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December 4, 2005 |
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Our hiking friend Amy from VFTT had only 2 of the NH peaks left to go on the list of the NEHH peaks. Today we would join her to tackle Scar Ridge, a peak that in August 2004 we swore we would never do again.
We arrived at the Discovery Parking ara to find Steve, Earl, Mir, and Gloria (who works for the Forest Service) getting dressed. Gloria had already checked out the river crossing of the Hancock Branck. The start of the hike was directly across from the Big Rock campground where a heard path takes you to the river which is @ 80 feet across, and was anywhere from a foot to 3 feet deep. Just downstream is a small rock island that breaks the large crossing into two smaller ones. We all had differant ideas of the best way to cross, but we all madeit and after drying feet and putting on dry socks we were off. 15 minutes into the bushwhack we found the reason for the name of the Big Rock campground - we passed between two hugh boulders - close to 20 feet tall!We continued on making our way up the ridge skirting around large areas of blowdowns. As we gained elevatin (very slowly) we stopped oftened, and enjoyed views behind us and of slides on the peaks to our East and West. We passed over a knife edge on the ridge which was only 4 feet wide as we made our way through thick spruce, sometimes choosing to loose elevation in order to get around the really bad sections. With a light snow falling we reached the summit cannister at 1:45, celebrating with a quick snack, before heading out - some of us to try to reach the 3774 foot West summit,and others to starting the return trip to the car. Last time we hiked this summit it was from Little East Pond. This way from the Kanc was much easier, although this is still the toughest bushwhack on the NEHH list in our opinion. Just look at what it did made Geri do (last photo). |
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Directions to the trailhead: From Rte 93, take exit 32 and travel East @ 7.2 miles. Just past theBig Rock capmground on your left, you will see teh Discovery Parking area complete with rest rooms. |
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and our