peak_bgr
New member
It had been a while since I worked on some quad peaks; today I had the day off and decided to remedy that. With my eyes closed I stuck my finger out onto a quad list and what came out was the Paradox Lake quad. Now that I had the hard part out of the way I had to study the map and decide which of the 7 peaks that I have left on the quad, I wanted to do. Looking at my time frame and uncertainty of the conditions I decided on a short out and about and picked Indian Ridge to Long Sue.
After the seemingly long 1.5 hour drive to Paradox I found myself following Johnson Pond Road, which to my surprise is a season Road – in parts. I could only travel the road to the state boundary and not to the high point along the road. Not a big deal! I donned my Lightning Ascents and started moving my way up the unplowed road and soon got bored with that scenario and made no haste as I jumped the drainage and entered the woods. I found a spot with mostly full snow cover – there was a ton of naked ground due to the aspect of the ridge. Meandering through the open forest trying to stay on snow I eventually found myself on the first bump of the ridge with not a single rewarding view, kind of surprised, because this area has nice rocky peaks. The traverse to the highest point on the ridge was a bit of a challenge. Not blowdown but a super steep cliff side. Approaching the cliff I found myself ass over tea kettle as my snowshoes went out from underneath me and I got very friendly with a small ironwood tree. Needless to say it ended OK and I moved on toward the high-point. The highest bump offered smaller views but still not like expected.
Now it was to Long Sue – who’s Sue? The summit is long and narrow, I get that. I opted out of following the ridge all the way around and decided to drop right off the edge into what I called Indian Pass. There is a nice intermittent stream in the open hardwood pass that I noted and decided to follow later as a return to the car. This was the steepest ascent of the day – I was right under the summit – less than 0.2 miles, but it was straight up. Did I get a reward on this one? Sorta! The views were limited and slightly obstructed, but it was a view no less. Actually, the view of Owl Pate was amazing – I climbed that from the Moose Mountain Pond side, some 8 years ago, and don’t remember it looking that nice.
I slowly followed the ridge back toward the car and the ridge was a little hazardous to the eyes and it made more sense to jump off the side back toward Indian Pass. This was tougher than I thought, with bare ground hindering my glissading efforts – I had to side step a few sections, which we all know is so much fun. The good thing though, the woods are open and the beech whips are gone, for now.
Once in the pass it was open hardwoods but the beech whips were back and out for a vengeance. It was warm but when one of those sharp buds slaps the end of your nose or ear lobe, I can’t help but have a few choice words. With snowshoes I had no choice but either side hill or head to the high ground slightly above the brook, and side hilling with snowshoes – really sucks, after long period of time. On the high ground was a gift for putting up with beech whips and bare ground – a trail. It was a pretty old on in most parts but looks to be slightly maintained. I followed it. I mean I love bushwhacking, but when a gift is given to you, it’s just rude to turn it down, right? The trail brought me right to a private land boundary about 0.3 miles from the car; all I had to do was follow the state boundary. I did that, and it was almost like a trail itself – again, in parts. I popped out 200 feet from the car – love it!
Who wants to go in and do Bald Pate and Moose Mountain?
After the seemingly long 1.5 hour drive to Paradox I found myself following Johnson Pond Road, which to my surprise is a season Road – in parts. I could only travel the road to the state boundary and not to the high point along the road. Not a big deal! I donned my Lightning Ascents and started moving my way up the unplowed road and soon got bored with that scenario and made no haste as I jumped the drainage and entered the woods. I found a spot with mostly full snow cover – there was a ton of naked ground due to the aspect of the ridge. Meandering through the open forest trying to stay on snow I eventually found myself on the first bump of the ridge with not a single rewarding view, kind of surprised, because this area has nice rocky peaks. The traverse to the highest point on the ridge was a bit of a challenge. Not blowdown but a super steep cliff side. Approaching the cliff I found myself ass over tea kettle as my snowshoes went out from underneath me and I got very friendly with a small ironwood tree. Needless to say it ended OK and I moved on toward the high-point. The highest bump offered smaller views but still not like expected.
Now it was to Long Sue – who’s Sue? The summit is long and narrow, I get that. I opted out of following the ridge all the way around and decided to drop right off the edge into what I called Indian Pass. There is a nice intermittent stream in the open hardwood pass that I noted and decided to follow later as a return to the car. This was the steepest ascent of the day – I was right under the summit – less than 0.2 miles, but it was straight up. Did I get a reward on this one? Sorta! The views were limited and slightly obstructed, but it was a view no less. Actually, the view of Owl Pate was amazing – I climbed that from the Moose Mountain Pond side, some 8 years ago, and don’t remember it looking that nice.
I slowly followed the ridge back toward the car and the ridge was a little hazardous to the eyes and it made more sense to jump off the side back toward Indian Pass. This was tougher than I thought, with bare ground hindering my glissading efforts – I had to side step a few sections, which we all know is so much fun. The good thing though, the woods are open and the beech whips are gone, for now.
Once in the pass it was open hardwoods but the beech whips were back and out for a vengeance. It was warm but when one of those sharp buds slaps the end of your nose or ear lobe, I can’t help but have a few choice words. With snowshoes I had no choice but either side hill or head to the high ground slightly above the brook, and side hilling with snowshoes – really sucks, after long period of time. On the high ground was a gift for putting up with beech whips and bare ground – a trail. It was a pretty old on in most parts but looks to be slightly maintained. I followed it. I mean I love bushwhacking, but when a gift is given to you, it’s just rude to turn it down, right? The trail brought me right to a private land boundary about 0.3 miles from the car; all I had to do was follow the state boundary. I did that, and it was almost like a trail itself – again, in parts. I popped out 200 feet from the car – love it!
Who wants to go in and do Bald Pate and Moose Mountain?
