Poll - Do you bushwhack?

[randomscooter]

proper?

I didn't realize there was any genuine (as opposed to fringe element) disagreement over whether going for a walk in the woods was proper. Interesting.

 

[Head]

Ive done quite a few of the ADK 100 and a handful of local (Western ADK) peaks off-trail but I dont mind using a well groomed trail either!
HEAD

 

[Nessmuk]

There is another variable too. Like other places, many ADK bushwhacks involve combination trail/logging road and bushwhacking within the same hike

I've been known to tell people that my main use of an established trail is to get me to where I can get off trail. I can't speak for the more crowded eastern Adirondack regions that I rarely visit, but in the LowPeaks of the western Adirondacks there are hundreds of unmarked, unmapped, and unmaintained ancient overgrown logging trails - ghost trails. Most of them were abandoned many decades ago. Often when I am on a true point a-to-b or pond-to-pond bushwhack I'll come across one and their many intesecting junctions. In spite of many of them being choked with thick "dog hair" spruce or thorny berry briars, it is tempting to follow one for a while if it is going "almost" in my intended direction. It's not really bushwhacking, but it's not really on-trail hiking to a known destination either. Often the only way you know you are still following the trail is because the trees and brush growing in it are different than the surrounding trees, and quite often the vegetation is thicker and stunted.

I've found these old trails can be very challenging and tricky to follow from a navigation standpoint. If the walking is not difficult it's way too easy to get complacent and not pay attention to subtle twists and turns. Sometimes they just dead end in an old log yard and dump you where you didn't intend to be. Many times they intersect another ovegrown random path and you are faced with more choices. Pretty soon you have been led way astray of your intended track.

It can be easier to navigate if you just stick to pure bushwhack with map and compass and map/terrain reading with no ghost trail at all. But you know what - that's the challenge I find so compelling, to develop and sharpen the skills at hand with map, compass, natural terrain clues, and experience all put together. I'll follow those old logging roads for the fun of it, tracing a pencil line on my map for future reference as I fit it to the terrain I observe around me. Then I'll head off to true bushwhack to where I wanted to go in the first place. Just for the fun of it. That's why I'm out there.

 

[forestgnome]

I love to be off-trail because I just love to be in the middle of the forest. That's why I hike in the first place.

My favorite way to hike is to take trails to a peak, then look around for a nice route back down, based on topography and flora. It's always the most enjoyable part of the hike. I like to stop and be completely still and quiet, and just look, listen and smell.

Fall and winter are the best times!

Fall and winter....about 70%
Spring and summer....about 10%

 

[Warren]

Since I travel with others these days more in the past I'm not off trail as much as I used to be. When I am the compromise is usually to follow a known off trail route. That said, left to my own devices trails are access routes to off trail walks and thats where my walks really begin.

I start with a map, usually the USGS topos since the trails are not marked on those and look for terrian that jumps out and says "I'm cool". Then I figure out how to get there without killing myself. Leads to many turn arounds tends to turn my hair into dreadlocks. Fun, but the hair conditioner bill get's a tad high.

 

[mavs00]

I've found these old trails can be very challenging and tricky to follow from a navigation standpoint. If the walking is not difficult it's way too easy to get complacent and not pay attention to subtle twists and turns. Sometimes they just dead end in an old log yard and dump you where you didn't intend to be. Many times they intersect another ovegrown random path and you are faced with more choices. Pretty soon you have been led way astray of your intended track..............................

Great points. Part of the fun of bushwhacking is thrashing through the thick stuff and then, WHAM… you bust out onto an old overgrown logging road you had no idea was there. You think to yourself, “Gee, not sure where this goes, but it’s gotta be better than that crap I was just in" . Most times, inevitably it seems, you have to leave it to make it where want to be, but you always feel a touch grateful for the few minutes of relief it provided. Like a bonus, not unlike putting on an old coat and finding a $20 in the pocket Ditto for game trails, old paths, etc… That’s the fun of bushwhacking, you’ll never know what you’ll find.

Now, lots of people pooh, pooh the “GPS generation” (I consider myself in it), but when I’m out whacking, I mostly go by feel of the terrain, and ease of movement that these “hidden gems” mentioned provide. The GPS almost becomes just back up navigation, in case your “natural feel of the woods” gives out. (or in poor visibility), and you need to quickly ground yourself to where you are. Some people think that's unnatural, I don't (but that's a debate for another day).

I’ve done many bushwhacks where people have given me thier exact route GPS tracklog or I’ve drawn up and preprogrammed a route into my unit before hand. Guess what, ALMOST 100 % of the time, my actual route is NOT EVEN CLOSE to the route I thought I’d go. I attribute that fact to this simple truth; TOPOterrain is significantly different that REALterrain, and you have to make your way through REALterrain taking whatever nature (or old loggers ) gives you. I find it virtually impossible to “straight line bushwhack” in the Adirondacks. Another fun part of the GPS is getting home and putting my route on a topo and comparing the two routes, It’s always good for a laugh.

Sorry to get of the main point of the thread, but Ness hit upon one of the joys of bushwhacking (for me). The occasional (unplanned) “happen upon” trail/road the just seems to crop up when you need it most. That IS bushwhacking.

 

[Davehiker]

I mostly hike on maintained trails, but I really have enjoyed a few trips on abandoned or re-located trails, and even the odd snowmobile trail or logging road. I've only really bushwhacked a couple times in the mountains, as I'm usually solo and I'm not really comfortable 'whacking solo, yet.

 

[sweeper]

Here's a quote from Thoreau I found about a month ago from his essay "Walking"

"Some do not walk at all: others walk in the highways; a few walk across lots. Roads are made for horses and men of business. I do not travel in them much, comparatively. because I am not in a hurry... I walk out into nature such as the old prophets and peots,..."

 

[Double Bow]

Here's a quote from Thoreau I found about a month ago from his essay "Walking"

"Some do not walk at all: others walk in the highways; a few walk across lots. Roads are made for horses and men of business. I do not travel in them much, comparatively. because I am not in a hurry... I walk out into nature such as the old prophets and poets,..."

Great quote! I love Thoreau... I also love to digress. Anyway, I enjoying being IN the woods. While I do more hiking on trails than not, I enjoy being in the "middle of nowhere" and not just on a well mark trail passing lots of folks.

I have maps up in my cube at work and I'll just look at them and think "I'd like to go THERE." regardless if there's a trail or not. It's just sort of my sense of adventure and exploring. I know I'm not the first to go to these places but, I'm discovering them for myself.

So, 9/10... Who wants to come do Mt Clough or Green Mtn (off Tecumseh) with me? I've been looking at them for awhile and still haven't been...

 

[snowshoe]

I love bushwhacking. It is the only way one can make loops out of out and back marked trails. There is a whole nother place out their when one goes off trail. I have found some really neat areas, mines hidden falls ravines ect... If I did not go off trail I would never have know those places were out there. Is it right to do it? Yes it is no different than a moose or bear trampling through. The chances that more than one person hitting that same route is slim to non. Yes herd paths have been created but they recover and new ones appear. There are bears trails and deer path.

 

[Neil]

Bushwhacking has its ups and downs but I enjoy it a lot. There's a lot of very satisfying problem solving involved.
My first ever, long ago, far away hikes were all bushwhacks simply cuz there weren't any trails where we went hiking. We learned our skills in the school of hard knocks and it was pure heaven. I'll never forget the rare beauty we wandered through 30 years ago.

The thing I like about going trail-less is the keen awareness that comes over me when I enter the rough. I get a feeling that says, "Now its real".

I only started using a gps this season and one thing I can't argue with: those suckers sure are efficient and downright superior to the good ole' map and compass. Rather addictive too.

 

[catskillclimber]

Not often

I have done bushwacks as requirements for lists (when I was more goal oriented and interested in lists). Oddly enough it was those required bushwacks that made me realize that I don't really like it much. When I started hiking it was about the high of getting to the open top, the view, and the rush of refreshing wind when I finally reached the summit. I guess I'm what some refer to as a view hog. Guilty. I feel disapointed at times when I fight my way through thick woods only to find a canister nailed to a tree and not a view in sight. However, others feel this constitutes "real" hiking and is much more satisfying to them. Cool, I'll keep looking for the views which tend to be on the trailed peaks (in my limited experience anyway). I have recently been repeating mountains that I enjoyed the views from as opposed to visiting new peaks that may have completely wooded summits and no trail.

 

[Neil]

I love the views too.

The thing I like about going trail-less is the keen awareness that comes over me when I enter the rough. I get a feeling that says, "Now its real".

I feel disapointed at times when I fight my way through thick woods only to find a canister nailed to a tree and not a view in sight. However, others feel this constitutes "real" hiking and is much more satisfying to them. Cool, I'll keep looking for the views which tend to be on the trailed peaks (in my limited experience anyway).

I go for the views too but I thought about this all day yesterday while hiking to and while climbing the Bottle Slide on Giant in the ADK's. By "real" I was referring to a very subjective state of mind that I experience on a personal level. Everyone's hike is very real and I see now that my choice of wording could be mis-construed to look like I was suggesting there was MY hiking (real) and other peoples' hiking (not as real). I just wanted to clear that up.

Thanks to the above quoted post however I did figure a few things out. Bushwhacking for me is merely a means to an end. That end is to penetrate and experience wilderness where the imprint of man is unnoticeable.

I find that I don't get my personal wilderness "fix" while on a trail, especially a marked one with people. Just like the digestive tube is not inside the body proper I don't feel "inside" the wilderness while I'm on a trail.

To get to the Bottle Slide we bushwhacked up steep slopes for 2 hours. The forest was fairly open but choked with blowdown and progress was slow and demanding. Nevertheless, we all were thoroughly enjoying our wilderness experience. To boot, as we climbed the Slide we were knocked out over and over by the views that unfurled as we ascended. Our wilderness experience couldn’t have been more complete. The bushwhack and the views were the core of that experience.

Consider this quote from the book, Forever Wild by Philip G. Terrie:

The person who backpacks in the wilderness but who goes only for the views from lofty summits, deprecating swamps and other places which do not satisfy a predilection for the scenic or picturesque does not really love or respect the wilderness.

This is rather harsh and I’m certainly not directing this quote at any individual(s). However it provokes thought and as a departure point for a good discussion I find it particularly germane to the bushwhacking question. Ie. Why do I do it, what does it do for me?

Back to someone else.

 

[bigmoose]

I had a boss years ago whose credo was "pleasure is the absense of pain."
In that vein, I've experienced lots of pleasure AFTER bushwhacks.

The bushwhack might be arduous at the time, and I might question why I'm doing it as I stumble over rocks and through spruce and hobblebush, but the feeling of accomplishment and the "high" that come later make it all worthwhile.

After taking a trail to an open view, I generally come back with dozens of scenic pictures.

When I bushwhack, the only picture may be of the canister. But the mental images stored from the bushwhack rival and ofter surpass the images taken with the camera.

 

[mavs00]

I find that I don't get my personal wilderness "fix" while on a trail, especially a marked one with people. Just like the digestive tube is not inside the body proper I don't feel "inside" the wilderness while I'm on a trail..........

Neil, That is one of your best posts I've ever seen. It sums up, almost perfectly, my thoughts on the matter. Sure, I sometimes struggle and swear my way through tanglebrush or get slightly more than nervous as I funnel up a steep narrow band of cliffs, but in the end............... That's what makes it REAL for me. I'd even venture to say, that at times, I've wondered what the hell I'm doing this for. But still, the allure always comes back.

I remember writing in my 46er journal about the euphoria that I used to feel (still do) when you step out onto an open summit or crossing open terrain above treeline (particularly when I first started hiking). Its magical, and I now get a similar euphuria, as bigmoose alludes to, right after I step out of the woods at the end of a bushwhack (the more difficult, the more powerful it is). There is this earthly raw and very powerful feeling of "holy $***, I/we just climbed that mountain, and NOBODY helped me/us or showed me/us the way". Do that make sense?

And the beauty of it is, the euphoria and satisfaction for me differs little whether I'm standing on the open ledges of Noonmark or gazing down at Lost Pond from it's summit as it does when I'm huddled in a driving rain at the summit of Little Santanoni or sweatering in 90 degree heat on viewless Cellar with deer flies the size of bumblebees swarming all around me. That probably does not make sense to many, but its true for me at this time.

Right now, I'm still "chasing goals" and "working lists" but in the great scheme of things, I really don't care if I ever complete them, so long as along the way, chasing them leads me to those places that make me...........well, HAPPY. Be it in some lonely thicket stand atop some isolated, obscure peak or at the end of the trail on a high open summit with the world at me feet.

It's all good in the woods.

 

[Pat R]

Im off trail as much as I can. Been doing a lot of bushwhacking in AK for the last year. Its beautiful but I couldn't wait to get back to the Skills!

 

[peak_bgr]

It's a rare occassion to use a trail for more than an approach for a bushwhack. But there's nothing like seeing a trail after a long day without one. Anyone climbing the ADK HH knows what I mean.

 

[post'r boy]

yes

cause it's fun bein' out, real adventure!!!
i agree with timmus!!!

So I guess that it's just a matter of time before I'll go back with the clear intention of getting my face and arms scratched, wood sticks in my hair, pine needles in my underwear

 

[timmus]

I enjoyed all the times that I had to do unintentional bushwacking.

So I guess that it's just a matter of time before I'll go back with the clear intention of getting my face and arms scratched, wood sticks in my hair, pine needles in my underwear

 

[Eddie70]

I can't say I've done much 'whacking. Nor can I say that I'm it's biggest fan (I tend to swear and have a childhood fear of getting things in my eyes (I have wussy corneas and as a result spent many an hour in the doctor's office getting scratches examined, which has led me to pitch tiny fits of impotent rage when i get things in my eyes to this day )), but I don't mind doing it to get to something cool.

I still laugh every time I remember the the end of the unintentional "let's just follow this ski trail to the hiking trail even though it's not maintained for summer use...umm where'd the ski trail go??" bushwhack. As we stumbled through the forest, I predicted that as soon as we found the trail there'd be a guy with his dog and his kid in a baby carrier standing there looking at us like we were nuts when we emerged. And lo and behold...when we found the trail...I saw the dog first and then the puzzled father with the kid on his back staring at me like a time travel machine had just dumped me on the trail in front of him.

Don't believe in my psychic abilities? Just ask bruno.