saddleback mountain (brownville) 8/23/13

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bryan

New member
Joined
Mar 2, 2004
Messages
1,019
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Location
southeastern, nh
date: 8/23/13

trails: logging roads, bushwack

conditions: i drove kathadin iron works road, which is in good condition, for about 6 miles from rt. 11 in brownville. here i turned right onto an unsigned road, but i had seen it shown as merther road on some maps. this road is being actively used as a haul road so is relatively well maintained and easily driven in a passenger car. a bit muddy and wet in spots from rain the night before. at 3.6 i came to the edge of the land currently being logged where the road could have been chained at a bridge (one was there), but was not. i still decided to park just before this point (though i ultimately could have easily driven all the way to where i started the bushwack). there were not any no trespassing signs, but one insinuating you should have permission to use the land beyond the bridge. there was no contact info. or even the name of the company working the land to go along with the sign and no one was there to ask so i decided to just go on with my planned hike. in a couple of tenths up the road i came to an active landing area and turned left uphill and away from the area being logged. from there it was less than a mile to where i started the bushwack up the southeastern slope of the mountain at first using somewhat recent skidder roads. above the skidder roads the woods got steep in places, but were generally pretty open and i only passed through a few thick spots though i was still quickly soaked as everything was wet from rain the previous night. i encountered a few small cliffs that were not a problem to get around or through then the woods tightened up a bit towards the ridge. once on the ridge i found some intermittent herd paths leading to the summit. i descended roughly the same route.

equipment: nothing in particular.

comments: nice bushwack to start off the day. clouds were still holding on otherwise there may have been some good filtered views from around the summit northwest to the whitecap range. got a couple glimpses south on the ascent. pretty sure from whitecap later in the day that i saw some sort of talus slope or ledge a short distance down from the summit to the north that could be worthy of a visit on a clear day. felt a lot like fall up high with a solid breeze and moderate temps. spooked a nice bull moose on the hike back down through the skidder roads.

bryan

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