The Hikers
New member
Last Friday was another good hiking day, so we headed out with the plan of checking out a couple of 52WAV's in the Jackson area. Our first stop was at the "New Trail" traihead for north and south Doublehead. We had read that the best loop would be to ascend by this trail and decend by the ski trail and "old trail".We started off fairly level, but it wasn't long before the steep part began. about 2/3 of the way up I planted my poles and left foot on some slippery rock surfaces and went down FAST. Joyce called back to me "are you allright?" to which my immediate answer was "no". The rock had claimed a lot of skin from my left arm and elbow, all my knuckles were skinned, and one finger likely bruised or cracked.
Now ,as the cause was the usual inattention to footing I felt pretty stupid. After a few minutes we started hiking again, and after about 20 minutes the pain stopped preoccupying my attention. We reached the top of South Doublehead and were rewarded with great views.I took the time here to wash out my wounds with water from one of our drinking bottles, and we bandaged everything up, and picked pine needle pieces out of my knuckles. A little further on down the trail the views were even better especially looking towards Carter Notch. I took a lot of great pictures. Next we hiked over to North Doublehead, passing the top of the "old trail" in the col. We decided the best views were definately from South Doublehead. We checked out the cabin and went down the Ski Trail. Now this is not a ski trail as on a large open slope, but more like a single lane of old woods road descending down the mountain. At this point the day was warming up, and the black flies began to make themselves known. The ski trail seemed long, but eventually came out about a half a mile down from where we had parked.
We walked back to the car in the hot sun, and decided we would have our lunch in air conditioned comfort, rather than on a mountain top with the company of black flies.
After lunch we took the short drive down Carter Notch Road to the Trailhead for Black Mountain. Once again we found ourselves on a "ski trail", but this one was straight and very uniform in climbing moderately with only one very short level section. Encouraged by the blackflies we just put ourselves into automatic gear and steadily chugged up the hill. Within 45 minutes we had reached the cabin where we took a short break , and then proceeded to the summit. Here we were dissapointed to find a very small peep-view area shared with the rest of the state's available blackflies.
We spent very little time there, took a couple more pictures looking toward Carter Notch and MW.We wondered why this one was on a list. We decided this was a great mountain for a workout, and should be renamed "Stairmaster"
On the way down we put on our headnets, (why did we wait so long?)and were down in about a half an hour, passing one lone hiker who had just begun and not run into our little friends yet.
Going south down Carter Notch Road we stopped and found some private rocks in the Wildcat Brook and cooled off . We topped things off with a cone at DQ.
At home I found that cuts and bruises were not the only bad thing that happened on the hike. My camera had been left on "Macro" setting from a previous job, and all the pictures I took were ruined. So, hense, none to share with you here. Three pieces of advise from this trip: Never let up your guard with those slippery rocks, check your camera before shooting, and don't bother climbing for a view on Black Mountain.
Now ,as the cause was the usual inattention to footing I felt pretty stupid. After a few minutes we started hiking again, and after about 20 minutes the pain stopped preoccupying my attention. We reached the top of South Doublehead and were rewarded with great views.I took the time here to wash out my wounds with water from one of our drinking bottles, and we bandaged everything up, and picked pine needle pieces out of my knuckles. A little further on down the trail the views were even better especially looking towards Carter Notch. I took a lot of great pictures. Next we hiked over to North Doublehead, passing the top of the "old trail" in the col. We decided the best views were definately from South Doublehead. We checked out the cabin and went down the Ski Trail. Now this is not a ski trail as on a large open slope, but more like a single lane of old woods road descending down the mountain. At this point the day was warming up, and the black flies began to make themselves known. The ski trail seemed long, but eventually came out about a half a mile down from where we had parked.
We walked back to the car in the hot sun, and decided we would have our lunch in air conditioned comfort, rather than on a mountain top with the company of black flies.
After lunch we took the short drive down Carter Notch Road to the Trailhead for Black Mountain. Once again we found ourselves on a "ski trail", but this one was straight and very uniform in climbing moderately with only one very short level section. Encouraged by the blackflies we just put ourselves into automatic gear and steadily chugged up the hill. Within 45 minutes we had reached the cabin where we took a short break , and then proceeded to the summit. Here we were dissapointed to find a very small peep-view area shared with the rest of the state's available blackflies.
We spent very little time there, took a couple more pictures looking toward Carter Notch and MW.We wondered why this one was on a list. We decided this was a great mountain for a workout, and should be renamed "Stairmaster"
On the way down we put on our headnets, (why did we wait so long?)and were down in about a half an hour, passing one lone hiker who had just begun and not run into our little friends yet.
Going south down Carter Notch Road we stopped and found some private rocks in the Wildcat Brook and cooled off . We topped things off with a cone at DQ.
At home I found that cuts and bruises were not the only bad thing that happened on the hike. My camera had been left on "Macro" setting from a previous job, and all the pictures I took were ruined. So, hense, none to share with you here. Three pieces of advise from this trip: Never let up your guard with those slippery rocks, check your camera before shooting, and don't bother climbing for a view on Black Mountain.
