Spaderman
New member
Trail Conditions: The Sawyer River Road is well packed down. Fortunately someone the previous day had done the Carrigain hike as Signal Ridge Trail was broken out. The trail is well defined all the way to the top. The last ramp up from Signal Ridge to the tower is bushwacked & for the most part, does not follow the original trail but easily followed.
The first river crossing at .2 mi is still bridged. The 2nd river crossing after the trail junction for Carrigain Notch is open but easily crossed. The next one immediately after it is bridged.
After the mile long traverse be prepared to do some "spruce bustin" as the recent heavy snows have made it a challenge thru the final traverses to Signal Ridge.
There are one or two blow downs but passable. You'll do some more bustin' on the final climb to the tower. We left our packs down on the ridge for the final climb.
Equipment:
We used microspikes from the parking lot to about the mile traverse. We switched to snowshoes to avoid further post holing. Kept the shoes on until we got to the river crossing near the trail junction. Probably should have keep them on until the road as trail was still soft from the warm day.
Comments:
Hiked with The Mighty Quinn as my only companion. It was a picture perfect day. Views of all the peaks was spectacular from the ridge & tower. We did encounter one other fellow hiker, Eric Rathbun. He caught us on the final ascent to the tower. After that encounter, he was long gone & hard to find. Carrigain is my 45th winter peak.
The first river crossing at .2 mi is still bridged. The 2nd river crossing after the trail junction for Carrigain Notch is open but easily crossed. The next one immediately after it is bridged.
After the mile long traverse be prepared to do some "spruce bustin" as the recent heavy snows have made it a challenge thru the final traverses to Signal Ridge.
There are one or two blow downs but passable. You'll do some more bustin' on the final climb to the tower. We left our packs down on the ridge for the final climb.Equipment:
We used microspikes from the parking lot to about the mile traverse. We switched to snowshoes to avoid further post holing. Kept the shoes on until we got to the river crossing near the trail junction. Probably should have keep them on until the road as trail was still soft from the warm day.
Comments:
Hiked with The Mighty Quinn as my only companion. It was a picture perfect day. Views of all the peaks was spectacular from the ridge & tower. We did encounter one other fellow hiker, Eric Rathbun. He caught us on the final ascent to the tower. After that encounter, he was long gone & hard to find. Carrigain is my 45th winter peak.
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