Suebiscuit
New member
Or: Hamtero and Suebuiscuit mingle with the trees.
Our journey started out on the Sawyer River Trail from the Kanc, an easy coupla three miles down the snowmobile tracks. We took a left onto the Hancock Notch Tr, then at about 1/2 mile, crossed the river to continue into the valley along the old logging road that eventually tapers down into a path. We veered to the west, crossed the creek and eventually got back onto the frozen creek bed to follow it up for a bit. Thanks to the recent rain and freeze, there is a nice crust on the deep snow, so much of the way we were able to stay up on top of the snow. Of course it wouldn’t be much fun without the occasional sink down to thigh level, which increased in frequency as we climbed up to the col and the snow became softer. The climb is steep, but not too dense, and we found our way back onto a small creek that led us up to the col between Hancock and the Captain. Arrived there in about 4 hours, where, having forgotten the numbers I wrote down on the map, I claimed that it but a mere 100 feet up to the Captain. Truth is, it was actually 300 feet, but since we approached from the NW side, we encountered dense shrubs, a couple of minor outcroppings and spruce traps that tried to suck the life out of me. Maintaining a blistering pace, we made it to the top 2 and a half hours later. We looked around for the canister - Hamtero went one way, I another. I made it about 50 feet before I was hopelessly trapped in a tangle of snakes and alligators and little beasts that were trying to poke me in the eye. So I went back to the meeting place and pretended I had circled the whole summit. The canister was not to be found and the temperature was dropping, so we started to head down, at which point Hamtero discovered the truth about my foray to find the jar. Damn those snowshoe tracks! Hamtero also discovered that one of the rivets had popped out of the front of his snowshoe, and the plastic was starting to look stressed…
The trip down the ‘center’ of the Captain proved to be much easier, and we made it to the pond in easy time. Pretty little pond with an ice waterfall outlet. Set up camp on the west side of the pond, and enjoyed a moonlit, though chilly night. Woke up to temps a few degrees below zero, but I know I slept a good amount because Hamtero informed me that I was making ‘little’ snores. He’s so kind.
Our original plan was to head out the way we came, but it was such a pretty day, and Carrigain looked so inviting… H. used some old toe clip straps to hold his snowshoe together (the zip ties he tried the day before snapped in mere seconds), and we decided that we’d hike for about an hour to see how tough the going was (the rough trip up the Captain spooked us a bit). Though steep, the woods are fairly open, with the only the occasional dense thicket, so we made pretty good time. H. insisted that I lead, in order to preserve his weakened snowshoe. About a third of the way up, I decided this was just a ploy to get paybacks for having worked so hard to keep the stove going, so I staged a strike, and we switched his bad shoe for one of mine. H. led the rest of the way while I cruised in back. Ha! Hit a really steep shrubby section at about 4200 feet, but the rest of the way was relatively easy, landing us up top in 4 hours.
Gorgeous views on Carrigain, but cold, so we quickly took off down Signal Ridge Tr. which is well–broken at this point. Passed a few people heading up. A short distance past the Carrigain Notch Trail junction, we headed south on the old logging road that connects to Sawyer River Road to save a few miles. The going was very easy the first 2/3 of the way, then a bit more work through the occasional battalions of young spruce, but nothing too bad. Followed a lot of interesting animal tracks – fox, bunnies, some large dog/cat-like tracks and some strange longish tracks with lots of nubbles.
We cheated a little and followed the snowmobile fireroad instead of the unbroken Sawyer River Tr. We’re only human. Had a good laugh about a mile and a half from the car, where we encountered a spanish-speaking woman and her teenage daughter on a snowmobile. "WE’RE LOST!!!" They showed us the map they had been given at the rental place, which had markings like "Main Trail", "Scenic out look #1", "#2", etc. "Do NOT go past scenic outlook #4". The best we could do is send them back to Route 302 by way of Sawyer River Rd. Hope they made it back… Today I figured out that they were supposed to be riding around in the Bartlett Experimental Area, on Bear Notch Road... We made it out just before dark, mighty pooped, but all of out limbs intact, and happy with another great adventure,
Our journey started out on the Sawyer River Trail from the Kanc, an easy coupla three miles down the snowmobile tracks. We took a left onto the Hancock Notch Tr, then at about 1/2 mile, crossed the river to continue into the valley along the old logging road that eventually tapers down into a path. We veered to the west, crossed the creek and eventually got back onto the frozen creek bed to follow it up for a bit. Thanks to the recent rain and freeze, there is a nice crust on the deep snow, so much of the way we were able to stay up on top of the snow. Of course it wouldn’t be much fun without the occasional sink down to thigh level, which increased in frequency as we climbed up to the col and the snow became softer. The climb is steep, but not too dense, and we found our way back onto a small creek that led us up to the col between Hancock and the Captain. Arrived there in about 4 hours, where, having forgotten the numbers I wrote down on the map, I claimed that it but a mere 100 feet up to the Captain. Truth is, it was actually 300 feet, but since we approached from the NW side, we encountered dense shrubs, a couple of minor outcroppings and spruce traps that tried to suck the life out of me. Maintaining a blistering pace, we made it to the top 2 and a half hours later. We looked around for the canister - Hamtero went one way, I another. I made it about 50 feet before I was hopelessly trapped in a tangle of snakes and alligators and little beasts that were trying to poke me in the eye. So I went back to the meeting place and pretended I had circled the whole summit. The canister was not to be found and the temperature was dropping, so we started to head down, at which point Hamtero discovered the truth about my foray to find the jar. Damn those snowshoe tracks! Hamtero also discovered that one of the rivets had popped out of the front of his snowshoe, and the plastic was starting to look stressed…
The trip down the ‘center’ of the Captain proved to be much easier, and we made it to the pond in easy time. Pretty little pond with an ice waterfall outlet. Set up camp on the west side of the pond, and enjoyed a moonlit, though chilly night. Woke up to temps a few degrees below zero, but I know I slept a good amount because Hamtero informed me that I was making ‘little’ snores. He’s so kind.
Our original plan was to head out the way we came, but it was such a pretty day, and Carrigain looked so inviting… H. used some old toe clip straps to hold his snowshoe together (the zip ties he tried the day before snapped in mere seconds), and we decided that we’d hike for about an hour to see how tough the going was (the rough trip up the Captain spooked us a bit). Though steep, the woods are fairly open, with the only the occasional dense thicket, so we made pretty good time. H. insisted that I lead, in order to preserve his weakened snowshoe. About a third of the way up, I decided this was just a ploy to get paybacks for having worked so hard to keep the stove going, so I staged a strike, and we switched his bad shoe for one of mine. H. led the rest of the way while I cruised in back. Ha! Hit a really steep shrubby section at about 4200 feet, but the rest of the way was relatively easy, landing us up top in 4 hours.
Gorgeous views on Carrigain, but cold, so we quickly took off down Signal Ridge Tr. which is well–broken at this point. Passed a few people heading up. A short distance past the Carrigain Notch Trail junction, we headed south on the old logging road that connects to Sawyer River Road to save a few miles. The going was very easy the first 2/3 of the way, then a bit more work through the occasional battalions of young spruce, but nothing too bad. Followed a lot of interesting animal tracks – fox, bunnies, some large dog/cat-like tracks and some strange longish tracks with lots of nubbles.
We cheated a little and followed the snowmobile fireroad instead of the unbroken Sawyer River Tr. We’re only human. Had a good laugh about a mile and a half from the car, where we encountered a spanish-speaking woman and her teenage daughter on a snowmobile. "WE’RE LOST!!!" They showed us the map they had been given at the rental place, which had markings like "Main Trail", "Scenic out look #1", "#2", etc. "Do NOT go past scenic outlook #4". The best we could do is send them back to Route 302 by way of Sawyer River Rd. Hope they made it back… Today I figured out that they were supposed to be riding around in the Bartlett Experimental Area, on Bear Notch Road... We made it out just before dark, mighty pooped, but all of out limbs intact, and happy with another great adventure,
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