Giant-Green-Hopkins -- Bushwhack to Green Mtn

Oct 2nd 2004 -- Bushwhack to Green Mountain.

Up Roaring Creek trail to Giant. Down to valley between Green & Giant. Somehow we missed the creek that McMartin talks about. Ended up in marshy area towards Hopkins. Turned back to solid ground and began bushwhacking by heading East-North-East by compass.

This was the worse bushwhack ever. No herdpaths. It made Cliff seem like a piece-of-cake. Made MacNaughton look easy.

Old blowdowns that had not been traversed by human foot. 6-inch wide logs that would break when weight was put on them. 15-ft high dead trees that would fall over if any weight was placed on them. Endless Spruce!! We became good at the sport of "Spruce Swimming."

Took us 2.5 hr to get near the summit. Faith in compass is a must for this one! Several times the compass told us we were heading west-south-west and not ENE! Our first instincts were to ignore the compass. Our 2nd instincts were correct. We did find the top of Green by following the compass E and the ground Up.

Coming down we headed directly south. McMartin had said there were cliffs that way (which is why, apparently, she directed bushwhackers way to the West of the lean-to).

We came down in 45 min. Not a bad descent. Had to skirt one cliff, but no problem. Found ourselves on the trail very near the lean-to.

We did find McM's creek on way to Hopkins. Not at all clear how we could have missed it the first time as it is very obvious. However, we think the way we came down from Green is prolly the right way to go up -- basically from Lean-To head north by your compass.

Has anyone else done Green? We both would be interested in your report.

Cheers,

Ebbinghaus & Ansel

If you leave the trail around the area of Giant Lean-to you would have had open forest to the summit. The only thick spot would have been the small crown around the summit.

If you'r interested in the ADK 100 highest, this peak is the least of your worries.

McMartin

Barbara McMartin has a series of guidebooks to the ADK's. I have the "Discover the Adirondack High Peaks" one -- that covers most of the 46. Ansel has the "Discover the Northeastern Adirondacks" one that covers Giant, Rocky Peak, as well as Green.

As far as I can tell she has been everywheres and climbed everything. She also seems to know all of the history for every place since 1800 onward.

Of course, all such guidebooks require an intelligent user -- especially when you are doing something whacky like bushwhacking Green.

A lot of the McMartin stuff was hiked by surrogates. Some of the books introduce you to new areas and trails but a lot of the information in her guidebooks is also dated. In many cases, trails have been rerouted, beavers have flooded bushwacks, and hurricanes have devastated areas her books claim as open woods.
In my opinion, her guides would be a "basic" introduction to a new area, but nothing more.

I've been up Green a couple times. In general, the West end of Green is thick spruce and difficult travel, while the long East half of the mountain is open forest.

The most open and best route I've found is to go from the trail about 0.4 miles East of the Leanto. There are a couple brooks that cross the trail in that area, and your bearing to Green will be about 350. Very nice open woods just about all the way up.

I have been spruce swimming down Green in the Hopkins direction. Not too bad going down; kind of a long controlled fall where you can't see your feet. It would be tough going up that stuff.

Don't know why McMartin would recommend that end of the mountain, but I haven't been impressed with those guidebooks. Driving directions are often wrong in them, too. And if her book says "cliff", you can just about ignore it. I spent some time seeking out some of those "cliffs" a few years ago. Most were rubble piles you could easily skirt, or often walk right down.

TCD

When I did it I took a route similiar to what TCD described. It was pretty open on the way up except near the top. On the way down went a little too west and briefly pushed through the spruce before heading east and back into the open woods. There is a dry streambed that marks a good starting point on the trail just west of that open sandy washed out looking spot. Anyone gone along the ridge from near the Owl Head lookout? Looks like that way wouldn't be too hard to navigate.

I've been up the long ridge from Owl Head Lookout. On my two visits to Green, I went up that way both times. The first trip, in 95, I went down toward Hopkins, through the thick spruce. The second trip, in 03, I went down as described in my earlier post. In 95 we encountered generally open woods and nice travel on the long East ridge. In 03 (possibly due to Hurricane Floyd), there was quite a bit of blowdown on the same route. Still not as bad as the West end, but not as nice as in 95. That's why we opted for the descent to the trail 0.4 miles E of the Lean to, which turned out to be the best route of all.

(The 95 trip was fun! We spotted bikes in the woods at the Mossy Cascade trailhead, and rode back to our car at the North trail to Giant. Great trip!)

TCD