Vose Spur directions?

[Raymond]

I'm thinking of taking a stab at climbing Vose Spur this weekend. Reading over past posts, I get the idea I should head for the height-of-land in Carrigain Notch, then veer off in the vicinity of a large rock, stay left of a talus field, then hook back to the right... or is it the left?

Can anyone give me anything more specific than this? People write of the large rock as if it's a well-known landmark, so I suppose I'll recognize it when I see it, but at this point I can't picture the route, and I'd like to get as good an idea as possible of what I'm letting myself in for before I go. (As an example, I had a clear mental image of both the start of the Santanoni Range herd path and the swamp on the route to Couchsachraga merely from Joan Collins's description of those places on the old lexicomm.com site, and those images matched the real scenes.)

I know, I could just keep going up until I can't go any higher, but I'll be alone and don't want to get lost or killed.

Is the idea to follow the wilderness boundary that is prominent on the map (the line that resembles a trail that goes through Carrigain's and Vose Spur's summits, cuts across a shoulder of Lowell, then goes to Anderson)?

Or should I strike off well before that, leaving the trail and making for the Carrigain/Vose Spur col (heading off toward ten o'clock, that is)?

Thanks for any help.

 

[Stan]

Attempting Vose Spur from the height of land along the boundary line is probably the worst and most dangerous approach. Look at the contours!

The traditional bushwhack starts at a point that you get to find southeast of the height of land. The "large rock", in my opinion, is not a necessary clue since you may waste needless time looking for some dumb rock instead of the summit.

If you look at the topo you'll see a faint ridgeline SSE from the summit. Just about any departure from the trail near the brook will get you to that ridgeline and it'll be obvious when you are there. Thence, follow the ridgeline to the summit. I would plot some compass directions and stay true to them. There are various herd paths created by man and moose and most seem to lead to the summit.

Your question suggests you are more comfortable with narrative descriptions than map and compass skills. If so, I think this is an unsafe way to bushwhack, even when herd paths will eventually get you to your summit.

 

[Bob]

Do not go to height of land. The *most obvious* spot to turn off the trail is when you get a view of Vose Spur, at a nice spot where the brook is. A perfect lunch spot. There are two herd paths to follow, not obvious at first. It's really one of the easier bushwacks, a good intro...the Gene Daniell's description lists this spot. (but it took me 3 times to figure out what he was talking about)

 

[Mike]

Raymond, here is a possible route from the Sawyer River Road and Signal Ridge Trail that which worked well for me. The description represents directions I received from Dennis C. plus my own comments.

Follow the Carrigain Notch Trail to an open view rest area along the Carrigain Brook, just before a "U" shaped trail relocation. This is a good spot to take a photo of Vose Spur and Mt Lowell. Continue on the "U" shaped relocation which goes left, away from the brook. Shortly you will come back to the origanal trail and pass next to a big boulder (4 foot high) in the middle of the stream. The take off point is shortly after this boulder. Look for an open drainage area on the left going up hill and take it. Follow the dry drainage area up and emerge into open hardwoods after going through a small area of spruce. Turn left (approx. southeast) and continue until you climb up to the middle of another drainage area. (You are slabbing to the left all the time.) This one is much steeper than the 1st. Use the drainage as much as possible to attain a ridge on the other side of the drainage. Follow the center of this ridge (NNW). As you climb higher, it gets steeper. Follow the contours, slabbing left through more open forest. Don't try to shortcut this route which is taking you to the left of the summit and actually heading you towards Mt Carrigain. You will reach another ravine (don't go into this one however) and pick up a ridge which comes up from the col between Vose Spur and Carrigain. Turn right (NE) onto this ridge through some older spruce "whips" and follow the ridge which starts out pretty narrow at first then becomes broader. You should be in open woods now using the the ridge contours to lead you to the summit. You will pass over the first bump (false peak) and continue on flat ground then shortly obtain more elevation to 2nd bump where the register is located in a tree enclosed area with no views.

Good luck!

 

[Raymond]

Well, I made it, and I didn't even have to urinate on my peanut butter sandwiches.

Tried to follow Mike's directions; recognized the U-shaped trail, found the large rock, although it was in the middle of the trail, not a stream. Wasn't sure where the "open drainage area on the left" was.

A short distance before this I had encountered Gary from Kittery, who was just thinking of striking off up a dry streambed. He asked me where I was headed, he had the same destination; we joined forces.

Gary had no instructions, as I did, but we guessed that a herd path-like area on the left was the open drainage area, so off we went. We soon encountered a nice path up a narrow ridge, but the herd path abruptly vanished and we were left to struggle through the spruce. We frequently stumbled onto short herd paths, but none lasted very long.

We eventually came to the top of a cliff, then saw the talus slope some much-earlier posters had described (which I found through the VFTT search mechanism), well to our left. I guess we had gotten way too far to the right, because those other posters had all said that one should go to the left of the talus. We didn't bother trying to get over to the talus (maybe we should have), just kept trying to go upward. It was relentlessly-steep going, but after about two hours off-trail we reached the summit and came right up to the canister.

Some people in the canister register had claimed to have followed a herd path all the way from the Carrigain Notch Trail to the top, so when we departed the summit we followed the path back along the ridge as far as we could. It brought us right down to the talus field, which we crossed along its top to the right, where we reached the woods again and found another herd path. We were able to follow this path a long way down a narrow ridge, but eventually it disappeared (or we lost it) and we came to a stream bed (maybe one of the drainage areas?). We followed the stream as far as we could, crossed to a second streambed (dry) when the first stream was blocked by blowdown, and followed this second one until Gary spotted the trail intersecting it. Ninety minutes after we'd left the summit we were back on the Carrigain Notch Trail, an hour from the car.

I don't know what time Gary had begun his hike, but the hike took me just under six hours round trip.

Gary broke his hiking pole on the descent (stepped on it in the streambed) but otherwise semed none the worse for wear; I scraped up my right leg on the ascent, my left leg on the descent. Worst was when (on the best herd path, no less) I walked into a hidden stump (see avatar).

Incidentally, I found a little pedometer near the summit. It was still alive; 2.84 miles recorded. Anyone here lose it?

Stan — not to be argumentative, but I don't understand how compass directions would have helped us here. You didn't offer any anyway, and neither did anyone else. The only mention of compass directions I found in my search of old posts was one in which the poster had followed a 280-degree heading. That's barely north of due west, which was why I wondered about the approach being from the height-of-land along the wilderness boundary. It didn't seem to make sense to me, either.

 

[Raymond]

Kevin, I guess you've already been up there, so you may know if there actually is a herd path that goes all the way up. We certainly didn't find it. When I first encountered Gary he was standing in a dry streambed to the left of the trail, about a quarter mile before the U-shaped trail rerouting and the four-foot high rock in the middle of the trail. I think there may even have been two intersecting streambeds there.

Thinking about it later, I wondered if it might not have been better if we had followed the streambed up the mountain and kept a close lookout for herd paths branching off it to the right.

There was a note on the summit register's inside cover (from Gene Daniell, I suppose) that said that Vose Spur is possibly the most difficult of the New England Hundred Highest, but despite the difficulty of the route to the summit, nobody has found an easier way. I'm not sure if he meant that nobody has bothered to look for an easier way, or if he meant that an easier way exists but hasn't been found.

Judging by the contours, it's no less-steep around the back — northern — side.

 

[Puma concolor]

Great follow-up report, Raymond. I'm kicking around the thought of doing Vose Spur this summer by the route you took and will definitely make the most of your report if I decide to go. In the meantime, I'm planning Peak Above the Nubble for Thursday.

 

[Stan]

Raymond, a compass would not have prevented that wounded knee. Ouch.

You're right. Few people ever mention compass headings and Gene Daniell doesn't use them in his directions. I always use them, even when I don't need them, but never pass on specific headings for a couple reasons: 1) a compass direction assumes both a departure point and a destination. Though the destination is the same, bushwhacks often start from somewhat different departure points so any given heading could be misleading. 2) One of my joys of bushwhacking is laying this out for myself on a topo; I respect others' preference for designing details of the route themselves. If we all used the same route it'd be a herd path quicker than it already is.

At the time Gene wrote those notes, Vose Spur was perhaps one of the more challenging bushwhacks. I really don't think it enjoys that status any longer.

As for another reason why I like my compass, it helps prevent you from becoming lost ... if you know how to use it. When we first hiked Cupsuptic Snow, unsuccessfully, it was a warm wet day that turned into drizzle and low visibility. Very disorienting. We were unsuccessful in locating the summit register. I resisted all temptation to follow my intuitions down, opting instead to stay faithful to the compass. Glad we did. Came back to the logging road within 100 yards of the car. Had I followed my instincts we might have missed a turn in the road and still be hiking ... probably near Hudson Bay by now.

 

[SherpaKroto]

Raymond, the herd path that many mention is left of the talus field as you ascend, smack dab on the top of that little ridgeline. It gets faint in spots, staying left, but still on the ridgeline, you come across it again. It makes it much easier for the final push to the eastern edge of the Carrigain/Vose col. Tramper Al gave us good advice for ascending "when in doubt, cheat left" and it worked extremely well to avoid the ledges. On the return, we followed the ridgeline down until it started heading a bit steeper down toward a brook, and we walked through mostly hardwoods, hitting the trail about 1/4 mile before the sandy part of the stream where you can see Vose Spur (and take a summit bearing). When I do it again, I will leave the trail earlier than the sandy stream spot. As far as bushwhacks go, this was a bit tougher than Scar (from Big Rock on the Kanc), much easier than Peak above the Nubble (Peak 3813). Maine: the one that Stan mentions is WhiteCap. It was tougher going up than down (I finally started listening to GO). Elephant was worst of all for me. Most of the others in Maine have some level of herd path to follow. For VT, Mendon is easy, Dorset is mostly snowmobile trail. The toughest "summit" to find is Wilson. Lots of little bumps in those woods! We hit all of them to be sure.

When compared to other bushwhacks, the NEHH are mostly very tame.

 

[bobandgeri]

We climbed Vose Spur this weekend. Followed the herd path about 2/3 of the time on the way up, and about 3/4 of the way down. Pics and details at:
http://rbhayes.net/latesthike.html

 

[Ridgerunner]

Compass

Stan — not to be argumentative, but I don't understand how compass directions would have helped us here. You didn't offer any anyway, and neither did anyone else. The only mention of compass directions I found in my search of old posts was one in which the poster had followed a 280-degree heading.

There are some of us that bushwack taking the compass direction, not from the web, but from the map, after reading Gene's wonderful descriptions (it takes a while to get to love them). How silly of us ! Geez, we even have to add the magmetic declination. Glad I am trough with all these silly summits.

 

[Dennis C.]

I'm late finding this post. Thanks Mike for filling in. There are lots of ways (none easy) to tackle Vose Spur and heaven knows I've done enough of them over the years. From all those efforts comes the best route I've found. It's through mostly open woods all the way. However, there's no taking the steepness out of that peak!
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VOSE SPUR (New England 100 Highest in NH)

Vose Spur is a very prominent steep wooded summit peak extending out to the northeast from its neighboring 4000 footer, Mt. Carrigain. There are some open views from several cliff faces (east) and talus rock piles (west and south). Some hikers bushwhack down from Mt. Carrigain along the long ridge. It’s not too bad getting to the talus boulder field col …, then there’s the very thick spruce belt....(!)
For many years, Vose Spur had a porcelain sign with engraved Spanish words, with something like “Casa Esplanade”, in addition to the summit register.

The bushwhack route described below has the advantages of a more gradual ascent through mostly all open woods:

Follow the Carrigain Notch Trail to an open view rest area along the Carrigain Brook, just before a “U” shaped trail relocation. This has to be one of the best photo spots for both Vose Spur and Mt. Lowell. The bushwhack route starts just after the relocation. There is an opening leaving left into a gently sloped “ravine”. Follow this up to emerge into open hardwoods. Turn left (approx. southwest) and continue until you climb up to the middle of a ridge (deep drainage on left, parallel to ridge). Follow center of ridgeline (NNW). As you climb higher, it gets
much steeper. Follow the contours, slabbing left through the more open forest. Don’t tackle the summit peak head-on. With patience, you’ll reach another ravine. Go through this, attain the middle of the ridge coming up from the Carrigain/Vose Spur col, turn right (NE) through some older growth spruce “snappers”, and soon you’re “home” (summit). Congratulations! Now run off and try to find a “view port”.
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[yogi]

Is it just me, or does anyone else laugh a little at how these bushwacks tend to very so much for everyone that does them? I think it's all a matter of chance and luck who hits the herd path and who misses is. And this all seems to decide if it was a hard wack, easy wack....
I say this because my experience on some of these hikes is exactly opposite as others. The wacks some say were the easier ones I found very tough, and visa-versa.
Anyway, I guess this really doesn't belong nor add anything to this post, other than I believe you should always expect the worst and not rely on the fact that someone else followed a trail from the third purple rock just after the second big oak from the left hand fork in the trail all the way to the canister. It's all great info, but don't forget the basics.

 

[MarkJ]

Just Go up

I kinda agree with you Yogi.Everyone's bushwack is different.Just go around the corner from the big rock and go up .Keep goin up til your up there.If you hit the talus that's a bonus view ,but it doesn't matter.If you wanna go down a different way ,go for it!!