Neil
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- Apr 26, 2004
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Sawtooth #2 ADK's
MarkL, RandomTom and I started down the Pine Pond road/trail at 6:15 yesterday morning and there was enough light to obviate the need for headlamps. Now, in order for me to be at the TH at that hour I had to set my alarm for 2am. Normally, I don’t get up at that time of day and having had a busy day at the office and going to my son’s 9:15 hockey game the night before I felt kinda strange, sort of like some foreign presence was inhabiting my body and jazzing my nervous system with random electrical impulses. Anyhow, the Sawtooth Boss had spoken. “Be there at 6” So I meekly obeyed.
However I was willing and keen participant because we were doing not one, but two ST’s and I was going with a master, a black belt Sawtooth conqueror for whom multiple summits in that range are a matter of course. I had decided to profit from the occasion in order sharpen my map and compass skills (which I was worried had become dulled by all the gps’ing I’ve been doing). So, the rule I made was that my gps was only a recording device. I was not allowed to look at it. Instead, I had my compass on a little string around my neck and my map handy in my chest pocket.
Tom had been in the day before laying a trail high up on Cold Creek so there was not much need for the M&C but I still kept tabs of our position as we cruised along in high gear to the appropriate drainage that leads to near the summit of ST2. (We approached the mountain using the same woods road a group of us had exited on in August when we did ST1.- see TR) This drainage is as straight as an arrow and leads to just below the summit so its kind of a no-brainer navigationally speaking but I dutifully kept checking my compass and examined my map to gain greater depth of understanding of where we were headed. Of course being with Tom lent an air of artificiality to my compass work because if anybody has that range in his back pocket it’s him. We eschewed staying within eyesight of the creek so as to avoid cross slope hiking and any blowdown that might have filled the gully. In any case, the woods were always more open to the left so we let ourselves drift off-course in order to profit from the easier going. I was maintaining a mental image of where we were and eventually headed straight up-slope along a compass bearing directly towards the summit. This did not sit well with Mr. Sawtooth because my route, although very direct, involved some hard steep hiking through walls of tight snow covered red spruce and balsams. Patiently and with great humility, the pupil listened to the teacher’s wiser reasoning and headed further left to gentler terrain and much more open and bushwhacker friendly slopes. Describing a graceful arc, we curled around the mountain’s base but finally had no choice but to hit those steep slopes and twist our way through the tight fitting openings. Now that we had changed course my compass bearing had lost its former usefulness but we were gaining good elevation and the law of up (my favourite bearing) was working well for us. Gradually, we began to run out of mountain and saw increasing amounts of sky through the canopy up ahead. ST2 was about to go into the bag. Tom was explaining the lay of the land to me and showed me how we had come back to the drainage and why his route was so much better than mine. I felt very privileged to be getting such one-on-one tutoring and drank in his words. As we ascended the final meters to the summit I looked over and saw what looked like a very high hill about 400 meters away. That was strange. The string of obscenities produced by Tom as it dawned on him that he had guided us up to the wrong spot was pretty good and, conscientious pupil that I am, I committed them to memory. (At this point I felt it was best not to ask any questions for a little while and I busied myself studying the rib pattern on the underside of some spruce needles.)
At about that time I decided that my M&C skills didn’t need any more honing so I unclipped my gps and looked at it for the first time all day. Aha! Everything fell instantly into place like the tumblers of a combination lock. ST2 was already waypointed so after a quick find‘n’go and a Goto I took control of the situation and quickly led the team directly to success. (Pumps fist skyward several times).
All kidding around and teasing aside this was a great trip. We decided not to add another 4 hours onto our hike and left ST4 for another day. My gps had recorded our route up to ST2 and it was all cruelly obvious where and when we had gone wrong and by how much. The .tpo file shows it even better. We followed our intended ascent route down to the main drainage (Cold Creek) and it was gorgeous open forest with a gradual knee-friendly slope. We had plenty of time on the (very) long hike out to go over our decision making process and ananlyze just how we got off track. Earlier in the day we had discussed how a gps may take away from the overall experience by removing uncertainty and the fun of improvisation. However, we now agreed that on ambitious, multipeak days where there is no time for recovering from errors the gps is an almost essential tool.
When I started using my gps near the top of ST2 yesterday the change I felt was one of dramatic empowerment. Suddenly I knew exactly where we were and exactly which way to go. There was no time spent hesitating, thinking, figuring it out. The summit was like, “thataway”.
We got back to the cars at 5:30, about 11 hours after our departure. My body was reminding me that bushwhack hours and trail hours aren’t the same.
This was my first hike with Mark and I hope it wasn’t my last. His rapier but soft spoken wit was a real treat and kept me laughing most of the day.
Thanks guys for another great day in Paradise.
__________________
A crooked line is the shortest distance I know to happiness.
Sharpening the saw in the ST range.
MarkL, RandomTom and I started down the Pine Pond road/trail at 6:15 yesterday morning and there was enough light to obviate the need for headlamps. Now, in order for me to be at the TH at that hour I had to set my alarm for 2am. Normally, I don’t get up at that time of day and having had a busy day at the office and going to my son’s 9:15 hockey game the night before I felt kinda strange, sort of like some foreign presence was inhabiting my body and jazzing my nervous system with random electrical impulses. Anyhow, the Sawtooth Boss had spoken. “Be there at 6” So I meekly obeyed.
However I was willing and keen participant because we were doing not one, but two ST’s and I was going with a master, a black belt Sawtooth conqueror for whom multiple summits in that range are a matter of course. I had decided to profit from the occasion in order sharpen my map and compass skills (which I was worried had become dulled by all the gps’ing I’ve been doing). So, the rule I made was that my gps was only a recording device. I was not allowed to look at it. Instead, I had my compass on a little string around my neck and my map handy in my chest pocket.
Tom had been in the day before laying a trail high up on Cold Creek so there was not much need for the M&C but I still kept tabs of our position as we cruised along in high gear to the appropriate drainage that leads to near the summit of ST2. (We approached the mountain using the same woods road a group of us had exited on in August when we did ST1.- see TR) This drainage is as straight as an arrow and leads to just below the summit so its kind of a no-brainer navigationally speaking but I dutifully kept checking my compass and examined my map to gain greater depth of understanding of where we were headed. Of course being with Tom lent an air of artificiality to my compass work because if anybody has that range in his back pocket it’s him. We eschewed staying within eyesight of the creek so as to avoid cross slope hiking and any blowdown that might have filled the gully. In any case, the woods were always more open to the left so we let ourselves drift off-course in order to profit from the easier going. I was maintaining a mental image of where we were and eventually headed straight up-slope along a compass bearing directly towards the summit. This did not sit well with Mr. Sawtooth because my route, although very direct, involved some hard steep hiking through walls of tight snow covered red spruce and balsams. Patiently and with great humility, the pupil listened to the teacher’s wiser reasoning and headed further left to gentler terrain and much more open and bushwhacker friendly slopes. Describing a graceful arc, we curled around the mountain’s base but finally had no choice but to hit those steep slopes and twist our way through the tight fitting openings. Now that we had changed course my compass bearing had lost its former usefulness but we were gaining good elevation and the law of up (my favourite bearing) was working well for us. Gradually, we began to run out of mountain and saw increasing amounts of sky through the canopy up ahead. ST2 was about to go into the bag. Tom was explaining the lay of the land to me and showed me how we had come back to the drainage and why his route was so much better than mine. I felt very privileged to be getting such one-on-one tutoring and drank in his words. As we ascended the final meters to the summit I looked over and saw what looked like a very high hill about 400 meters away. That was strange. The string of obscenities produced by Tom as it dawned on him that he had guided us up to the wrong spot was pretty good and, conscientious pupil that I am, I committed them to memory. (At this point I felt it was best not to ask any questions for a little while and I busied myself studying the rib pattern on the underside of some spruce needles.)
At about that time I decided that my M&C skills didn’t need any more honing so I unclipped my gps and looked at it for the first time all day. Aha! Everything fell instantly into place like the tumblers of a combination lock. ST2 was already waypointed so after a quick find‘n’go and a Goto I took control of the situation and quickly led the team directly to success. (Pumps fist skyward several times).
All kidding around and teasing aside this was a great trip. We decided not to add another 4 hours onto our hike and left ST4 for another day. My gps had recorded our route up to ST2 and it was all cruelly obvious where and when we had gone wrong and by how much. The .tpo file shows it even better. We followed our intended ascent route down to the main drainage (Cold Creek) and it was gorgeous open forest with a gradual knee-friendly slope. We had plenty of time on the (very) long hike out to go over our decision making process and ananlyze just how we got off track. Earlier in the day we had discussed how a gps may take away from the overall experience by removing uncertainty and the fun of improvisation. However, we now agreed that on ambitious, multipeak days where there is no time for recovering from errors the gps is an almost essential tool.
When I started using my gps near the top of ST2 yesterday the change I felt was one of dramatic empowerment. Suddenly I knew exactly where we were and exactly which way to go. There was no time spent hesitating, thinking, figuring it out. The summit was like, “thataway”.
We got back to the cars at 5:30, about 11 hours after our departure. My body was reminding me that bushwhack hours and trail hours aren’t the same.
This was my first hike with Mark and I hope it wasn’t my last. His rapier but soft spoken wit was a real treat and kept me laughing most of the day.
Thanks guys for another great day in Paradise.
__________________
A crooked line is the shortest distance I know to happiness.
Last edited:
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