Scar ridge

[Heather]

From reading past posts I gather that an attempt little east pond is an overall miserable experience but has anyone ever gone at it from loon. The other half of my hiking team(boyfrind) is voting towards a Loon mtn start, but I feel starting from kanc's big rock is better. Also has anyone been up in the last week or so, how high is the water at the crossings??

Thanks so much
Heather



PS- Sorry for the terrible spelling and grammer, Im late for biochem lecture !

 

[bobandgeri]

We have done it from Little East Pond which we would not do again and from the Kanc which we would. For the river crossing we used kayking dry socks to keep our feet warm and dry.

Big Earl was planning on trying it this past weekend, so hopefully he can chime in with the current river conditions.

You can see our last Scar Ridge Trip Report here.

 

[RoySwkr]

I have done it with car spotting from the height of land on East Pond Trail to Loon, in addition to the main Scar Ridge you can tag 2 NH 100 peaks and a 3000-footer, plus a NH 200 if you go down over Black Mtn. I'm not sure why everyone doesn't do it that way.

 

[post'r boy]

I have done it with car spotting from the height of land on East Pond Trail to Loon, in addition to the main Scar Ridge you can tag 2 NH 100 peaks and a 3000-footer, plus a NH 100 if you go down over Black Mtn. I'm not sure why everyone doesn't do it that way.

"plus a NH 100 if you go down over Black Mtn."

a nh 200 highest

 

[RoySwkr]

"plus a NH 100 if you go down over Black Mtn."

a nh 200 highest

You're all correct, of course. I fixed the typo.

 

[onestep]

From reading past posts I gather that an attempt little east pond is an overall miserable experience but has anyone ever gone at it from loon.
[/I]

Last year MTNRUNR went over from Loon. Here is his
trip report.

onestep

 

[Don L]

Was on Scar Ridge on Sunday 4/2. We also parked at the Discovery Trail parking area. We went east along the brook and found a good crossing. May want to bring traction aids (like stablicers) and snow shoes (if you plan to try for the "real" summit).
Hope this is useful.
Happy hiking,
Don L

 

[JCE]

Scar Ridge - very frustrated DNF

Well, Friday was a beautiful day. EBE and I *tried* to do Scar Ridge from Big Rock Camp ground. It took us a little while to get across the stream but we did it without getting wet. We then started the hike,… just about 2 miles as a “bee line” to the canister – how easy could that be?

We don’t have a lot of bush whacking experience, but we did Sable and Chandler last year and liked it a lot. Tracking isn’t an issue, we do know how to use maps, compass, and GPS. The problem we ran into is the thick, dense spruces. The first part of the hike wasn’t bad, open hardwood forests. The woods began to get a little denser and then more dense, and so on. We looked for herd paths and used them when we could, but we soon got into **VERY** dense woods and could barely move. We didn’t see any way to avoid them and pushed on. Soon all our energy was zapped. We could barely move the woods were so thick! The GPS said we had about 0.55 miles to go to the canister but it was “up” and the woods were so thick we just had to give up after pushing and pushing. We both were really disappointed. The day was wonderful, sun, blue sky, no heat / humidity / bugs, -couldn’t get a nicer day.

Are there any “tricks” for getting up to the canister and true summit? How do people get through the thickets that go on forever – just put your head down and bear it? We’d really like to do this hike but don’t know what to do differently. Obviously many people do it successfully. Any tips would be very much appreciated.

Thanks!

 

[Kevin Rooney]

Are there any “tricks” for getting up to the canister and true summit? How do people get through the thickets that go on forever – just put your head down and bear it?

Hmm ... am wondering if you were on the wrong shoulder? It's been a couple of years since I've been up there, but after the open woods, the spruce was intermittently dense - they'd be some thick patches, then open up for a few yards, then repeat. The shoulder/ridge itself was rather narrow - a few feet wide in places IRRC.

 

[Nate]

The consensus for the West Peak of Scar Ridge is that once you get across the Hancock Branch of the Pemi River, head for the start of the ridge that extends north from Scar Ridge, rather than directly for the peak. That way, not only is the route more gradual, but the going might not be as dense as what you encountered in your first attempt. Make no mistake, there is no easy, non-dense vegetation route to West Scar Ridge, but as the popularity of this ridge route increases, the brief herd paths on it will just continue to lengthen, making it an increasingly manageable bushwhack.

 

[JCE]

Thsi was the track we took...

Attached is track...

 

[onestep]

we soon got into **VERY** dense woods and could barely move. We didn’t see any way to avoid them and pushed on. Soon all our energy was zapped. We could barely move the woods were so thick!

Looking at your GPS track explains to me why you ran into such thick conditions. Had you stayed on top of the ridge you would have found much easier going.
Last year while descending, Papa Bear and I fell off the same side of the ridge where you ended up. I know exactly what you ran into! We worked very hard in order to regain the ridge top. It was brutal!
I assume that you where *relying* on your GPS for navigation, faithfully following the course pointer, and your waypoint was the summit. If so, next time try following the lay of the land, heading as straight up the hill (ridge) in front of you as you can. That would have funneled you to the top of the ever narrowing ridgeline where conditions are a lot better.

Onestep

 

[bobandgeri]

Take a look at our track from our last treck up[ Scar Ridge:
http://rbhayes.net/latest/Scar Ridge 12-04-05/html/a.htm

You fell off the ridge - it is much easier (but not easy) going if you follow the ridge line.

 

[JCE]

Appreciate the help!

Thanks for the notes!

You've give me more confidence to try it again.

 

[bill bowden]

Scar ridge from Big Rock

From a long, long time ago. The "easy" idge is recognizable by going up between two slides and was not especially thick if you picked your route with care and kept pretty much on top of the ridge. Our track appeared to take up directly to the register.
For most bushwhackers, staying on top of the ridge is far more difficult on descent than on ascent. If I recall correctly one can end up at the top of waterfalls and mini-cliffs in the gulches but not on the ridge.

I also did Roy's route from the height of land on East Pond Trail and rather easily found registers on both knobs of East Scar and a fairly easy trip over to Middle Scar but found the route from Middle to West Scar to be somewhat daunting with thick lush spruce. Whether this is characteristic of the route or inept route finding on my part is unclear.

 

[Kevin Rooney]

Bill -

I agree with you - staying on the ridge is key to this hike. You can see from their GPS track they were down just enough to make it really heavy going. Am not surprised they turned back.

IIRC - if you stay on this ridge, which is surprisingly narrow in places, you quite literally run smack into the cannister.

Kevin

 

[JCE]

We did it - yahoo!!!!!

Well, yesterday we finally made it to the summit of Scar Ridge. It could not have been a more beautiful day! We started early and hiked all day.

Back in the thread, at the end of April, we had tried Scar Ridge and didn't know the secret that those of you who responded pointed out - get on the ridge and stay there! I'd like to thank everybody and especially Bob and Geri for the GPS track and trip report on their web site. The notes in _this_ thread almost made it easy (yea, right! ).

It took a while to get to the top, but it was a real rush in beating a hike that made us look like novice hikers back in April. Yea, we have pine needles *everywhere*, we're scratched, bloodied, brused, black and blue, and a little sore (ok, maybe a lot sore), but we did it!

Thanks to everybody who helped guide us to the ridge and give us confidence we could do it. We did Vose Spur the weekend before, that was a little tough too, but Scar Ridge was a challange (for us).

JCE & EBE (aka Gin & Tonic) and Sidekick.

 

[bobandgeri]

Congrats!! Glad that our trip report and track helped.

 

[Raymond]

Did you make it to the actual summit or just the canister?