Daniel Eagan
Active member
Sawyer Road was still closed as of 8/28, however the road itself seemed to be in fine condition. In fact we saw trucks both as we ascended and coming back down. The drivers said that the state was worried about the public driving across a dip caused by an Irene washout, but the road looked a lot better than some we've been on in Maine.
Two reroutes on the Signal Ridge Trail looked like they would erode pretty quickly.
Got to the big boulder easily enough. From there we bushwhacked through mostly open hardwoods WSW to an obvious ridge line. As the other reports point out, you can see it on topos but it's impossible to miss once you're there. We pushed through some thicker stuff near the ridge that we probably could have avoided by heading in a more southerly direction.
Picked up a clear herd path once we reached the height of land, heading up and northwest. Every bit of blowdown caused the path to shatter into pieces, but it was pretty easy to pick up where to go ahead.
Intermittent flagging proved more a distraction than a help. Don't really need a flag at the bottom of the talus field, for example, especially five feet from a cairn. And of course when you want help there's not a flag to be seen.
Cairns mark the bottom and top of the talus field, the only real view of the day. Above the talus field it does get steep, but the path is always obvious. Summit canister confusingly opened on the top, just after we trained ourselves to unscrew them from the bottom. Many VftT names in the three logbooks, including Dale & Sherry (#99) who just finished their NE Hundred Highest, and Beth (#88), both from July.
We found the herd path easier to follow descending. We stayed on it so long, in fact, that we missed our turn to the east by about a hundred feet in altitude. That meant slabbing back more to the north than the east, leading us briefly into the thickest woods of the day. We emerged about fifty feet to the north of the boulder.
The hike out was a breeze, even the extra 2 miles or so on the road.
Two reroutes on the Signal Ridge Trail looked like they would erode pretty quickly.
Got to the big boulder easily enough. From there we bushwhacked through mostly open hardwoods WSW to an obvious ridge line. As the other reports point out, you can see it on topos but it's impossible to miss once you're there. We pushed through some thicker stuff near the ridge that we probably could have avoided by heading in a more southerly direction.
Picked up a clear herd path once we reached the height of land, heading up and northwest. Every bit of blowdown caused the path to shatter into pieces, but it was pretty easy to pick up where to go ahead.
Intermittent flagging proved more a distraction than a help. Don't really need a flag at the bottom of the talus field, for example, especially five feet from a cairn. And of course when you want help there's not a flag to be seen.
Cairns mark the bottom and top of the talus field, the only real view of the day. Above the talus field it does get steep, but the path is always obvious. Summit canister confusingly opened on the top, just after we trained ourselves to unscrew them from the bottom. Many VftT names in the three logbooks, including Dale & Sherry (#99) who just finished their NE Hundred Highest, and Beth (#88), both from July.
We found the herd path easier to follow descending. We stayed on it so long, in fact, that we missed our turn to the east by about a hundred feet in altitude. That meant slabbing back more to the north than the east, leading us briefly into the thickest woods of the day. We emerged about fifty feet to the north of the boulder.
The hike out was a breeze, even the extra 2 miles or so on the road.
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