.April 29, 2006
Well, I am back from Pennsylvania and New Jersey where I completed about 155 miles of the A.T. I can't wait to hit the local A.T. sections again. Four weeks ago on April 1st I did a section in the White Mountains. There was still a lot of snow but it's got to be gone by now. I know the real high elevations like Mount Washington would be snow covered but I was going up Mount Success which at 3565 is over 2700 feet lower than Washington.
Lynn has offered to crew me, but she has done so much I hate for her to do that when it is just a local hike. These sections will take longer not being crewed, but I'll get all the local A.T. sections done eventually.
Today's plan. Drive to New Hampshire and hike the A.T. section between Gentian Pond Campsite and the Carlo Col Shelter, crossing over into Maine in the process. This is only 5.2 miles, but I am going to have to do a lot of bonus miles. To get to the Gentian Pond Campsite I have to take the Austin Brook sidetrail that I estimate at about a mile and a half. I also have to get back over the same route so now I am up to about 14 miles roundtrip which will include summiting Mount Success twice.
I made my way up the steep trail to Gentian Shelter.
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Gentian Pond
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Time for some new A.T. miles, so I headed north. I immediately passed a bunch of platforms for tents, so FYI, this campsite has both a shelter and several tent platforms. After going up for a while I started a 400 foot descent. My feet tell me I should be going up if I am climbing Mount Success. I have to explain to my feet that the map is showing an elevation drop before the 1,500 foot rise.
There is a lot of limbs, branches, and trees in the path. It's early in the year so I guess no one from the Appalachian Mountain Club has made it up this way yet. Much of the debris requires a saw. I like to help out on the trails when I can so I removed some of the smaller limbs as I went. I had to remind myself that I wasn't sure what was ahead and not to take too much time. If I had time on the way back I could do trail maintenance.
I start the very steep climb up. There are a lot of stone staircases to help with the climb. I notice a little ice here and there, but no big deal. But then, it starts to get worse and worse. The steeper the trail got the more ice there was. It got to the point where the steep trail resembled a frozen waterfall more than a trail. The pictures below are not what I saw off the trail, but the actual trail itself.
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In places like this I tried to bushwack my way next to the trail but the woods were just to thick. I had to strategical look for a spot against a root, tree, or rock for each step, hanging onto the trees for dear life. A slip here and I would be sent back to start. At this moment, I actually missed the rocks of Pennsylvania, at least they weren't covered with ice.
I made it through the steepest part of the trail and the ice faded out and was replaced with snow. ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
~ ~ At first it was easy but the snow got deeper and deeper. As I walked I could see that a couple other people had been here recently. They must have been here when the snow was softer because the footprints went deep into the snow. As I looked deep down into one of the footprints, I realized these weren't people footprints but moose tracks. So no one has been up this way yet, no hikers, no AMC members, nobody. At this point, I was convinced that I was the first one to hike this section of trail in 2006.
I made my way up to the top of Mount Success. The top of the mountain had no snow. I am guessing because the trees are very small at the top, the snow that was there was more exposed to the sun and wind. ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
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~ ~ I walked along the top enjoying the great views especially of the Presidential Range which was still snow covered. ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
~ ~ I made my way to the summit where I noticed a sign had fallen over the course of the winter. I stood it back up and piled more rocks around it, making extra certain I had the arrows on the sign pointing in the right direction. I'm trying to help, not get hikers lost.
Time to head on to the Carlo Col Shelter. I start heading down the east side of Mount Success. This side of the mountain doesn't get as much sun and as a result the snow was much deeper here. At one point I drove my pole down into the snow to see how deep it was, at least 2 feet in places. ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
~ ~ The trail became very hard to follow. There were few blazes on the trees and if there were blazes on the rocks, they were buried. The trail narrowed and there were lots of limbs and downed trees. I couldn't make out if I was on the trail or not. I saw more moose tracks. I sure hope Mr. Moose is a nobo because I'm going to try to follow him for a bit. My next landmark should be a sign where Success Trail joins the A.T. I was about to give up when I stumbled across the sign, so apparently Mr. Moose knew where he was going. Mr. Moose headed down the Success Trail. I had 2 more miles on the A.T. to get to Carlo Col Shelter. I paused, trying to decide whether I should continue. I still had more than enough time to do this so I decide to give it a shot. I didn't get more than 5 minutes down the trail when I lost it. I couldn't find the trail or any blazes.
This is where I stopped and asked myself 5 important questions: 1) How many hikers do you think will come by today if you need help? Hmmm. Zero.
2) What was the temperature when you left home this morning? Brrrr. 31.
3) How much colder does it get in the mountains? A lot.
4) Have you had a nice hike so far? Yes.
5) Do you want to live to tell about it?
That was the clincher.
I can get those 2 A.T. miles via the Success side trail another day. I followed my footsteps all the way back up to Mount Success, reaching the summit for the 2nd time today. I now had plenty of time to enjoy the views. I looked back to the col I tried to hike through. It looked like a green blanket yet there was all that snow and ice hiding underneath the tops of evergreen trees. How tricky!
Getting back down the trail or 'frozen waterfall' was tough but not as bad as I anticipated. When I finally got back below the ice I spent about an extra hour removing limbs and branches as I hiked. I thought of the thru hikers I met in Pennsylvania and New Jersey during the last 2 weeks. They will be coming this way in a couple of months. In a small way, I'll be helping them out.
When I got back to the shelter I needed to use the privy (outhouse). I usually don't take pictures of the inside of outhouses, but when I saw this sign above the toilet seat I had to take a picture..
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I was almost through for the day and with hours of sunlight left I decided to enjoy the shelter that I had to myself so I relaxed by the pond and then took a nap.
From here I safely hiked my way back to my truck. Did I complete my goal today? No. Do I consider today a failure? On the contrary, today I climbed a mountain whose very name was "Success."
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