amstony
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- Apr 24, 2004
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This was definitely a great trip. The traverse involved going up the Glen Boulder trail/Davis Path/Isolation Trail/and out Rocky Branch trail. At 7:35 AM Skimom, Dirt-girl, Troy, Phil and I met up at Rocky Branch trailhead, dropped cars, loaded up and headed up to Glen Boulder trailhead. The skies were black, gray, blue, sunny, cloudy, foggy and cool- depending on which direction you looked from the trailhead, typical weather!! After sorting out gear and boots, at 7:52 AM we were on our way up the trail. The ups started almost immediately - wasting no time! Skimom headed out at a nice pace, setting the tone. After crossing the Diretissma trail and the ski trail it did not take long to get above treeline. Once above treeline it was simply awesome. Troy then lead from here. Theres a nice, exciting scramble with great views, up to the Glen Boulder (the Boulder is still there...) So in a cool fog and a brief spitting rain, we were at the Boulder. We took some great photo's, looked around at the hopeful looking skies, threw on some fleece or long sleeves, tried to push over the boulder- (we failed), ate some snacks and moved on. Then I lead us up towards Slide Peak and Davis Path.
We continued above treeline for a good distance, went over Slide Peak, where the fog rolled in and killed some nice views, and then moved on. We then dipped into treeline again, a welcome respite from the cold wind, and headed towards the Davis Path/Glen Boulder junction. Once again we headed back out above treeline and by now things were clearing up.
At the Davis Path junction we considered adding Washington to our itineray (we were just kidding
) We arrived at the Davis Path/Glen Boulder junction at 10:30 AM, beating book time substantially, covering the 3,200 foot elevation gain in about 2 hours 40 minutes, counting breaks. We took some photos again and admired that great view down along the Montalban Ridge with the long line of cairns, which promptly disappeared again as the fog and clouds covered us........ but only briefly. Then it was along the ridge, following the Davis Path towards Mt. Isolation. The stretch of trail along Davis Path to the Dry River intersection was pretty good, but the stretch above treeline ends all too quickly. As we descended rapidly, moving into treeline the temps rose and we stopped and took off the fleece. We covered the 1.6 miles to Davis/Isolation junction quickly. We met 2 groups of 2 hikers each here, both coming up from Dry River trail. We then continued on towards the Mt. Isolation cutoff trsail for the summit.
The last .9 miles towards the Mt. Isolation summit trail is an AWFUL stretch of trail. Deep mud, abandoned or no longer maintained log bridges, old dead trees thrown in mud holes to walk on, large pieces of dead trees or cut trees that literally seem to want to reach out and impail you. BE Careful on this stretch. Then it was the summit.
With Skimom in the lead once again we arrived at the summit at 1215 PM.
We spent an utterly delightful 45 minutes on the summit with no wind and clear skies, and warm (relatively) temps. We ate, napped, talked, and took pictures. You could see the back side of Franconia Notch from our spot clearly and all the other summits on this side (sans Washington - in the clouds). As we were getting ready to leave we met up with the 6th hiker for our trip, Gerry, who had slept in, and woke up late. To meet us he parked at Rocky branch and came up that way to join at least part of the hike, the timing was PERFECT- and of course he also did not get much of a break. The stretch of Davis Path to the Isolation trail did not improve in the 45 minutes we had for our break (AMC had not flown in a trail crew. .....), so we were extra careful on that stretch.
At the isolation Trail cutoff towards Rocky Branch it is downhill with the trail often doubling as a streambed, but it is not too bad if you pay attention. As were were approaching the junction with the Rocky branch Trail, we met a USFS Back Country Ranger on patrol, after exchanging hello's and some conversation we moved out again. Only a few minutes later we ran into Bob, our #7 hiker, (Hikerfast from VFTT) who had also arrived very late at Glen Boulder and was doing the Rocky Branch trail hoping to catch us up at Mt. Isolation. He decided to just accompany us out due to the late time of day and try again another day.
The 7 or so Rocky Branch crossings were all in excellent shape, and as of this afternoon- safe to cross. We also found some legal campsites on this trail, marked with very small 3 ft tall brown USFS poles along the trail edges. The only problem with the Rocky Branch is it never seemed to end......... but it was relatively flat. In some spots we debated whether it was a stream too.
With all said and done we hit the Rocky Branch trailhead at 4:45 PM.
A few notes:
1. All the crossings are fine as of this afternoon.
2. We all felt doing this as a traverse was the way to go on this hike, simply awesome views and some exciting above treeline. A much more interesting hike than an out and back.
3. Out and back on the Rocky Branch/Isolation route is only rivaled by the Lincolns Woods/Wildrness trail route to and from the Owls Head Trail for excitement- relatively, flat, long, nothing to see, and hardly any life in sight. A very boring trail stretch.
4. 13.3 miles/3900 foot elevation gain/ slightly over 8 hours for the traverse, not counting the 45 minute siesta on the top and allot of water breaks!
5. Congrats to Gerry, Bob, troy, Phil, Skimom and dirt-girl and I for a fun day!
Tony
