Whites PEAKS Extravaganza this weekend

[bikehikeskifish]

The Pemi at Woodstock has a web cam:

http://waterdata.usgs.gov/nwis/uv?01076500

It's looking high and brown, but no white water.

What would the Wildcat loop be like with high water? 19MB has a lot of bridges as a I recall from last month... Obviously I wouldn't cross the Ellis River but go via Lost Pond.

Tim

 

[MichaelJ]

I think the Wildcat Loop would likely be just fine. Getting around Lost Pond might get your feet wet if the pond has risen at all, but I'd suspect that anything like that will be gone by Saturday. As for 19-Mile, all the major crossings are indeed bridged, and the minors should be fine. The places where the trail "is" a drainage are higher up and should be well-drained by then. There will be muddy spots up high, though, and use caution crossing the slide, which although it's been heavily rock-reinforced over the past several years, could be loose.

I'd avoid the Carter Dome Trail, but Wildcat Ridge to 19-Mile ... I can't remember any spot that would be an issue as long as, like you say, you avoid the Ellis River.

 

[MadRiver]

One of these days I will get a digital camera so I can post photos. The Mad River was a tad pissed last night where I could only see the large boulder at the Eddy while all the other rocks were underwater. This morning the level dropped during the night so I could see other rocks, but it is still running high.

 

[Zer0-G]

In retrospect and for perspective....
I did do North Twin on Saturday afternoon.

The first crossing looked nasty...perhaps it could have been done with fear of loss of life ...

But I did the "clear throat here..." bushwhack and the third crossing was easy as pie as long as you didn't expect to keep the dogs dry.

I wore my trail runners with neoprene socks and gleefully splashed my way across the trickle.

It was knee high where I went but I was not being very calculating in my choices.

 

[Jay H]

Despite the horrendous rains Mimi and I faced all week when we were in the whites, we did not have any problems crossing any stream on any trail that we were on and we did the Osceolas, Zealand->Galehead, Cannon (via Lafayette Place), the Tripyramids via Pine Bend Brook (this had a lot of stream crossings)...

We also ran into two guys on North Twin who came from the direct route to North Twin (don't remember the trail name or the trailhead parking but I know the route). This was on tuesday, 7/22..

Jay