Kevin Judy and Emma
Well-known member
Sawyer River and Mount Tremont as seen from Sawyer River Road
Signal Ridge to... the first water crossing. Yep, that's as far as we got. We drove 125 miles, hiked 2 miles along the Sawyer River Road dodging snowmobiles, started along the Signal Ridge Trail through 3 or 4 inches of unconsolidated powder thinking "This is great!", then the first brook... The conditions today were perfect for climbing Carrigain. The sun came out, it was warm, around thirty degrees, no wind down low. The road was well packed and the going was easy. As we went the snowmobile traffic began to pick up, but most were courteous and slowed down and gave us plenty of room. After the steady, gentle climb along the road we came to the kiosk at the start of the Signal Ridge Trail. The trail was obvious even though it was covered in new snow. "Wow, no one's been here yet, this will be awesome!" We got in about a quarter mile, shaking powdered sugar from the trees as we went so as not to get soaked while we passed, then we came to the first brook crossing. The brook was obviously still swollen from the rain and melting over the past week. The snowshoe track we were following started again on the far side. I looked around to see if there was another, better place to cross, but saw no track in any direction. I decided to step down with one foot and see if it held me. If it would hold me, it would hold Jude and Emma together. It held. I began across, Emma bounded past me towards the other side. About halfway across the ice began to sink. It felt as though there was a layer of soft ice over older, more solid ice. I took another step. It let go, in I went up to my knees. Emma had almost made it, but the ice behind her gave way and her rear legs went in. She was hanging on by her front paws. Her rear paws couldn't reach bottom, so she couldn't push off to pull herself up. In two steps I was there and pulled her up and out. There was no real danger of being washed away as this was a pool we were in and the flow was nothing of note, but now we were wet and on the other side. Jude was still on the far side. I started looking for a better place to cross back, but Emma's herding instincts kicked in. This was not good to her, we were on one side, momma was on the other. Back she went the way we came, with the same results. Halfway across, in she went and was now in the same predicament, front paws trying to pull herself up and not touching bottom with her rear. Again, there was no chance of her washing away down stream, but she was stuck. At this point my concern was not for her, but for Jude, "Stay where you are, I'm already wet, I'll get her!", I shouted. Back into the brook I went, not even trying to find a way across, just splashing through the water. Surprisingly in a situation like this, you just react to do what you have to do and don't feel the cold water. Honestly, the water feels colder in August when your body temp feels like 200 from the heat and humidity and the water feels like 1 degree colder and it would be ice. Much more a shock on your system. So, here I am, water up to my knees, pull the dog up and off she goes up the bank and out of harm's way. Now I crunch through the rest of the ice and up onto the bank. Jude managed to get one boot into the water, but her foot didn't get wet. Gaiter kept the water out of her super-insulated winter hikers from Lowa. My A-solo plastic mountaineering boots were, however, filled with water. I immediately sat down on my pack and got them off, pouring the water out. I pulled the soaked wool socks off and wrung them out. Jude gave me Emma's polartec jacket from her pack and I dried my feet and soaked what water I could from my boots. Problem was now, I had no dry socks. Jude had some, but I couldn't get them on. I wrung out my socks again and pulled them back on and put my wet boots back on.
This was amazingly fortunate in many ways.
1) It was not cold enough for my socks to freeze.
2)My mittens were wet from pulling Emma out of the water, but again, it wasn't cold enough for my hands to freeze.
3)We were only 2 miles in, and it was an easy, downhill road walk back to the car.
4) Emma shook off and her wet fur didn't freeze and clump. Her wet feet were fine on the hike back out. She regularly jumps in streams on our hikes, even in the coldest temps, so I wasn't worried about this. We do our best to keep her out because we know that people use them as water sources. Always take water from upstream of a crossing. You should be filtering or boiling it anyway.
5) It screwed up a hike on a "perfect" condition day, but when I think about how badly wrong it could have gone, I think we were very fortunate.
Many years ago, I learned in the Air Force why there should be redundant safety systems. If one fails, you can count on another. I should have had dry socks with me, maybe even dry pants, but the thing is, my gaiters were soaked and starting to freeze, and even if I had dry socks, I would have had to put them into wet boots. If I had been way out on a cold day, I could have been in a real bad circumstance. Now, dry socks, no excuse, but who carries dry boots or gaiters? I'm not sure what I could have done differently, outside of find a better place to cross, and I'm not sure I would have found one, anyway.
Naturally, I was bummed out that the hike was over on such a perfect day. Actually, it was more like PO at being so stupid, but I convinced myself that there wasn't much I could have done to prevent it, short of staying home today. I then had to be thankful that things didn't turn out any worse. I had dry boots in the car. I stopped and got dry socks on the way home. I have nothing to complain about. Chances are the mountain will still be there when we return.
I would like to open this up for comment. What should I have done differently? Was there a way to lessen the amount of water that got in my boot? What do others do at questionable water crossings?
KDT
