docross
In Memoriam to a Deceased Member
Fred S. and I started off from the Lincoln Woods parking lot today at 8:05, bound for the 3600+ foot summit of Hitchcock, the NH 100 highest peak. Along the way we planned to tag West Hitchcock, a 3000 footer.
Our route left right from the parking lot on a bearing of 105 magnetic. Down low, there was virtually no snow, the woods were open, and the going good. We followed the bearing until we reached a drainage with a sharp drop-off, which indicated the start of the ridge, leading up West Hitchcock from the southwest.
At this point we just followed the ridge, as it angled 140 degrees initially, then more and more northerly. We avoided going down into the drainage, and our plan paid off, because the woods were open and easy all the way to the summit of West Hitchcock. We summited there at 10:40, easily found the bottle, noted that there had been only one entry since Anne Gwynne and I logged in on 9/10/05, and that was Eric Soli (sp?) last October.
We had a good view of Hitchcock from the west peak, so we started off on a bearing of 90 mag., making sure we didn't drop off the col to either side. We started up the slope to Hitchcock, and soon ran into very serious blowdowns. By the time we realized we were in deep dung, it was too late to turn back (or, rather, we were too stubborn to do so). I figure this added anywhere from 30 to 60 minutes in our time from West to Main Hitchcock. We finally exited the blowdown patch to the north, and climbed up the peak, reaching the summit and the PVC register at 12:30.
Noting the recent logs, which included the above-mentioned Eric in October and Post'r Boy and crew, who had made it over from South Hitch in 1 hour, we signed in and decided to avoid the BDs on the way out. So we followed a bearing of 270 mag; since we had approached the peak in a northeasterly direction from the col, we purposely headed more westerly on the exit.
This strategy paid off well, as we encountered no blowdowns and mostly open woods all the way down to 3100 feet. At that point we angled more southerly, to intercept our up-going tracks, without dropping down too far to get below the col.
Having successfully intercepted our tracks, the rest of the hike was easy and anti-climactic. I will post a GPSr map of our track on my website
http://community.webshots.com/user/docross2243
for anyone who is interested.
We were back at the parking lot by 4 pm, for an elapsed total time of 8 hours. However, as is usual in bushwhacking, over half that time was logged by the GPSr as "stopped". This means the unit (therefore me) was not moving. Could have been anything from a call of nature, to lunch, to climbing out of a spruce trap.
Number 89 for me in all seasons, 59 in winter.
Our route left right from the parking lot on a bearing of 105 magnetic. Down low, there was virtually no snow, the woods were open, and the going good. We followed the bearing until we reached a drainage with a sharp drop-off, which indicated the start of the ridge, leading up West Hitchcock from the southwest.
At this point we just followed the ridge, as it angled 140 degrees initially, then more and more northerly. We avoided going down into the drainage, and our plan paid off, because the woods were open and easy all the way to the summit of West Hitchcock. We summited there at 10:40, easily found the bottle, noted that there had been only one entry since Anne Gwynne and I logged in on 9/10/05, and that was Eric Soli (sp?) last October.
We had a good view of Hitchcock from the west peak, so we started off on a bearing of 90 mag., making sure we didn't drop off the col to either side. We started up the slope to Hitchcock, and soon ran into very serious blowdowns. By the time we realized we were in deep dung, it was too late to turn back (or, rather, we were too stubborn to do so). I figure this added anywhere from 30 to 60 minutes in our time from West to Main Hitchcock. We finally exited the blowdown patch to the north, and climbed up the peak, reaching the summit and the PVC register at 12:30.
Noting the recent logs, which included the above-mentioned Eric in October and Post'r Boy and crew, who had made it over from South Hitch in 1 hour, we signed in and decided to avoid the BDs on the way out. So we followed a bearing of 270 mag; since we had approached the peak in a northeasterly direction from the col, we purposely headed more westerly on the exit.
This strategy paid off well, as we encountered no blowdowns and mostly open woods all the way down to 3100 feet. At that point we angled more southerly, to intercept our up-going tracks, without dropping down too far to get below the col.
Having successfully intercepted our tracks, the rest of the hike was easy and anti-climactic. I will post a GPSr map of our track on my website
http://community.webshots.com/user/docross2243
for anyone who is interested.
We were back at the parking lot by 4 pm, for an elapsed total time of 8 hours. However, as is usual in bushwhacking, over half that time was logged by the GPSr as "stopped". This means the unit (therefore me) was not moving. Could have been anything from a call of nature, to lunch, to climbing out of a spruce trap.
Number 89 for me in all seasons, 59 in winter.
