NH_Mtn_Hiker
New member
At about 7:30am Hamtero and I departed the parking area at the south end of Sawyer River Road and headed south past the gate on the logging road/snowmobile trail towards The Captain. We took a right at the first junction and followed the road for about 45 minutes to a clearing making only one wrong turn along the way. 
We picked our route up to the Captain from the clearing. The clear view of the peak, the cols, and the mountains, Hancock and Carrigain, to either side made route picking fairly easy. We decided to ascend from the east col and descend from the west col. The descent route meant following a brook from the col back to the logging road, that was easy enough. The ascent was a bit trickier due to all the small cliffs on the side of Mt. Carrigain. Dr. Wu and I had were unable to descend this way last month due to the cliffs. Hamtero and I choose a route to the right side of most the cliffs climbing to about 3,000 feet then angling left to pass under another cliff while still climbing gradually to about 3,300-3,400 feet. Then we could traverse the slope above the remaining cliffs till we reached the Carrigain/Captain col.....It was a plan.
The logging road had given way to a grassy road which became a trail which gave way to a herd path and at about 2,400 feet the bushwhacking began. The trees were surprisingly thick at first but soon opened up a bit and we made our way along moose paths where we could up to the base of the first cliff. We climbed the ledges up the right side of it and upon reaching the top we altered course a little to the left and gradually climbed up to 3,400 feet. We then traversed the slope towards the Carrigain/Captain col and never encountered any of the other cliffs.
After traversing the slope for awhile I began to get a little concerned about the Captain. We should have reached the col by now I thought. Finally I noticed a pond a couple hundred vertical feet below us. That's Carrigain Pond I thought, oops!, that means we went too far. We looked over our shoulders and sure enough there was the Captain...behind us, we had walked right by it. We back tracked a few hundred feet then angled down to the col and across towards the north west side of the Captain.
The whacking up the side of the captain was very thick. it took nearly an hour to reach the cannister from the col. After reaching the cannister we read and signed the summit register, verified our elevation with our altimeters, then headed out to the south-west. Initially we were looking for a nice sunny cliff face to have lunch at, but unable to find such a spot on the east side, we headed back to the top of the little ridge then whacked towards the south west. Along the top we soon came to a spot we discovered was about 2 feet higher than where the summit cannister was. We continued along the nearly level ridge until we spotted a large rock. The rock was roughly 9 feet x 7 feet x 5 feet high. Posterboy had once mentioned he believed the summit was a large rock, and when we climbed onto the rock and looked towards where the cannister was it was clear the rock was higher, about 7 feet in my estimation. We searched around the rock and at the previous high point for additional summit cannisters but were unable to find any.
After enjoying a well deserved lunch from the top of the rock, the true summit of the Captain, and getting a nice sunburn, we headed for the south west col. After reaching the col we headed south across the Wilderness boundary (which he had crossed several times but never saw any of the blazes, etc.), then down along the brook which would take us back to the logging road. Bushwhacking along the brook was difficult and we were getting tired of it so we took to rock hopping down the brook, bushwhacking around the numerous waterfalls and pools. The waterfalls were one of the best parts of the hike. Individual falls were as high as 15 feet with some cascades covering 50-60 vertical feet. Keeping our feet dry was impossible but it beat whacking through the thick stuff. Finally we picked up an old logging road on the north side of the brook which took us by the clearing we had picked our route from earlier in the day. We climbed up to the familiar clearing, took a lengthy break then hiked back on the logging road to the parking area.
The 11 hour hike was awesome for it's mountainous views, waterfalls, clear skies, warm temps, and nice bugs (they were out, but didn't bother us much).
Pics are here.
We picked our route up to the Captain from the clearing. The clear view of the peak, the cols, and the mountains, Hancock and Carrigain, to either side made route picking fairly easy. We decided to ascend from the east col and descend from the west col. The descent route meant following a brook from the col back to the logging road, that was easy enough. The ascent was a bit trickier due to all the small cliffs on the side of Mt. Carrigain. Dr. Wu and I had were unable to descend this way last month due to the cliffs. Hamtero and I choose a route to the right side of most the cliffs climbing to about 3,000 feet then angling left to pass under another cliff while still climbing gradually to about 3,300-3,400 feet. Then we could traverse the slope above the remaining cliffs till we reached the Carrigain/Captain col.....It was a plan.
The logging road had given way to a grassy road which became a trail which gave way to a herd path and at about 2,400 feet the bushwhacking began. The trees were surprisingly thick at first but soon opened up a bit and we made our way along moose paths where we could up to the base of the first cliff. We climbed the ledges up the right side of it and upon reaching the top we altered course a little to the left and gradually climbed up to 3,400 feet. We then traversed the slope towards the Carrigain/Captain col and never encountered any of the other cliffs.
After traversing the slope for awhile I began to get a little concerned about the Captain. We should have reached the col by now I thought. Finally I noticed a pond a couple hundred vertical feet below us. That's Carrigain Pond I thought, oops!, that means we went too far. We looked over our shoulders and sure enough there was the Captain...behind us, we had walked right by it. We back tracked a few hundred feet then angled down to the col and across towards the north west side of the Captain.
The whacking up the side of the captain was very thick. it took nearly an hour to reach the cannister from the col. After reaching the cannister we read and signed the summit register, verified our elevation with our altimeters, then headed out to the south-west. Initially we were looking for a nice sunny cliff face to have lunch at, but unable to find such a spot on the east side, we headed back to the top of the little ridge then whacked towards the south west. Along the top we soon came to a spot we discovered was about 2 feet higher than where the summit cannister was. We continued along the nearly level ridge until we spotted a large rock. The rock was roughly 9 feet x 7 feet x 5 feet high. Posterboy had once mentioned he believed the summit was a large rock, and when we climbed onto the rock and looked towards where the cannister was it was clear the rock was higher, about 7 feet in my estimation. We searched around the rock and at the previous high point for additional summit cannisters but were unable to find any.
After enjoying a well deserved lunch from the top of the rock, the true summit of the Captain
, and getting a nice sunburn, we headed for the south west col. After reaching the col we headed south across the Wilderness boundary (which he had crossed several times but never saw any of the blazes, etc.), then down along the brook which would take us back to the logging road. Bushwhacking along the brook was difficult and we were getting tired of it so we took to rock hopping down the brook, bushwhacking around the numerous waterfalls and pools. The waterfalls were one of the best parts of the hike. Individual falls were as high as 15 feet with some cascades covering 50-60 vertical feet. Keeping our feet dry was impossible but it beat whacking through the thick stuff. Finally we picked up an old logging road on the north side of the brook which took us by the clearing we had picked our route from earlier in the day. We climbed up to the familiar clearing, took a lengthy break then hiked back on the logging road to the parking area.The 11 hour hike was awesome for it's mountainous views, waterfalls, clear skies, warm temps, and nice bugs (they were out, but didn't bother us much).
Pics are here.
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