Hutchins, Pilot, Mary

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SpencerVT

Member
Joined
May 26, 2015
Messages
406
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19
Location
Brattleboro, Vermont
My wife and I climbed Mt Mary, Pilot and Hutchins on Saturday. Perfect weather. We headed up the Fox Brook towards Mt Mary. The old log rd type trail had us on the wrong side and we needed to cross over the brook.
However, the snowmelt runoff has turned the brooks into a raging torrent of Amazonian whitewater from hell. This forced us to go up the brook for way over a mile until we found a reasonably safe place to cross and bushwhack to the summit. The water was so intense there was simply no safe place to cross anywhere, you would be instantly swept away and washed out into the Atlantic Ocean in like 8 minutes; it was going so fast it passed Dale Earnhardt Jr.
What felt like a long ascent to Mt Mary was rewarded with the cool summit birdhouse-type summit register and then we checked out the amazing cabin in the col between Mary and Pilot. Snow above 3200' feet requiring snowshoes. The ridge from Mary, over the Pilots and then onto Hutchins was the most open comfortable woods one could ask for. Totally open the entire ridge to Hutchins, it was a great route to snowshoe.
From Hutchins we descended staying on the ridge above the Cummings Brook. (on the northwest side of the brook). This ridge is a gem in New Hampshire. I cannot emphasize enough how awesome it was. So open, you could play rounds of golf. Grassy open fields and spacious glades, which afforded views into Vermont and of the sunset. This was one of the best trailless ridges I have encountered. Total hike took 9 hours including the stop at the cabin and the snow slowing our pace a bit. This was a great bushwhack.
 
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Don't you need permission from the landowner to hike Mary? It was my understanding it's located on private property.
 
Its considered common courtesy to contact the landowner when hiking on private property. It is not a legal requirement unless the land is posted. I have never heard of anyone having issues hiking up the road and through the fields to the old logging road. Generally the landowner in the past has welcomed hikers and I believe that in last year or two I have read a report that the owner welcomed hikers. Given that most folks take the Cummins Brook drainage back out, it makes sense to park down on Lost Nation road and walk up the driveway
 
I'm not sure where Spencer parked, but the road going up Whipple Brook is the one I think you guys are talking about, which goes all the way to the cabin (it was used by the cabin owners). It's been a few years, but the landowner was more than welcoming of hikers, he just didn't want ATV's or guns on his property. I think he had a sign at the ready stating hikers welcome if he wasn't around (or didn't feel like answering the door :rolleyes:).
 
I didn’t see any evidence of No trespassing /private property keep out, the entire day during the route we went.
It was a great area and an awesome ridge. The biggest concern was the melt runoff, - I cannot emphasize enough how much the water was rushing, it was crazy.
 
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