Damselfly
Active member
Steve and I, along with friends Karen and Ken Robichaud, and new acquaintances Lew Dow (ME), Stu Futterleib (CT) and Michael LaRoss (VT) met at the Little East Pond trail head ready to hike by 8:00. After some e-mail and trailhead conversation, we opted for a west/east traverse - which worked out incredibly well.
After reaching the Little East Pond outlet, we headed due west for a couple of tenths before beginning a gradual sloping uphill climb (this avoided the nasty spruce around the wetland area). We hiked W/NW, eventually crossing the brook that comes off of West and we continued up the shoulder. The ascent was steep... but very doable. We were happy to be ascending this terrain, rather than descending it, as there would be lots of foot traps that would be hard to see on a descent. From the pond outlet, it took about three hours to gain West. While we did have to work, we never hit any serious blowdown traps. There were lots of herd paths on top, making travel on the summit itself pretty easy.
Thanks to some intel from K-Man, we then dropped off to the north side of the ridge. Staying at about a 3300+/- contour line, we easily made our way over towards middle. Again... while we had to bushwhack, we avoided all the nasty blowdown puzzles associated with ridge walking by staying a few hundred feet below the ridge. Following the contour line brought us right into a beautiful open fern col, and from there we hiked up to the summit. Middle has a pretty well defined summit, and it was easy to find the top. (This section took us about 1:20)
We left Middle about 2:00, emboldened by the not too difficult bushwhacking we had been experiencing... and felt confident and strong as we headed over towards East.
However, the trek over to East was a lot tougher, and the last quarter mile was a b---- with dense spruce and lots blowdown puzzles the likes of which give Scar Ridge its reputation. It felt like we had to fight our way onto the summit, and it was discouraging to look out onto a sea of blowdowns without any clear indication of "high point of land" for the summit. With the going painfully slow, we almost weren't sure we would be able to find the true summit. But as we were all standing on blowdowns 6-8' up in the air, we glanced over our shoulder at what looked like a slightly higher piece of real estate. We all agreed that this would be the last attempt to find the summit... and if this didn't work out, we'd bail. But luck was on our side, and Steve brought us right over to it. This one was hard fought, and we took a group photo to celebrate.
From there, we had a .5 mile bushwhack down the height of land on the East Pond Trail. The first tenth of a mile took us a half hour! I've never walked across that many blowdowns ever. Eventually, slowly but surely, the woods eventually opened up, with the last tenth being completely open woods.
Then it was like cows to the barn as we hiked along the East Pond Trail back to our cars.
10 1/2 hours. Phew.
Thanks go out to the bushwhackers who provided intel, and to the competent and good-natured companions on this trip.
Beth Zimmer
btzimr at gmail dot com
After reaching the Little East Pond outlet, we headed due west for a couple of tenths before beginning a gradual sloping uphill climb (this avoided the nasty spruce around the wetland area). We hiked W/NW, eventually crossing the brook that comes off of West and we continued up the shoulder. The ascent was steep... but very doable. We were happy to be ascending this terrain, rather than descending it, as there would be lots of foot traps that would be hard to see on a descent. From the pond outlet, it took about three hours to gain West. While we did have to work, we never hit any serious blowdown traps. There were lots of herd paths on top, making travel on the summit itself pretty easy.
Thanks to some intel from K-Man, we then dropped off to the north side of the ridge. Staying at about a 3300+/- contour line, we easily made our way over towards middle. Again... while we had to bushwhack, we avoided all the nasty blowdown puzzles associated with ridge walking by staying a few hundred feet below the ridge. Following the contour line brought us right into a beautiful open fern col, and from there we hiked up to the summit. Middle has a pretty well defined summit, and it was easy to find the top. (This section took us about 1:20)
We left Middle about 2:00, emboldened by the not too difficult bushwhacking we had been experiencing... and felt confident and strong as we headed over towards East.
However, the trek over to East was a lot tougher, and the last quarter mile was a b---- with dense spruce and lots blowdown puzzles the likes of which give Scar Ridge its reputation. It felt like we had to fight our way onto the summit, and it was discouraging to look out onto a sea of blowdowns without any clear indication of "high point of land" for the summit. With the going painfully slow, we almost weren't sure we would be able to find the true summit. But as we were all standing on blowdowns 6-8' up in the air, we glanced over our shoulder at what looked like a slightly higher piece of real estate. We all agreed that this would be the last attempt to find the summit... and if this didn't work out, we'd bail. But luck was on our side, and Steve brought us right over to it. This one was hard fought, and we took a group photo to celebrate.
From there, we had a .5 mile bushwhack down the height of land on the East Pond Trail. The first tenth of a mile took us a half hour! I've never walked across that many blowdowns ever. Eventually, slowly but surely, the woods eventually opened up, with the last tenth being completely open woods.
Then it was like cows to the barn as we hiked along the East Pond Trail back to our cars.
10 1/2 hours. Phew.
Thanks go out to the bushwhackers who provided intel, and to the competent and good-natured companions on this trip.
Beth Zimmer
btzimr at gmail dot com
