S
Shoeless Paul
Guest
Mount Washington via Raymond Ravine, 5/29/2016
Random Group of Hikers, party of 9. We ascended from Pinkham via Tuckerman Ravine and the ski trail to the foot of Raymond Ravine then bushwhacked up the ravine past the falls to the Alpine Garden Trail, thence Lion Head/Tuckerman to summit & Lion Head/Tuckerman on descent. I had done this bushwack twice before (last in june of 2015). Both then and now we went up right at the lower falls then left up to the overhang falls, behind the overhang falls, then right around to the top of the falls, thence up the creek bed to a prominent U-shaped talus field (apparent in aerial imagery) visible beside the creek bed where there are a few old cairns. From the right hook of the U there is an extremely dense but short patch of eyeball deep tuckamore to push through before clearing to mostly rock and low brush the rest of the way. There were some snow covered stretches of creek in the upper part of the creek bed, nothing that required special gear but weak & subject to sudden collapse underfoot. Keeping to the side helped. Alpine wildflowers (Lapland Rosebay, Alpine Azalea, Diapensia) in near-full bloom in the Alpine Garden and Lion Head.
BUT: This year we found that someone had handsaw cut out a bootleg path along part of the route. We first noticed the path just beyond the overhang falls & followed it up to the top of the falls. We did not follow the bootleg path down to see where & how far down it goes (would be on the N side of the creek). We also noticed that some of the alder hanging over the creek bed route above the falls had been sawed off too. The cuts appeared to be <1 year old. As much as we appreciated a break from the difficult bushwhacking at that point, we were dismayed that someone had taken it upon themselves to hack path through what has been a uniquely challenging and relatively pristine bushwhack route. I'll leave my lengthy rant about ignorant behavior to the reader's imagination.
[email protected]
Photos pending: http://www.meetup.com/random-hikers/events/230977899/
Random Group of Hikers, party of 9. We ascended from Pinkham via Tuckerman Ravine and the ski trail to the foot of Raymond Ravine then bushwhacked up the ravine past the falls to the Alpine Garden Trail, thence Lion Head/Tuckerman to summit & Lion Head/Tuckerman on descent. I had done this bushwack twice before (last in june of 2015). Both then and now we went up right at the lower falls then left up to the overhang falls, behind the overhang falls, then right around to the top of the falls, thence up the creek bed to a prominent U-shaped talus field (apparent in aerial imagery) visible beside the creek bed where there are a few old cairns. From the right hook of the U there is an extremely dense but short patch of eyeball deep tuckamore to push through before clearing to mostly rock and low brush the rest of the way. There were some snow covered stretches of creek in the upper part of the creek bed, nothing that required special gear but weak & subject to sudden collapse underfoot. Keeping to the side helped. Alpine wildflowers (Lapland Rosebay, Alpine Azalea, Diapensia) in near-full bloom in the Alpine Garden and Lion Head.
BUT: This year we found that someone had handsaw cut out a bootleg path along part of the route. We first noticed the path just beyond the overhang falls & followed it up to the top of the falls. We did not follow the bootleg path down to see where & how far down it goes (would be on the N side of the creek). We also noticed that some of the alder hanging over the creek bed route above the falls had been sawed off too. The cuts appeared to be <1 year old. As much as we appreciated a break from the difficult bushwhacking at that point, we were dismayed that someone had taken it upon themselves to hack path through what has been a uniquely challenging and relatively pristine bushwhack route. I'll leave my lengthy rant about ignorant behavior to the reader's imagination.
[email protected]
Photos pending: http://www.meetup.com/random-hikers/events/230977899/
