Mt Dartmouth Bushwhack

docross · Aug 23, 2005

AG and I found a relatively easy route to this NH HH peak for my number 81. We left the car at 2500 feet on the Jefferson Notch road, and simply followed a map bearing of 274M.

This involved a lot of slabbing until we reached about 3300 feet; at this point, still on the bearing, the route headed up the fall line. Up to 3400 feet we hadn't encountered any thick BDs, and even above this elevation the terrain could not be called gnarly.

As we approached the flat area east of the true summit, we stayed to the right (north) side, figuring there would be more BDs up there. We went up and over a little knoll, then soon came to the summit cone, such as it is.

The summit is fairly flat, with some BDs and open areas. Found the bottle, logged in, noted that the last entry was May of this year, and the one before that was last September.

Round trip was 3.5 miles, and about 1.4 hours walking time, giving an average moving speed of 2.5 mph, which seems high for a BW, but the woods are open and beautiful. Lots of moose sign, lots of Indian Pipes. I would bet the flowers are lovely in the spring.

bigmoose · Aug 23, 2005

A "relatively easy" route? Surely you jest! 2.5 mph bushwhack?! It just vaulted up to the top of the list!

Doc McPeak · Aug 23, 2005

Thanks for the report docross. This one is on my Northeast Master List and I have been eyeing it for this September. I need to mix in some whacks with my 48/100/115...199!

Sounds like there are some views to be had?

dms · Aug 23, 2005

Docross, when I did Dartmouth, I came over from Millen Hill, a NH 3k peak, and the col between them had very thick vegetation, very slow going, but once out of the col the woods were open, a real fern walk up the ridge. There actually used to be a trail up there, but I saw no remenants of it.

audrey · Aug 24, 2005

We did it years ago, also from Millen Hill. After that nasty col, we followed a great ridgetop herd path. The beeline to Jefferson Notch was easy, highly recommended! We ran out of time trying to get to Deception from Dartmouth, though - it was much thicker. We did eventually go up Deception from Cherry Mt Road, and we found the old Deception Trail along the way.

docross · Aug 24, 2005

Excessive speed in a bushwhack??

Well........our OVERALL speed was less than 1 mph; we left the road at 8:45 and were back at 12:45. I tend to move in fits and starts on a BW; since the woods were open, we could move rapidly from one sighting to the next, and so forth. I think we spent about 30 min. at the summit.

arghman · Aug 24, 2005

spiffy. I did that one on an AMC trip a few years back in October. We did it from the height of land at Jefferson Notch (3000ft?). The hiking there was fairly easy, though on our way back we ran into some dense spruce stands which have kind of turned me off bushwhacking for the most part.