buddy
New member
2/17/14 through 2/21/14
My friend Erik and I departed Northampton MA at 4:30 AM to meet the rest of our group for breakfast in Elizabethtown. We planned on departing from the 70 Lane/Wells road intersection near the Jay Mountain Wilderness area for a few days of camping and poking around. There was good parking available where the town plowed a very short section of Wells road past Seventy Lane. The four of us were on our way at 10 AM pulling our gear laden sleds up the snowmobile packed Wells
road a ways until we veered north into the wilderness area and bushwhacked up to the beaver flow between Slip and Saddleback Mountains. Although the woods were very open,
the going was slow due to the 18 to 20 inches of unconsolidated dry powder snow. We alternated breaking trail and as the light faded we found ourselves setting up camp on a knoll overlooking the beaver flow. As one member of our group tended to warding off hypothermia the rest of us set up our wind shelter (5x40 lightweight blue tarp pulled around 4 trees) cooking and hanging area,
made hot food then were driven into our tents to get out of the 40+ MPH gusts and -4 deg temps. After a night of tent rattling wind and a morning of collecting some of our wind dispersed gear we headed up Derby brook to the col between Saddleback mountain and the knob to the SE of its summit. Due to the snow conditions and not being fully recovered from the day before, the col is as far as we got. We decided to head back down and explore the area around the flow and continue up to Saddlebacks summit the next day. The second night treated us to periods of clear star studded skies and a moon rising over the Champlain valley
which we could see through the trees from our campsite. We each spent some time alone poking around the flow and surrounding area until our weariness forced us to turn in for the night. The next morning brought light overcast skies and moderate breeze, perfect for completing our climb to Saddlebacks summit.
The previous day work made the hike up to the col along our broken track, in and out of the stream bed and through alternating open conifer and beech/birch forest a pleasure. We arrived at the col energized and ready for the last bit of bushwhacking up and along the SE shoulder of Saddleback. We considered climbing up to the summit via a open birch forest gully that paralleled the shoulder to the summit but the depth and quality of the snow made movement through it almost impossible. I was waist deep in snow, with my snowshoes on, almost immediately upon entering the gully. After swimming back up to the shoulder we continued up the moderately steep shoulder through initially open hardwood that gradually closed in with tight yet passable spruce. We were on the summit much quicker than we anticipated. The summit area had nice variable views S E and W alternating between periods of sun and socked in cloud cover. Under different conditions I think there are views to the N as well but dense snow packed vegetation greatly hindered any travel N along the summit ridge. We probably could have drop down a little and circled around to the west to try and attain a N view but the visibility made the effort seem somewhat pointless. After exploring around for about an hour, we headed back down the way we came up and arrived back at camp with enough daylight left to do some more camp local woodland exploring.
After hearing the weather report for the coming Friday we knew our trip would be cut short by a day due to the forecast of heavy sleet and rain. We spent Wednesday evening hanging around camp drinking a mix of ice cold Baileys and Jameson and strolling around the flow.
We slept late Thursday morning, broke camp upon rising and had an easy uneventful trip back to our cars, except for my run away sled that caused me great concern as it disappeared around a corner on our broken track. I located my sled about 200 yards further down track nicely nestled against a tree.
Jay Mountain Wilderness area is becoming one of my favorite bushwhacking areas, second only to the Dix Wilderness area. Aside from the Jay Peak ridge trail, the area offers a sense of solitude, pristine forest and small scale dramatic landscapes. I will definitely continue to explore more of this area in the future. Thanks for the info offered by forum members in helping plan this trip.
My friend Erik and I departed Northampton MA at 4:30 AM to meet the rest of our group for breakfast in Elizabethtown. We planned on departing from the 70 Lane/Wells road intersection near the Jay Mountain Wilderness area for a few days of camping and poking around. There was good parking available where the town plowed a very short section of Wells road past Seventy Lane. The four of us were on our way at 10 AM pulling our gear laden sleds up the snowmobile packed Wells
road a ways until we veered north into the wilderness area and bushwhacked up to the beaver flow between Slip and Saddleback Mountains. Although the woods were very open, the going was slow due to the 18 to 20 inches of unconsolidated dry powder snow. We alternated breaking trail and as the light faded we found ourselves setting up camp on a knoll overlooking the beaver flow. As one member of our group tended to warding off hypothermia the rest of us set up our wind shelter (5x40 lightweight blue tarp pulled around 4 trees) cooking and hanging area, made hot food then were driven into our tents to get out of the 40+ MPH gusts and -4 deg temps. After a night of tent rattling wind and a morning of collecting some of our wind dispersed gear we headed up Derby brook to the col between Saddleback mountain and the knob to the SE of its summit. Due to the snow conditions and not being fully recovered from the day before, the col is as far as we got. We decided to head back down and explore the area around the flow and continue up to Saddlebacks summit the next day. The second night treated us to periods of clear star studded skies and a moon rising over the Champlain valley which we could see through the trees from our campsite. We each spent some time alone poking around the flow and surrounding area until our weariness forced us to turn in for the night. The next morning brought light overcast skies and moderate breeze, perfect for completing our climb to Saddlebacks summit.The previous day work made the hike up to the col along our broken track, in and out of the stream bed and through alternating open conifer and beech/birch forest a pleasure. We arrived at the col energized and ready for the last bit of bushwhacking up and along the SE shoulder of Saddleback. We considered climbing up to the summit via a open birch forest gully that paralleled the shoulder to the summit but the depth and quality of the snow made movement through it almost impossible. I was waist deep in snow, with my snowshoes on, almost immediately upon entering the gully. After swimming back up to the shoulder we continued up the moderately steep shoulder through initially open hardwood that gradually closed in with tight yet passable spruce. We were on the summit much quicker than we anticipated. The summit area had nice variable views S E and W alternating between periods of sun and socked in cloud cover. Under different conditions I think there are views to the N as well but dense snow packed vegetation greatly hindered any travel N along the summit ridge. We probably could have drop down a little and circled around to the west to try and attain a N view but the visibility made the effort seem somewhat pointless. After exploring around for about an hour, we headed back down the way we came up and arrived back at camp with enough daylight left to do some more camp local woodland exploring.
After hearing the weather report for the coming Friday we knew our trip would be cut short by a day due to the forecast of heavy sleet and rain. We spent Wednesday evening hanging around camp drinking a mix of ice cold Baileys and Jameson and strolling around the flow.
We slept late Thursday morning, broke camp upon rising and had an easy uneventful trip back to our cars, except for my run away sled that caused me great concern as it disappeared around a corner on our broken track. I located my sled about 200 yards further down track nicely nestled against a tree.
Jay Mountain Wilderness area is becoming one of my favorite bushwhacking areas, second only to the Dix Wilderness area. Aside from the Jay Peak ridge trail, the area offers a sense of solitude, pristine forest and small scale dramatic landscapes. I will definitely continue to explore more of this area in the future. Thanks for the info offered by forum members in helping plan this trip.
