NH_Mtn_Hiker
New member
On Sunday, March 4th Satori, Kmac, and I climbed the Ammo Trail to the lakes of the Clouds Hut. From there Kmac decided to return with a group that was just heading down, while Satori and I continued towards Monroe.
The temps that day were very mild, and due to relatively calm winds there was an abundance of snow atop the Monroe ridge. The snow covered rocks and the thick fog made for a complete whiteout atop the ridge. Nevertheless we summited Satori's 47th Winter 4K'er and less than an hour later we were back in the parking lot just in time for lunch.
Pics from Monroe hike
Fast forward a week:
On Sunday, March 11th, Satori, accompanied by John and myself, set off up the Rocky Branch Trail for her 48th NH Winter peak (and John's 5th). Though the trail was packed out, the warm temps on Saturday had left the top couple inches of snow slushy, so a few hundred feet in we donned our Lightning Ascents and headed for the Rocky Branch River. Along the way Satori inquired a couple of times as to why my pack seemed so heavy. I told her it was emergency gear.
We arrived at the Rocky Branch between the first and second trail crossings. After crossing, with a little difficulty keeping our boots dry, we bushwhacked over to the Isolation Trail. The earlier route straight up the side of Mt. Isolation was visible, but it didn't appear to have been used recently. Fearing it would be blown over higher up and not knowing how Satori and John would take to a dense bushwhack, I decided to stick to following the fresh tracks on the Isolation Trail.
The second and third crossings were worse than the first one. At the third crossing we decided to bushwhack up to the forth crossing effectively bypassing the two. This was an easy bushwhack having only one spruce trap along the way which the three of us carefully avoided. The fifth and final crossing was much easier, as usual.
By the time we reached the blowdown patch we had noticed several sets of snowshoe tracks leading to and from the trail. By the time we realized what all those tracks were from we two were lost.
After cheating with my GPS we located the trail and continued on. It appeared only one or two other people had made it this far since the last snow storm. A few hundred yards further though their tracks turned back. If Satori was going to finish her Winter 48 today we'd have to break trail the rest of the way to Isolation. No Problem!
Unsure where the trail went from here I took out the GPS again. it showed the trail about 100 yards to our south, on the other side of the blowdown patch. So off we went, sometimes waist deep in snow, across the blowdown patch. After about 20-30 minutes we reached the other side. It seemed longer when we were digging ourselves out of the spruce traps. Satori LOVES spruce traps.
Upon reaching the opposite side of the blowdown patch we discovered the GPS had been wrong, there was no trail here. It was back on the other side, but we weren't going back across the spruce trap mine field again. So off we went bushwhacking westward towards the Davis Path which I knew to be less than half a mile away. We hit the path in the north col then headed south towards the Isolation Spur. When we got within 50 feet of the short spur trail I handed the lead over to Satori and told her if she wanted Isolation she's have to break trail the rest of the way herself. She lucked out though, due to the heavy wet snow she was able to climb the final ledge on only her third attempt.
After reaching the summit and taking a few pics, I broke out my emergency survival gear, a bottle of champagne which we popped the cork on at the base of the spur trail. Since John doesn't drink, Satori and I took it upon ourselves to make the champagne disappear....you know, Leave No trace! ...then I managed to get her to carry the empty bottle out telling her it was a memento of her Winter 48 finish.
As we staggered back down the Davis Path we nearly ran into fellow ROT'er Buffalo. We asked him what route he took and he stated he'd followed our tracks....darn, I was really hoping no one would be able to connect us with that nightmare of a route. I decided on the way out we'd have to fix it.
From the north col we followed the same gully Oncoman, Sam, Mike, and I had taken two weeks earlier east about 1/4 mile to the Isolation Trail then down to the fifth crossing. As we went, we blocked off most of the herd paths with dead branches to aid future Isolation seekers. Near the blowdown patch, we met a few more guys headed up to Isolation as well as three women who were just reaching the fifth crossing when we got there. One was a VFTT'er, and one was a ROT'er though I don't recall their user names. We explained to them as we had the others we would eliminate the other four crossings via bushwhacks as by this time even the fifth crossing was getting dicey.
Upon reaching the forth crossing we followed our earlier bushwhack to the third crossing getting a chuckle out of the fact that it was clear someone had found the spruce trap...At the second crossing I angled left and headed straight, well sorta straight, (It was straight at the time) for the Rocky Branch Trail which we intercepted a short distance west of the height-of-land swamp. From there it was slushy sloggy hike back to the trail head which we arrived at 10 hours after we started...and all sobered up.
Another Awesome hike with Awesome company.
Pics from Isolation hike
The temps that day were very mild, and due to relatively calm winds there was an abundance of snow atop the Monroe ridge. The snow covered rocks and the thick fog made for a complete whiteout atop the ridge. Nevertheless we summited Satori's 47th Winter 4K'er and less than an hour later we were back in the parking lot just in time for lunch.
Pics from Monroe hike
Fast forward a week:
On Sunday, March 11th, Satori, accompanied by John and myself, set off up the Rocky Branch Trail for her 48th NH Winter peak (and John's 5th). Though the trail was packed out, the warm temps on Saturday had left the top couple inches of snow slushy, so a few hundred feet in we donned our Lightning Ascents and headed for the Rocky Branch River. Along the way Satori inquired a couple of times as to why my pack seemed so heavy. I told her it was emergency gear.
We arrived at the Rocky Branch between the first and second trail crossings. After crossing, with a little difficulty keeping our boots dry, we bushwhacked over to the Isolation Trail. The earlier route straight up the side of Mt. Isolation was visible, but it didn't appear to have been used recently. Fearing it would be blown over higher up and not knowing how Satori and John would take to a dense bushwhack, I decided to stick to following the fresh tracks on the Isolation Trail.
The second and third crossings were worse than the first one. At the third crossing we decided to bushwhack up to the forth crossing effectively bypassing the two. This was an easy bushwhack having only one spruce trap along the way which the three of us carefully avoided. The fifth and final crossing was much easier, as usual.
By the time we reached the blowdown patch we had noticed several sets of snowshoe tracks leading to and from the trail. By the time we realized what all those tracks were from we two were lost.
After cheating with my GPS we located the trail and continued on. It appeared only one or two other people had made it this far since the last snow storm. A few hundred yards further though their tracks turned back. If Satori was going to finish her Winter 48 today we'd have to break trail the rest of the way to Isolation. No Problem!
Unsure where the trail went from here I took out the GPS again. it showed the trail about 100 yards to our south, on the other side of the blowdown patch. So off we went, sometimes waist deep in snow, across the blowdown patch. After about 20-30 minutes we reached the other side. It seemed longer when we were digging ourselves out of the spruce traps. Satori LOVES spruce traps.
Upon reaching the opposite side of the blowdown patch we discovered the GPS had been wrong, there was no trail here. It was back on the other side, but we weren't going back across the spruce trap mine field again. So off we went bushwhacking westward towards the Davis Path which I knew to be less than half a mile away. We hit the path in the north col then headed south towards the Isolation Spur. When we got within 50 feet of the short spur trail I handed the lead over to Satori and told her if she wanted Isolation she's have to break trail the rest of the way herself. She lucked out though, due to the heavy wet snow she was able to climb the final ledge on only her third attempt.
After reaching the summit and taking a few pics, I broke out my emergency survival gear, a bottle of champagne which we popped the cork on at the base of the spur trail. Since John doesn't drink, Satori and I took it upon ourselves to make the champagne disappear....you know, Leave No trace!
...then I managed to get her to carry the empty bottle out telling her it was a memento of her Winter 48 finish. As we staggered back down the Davis Path we nearly ran into fellow ROT'er Buffalo. We asked him what route he took and he stated he'd followed our tracks....darn, I was really hoping no one would be able to connect us with that nightmare of a route. I decided on the way out we'd have to fix it.
From the north col we followed the same gully Oncoman, Sam, Mike, and I had taken two weeks earlier east about 1/4 mile to the Isolation Trail then down to the fifth crossing. As we went, we blocked off most of the herd paths with dead branches to aid future Isolation seekers. Near the blowdown patch, we met a few more guys headed up to Isolation as well as three women who were just reaching the fifth crossing when we got there. One was a VFTT'er, and one was a ROT'er though I don't recall their user names. We explained to them as we had the others we would eliminate the other four crossings via bushwhacks as by this time even the fifth crossing was getting dicey.
Upon reaching the forth crossing we followed our earlier bushwhack to the third crossing getting a chuckle out of the fact that it was clear someone had found the spruce trap...At the second crossing I angled left and headed straight, well sorta straight, (It was straight at the time) for the Rocky Branch Trail which we intercepted a short distance west of the height-of-land swamp. From there it was slushy sloggy hike back to the trail head which we arrived at 10 hours after we started...and all sobered up.
Another Awesome hike with Awesome company.
Pics from Isolation hike
