Camels Hump via Forest City/Long Trail/Burrows Trail

[Tim Seaver]

This is a fun loop to do from the Huntington side of Camels Hump, and much more scenic than scurrying up and down the Burrows trail. From the winter parking lot at the terminus of the Camels Hump Road (from Huntington Center), the Forest City Connector trail (.1 mi.) heads right across a stream, down a small hill, and crosses a bridge over a chasm where it links up with the Forest City Trail proper (From here it is 3.2 miles to the summit). Easy grades lead to the Long Trail and a warning sign about attempting to follow the trail in winter.

From here the trail winds through and over humps of various sizes with fantastic views of Mount Ethan Allen and to the south, and a great view of the summit face of Camels Hump as you approach its base. Thanks to the wet and wintry mix of the last snowfall, the trees had a good frosty coat, and the trail surface snow was pretty well bonded to the ice beneath it with few bare ice patches (we used screwboots). There are a few steep bouldery areas and slabs which could be interesting in deeper snow conditions along this part of the trail, but for the time being, a good amount of hiker traffic is keeping the route pretty well defined.

The LT comes to a junction where the Alpine Trail comes in from the right just below the summit block, which then is bypassed on the left (after a rather precarious step/reach around move) through a shallow groove that winds around clockwise and gains the summit from the other side. The summit was quite cold, but just as beautiful, with thick rime ice plastering every surface. As the windchill was pretty substantial on the summit, we boogied over the top and down the LT/N to the Burrows Trail junction, lounged in the sun for a good bit and then headed down the Burrows. Highly recommended!

Some pix from the day

basic overview map of trails on the hump

 

[darren]

Looks like fun. Nice shots.

- darren

 

[Toe Cozy]

my favorite

Hi,

Camel's Hump is one of my favorite mountains. Thanks for the TR and the sparkling pictures! We're getting about 4 inches of fluffy white stuff right now and it's still coming down a bit. Finally feels like winter!

happy new year.
Jen

 

[Jazzbo]

Screw Boots??

Thanks Tim for sharing those gorgeous pictures. Is there a setting on your camara that makes those sundogs?

Question? I've seen numerous references in these forums to screw boots. By screw boots do you mean Stabilicers? Stabilicers feature screws. Perhaps they're a commercial adaptation to the concept of screwing screws into your boots?

 

[Tim Seaver]

Screwbootery

Thanks all, it really was a great day for picture taking!

The "star effect" when photographing into the sun can be achieved by using a small aperture, generally at least f11 or f16 (another reason to use a small aperture when photgraphing directly into the sun is to reduce "ghosting", where reflections of the aperture appear as cascading polygons across the image, radiating from the light source). The star effect is caused by light entering the lens diffracting in the blades of the diaphragm. Many cameras have an Aperture Priority mode - you specify the aperture, and the camera will calculate the shutter speed. On a day as bright as this, the shutter speed will be high enough that you can use very small apertures and still have high enough shutter speeds for sharp hand-held exposures.

Jazzbo, you pretty much "nailed" it - Stabilicers are what amounts to a high-tech strap-on nailed boot, and judging from their popularity and positive references in trip reports by many folks here, I would imagine they are quite effective. I don't have a pair, but would love to try them sometime - as long as I don't have to carry them too far .

I use screwboots, which I would define as any winter-worthy boot that has been outfitted with either sheet metal screws or 1/2" motorcycle ice racing screws. It's not for everyone, and there are caveats to having sharp screws embedded into your favorite pair of winter hikers! Also, some of the softer boot sole compounds now on the market do not seem to hold the screws nearly as well as others. More info here

 

[Jazzbo]

Screwbootery continued ....

Thanks for the link to your very informative page. The screws on my Stabilicers do indeed look like those motorcycle ice racing screws you depict. The screw heads have been drilled/milled out with some sort of tool to give them a circular sharp edge. Merchants who sell Stabilicers also market the replacement screws. I'm looking at my new Columbia Ice Dragons and regretably the tread pattern lugs don't look beafy enough to accomadate the screws. Stabilicers are pretty heavy, but they are very good in mixed conditions we're been having thus far.

 

[Jason Berard]

Really nice pics!

That is definitely on of my favorite hikes! It looks like you got incredible weather. I was planning on hiking arrow slide on monday, but the forecast looks pretty crummy...for that hike especially.

 

[Hollywood]

Hike Photos

Tim,

Thank you for sharing the technical approach you took with these photos. I also wondered how you shot looking into the sun. I guess it helps to have a white foreground and no color close by. More importantly, it looked like a fun hike!

 

[MattC]

Great report and pictures. I did something like that loop last August, except that I parked at the lower trailhead and road-walked up to the upper one at the start of my hike. I didn't realize until the end of the hike that the little connector trail was there. I remember the pretty little gorge in the area and the bridges that had been built by a school or youth group or something. That's got to be one of the most spectacular peaks in the northeast-looks even nicer in white.

Matt

 

[una_dogger]

Great pictures! I love that section of the LT that drops down from the summit to the alpine trail.

Re: Stabilicers: I used them for the first time on Christmas Day and LOVED them. However, I lost five screws from one foot and four screws from the other on the Fishin' Jimmy Trail yesterday! (grrrr....freakin' fishin jimmy!)
I tightened them before our hike of Black Mntn today, and some loosened but held. I'm definately keeping replacement screws and a tightening tool in my pack.

Mscorsar; I REALLY enjoyed your pictures! Just beautiful, shimmery and shiny!

Here's a pic of what that section looks like during fall foliage season, I chose to come down it; it must have been very challenging to work your way up it in the snow.