adktyler
Active member
I’m quite hesitant to write this report, because every time a hike of ours doesn’t go as planned, I feel like we loose quite a bit of credibility and respect. I’m not sure if that is pride talking, or just the fact that I cringe when I think about the situations in which we end up, and the decisions which lie behind those circumstances. Nevertheless, here is the story of our “winter 47” completion:
My dad and I arrived at the Upper Works trailhead at 6:30am on Saturday. It rained for the majority of the drive, and continued in a steady mix of rain and sleet as we geared up for our trek. The air was warm, and smelt faintly of spring. As we began to trudge along, we noted that no one had been up MacNaughton from that direction for the entire month of December and before. Upon arriving at the second trailhead, I put on my tails, and we began the trail breaking that continued for the rest of the day. We chose a bushwhack up MacNaughton from the south, and while I won’t include details, I’m sure it’s easy enough to figure out which route we chose. Our course meandered though surprisingly open forests, and we crisscrossed the stream bed only when we found it necessary. Even though the snow was unbroken and a couple of feet deep, it packed down well, so neither of us needed to slam our snowshoes down multiple times with every step.
VIDEO of bushwhack to Wallface Ponds: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IESHjGuzq9w
As we neared Wallface Ponds the snow became a lot deeper, and the spruce traps much less merciful. As you can see in the video, I was swimming though snow at some points. The ponds were well frozen over, and we crossed them with ease. The rain had been falling on and off throughout the morning; sometimes sleeting, and sometimes merely sprinkling. We took a short food break at the base of MacN, and were soon on our way up the peak about which I had heard many a nightmarish story. The beginning of the climb was intense, and a wrong step on my behalf sent me plummeting into chest-deep spruce traps. However, about one third of the way up the mountain the woods became much more open, and spruce traps all but disappeared. I was incredibly thankful for the lack of blow down, since I had set myself up for the worst. However, another condition-based challenge haunted us: mash potato snow!
VIDEO of whack up MacNaughton: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t8pmgCUGKVE
Mash potato snow, slush…oobleck, call it what you may, this snow was terrible. I would much rather have been breaking trail though powder. The water-soaked slush stuck to my snowshoes and made me feel like I was hiking in 1950s-era led diving boots! Here we have a fairly open route up to the summit, and the snow conditions simply had to make the going a challenge. I guess it wouldn’t be MacNaughton if it were easy. After two hours, however, we made it to the summit ridge. And so began the game of find-the-summit. If I had really paid attention to the ten-odd trip reports I read about MacNaughton, I would have remembered that the summit sign is on the northwest summit. But no, we instead spent thirty minutes wandering around the ridge looking for the sign. The GPS, of course, showed the summit to be on the middle peak, the one with the southern overlook. That’s where we ended up, and contented ourselves with it being the true summit, and good enough for us. Besides, that’s where the maps listed the location of the highest point, and for all we know it’s higher than the northwest summit anyway. I’m content, and you nit-pickers can hassle me all you want
VIDEO of summit of MacNaughton:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tCK-I7CD-3s
The real adventure began after we left the summit! We arrived back at the Wallface Ponds in pretty good spirits. The rain had mostly soaked us though at that point, but we had no other complaints – we just bagged MacNaughton! A beautiful sunset behind the viewless peak further adding to our good spirits, not to mention we found the exit trail back to Indian Pass quickly and easily. However, our good spirits were short lived. Within two minutes of being on the trail I had fallen though the snow and into a wet puddle not once, or twice, but three times. Then, we lost the trail. This majorly ticked me off, because I had my hopes up for an easy exit following a straightforward trail. It disappeared as soon as we hit the unnamed pond, and we ended up following the drainage all the way to Scott Pond (this is CHOCK FULL of blow down, and is shear torture to push through, especially in the dark). In hindsight, if we had stayed more south we probably would have been able to find the trail. But in our defense, the trail had been ambiguous at best from the Wallface Ponds on.
VIDEO of Wallface Ponds: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aqfybq2l1dQ
Joining the trail once again at the end of Scott Pond was a major relief. Even though it wasn’t broken, we trudged along at a pretty good pace and eventually made it back to Indian Pass. This is when my dad hit the wall. His energy was pretty much gone, our pace slowed quite a bit, and he felt sick to his stomach. Once we passed the intersection with Cold Brook Trail, the nightmare reared its ugly head in all of its sinister glory. Not only had we failed to calculate the steep incline in the trail parallel to Wallface, but we also spent only half the time between that intersection and the Wallface Lean-to on the actual trail. The remaining time was spent wandering around, crawling slowly in the general direction, looking for trailmarkers, with adrenaline-strangled minds. My father was exhausted, and we had a heck of a time trying to find the marked path. I was most scared while navigating a boulder field at one point roughly 500 feet southeast of the actual trail. I constantly came to dead ends, with a twenty foot boulder in front of me, and a twenty foot-deep cavern to the right and left of me. That entire area to the east of Wallface is choked with mammoth stones, lending it nearly impossible to travel though.
Sunset:
After an insufferable amount of time, we finally reconnected with the trail. The GPS showed us crisscrossing the trail constantly, and it wasn’t until I said to heck with it, and decided to simply head towards Indian Pass Brook, that we found the marked path. I should have known better, because I’m well aware that the GPS map is often inaccurate when it comes to finer details. I must say, conversely, that seeing that faded, worn-out trailmarker next to the Indian Pass Brook was one of the most beautiful sights my eyes have ever beheld. Trying to hike though the mess of terrain we had just traversed in the wind and rain at 11:00 at night is NOT my idea of a good time!
Some nice ice:
The remaining hike out consisted of consistent breaks, a speed below one mile per hour, and micro-nap breaks at the two lean-tos. We arrived back at the car by 1:30 am, making it a total of 16 hours round trip. That’s a long time to be hiking such a “short” distance (16 miles maybe?). What have we learned? Well, my dad knows his limitations better, and I know that I can’t simply suggest a hike without taking into consideration all of the factors. Plus, examining the topo lines a little more carefully also wouldn’t hurt! Either way, we drove home, called a worried wife and girlfriend on the way, and after several nap breaks made it home safe and sound at 6:30 am. I slept though the day and it was totally worth it.
The Macs, shrouded in clouds:
My dad and I arrived at the Upper Works trailhead at 6:30am on Saturday. It rained for the majority of the drive, and continued in a steady mix of rain and sleet as we geared up for our trek. The air was warm, and smelt faintly of spring. As we began to trudge along, we noted that no one had been up MacNaughton from that direction for the entire month of December and before. Upon arriving at the second trailhead, I put on my tails, and we began the trail breaking that continued for the rest of the day. We chose a bushwhack up MacNaughton from the south, and while I won’t include details, I’m sure it’s easy enough to figure out which route we chose. Our course meandered though surprisingly open forests, and we crisscrossed the stream bed only when we found it necessary. Even though the snow was unbroken and a couple of feet deep, it packed down well, so neither of us needed to slam our snowshoes down multiple times with every step.
VIDEO of bushwhack to Wallface Ponds: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IESHjGuzq9w
As we neared Wallface Ponds the snow became a lot deeper, and the spruce traps much less merciful. As you can see in the video, I was swimming though snow at some points. The ponds were well frozen over, and we crossed them with ease. The rain had been falling on and off throughout the morning; sometimes sleeting, and sometimes merely sprinkling. We took a short food break at the base of MacN, and were soon on our way up the peak about which I had heard many a nightmarish story. The beginning of the climb was intense, and a wrong step on my behalf sent me plummeting into chest-deep spruce traps. However, about one third of the way up the mountain the woods became much more open, and spruce traps all but disappeared. I was incredibly thankful for the lack of blow down, since I had set myself up for the worst. However, another condition-based challenge haunted us: mash potato snow!
VIDEO of whack up MacNaughton: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t8pmgCUGKVE
Mash potato snow, slush…oobleck, call it what you may, this snow was terrible. I would much rather have been breaking trail though powder. The water-soaked slush stuck to my snowshoes and made me feel like I was hiking in 1950s-era led diving boots! Here we have a fairly open route up to the summit, and the snow conditions simply had to make the going a challenge. I guess it wouldn’t be MacNaughton if it were easy. After two hours, however, we made it to the summit ridge. And so began the game of find-the-summit. If I had really paid attention to the ten-odd trip reports I read about MacNaughton, I would have remembered that the summit sign is on the northwest summit. But no, we instead spent thirty minutes wandering around the ridge looking for the sign. The GPS, of course, showed the summit to be on the middle peak, the one with the southern overlook. That’s where we ended up, and contented ourselves with it being the true summit, and good enough for us. Besides, that’s where the maps listed the location of the highest point, and for all we know it’s higher than the northwest summit anyway. I’m content, and you nit-pickers can hassle me all you want
VIDEO of summit of MacNaughton:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tCK-I7CD-3s
The real adventure began after we left the summit! We arrived back at the Wallface Ponds in pretty good spirits. The rain had mostly soaked us though at that point, but we had no other complaints – we just bagged MacNaughton! A beautiful sunset behind the viewless peak further adding to our good spirits, not to mention we found the exit trail back to Indian Pass quickly and easily. However, our good spirits were short lived. Within two minutes of being on the trail I had fallen though the snow and into a wet puddle not once, or twice, but three times. Then, we lost the trail. This majorly ticked me off, because I had my hopes up for an easy exit following a straightforward trail. It disappeared as soon as we hit the unnamed pond, and we ended up following the drainage all the way to Scott Pond (this is CHOCK FULL of blow down, and is shear torture to push through, especially in the dark). In hindsight, if we had stayed more south we probably would have been able to find the trail. But in our defense, the trail had been ambiguous at best from the Wallface Ponds on.
VIDEO of Wallface Ponds: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aqfybq2l1dQ
Joining the trail once again at the end of Scott Pond was a major relief. Even though it wasn’t broken, we trudged along at a pretty good pace and eventually made it back to Indian Pass. This is when my dad hit the wall. His energy was pretty much gone, our pace slowed quite a bit, and he felt sick to his stomach. Once we passed the intersection with Cold Brook Trail, the nightmare reared its ugly head in all of its sinister glory. Not only had we failed to calculate the steep incline in the trail parallel to Wallface, but we also spent only half the time between that intersection and the Wallface Lean-to on the actual trail. The remaining time was spent wandering around, crawling slowly in the general direction, looking for trailmarkers, with adrenaline-strangled minds. My father was exhausted, and we had a heck of a time trying to find the marked path. I was most scared while navigating a boulder field at one point roughly 500 feet southeast of the actual trail. I constantly came to dead ends, with a twenty foot boulder in front of me, and a twenty foot-deep cavern to the right and left of me. That entire area to the east of Wallface is choked with mammoth stones, lending it nearly impossible to travel though.
Sunset:
After an insufferable amount of time, we finally reconnected with the trail. The GPS showed us crisscrossing the trail constantly, and it wasn’t until I said to heck with it, and decided to simply head towards Indian Pass Brook, that we found the marked path. I should have known better, because I’m well aware that the GPS map is often inaccurate when it comes to finer details. I must say, conversely, that seeing that faded, worn-out trailmarker next to the Indian Pass Brook was one of the most beautiful sights my eyes have ever beheld. Trying to hike though the mess of terrain we had just traversed in the wind and rain at 11:00 at night is NOT my idea of a good time!
Some nice ice:
The remaining hike out consisted of consistent breaks, a speed below one mile per hour, and micro-nap breaks at the two lean-tos. We arrived back at the car by 1:30 am, making it a total of 16 hours round trip. That’s a long time to be hiking such a “short” distance (16 miles maybe?). What have we learned? Well, my dad knows his limitations better, and I know that I can’t simply suggest a hike without taking into consideration all of the factors. Plus, examining the topo lines a little more carefully also wouldn’t hurt! Either way, we drove home, called a worried wife and girlfriend on the way, and after several nap breaks made it home safe and sound at 6:30 am. I slept though the day and it was totally worth it.
The Macs, shrouded in clouds:
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