Redington via Caribou Pond roads and return via South Crocker & AT

[Hillwalker]

The Caribou pond road is drivable to the AT crossing and beyond. I followed recent tire tracks all the way to the right turn at the cairned clearing. They actually went quite a way up the grassy logging road until it got very washed out and rocky. The vehicle making the tracks did drag quite a bit on the bigger water bars. Looked like the trailer hitch recepticle did the dragging.

The path is pretty easy to follow to where it intersects the path from S Crocker. There was quite a bit of monorail snow left in spots but easy to negotiate on the margins.

This was my first time up on Redington, after last fall's attempt when I misplaced my dog on the top on N Crocker. The old guy followed some southbounders all the way to Spaulding Shelter. I got him back the next day thanks to a northbounder who was in cell contact with me. The dog knows my cell number, that is, it's on his coller don't ya know.

Back to today. After leaving the summit of Redington, I headed over to South Crocker on the pretty gnarly herd path(s). Because I lack common sense when I "whack" I left my long sleeve shirt in my pack. Big mistake. By the time I topped out on South C. both my arms were covered with blood. The stuff was actually running down my arms and dripping off my fingers at times. But it's happened before, and will again.

I used a GPX track I downloaded from Wikiloc and I'm very glad I did. With all the litter this winter showered on the path(s) it's pretty rough going for a guy who is coming up on his 74th year.

As you age, the epidermis gets pretty thin, and good healthy scratches administered by Spruce and Fir stubs and stobs bleed very well.

As this my first summer hike of this year I wore my heavy boots (L) to the top of Redington, and Saucony Trail runners for the rest of the walk. Big old leather boots wore me down. The boots are well broken in, just I'm not as yet.

I took my Yellow Lab/Great Pyrenees mix with me and he seemed to enjoy our little walk.

I took no pictures since I stopped taking them on hikes a number of years ago. Don't sign no summit logs either.

Tom Wheeler

 

[1SlowHiker]

Thanks for the great report, I'm planning on an attempt this coming Friday and just now read your post after posting questions that your post have answered. Which gps track from wikiloc did you use? I think I'm using the one that petch posted. I usually use jmmdds tracks but he wandered off track a bit on this one. Thanks for the tip on the long shirt on the BW. I'm on blood thinners so will make sure I cover up good (maybe not take my warfarin the day before). Most of the tracks I saw start with the crockers but you did the loop CCW. Any particular reason why. I think I'd rather get the tougher inclines over first. I will probably park near the AT crossing, I have a fairley high clearance 4X truck but dont have a lot of traction left on a few tires.

 

[1SlowHiker]

but you did the loop CCW. .

I meant CW

 

[Red Oak]

Nice job!I got so lost one time trying to freestyle a bushwack over to Redington from s.crock.Amazing you drove up so far.From what locals tell me that was more normal ten years ago due to more logging going on.The hike up to Redington must have been like a half hour?

 

[Hillwalker]

The steel bridge was fine although I still parked at the concrete barriers since last fall it was blocked off to vehicles at that point. A vehicle with decent clearance would have no problems going all the way to the AT crossing and quite a bit past that.

I used the Wikiloc GPX file from M_C since it best approximates what I wanted to accomplish. Less N Crocker. It looked like M_C got a bit lost at the 3400 contour between Crocker and Redington, and again it looks like he followed the AT Corridor boundary line (which is so well maintained that it looks like a trail with yellow blazes.

As far as brush protection, gloves would have been pretty nice and I have worn safety glasses at times, but not this time since most of the path was herd like with not too much really crashing through stuff. Carrying a wide pack is problematic since the path is very narrow, sometimes as little as 18 inches between trees. My pack kept getting hung up behind me and stopping forward motion. As far as getting cut up by brushing against stubs and naked branches, there is no way to get through there with both arms being scraped hard. Especially when you lose the main path due to blowdowns and winter trash drop.

When dropping down from Crocker you will hit the Corridor Boundary in around 500 feet or so. There is a small cairn where the path heads down toward Redington.

WETSU