buddy
New member
When it comes to hiking and exploring there is nothing I enjoy more than off trail explorations of the Adirondack Park. This past Columbus Day weekend presented the opportunity to hike the Boquet’s north gorge and bushwhack up the NE shoulder of Round Mountain.
As with many of the bushwhacks I have done, these two came about as a result of reading and enjoying trip reports by members of the VFTT forum. The north gorge was an obvious choice for me because water, rock and fall colors is a cocktail I cannot resist. Neil’s trip report about his bushwhack up Round Mountain made the choice for our second day a no brainer.
Three of my life long hiking buddies and I were on the road from Northampton, MA to spend the night at the Blue Ridge Motel in Schroon Lake. It was the first time staying at this motel and I highly recommend it as a place to stay.
Saturday morning we were up at six and off to the Noonmark diner for breakfast. After good eats and spotting a car at the already crowded Round Pond trail head we parked near the bridge that crosses the north branch of the Boquet at its confluence with the main branch.
What a glorious day, clear skies, full sun and 68 degree temps made for high spirits and promised a day to soak in and cherish in memory. As we were hiking south along the river in the wide open area before it turns to the west, I could not help myself from thinking about Scott Haworth, the man who has been missing in the Dix wilderness area since September 5th.
Scott is from Chicopee which is just a couple of towns away from Northampton. The description of him in the news reports made me think that had our paths crossed we could have become friends, a stretch perhaps but that is how I felt. A couple of days after he went missing it became clear that they were not going to find him in any of the obvious places. He was off trail somewhere or perhaps had left the area. How could SAR people possibly find somebody or even choose where to search for a missing person, off trail, in an area the size and as rugged as the Dix wilderness. Clues as to where he may have been going is one of the only and most useful pieces of information you have to use to guide your search. Assuming the SAR people and the state police had much more information than they were releasing and were doing everything possible to find him, I went about my life, but at the same time I could not stop thinking about him. I kept thinking, what if Scott had read Neil’s trip report about bushwhacking up Round mountain, it certainly inspired me to take that hike, and decided to take that route himself. I could not let it go, even though reason made it seem implausible. What harm could come from running that info by the state police, which I did and the Chicopee police (to see if he even had a computer), which I did. I also recruited a well known forum contributor to run it by any SAR people he might know, which he did. The SAR contact responded, correctly I believe, that they did indeed have more info than the public and that info made it highly unlikely that Scott followed Neil’s bushwhack route. It was what I needed to hear in order to let it go, yet here I was dwelling on it again on a beautiful fall day.
After managing to snap out of it and come back to the present I was back in full hiking mode hiking up the approach into the Gorge. The approach to the gorge and the gorge itself more than exceeded my expectations as an adventure. The river bed went from a flat fine gravel gently meandering waterway to an increasingly rugged, steep and boulder filled play land. In the lower section cascades and small waterfalls wound their way around car size boulders and three foot drops. The further up the river we went the boulders became larger, some house size and the waterfalls taller, 10 to 15 feet. Progress was made by stepping and leaping from boulder to boulder to cobble to boulder. The water was seasonally low but we all managed to get our feet wet at least once. The entrance to the gorge itself was blocked by a deep pool and a large boulder forcing us up the very steep right bank to the top of a 40 foot cliff overlooking the gorge. In short order we found a way back down and continued our journey up through the center of the gorge and up and around the final waterfalls to exit out the top. There we gifted ourselves a foot soaking, ibuprofen and nourishment.
When we finished licking our wounds and celebrating our journey through the gorge we continued up the stream bed to the beaver flows then onto the trail to Round pond. Starting in the beaver flows and becoming more prevalent the closer we got to Round pond, we noticed more and more surveying string and colored flagging that we soon realized was related to the search for Scott. I was impressed with the seemingly extensive and concentrated effort put forth by the SAR people in their search. I appreciated seeing the effort put forth but it did bring me back to a sad place of thinking about somebody lost or injured and at this point in time probably deceased alone in the woods. We continued down to Round pond and circumvented it around to the outlet into Twin pond. We hiked to the end of twin pond, settled down on some rocks near the water’s edge and took in the beauty of the still spectacular yet diminishing fall colors and late day light reflected in the ponds surface. My friend Erik, always up for getting a view, immediately spotted the ledges to the north of Twin pond and insisted that we climb up to them and catch our last view of the day. I argued that the view was pretty fine right where we were but he persevered and prevailed and I found myself a short time later humping my way up to the ledges. Of course he was right, it was worth the effort and we spent the next hour soaking in the view and enjoyed pointing out all the places we have explored in the Dix wilderness area. I’m the youngest in our group, at 57, and we were all pretty much out of gas and ready to head back to the motel. Pat decided to whack down the rt. 73 side of the ridge back to the car, Erik choose a route traversing down to the outlet area of Round pond and Kim and I decided to whack the ridge top over and down to the trail somewhere between Round pond and the parking area.
When we were about three quarters of the way to where we planned on picking up the trail, I started getting a faint odor of the smell of death. Because of my obsession with Scott missing in this area for the past weeks I went to the bad place right away. My rational mind was saying that creatures die in the woods and most likely what I smelled was a dead animal, my obsessed mind was locked in the bad place. As we got closer to the trail the odor became stronger and I could hear someone talking loudly in a praising voice, then I could clearly make out what they were saying. “Good boy…good boy…. you found the body…. you found the body!” In astonishment I realized that I was a short distance away from a state police officer and a search dog finding Scotts remains (it turned out that some hikers had found him about twenty minutes earlier and the police must have been just training the search dog). In a few more steps I was out on the trail standing next to the officer and his dog. I ask if they had just found Scott’s remains and he said he believed they had. Not only had they found Scott, after weeks of searching, at the same time I happened to be coming by, Scotts remains were located about 300 feet off the Round pond trail on the beginning of the bushwhack route up round mountain. I do not believe that Scott ever bushwhacked up Round Mountain or that he choose that spot for any reason other than chance, however, it was an odd coincidence from my point of view. Astonishment quickly gave way to deep sadness and sorrow. I do not know why I had become so interested in and felt such a deep connection to this man I never new, but I do. My wife, to her chagrin, will tell you that I’m a science guy, I generally have very little patience or interest for belief in anything other than cause and effect or coincidence. This experience of knowing in my heart that Scott was on some part of Neil’s bushwhack route and then finding it to be true and being there shortly after his body was discovered has at the very least caused me to reflect deeply on what I truly believe.
This much I do know to be true, like me, Scott spent a lot of time alone in the woods. From the news reporting I’ve read, it seems he was a loner in general. I tend to be a loner as well except I also have a network of friends who truly have my back. When I hike with my friends and I stand too close to a ledge, my friends encourage me to step back. I suspect that Scott had been standing around a ledge for a long time and perhaps did not have enough community to help him step back…..it is also true that you can throw someone a lifeline and they can choose not to grasp it.
Up at 7 on Sunday morning, the Noonmark diner again and off to the Round pond trail head for our bushwhack up Round mountain. We carefully circumvented Scott’s final resting place and continued up Round Mountain. Round is an easy hike as far as bushwhacks go. Plenty of open rock, although care must be taken to avoid damaging the abundant and fragile vegetation that covers large portions of the slab rock, and mostly open forest connecting the slabs. Multiple ledges facing towards the Dix wilderness provided many rest and banter stops along the way to the lower summit of Round Mountain. From the lower summit we could see many people on the summit enjoying the views and early afternoon sun. We proceeded to the summit over ledges, boulders, slab rock and the somewhat tangle forest. About 20 minutes after leaving the lower summit we were on the summit proper of Round Mountain. After an hour of soaking in the summit views we eased our way back down the mountain the way we came up.
As with many of the bushwhacks I have done, these two came about as a result of reading and enjoying trip reports by members of the VFTT forum. The north gorge was an obvious choice for me because water, rock and fall colors is a cocktail I cannot resist. Neil’s trip report about his bushwhack up Round Mountain made the choice for our second day a no brainer.
Three of my life long hiking buddies and I were on the road from Northampton, MA to spend the night at the Blue Ridge Motel in Schroon Lake. It was the first time staying at this motel and I highly recommend it as a place to stay.
Saturday morning we were up at six and off to the Noonmark diner for breakfast. After good eats and spotting a car at the already crowded Round Pond trail head we parked near the bridge that crosses the north branch of the Boquet at its confluence with the main branch.
What a glorious day, clear skies, full sun and 68 degree temps made for high spirits and promised a day to soak in and cherish in memory. As we were hiking south along the river in the wide open area before it turns to the west, I could not help myself from thinking about Scott Haworth, the man who has been missing in the Dix wilderness area since September 5th.
Scott is from Chicopee which is just a couple of towns away from Northampton. The description of him in the news reports made me think that had our paths crossed we could have become friends, a stretch perhaps but that is how I felt. A couple of days after he went missing it became clear that they were not going to find him in any of the obvious places. He was off trail somewhere or perhaps had left the area. How could SAR people possibly find somebody or even choose where to search for a missing person, off trail, in an area the size and as rugged as the Dix wilderness. Clues as to where he may have been going is one of the only and most useful pieces of information you have to use to guide your search. Assuming the SAR people and the state police had much more information than they were releasing and were doing everything possible to find him, I went about my life, but at the same time I could not stop thinking about him. I kept thinking, what if Scott had read Neil’s trip report about bushwhacking up Round mountain, it certainly inspired me to take that hike, and decided to take that route himself. I could not let it go, even though reason made it seem implausible. What harm could come from running that info by the state police, which I did and the Chicopee police (to see if he even had a computer), which I did. I also recruited a well known forum contributor to run it by any SAR people he might know, which he did. The SAR contact responded, correctly I believe, that they did indeed have more info than the public and that info made it highly unlikely that Scott followed Neil’s bushwhack route. It was what I needed to hear in order to let it go, yet here I was dwelling on it again on a beautiful fall day.
After managing to snap out of it and come back to the present I was back in full hiking mode hiking up the approach into the Gorge. The approach to the gorge and the gorge itself more than exceeded my expectations as an adventure. The river bed went from a flat fine gravel gently meandering waterway to an increasingly rugged, steep and boulder filled play land. In the lower section cascades and small waterfalls wound their way around car size boulders and three foot drops. The further up the river we went the boulders became larger, some house size and the waterfalls taller, 10 to 15 feet. Progress was made by stepping and leaping from boulder to boulder to cobble to boulder. The water was seasonally low but we all managed to get our feet wet at least once. The entrance to the gorge itself was blocked by a deep pool and a large boulder forcing us up the very steep right bank to the top of a 40 foot cliff overlooking the gorge. In short order we found a way back down and continued our journey up through the center of the gorge and up and around the final waterfalls to exit out the top. There we gifted ourselves a foot soaking, ibuprofen and nourishment.
When we finished licking our wounds and celebrating our journey through the gorge we continued up the stream bed to the beaver flows then onto the trail to Round pond. Starting in the beaver flows and becoming more prevalent the closer we got to Round pond, we noticed more and more surveying string and colored flagging that we soon realized was related to the search for Scott. I was impressed with the seemingly extensive and concentrated effort put forth by the SAR people in their search. I appreciated seeing the effort put forth but it did bring me back to a sad place of thinking about somebody lost or injured and at this point in time probably deceased alone in the woods. We continued down to Round pond and circumvented it around to the outlet into Twin pond. We hiked to the end of twin pond, settled down on some rocks near the water’s edge and took in the beauty of the still spectacular yet diminishing fall colors and late day light reflected in the ponds surface. My friend Erik, always up for getting a view, immediately spotted the ledges to the north of Twin pond and insisted that we climb up to them and catch our last view of the day. I argued that the view was pretty fine right where we were but he persevered and prevailed and I found myself a short time later humping my way up to the ledges. Of course he was right, it was worth the effort and we spent the next hour soaking in the view and enjoyed pointing out all the places we have explored in the Dix wilderness area. I’m the youngest in our group, at 57, and we were all pretty much out of gas and ready to head back to the motel. Pat decided to whack down the rt. 73 side of the ridge back to the car, Erik choose a route traversing down to the outlet area of Round pond and Kim and I decided to whack the ridge top over and down to the trail somewhere between Round pond and the parking area.
When we were about three quarters of the way to where we planned on picking up the trail, I started getting a faint odor of the smell of death. Because of my obsession with Scott missing in this area for the past weeks I went to the bad place right away. My rational mind was saying that creatures die in the woods and most likely what I smelled was a dead animal, my obsessed mind was locked in the bad place. As we got closer to the trail the odor became stronger and I could hear someone talking loudly in a praising voice, then I could clearly make out what they were saying. “Good boy…good boy…. you found the body…. you found the body!” In astonishment I realized that I was a short distance away from a state police officer and a search dog finding Scotts remains (it turned out that some hikers had found him about twenty minutes earlier and the police must have been just training the search dog). In a few more steps I was out on the trail standing next to the officer and his dog. I ask if they had just found Scott’s remains and he said he believed they had. Not only had they found Scott, after weeks of searching, at the same time I happened to be coming by, Scotts remains were located about 300 feet off the Round pond trail on the beginning of the bushwhack route up round mountain. I do not believe that Scott ever bushwhacked up Round Mountain or that he choose that spot for any reason other than chance, however, it was an odd coincidence from my point of view. Astonishment quickly gave way to deep sadness and sorrow. I do not know why I had become so interested in and felt such a deep connection to this man I never new, but I do. My wife, to her chagrin, will tell you that I’m a science guy, I generally have very little patience or interest for belief in anything other than cause and effect or coincidence. This experience of knowing in my heart that Scott was on some part of Neil’s bushwhack route and then finding it to be true and being there shortly after his body was discovered has at the very least caused me to reflect deeply on what I truly believe.
This much I do know to be true, like me, Scott spent a lot of time alone in the woods. From the news reporting I’ve read, it seems he was a loner in general. I tend to be a loner as well except I also have a network of friends who truly have my back. When I hike with my friends and I stand too close to a ledge, my friends encourage me to step back. I suspect that Scott had been standing around a ledge for a long time and perhaps did not have enough community to help him step back…..it is also true that you can throw someone a lifeline and they can choose not to grasp it.
Up at 7 on Sunday morning, the Noonmark diner again and off to the Round pond trail head for our bushwhack up Round mountain. We carefully circumvented Scott’s final resting place and continued up Round Mountain. Round is an easy hike as far as bushwhacks go. Plenty of open rock, although care must be taken to avoid damaging the abundant and fragile vegetation that covers large portions of the slab rock, and mostly open forest connecting the slabs. Multiple ledges facing towards the Dix wilderness provided many rest and banter stops along the way to the lower summit of Round Mountain. From the lower summit we could see many people on the summit enjoying the views and early afternoon sun. We proceeded to the summit over ledges, boulders, slab rock and the somewhat tangle forest. About 20 minutes after leaving the lower summit we were on the summit proper of Round Mountain. After an hour of soaking in the summit views we eased our way back down the mountain the way we came up.
