Jabberwalk
New member
Monday, 8/24, was SUPPOSED to be fair weather with lots of sunshine. But, my hiking friend, Hufflepuff, and I awoke to pouring rain at the Down Home Motel in 'beautiful' Groveton. I can't recommend much about Groveton, but the Down Home, on Rt. 3, is clean, and well run by Gerry and her husband. Eating in Groveton is another matter! We had to drive to either Colbrook or Lancaster to get any kind of dinner better than gas station microwave. Everybody's Place south on Rt. 3 offers a decent breakfast and opens at 6 am.
We decided to take a stab at this hike in spite of the wet conditions. Rt. 3 to Meridien Hill Road in North Stratford, then right turn on Brown Road. At 1.4 miles we turned left off Brown road and headed toward the beginning of the Bunnell Preserve along a rough, but passable dirt road. I'm not sure how far it was to the gate, but something between one and two miles. There is parking at the locked gate.
A short distance on a well maintained logging road there is the sign for the Bunnell Preserve. The logging road was easy to follow and had some pink flagging here and there to keep you straight. It appeared that this logging road might lead directly to Bunnell mountain (formerly Blue). We decided to go to Gore first and to return by this well marked logging road, to make it easier on the way back to the car. In retrospect, I would go clockwise first to Bunnell and then over to Gore, and back, because we never did find a path to that particular logging road from the top.
There are logging roads and log yards all over the western side of these two peaks and it is easy to get confused. We got a good view of Gore Peak to the SE and branched off on a new logging road at about 2500 feet elevation. This turned out to be a good choice in that it did lead up right up to the base of the peak. But we hit really thick spruce about .5 miles from the top. We were both soaked anyway by this time because of the tall grass and narrow parts we had already waded through. Heading north seemed to allow us better access to the ridge between the two peaks and we soon reached the top. Not too many friends had been up there lately, although Carl Cressey had installed a new canister. Nate Solis apparently took the same route we had, and hit the same spruce wall.
The trip down the ridge on a NW bearing towards Bunnell was not too difficult. The col drops way down to 3100 feet before heading back up. We found some herd paths about halfway up the side of Bunnell, which we were very happy to see. The SE shoulder of Bunnell is very broad and flat before it heads up to the peak. We signed in and got some photos which proved to us that we were indeed in the clouds! They are all misty!
Now we just needed to find the herd path to take us to the first set of logging roads and the 'easy' way back to the car. We searched around for some herd path that might lead in a SW direction, but we never found one. Instead we took various herd paths leading SSE and eventually arrived back on the logging road that took us directly to Gore. We knew that we were heading too far to the east, but there was no break in the thick spruce that took us on the SSE road.
So, we took the long way back to the car, probably adding a mile or two to the loop, but it was still a great day in the mountains.
Here is a link to some photos on webshots. The last shot is of Bunnell, now completely clear of clouds and rain!
http://outdoors.webshots.com/slideshow/574342252arsCkS
We decided to take a stab at this hike in spite of the wet conditions. Rt. 3 to Meridien Hill Road in North Stratford, then right turn on Brown Road. At 1.4 miles we turned left off Brown road and headed toward the beginning of the Bunnell Preserve along a rough, but passable dirt road. I'm not sure how far it was to the gate, but something between one and two miles. There is parking at the locked gate.
A short distance on a well maintained logging road there is the sign for the Bunnell Preserve. The logging road was easy to follow and had some pink flagging here and there to keep you straight. It appeared that this logging road might lead directly to Bunnell mountain (formerly Blue). We decided to go to Gore first and to return by this well marked logging road, to make it easier on the way back to the car. In retrospect, I would go clockwise first to Bunnell and then over to Gore, and back, because we never did find a path to that particular logging road from the top.
There are logging roads and log yards all over the western side of these two peaks and it is easy to get confused. We got a good view of Gore Peak to the SE and branched off on a new logging road at about 2500 feet elevation. This turned out to be a good choice in that it did lead up right up to the base of the peak. But we hit really thick spruce about .5 miles from the top. We were both soaked anyway by this time because of the tall grass and narrow parts we had already waded through. Heading north seemed to allow us better access to the ridge between the two peaks and we soon reached the top. Not too many friends had been up there lately, although Carl Cressey had installed a new canister. Nate Solis apparently took the same route we had, and hit the same spruce wall.
The trip down the ridge on a NW bearing towards Bunnell was not too difficult. The col drops way down to 3100 feet before heading back up. We found some herd paths about halfway up the side of Bunnell, which we were very happy to see. The SE shoulder of Bunnell is very broad and flat before it heads up to the peak. We signed in and got some photos which proved to us that we were indeed in the clouds! They are all misty!
Now we just needed to find the herd path to take us to the first set of logging roads and the 'easy' way back to the car. We searched around for some herd path that might lead in a SW direction, but we never found one. Instead we took various herd paths leading SSE and eventually arrived back on the logging road that took us directly to Gore. We knew that we were heading too far to the east, but there was no break in the thick spruce that took us on the SSE road.
So, we took the long way back to the car, probably adding a mile or two to the loop, but it was still a great day in the mountains.
Here is a link to some photos on webshots. The last shot is of Bunnell, now completely clear of clouds and rain!
http://outdoors.webshots.com/slideshow/574342252arsCkS
