Bushwack to Carrigain pond/Captain area

Can anyone tell me if they have bushwhacked to Carrigan pond from the north/northwest? If they have did they find a tote road or use carrigain brook or some other approach?

Any and all information would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

Keith

I have already seen that when I searched. I have done the hancocks and was impressed with the feat of your bushwhack but I am not up for that approach

I am looking for a simpler approach route. I have tried the eastern approach several times to the base of the Captain and found that to be pretty rough.

Thanks for the information though.
Keith

SAR-EMT40 said:

Can anyone tell me if they have bushwhacked to Carrigan pond from the north/northwest? If they have did they find a tote road or use carrigain brook or some other approach?

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I personally have only come from the SE and from Carrigain, however I seem to recall that a friend (now deceased) came from the Pemi side on a tote road. That would have been 20 years ago and who knows if you can find it now. I have seen a photo of the pond with all the trees around it clearcut so there must have been such a road once.

About 10 years ago I followed the Carrigain Branch up for an hour or so. There are definitely traces of tote roads. It was open and the brook was beautiful, but I've heard that it's a tough route in the upper reaches.

To Carrigain from the South

There is an extremely old route to the Col on the west side of the Captain. From there it is an easy walk over to the pond. I was up there about 4 years ago and the very old original flagging is bleached out cotton twill surveyors tape. But, it has a bit of more recent plastic flagging, quite obscure, but traceable when the leaves are down. It may be a fun whack with leaves on. The route runs high up on the western ridge of the valley through which the old logging roads and log yards run. This valley is accessable from the very end of the Sawyer River road. Park at the Sawyer Pond parking lot at the end of the road and make your way up the very nice logging road which diverges to the right soon after the gate. When you come to the bridge that seems to be to nowhere, stay right and make your way into the valley along the logging roads. When you have gone about as far as the old roads can take you, turn left (west) and bushwhack across the stream and directly toward the western valley wall. About 1/3 to 1/2 the way up the ridge line you should encounter the line of old flagging. Turn right and follow the flagging slowly up toward the Captain. You will reach at point near some big ledges where there will be just a mass of tapes tied to one tree, and you can look across and see that you are above the cliffs on the right of the Captain. The Captain will be only a stones throw (please don't) away from you . From there it really gets fun. The route goes directly up through a narrow flume onto the col. When I was there, the flume was very low on water so the going was not too bad. Once up and out of the flume, you will be in a nice mixture of open woods, and white pine new growth. I was there with only my two labs so looking for flagging was a bit of a pain. Much easier with hiking partners who can say "I see another one". I lost the flagging a lot in that area and wandered around a bit which of course was just what my hiking partners wanted to do any way. Incidentally, this trip started at the Sawyer Pond trailhead off the Kanc, and was quite impromptu.

If you want a partner on this, I just might be game to go back in.

I do know a quicker way in than by following the logging road from the gate, but it difficult to describe. It involves walking up the Hancock Notch\Sawyer River Trail with a short bushwhack on old paths over to nowhere bridge.

Tom

Not necessarily on topic but I found this description of the route from Carrigain to Hancock in the 1922 White Mountain Guide which I recently acquired.

Mt. Hancock can also be reached from the summit of Mt. Carrigain. Follow the Lincoln-Livermore line to the W. down to the col. Blowdowns are best avoided by dipping to the N. Carrigain Pond in this col is the only water between the summits, and although a tongue of lumbering has marred its beauty the wood beyond make a good camping spot. From the pond follow the contour around the "nubble" to the N. until the col beyond is reached, and follow the town line to "B.M. 93" (noting sharp bends in at B.M. 87 and 88") and then strike up the ridge N.W. by W. to the summit . TIMES. Mt. Carrigain to col 1 1/2 hrs.; to Hancock 5 to 6 hrs.

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On 7/5/2004, friend Bob and I hiked up the Signal Ridge Tr to the Carrigain Notch Tr to the Desolation Tr. On the Desolation Tr, we bushwacked directly west to the Carrigain Branch. The Branch was our bushwack path to Carrigain Pond. It was rainy, albeit warm day, and it was “pick your poison”; either: 1) plodding up relentlessly thick steep undergrowth with shin-splitting fall-downs or 2) directly up the slippery rocks with 50 lb packs on. About a mile in we would had to stay left at a major brook confluence and at about 1.5 miles in we would stay right at another brook confluence. Carrigain Branch is the major waterway at each confluence. The bushwack was roughly 3 miles and very steep towards the end; We were confused by a well-defined trail on the Hancock side near the top of the stream, as there is no marked trail shown in the WM Guide. Because of this, we thought we had taken the wrong turn toward Hancock. Eventually we came to the Pond at dusk, a very beautiful, clean 4 acre pond with Carrigain rising in the background. Good campsite on the east side. However, we saw no trout “risings” on the pond surface.

The next morning we fished for 2 hours with no sign of any trout whatsoever, apparently the Fish and Game has not stocked in years. We orienteered a bushwack to “The Captain" (brutally dense fir growth) and found the summit boulder. There were great views above the cliffs on the other side over the Sawyer River valley. After our decent we swam in the Pond (awesome).

The next day we took that well-defined trail down, but it eventually turned into a moose path, so the bushwack began again down the stream.

This hike was an aggressive, gnarly bushwack . The 7 miles of hiking trail only took 4 hours. The 3 miles of bushwack took 5.5 hours. You have to be relentless.


Gregg Wilder