Bushwhacking techniques and goals

Hello, all,

I would like at this point to introduce myself to this forum, which I have recently rejoined. I have a history in hiking northern New England and also in the Smokies. My whole aim and purpose is bushwhacking for its own sake, not as a means to the end of peakbagging. I've done peakbagging up north (NE 100, winter NHs, almost done with NH 100). I did a lot of hiking in northern New England in the period 1993-2009, then disappeared back to my true love, the Smokies. I would have to say the Smokies are my first love. I will move back up north at the end of this month because my sister in New England has some pretty severe health problems and I want to help her out.

I believe folks in New England do not understand what it means to bushwhack in the Smokies. Here is an example from earlier this year, climbing up one of the slides on Anakeesta Ridge.

On one of the threads, I recently expressed my preference for using map/compass/altimeter rather than GPS. But don't for a moment think folks "down South" are lagging behind their hiking brethren in the north in this respect. Most serious bushwhackers in the southern Appalachians use GPS. I am an eccentric in my preference for the old-fashioned tools (map, compass, altimeter).

What I love about bushwhacking in the Smokies is the old tradition for exploring up streams and ridges purely for the sake of adventure, not for peakbagging purposes. I seriously intend to promote this approach back north. In the South the most serious obstacle is rhododendron. In the North the worst obstacle is scrub spruce as you approach treeline. Believe me, I've "been there, done that."

So we have two really totally separate things, my love of bushwhacking for its own sake and my use of pre-GPS tools.

I will be back on this site proposing outings different from what most folks do up here. For instance, I truly love to rock-hop directly up streams.

I move from Sylva, NC to St. Johnsbury, VT, at the beginning of June. I hope with all my heart that I will find a few souls interested in doing the kind of hiking I love to do.

If you like the steeper slides, maybe check out the some of the folks who are climbing slides or while not really a bushwhack, the Trap Dike on Colden. Other thing, not sure it's findable anymore here but for a while there was a "Lost Trails" subset that were walking some of the trails from the 50 - 70's WMG guide.

For brook hopping, the Old Gale River trail used to come up closer to the Garfield, Galehead col following a brook that branches off the Gale River trail. To quote, or misquote, Joe Walsh, "I ain't ever been there, they tell me it's nice"... There are some cascades and falls there. Loved the rhododendron when I was out on Cliff Tops on LeConte. Was out in bad weather, the flowers & the cabins were all I could see.

Welcome back & wishing your sister the best.

Welcome back from what I prefer to call the Soggies, not Smokies. Not that I haven't enjoyed them. I'm actually very impressed with the area.

It surprised me to learn that the rainfall is equivalent to the Pacific Northwest. Between that and the relatively moderate climate, it is considered one of the most biodiverse areas on the planet. One of our pleasant memories in that regard was a jousting elk herd in late winter in the Cataloochee Valley.

Despite all that rainfall, the trails we enjoyed were in terrific shape and nicely drained. It didn't seem that trails wash out, just the sides of the mountains.

Appreciate your adventurous and original approach and your attitude on GPS. Map and compass is my way of bushwhacking; it gives me a closer connection to both the land I tread upon and an atavistic connection to those who have gone before. Both are important parts of my spiritual experience in the outdoors. Plus, no batteries required, just some preservation of gray matter.

As for rock hopping up streams, my preferred method is paddling downstream ... but, as my cousin's husband, a retired conservation officer, once said, "Next time I go paddling with Stan, remind me to bring my hiking boots."

Mike P., I remember you from my earlier stint in the northeast. You always had friendly and helpful comments to make on the forums. Yes, the Daks have some famous slides and I have always had the Colden Trap Dike in the back of my mind. I have seen it from across the lake but never done it. There is something about the geology and soil of the Daks that makes for more slides than in the Whites--the soil just seems to peel off the granite bedrock.

There's lots of soil and vegetation over the bedrock in the Smokies, but what happens is that you get spectacular cloudbursts very localized over a particular stream valley, and the whole thing gets swept down in a wall of water. I have seen valleys literally swept clean of vegetation up to 20' above the stream on both sides--you find gigantic logjams at the bottom.

Stan, yes, the Smokies are what they call a temperate rainforest. The diversity of plant life is incredible. There are two kinds of trilliums in the north, the Smokies have at least seven. There are more than 30 kinds of violets in the southern Appalachians, and on it goes. There are many big trees (though unfortunately the giant hemlocks have been decimated by the woolly adelgid). I went on a hunt for the national champ red spruce (150' high) and found a likely candidate. On the other hand, I love glacial landscapes with vast forests and some great wildlife like moose and loons. The South has no natural lakes and ponds, only reservoirs. As a person fixated on landscape, I find something to love just about anywhere I've lived.

Also, regarding "lost trails," I'm interested in that. I'd like to do the Adams Slide route and the Ravine of Raymond Cataract. In doing a similar thing in the Smokies, I go to the old maps, for instance the 1931 or 1948 maps. There are for instance old CCC trails no longer maintained.

Colenso said:

Also, regarding "lost trails," I'm interested in that. I'd like to do the Adams Slide route and the Ravine of Raymond Cataract. In doing a similar thing in the Smokies, I go to the old maps, for instance the 1931 or 1948 maps. There are for instance old CCC trails no longer maintained.

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Maybe I shouldn't say it out loud here, but Adams Slide tr. is in a better shape than some non-closed trails in the ADK

I wish you to find a better route up to alpine garden than us after the veil cascade

I guess you have read about the lost trail from Smugglers's notch (destroyed by a slide) to the lake, we didn't try to explore that one yet.

I looked at some of your hiking pictures, Sherby. Great stuff! You are an explorer! Regarding Adams Slide, I am guessing the upper section has a lot of scrub. I can deal with that. I am familiar with conditions where it takes 3 hours to go 1 mile (though a different type of vegetation).

Colenso said:

I looked at some of your hiking pictures, Sherby. Great stuff! You are an explorer! Regarding Adams Slide, I am guessing the upper section has a lot of scrub. I can deal with that. I am familiar with conditions where it takes 3 hours to go 1 mile (though a different type of vegetation).

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Watch for loose rocks going down from Adam's summit. It's not as bad as some other slides in the whites though.

I will also add that folks who hike the trails of the Smokies have no better idea of the bushwhacking experience than folks from far away, like New England. It is a parallel universe. I would estimate that no more than 20 people at most do this kind of bushwhacking in the Smokies. versus many thousands that hike the trails.(I know all the Smokies bushwhackers--we all know each other.) I would very much like to find the people in New England who do the true bushwhacking. Not following the herd path to a named summit. I realize that even since I climbed peaks like Reddington or Scar Ridge back in the late 90s, the herd path has become so well defined that you can't call it a bushwhack. I am sure some people prefer it that way, but I don't, and I will stay away from those peaks. Surveyor's tape is an atrocity, in my opinion. I need to get away from these heavily trampled paths and into areas where no one goes.

When you tire of the (diminishing) thrill of going up, there's always the alternative:

On a River's Frozen Falls and Twists

Sardog1, I take it you are Norwegian or at least have a connection with Vinje. Thank you. This move from south to north is very difficult for me. I have all the cold-weather gear (snowshoes, real crampons (not microspikes), etc.) What I am groping for is an inspiration having to do with the north. By the way, I went on a trip to Swedish Lapland last year in Sarek (you can find it on my blog). i read Per Petterson, the Norwegian author. It all has to do with imagination about the landscape. Without a connection with the place (through imagination or inspiration), it ain't worth doing.

Bushwhacking and traditional Land Navigation skill. Can't be good at one without knowing the other.

My joy with bushwhacking began very early, with my dad taking me into the woods, hiking and hunting, where being on a well used trail was rare to nearly never. Life then lead me to become an instructor navigator in the Air Force, back in the day when SAC assumed that there would be no electronic navigation aids when "the big one" blew. GPS did not exist, and would not work under the assumption anyway. Dead reckoning was really the primary means of navigation, with paying careful attention to every detail. Every training flight involved more than 2 hours dedicated to the navigator, including turning off external signal navigation equipment. Ever fly over the poles, or all the way across the Pacific using only dead reckoning and a sextant? Builds character. And confidence.

Hiking for recreation, I much prefer to visit rarely visited locations in the Adirondacks, remote small ponds and the like, rather than the popular peaks and trails. No GPS. To me, hiking long distances on peopled trails is, quite frankly, boring. Few senses are needed to be alive to follow a trail, compared to what it takes to spend a few days tuned to every natural navigation clue to arrive precisely at any isolated location I want to visit.

I became a licensed guide, mostly for the fun of it, not necessarily to work at it. I teach land navigation at BSA National Camping School, where in 8 days in the field we train and certify trek leader guides who will work summers leading scouts on extended wilderness trips. I joined a SAR team, in which it seemed there was a lack of navigation skills with the members across the board. So I developed a series of basic and advanced land navigation courses, including GPS. I refrain from teaching GPS to individuals before they (and I) are confident with their skill ability in the basics of map and compass. My philosophy is if you can't get there using only map and compass, then you don't have the necessary skill to go at all. GPS is a wonderfully useful tool necessary for efficiency in many outdoor applications, but is not a substitute for basic navigation knowledge skill. NY State invited me to join its Homeland Security training team, and now I teach basic and advanced navigation skills to law enforcement agencies and members of SAR teams from all over the state. Good stuff.

"Ever fly over the poles, or all the way across the Pacific using only dead reckoning and a sextant? Builds character. And confidence."

Thank you. I very much wish I had flown over the poles. I am very grateful that I have traveled quite a few places around the world. I am not saying this to boast, for instance along the lines of "We stayed at such a quaint place in Sicily." I have no desire to compete with anyone about world travel. I will simply say that I have been to India, Indonesia, Turkey, Colombia, Brazil, Bolivia, Australia, South Africa, and just about everywhere in Europe (including former Yugoslavia and former East Germany). The reason I say this is just that I very grateful for the perspective this gives me about our Globe--north of the Equator, south of the Equator. I wish everyone had a chance to travel around the globe. If you have the least bit of imagination it will expand your sense of possibility.

Nessmuk, I am interested in your experience. I am interested in military history, especially in WWI. I have been writing about WWI here. What does this have to do with hiking? Actually, quite a lot.

There are a few 'true' bushwhackers in the North East. I am friendly with some of them, but not quite up to their caliber. Most of them no longer hang out here, and their 'secret' bulletin board is now closed as well. While I enjoy peakbagging, I also have a few places on my bucket list that are just whacks to seldom traveled places. My wife talks about the freedom that comes with knowing how to navigate when we teach navigation classes.

I'm not a flower expert, but there are at least 4 types of Trilliums in the North East, all of which grow on the same peak in the Dax!

I did not read your blog, but I do know that the 10th Mountain Division was an early pioneer of mountaineering skills, techniques, and gear, back in the day. I was fortunate to meet some of them at Lakes a few years ago. Even in their 80's, they were still hiking!

What trilliums are those on that mountain? The only ones I have ever seen in the northeast are the painted trillium and the nodding red trillium (Trillium vaseyi, sometimes called Vasey's trillium). I don't doubt your statement, I am just curious. By the way, I am very fond of the Catskills. I have done the 3500, finishing with Bearpen and Vly, but never put in to the club for the patch. One of my most favorite places in the world is the East Branch of the Neversink and all the peaks that rim that watershed, from Table to Slide.

Hey Colenso,

If you (or anyone else on this forum) would be interested in trying a sizable bushwhack, there is a beautiful, nearly uninterrupted ridge with no major trails on it running about thirty miles from Moretown south to Stockbridge VT. I'll be doing it over the course of a few days in June with the hopes of seeing some bobcats and saw-whet owls before looping back up along the west side of the backbone of the greens up to Rt 89. If anyone is interested in joining me, let me know!

As for me, I also prefer to go GPS-less, just using natural handrails and landmarks to figure out where to go. Let me know if you are planning any single-day bushwhacks too- there are tons in the northeast to cool locations. I recommend the west side of burnt rock mountain, following a stream up to a moose-laden pond before scraping my way through the evergreens to the top, which generally has no crowds.

That sounds great. I would probably opt for a single-day bushwhack in the latter part of June for the simple reason that I will be busy house-hunting in the first part of the month and I will not have all my backpacking gear with me at that point. I like the idea of a "moose-laden pond." That is the kind of thing that helps me get over the terrible loss of the Smokies and gets me back into the wonders of the North.

Like I said, I am not a botanist, but there are pure white, painted, red (purple), and yellow varieties to be seen, but rarely.

I was just in the neck of the Catskills recently. The haunts between Rocky and Balsam Cap are rugged and wild!