:20. Trails in good condition. Both Bucklin Trail and the logging road to Mendon were broken out.
Started Bare-booted; switched over to snowshoes after the last stream crossing. Water levels were low and stream crossings trivial. The forest road follows Eddy Brook up of the stream valley to the headwall. The trail becames more trail-like after last stream crossing; then ascends 900' or so by switchbacks.
Some people start bushwhacking before the height of land; we opted to follow the trail up to the height of land and started bushwhacking in a westerly direction from there. The spruce woods were initially relatively open. We came to a blowdown patch that provided a view of Mendon we took field bearing, but we didn’t need it much because the sun was out and the terrain kind of made it unnecessary.
The spruce was thick at times, but never for long. The snow wasn't too deep except in spruce traps in the few blow-down patches encountered so trail breaking wasn't difficult. We reached the first summit. The official summit is separated by a shallow col further to the west. We slid down and whacked across to the main summit where we found the canister but couldn’t open on account of ice. The main summit gives nice views of the valley to the west. There were openings in the spruce on the way up that provided nice views of Killington and Pico too. We circled around the north side of the false summit to avoid the thick spruce which was slightly less strenuous.
We came upon a moose yard just below the first summit. Bill, who was in the lead and breaking trail, saw the moose who abruptly exited the scene. The moose yard appeared to be well used. We observed much moose scat and 3 or 4 imprints where the moose was bedding down and lots of moose tracks. We also spotted Bobcat tracks in this area.
The switchback trail has nice grades and enabling one to snowshoe down in long loping strides. We were back to the cars around 4:30 … just over 8 hours for approximate 8 mile hike.
Bucklin TH on Wheelerville Road for 8:00 meeting time; -7 F at the TH, but no wind made it bearable. Off and hiking at 8:20. Trails in good condition. Both Bucklin Trail and the logging road to Mendon were broken out.
Started Bare-booted; switched over to snowshoes after the last stream crossing. Water levels were low and stream crossings trivial. The forest road follows Eddy Brook up of the stream valley to the headwall. The trail becames more trail-like after last stream crossing; then ascends 900' or so by switchbacks.
Some people start bushwhacking before the height of land; we opted to follow the trail up to the height of land and started bushwhacking in a westerly direction from there. The spruce woods were initially relatively open. We came to a blowdown patch that provided a view of Mendon we took field bearing, but we didn’t need it much because the sun was out and the terrain kind of made it unnecessary.
The spruce was thick at times, but never for long. The snow wasn't too deep except in spruce traps in the few blow-down patches encountered so trail breaking wasn't difficult. We reached the first summit. The official summit is separated by a shallow col further to the west. We slid down and whacked across to the main summit where we found the canister but couldn’t open on account of ice. The main summit gives nice views of the valley to the west. There were openings in the spruce on the way up that provided nice views of Killington and Pico too. We circled around the north side of the false summit to avoid the thick spruce which was slightly less strenuous.
We came upon a moose yard just below the first summit. Bill, who was in the lead and breaking trail, saw the moose who abruptly exited the scene. The moose yard appeared to be well used. We observed much moose scat and 3 or 4 imprints where the moose was bedding down and lots of moose tracks. We also spotted Bobcat tracks in this area.
The switchback trail has nice grades and enabling one to snowshoe down in long loping strides. We were back to the cars around 4:30 … just over 8 hours for approximate 8 mile hike.
