Neil
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Sawtooth Quintet in D major. Opus 21.
After unsuccessfully trying to bag the Sawtooth Quintet in a day I felt that a feasibility study was necessary. It was easy to recruit Dunbar (the D in D major) to join in on the fun. He's working on his ADK HH and the idea of doing all 5 as an overnight appealed to the peakbagger in his soul. Furthermore, I don't know if anyone has ever gone in there for their very first time ever and bagged all 5 in one trip, which added to the potential cool factor.
'Twas 5am when Sylvie and I pulled into the Averyville Parking area and found Dunbar all set and ready to go. Sylvie went back to Rollins Pond and more sleep while Dunbar and I strode manfully and purposefully down the Pine Pond Road for 100 yards before striking off onto the spur trail that leads across state land for 10 minutes to the old Northville Placid Trail.
The goal was to do the Sawtooths 5 and to gather more knowledge for the purpose of putting together a feasible route for a day hike.
Some background:
Last April Randomscooter and I checked out the route from Averyville to ST3 via the east base of the Sawtooth NE-E ridge and found it to be so inviting that he and Joe Cedar returned a few days later via the same route and went all the way to the summit of 3. They did it atop a few feet of snow however so I wanted to see it for myself in summer conditions.
I had Tom’s tracklog and we followed it closely and indeed, the route turned out to be a real beauty. I think the nicest part was when we walked below the steep slopes leading up to Sawtooth NE and E alongside the creek that drains into Moose Pond. The moss was rain forest thick and green. At times we walked out in the open along the creek and when it got too boggy we headed into the rain forest.
Before long it was time to begin the climb and the woods remained open and very bushwhacker-friendly right to the summit. About 15 minutes from the summit we found some open rock and were treated to views directly across to the ST1-E ridge line. Clickety-click went my camera.
There wasn’t a whole lot going on when we got to 3 other than a resident black fly population that was glad to see us so we switched maps, dialled in new bearings and proceeded to descend to the low point between 3 and 5.
Up to the summit of ST3 we had a large scale USGS Quad that I had printed as well as Tom’s tracklog. Now for the rest of the trip, all we had was the ADK trailmap. However, this was a full-on gps data recording hike so we also made use of our gps’s as navigation tools.
The first half of the route down off of 3 was easy but then it became moderately difficult due to thickening vegetation. Climbing the 600 feet up to ST5 turned out to be a slow and tiring. The summit brought back memories of Brian, Spencer and Alan’s HH finish and Doug and my 1-5 traverse.
From 5 we quickly dropped to the fen at 3150 feet and climbed up to 3400 feet to the height of land between ST2-S and the 1084 meter peak directly south of ST2-S. Things got rough at this point and we had a long bout of thick and difficult side-sloping while being assailed by black, horse and deer flies. Looking at it on the map now makes me shake my head and wonder what we did wrong because this portion of the trip was our most difficult low-point, in spite of exceptional views into Ouluska Pass.
We made the drainage below the 4-2 col at 7 PM, 14 hours out. The col was 300 feet above us, and being loath to squander precious daylight we made the decision to head up to it. You can bet we were whipped but the grade of climb was pretty easy, 300 feet in 2400 feet or 1 in 8. In spite of my fatigue I found the climb alongside the brook to be one of my favourite parts of the day’s hike. It was a particularly wild and convoluted ascent to the col but we were 2 determined hombres bent on beating darkness.
Up on the col we applied ourselves to the task of setting up the tarp and inserting our ragged bodies under it. Removal of sodden clothing and footwear was heavenly. I fired up the NOAA radio on my gps and the forecast now had the POP at 40% vs. 60% predicted previously. Yipee!!
After dining on a Snickers bar and a big hunk of jerky I lay down and slept like the king of the Sawtooths for nearly 9 hours. I awoke at 1:30am and the woods were 100% totally silent.
Nearly packless, we departed the col and headed to ST4 along a new unknown route that turned out to offer better views and some very thick cripple bush. Dunbar and I were taken with the exceptional views.
Back at camp we gathered up our stuff and headed to 2, nearly 1000 feet above the col. Benefiting from my previous trip I felt we finessed this potentially extremely difficult climb nearly perfectly. Once or twice we peered into pure bushwhacker hell but backed off and found a much better route.
Overall, the views from 2 in nearly all directions were stunningly beautiful but our eyeballs were affixed to 1, the final jewel in the crown. You could see the evil gully of lobster trap cripple bush fame and I was determined to avoid it.
The drop from 2 to the 2-1 col went very well and we refilled our bladders at the drainage before heading up. It was very momentous considering that Dunbar and I were on our way to our 5th Sawtooth in a single trip. Just then it began to pour rain torrentially. I said, “we have 3 choices, we can bail right now, sit here for 10-15 minutes and see what happens or keep on going”. We kept on going and the rain stopped and the skies became blue again.
My mission in life was now reduced to circumventing the evil gully just west of the summit and successfully rounding the cliffs of 1 towards the north and east. I do believe I completely nailed this section and we stood upon the summit of 5 at 4:15 PM. We wrung out our socks and other apparel and hung out for 30 minutes, 15 minutes past our “deadline”.
The hike out to the car required 5 hours of speedy hiking through miles and miles of trackless wilderness with a 1.8 kilometre section of totally featureless and flat terrain. We were now bent on beating darkness to the old woods road so I plucked a waypoint out of the ether, à la gps, and after dialling 30 into my compass I held it in my hand and stuck to the bearing like glue.
After 30 minutes of straight line bushwhacking into falling darkness Dunbar said our bearing was now 56 degrees. WTF?! It turned out that I had somehow spun the dial down to 20 degrees and had been leading us further and further off-bearing.
We made the woods road with 15 minutes of daylight to spare and after a rest stop to eat, change into a dry shirt and remove prickly pine needles out of intimate anatomical enclaves we walked out to the car at 10:15. We had been out for roughly 30 hours of which 24 were on the go.
Stay tuned for pictures.
After unsuccessfully trying to bag the Sawtooth Quintet in a day I felt that a feasibility study was necessary. It was easy to recruit Dunbar (the D in D major) to join in on the fun. He's working on his ADK HH and the idea of doing all 5 as an overnight appealed to the peakbagger in his soul. Furthermore, I don't know if anyone has ever gone in there for their very first time ever and bagged all 5 in one trip, which added to the potential cool factor.
'Twas 5am when Sylvie and I pulled into the Averyville Parking area and found Dunbar all set and ready to go. Sylvie went back to Rollins Pond and more sleep while Dunbar and I strode manfully and purposefully down the Pine Pond Road for 100 yards before striking off onto the spur trail that leads across state land for 10 minutes to the old Northville Placid Trail.
The goal was to do the Sawtooths 5 and to gather more knowledge for the purpose of putting together a feasible route for a day hike.
Some background:
Last April Randomscooter and I checked out the route from Averyville to ST3 via the east base of the Sawtooth NE-E ridge and found it to be so inviting that he and Joe Cedar returned a few days later via the same route and went all the way to the summit of 3. They did it atop a few feet of snow however so I wanted to see it for myself in summer conditions.
I had Tom’s tracklog and we followed it closely and indeed, the route turned out to be a real beauty. I think the nicest part was when we walked below the steep slopes leading up to Sawtooth NE and E alongside the creek that drains into Moose Pond. The moss was rain forest thick and green. At times we walked out in the open along the creek and when it got too boggy we headed into the rain forest.
Before long it was time to begin the climb and the woods remained open and very bushwhacker-friendly right to the summit. About 15 minutes from the summit we found some open rock and were treated to views directly across to the ST1-E ridge line. Clickety-click went my camera.
There wasn’t a whole lot going on when we got to 3 other than a resident black fly population that was glad to see us so we switched maps, dialled in new bearings and proceeded to descend to the low point between 3 and 5.
Up to the summit of ST3 we had a large scale USGS Quad that I had printed as well as Tom’s tracklog. Now for the rest of the trip, all we had was the ADK trailmap. However, this was a full-on gps data recording hike so we also made use of our gps’s as navigation tools.
The first half of the route down off of 3 was easy but then it became moderately difficult due to thickening vegetation. Climbing the 600 feet up to ST5 turned out to be a slow and tiring. The summit brought back memories of Brian, Spencer and Alan’s HH finish and Doug and my 1-5 traverse.
From 5 we quickly dropped to the fen at 3150 feet and climbed up to 3400 feet to the height of land between ST2-S and the 1084 meter peak directly south of ST2-S. Things got rough at this point and we had a long bout of thick and difficult side-sloping while being assailed by black, horse and deer flies. Looking at it on the map now makes me shake my head and wonder what we did wrong because this portion of the trip was our most difficult low-point, in spite of exceptional views into Ouluska Pass.
We made the drainage below the 4-2 col at 7 PM, 14 hours out. The col was 300 feet above us, and being loath to squander precious daylight we made the decision to head up to it. You can bet we were whipped but the grade of climb was pretty easy, 300 feet in 2400 feet or 1 in 8. In spite of my fatigue I found the climb alongside the brook to be one of my favourite parts of the day’s hike. It was a particularly wild and convoluted ascent to the col but we were 2 determined hombres bent on beating darkness.
Up on the col we applied ourselves to the task of setting up the tarp and inserting our ragged bodies under it. Removal of sodden clothing and footwear was heavenly. I fired up the NOAA radio on my gps and the forecast now had the POP at 40% vs. 60% predicted previously. Yipee!!
After dining on a Snickers bar and a big hunk of jerky I lay down and slept like the king of the Sawtooths for nearly 9 hours. I awoke at 1:30am and the woods were 100% totally silent.
Nearly packless, we departed the col and headed to ST4 along a new unknown route that turned out to offer better views and some very thick cripple bush. Dunbar and I were taken with the exceptional views.
Back at camp we gathered up our stuff and headed to 2, nearly 1000 feet above the col. Benefiting from my previous trip I felt we finessed this potentially extremely difficult climb nearly perfectly. Once or twice we peered into pure bushwhacker hell but backed off and found a much better route.
Overall, the views from 2 in nearly all directions were stunningly beautiful but our eyeballs were affixed to 1, the final jewel in the crown. You could see the evil gully of lobster trap cripple bush fame and I was determined to avoid it.
The drop from 2 to the 2-1 col went very well and we refilled our bladders at the drainage before heading up. It was very momentous considering that Dunbar and I were on our way to our 5th Sawtooth in a single trip. Just then it began to pour rain torrentially. I said, “we have 3 choices, we can bail right now, sit here for 10-15 minutes and see what happens or keep on going”. We kept on going and the rain stopped and the skies became blue again.
My mission in life was now reduced to circumventing the evil gully just west of the summit and successfully rounding the cliffs of 1 towards the north and east. I do believe I completely nailed this section and we stood upon the summit of 5 at 4:15 PM. We wrung out our socks and other apparel and hung out for 30 minutes, 15 minutes past our “deadline”.
The hike out to the car required 5 hours of speedy hiking through miles and miles of trackless wilderness with a 1.8 kilometre section of totally featureless and flat terrain. We were now bent on beating darkness to the old woods road so I plucked a waypoint out of the ether, à la gps, and after dialling 30 into my compass I held it in my hand and stuck to the bearing like glue.
After 30 minutes of straight line bushwhacking into falling darkness Dunbar said our bearing was now 56 degrees. WTF?! It turned out that I had somehow spun the dial down to 20 degrees and had been leading us further and further off-bearing.
We made the woods road with 15 minutes of daylight to spare and after a rest stop to eat, change into a dry shirt and remove prickly pine needles out of intimate anatomical enclaves we walked out to the car at 10:15. We had been out for roughly 30 hours of which 24 were on the go.
Stay tuned for pictures.
