Dick
10-31-2006, 10:24 PM
They don’t make ‘em nicer than this. Blue skies, temps in the high 40s-low 50s, gentle winds – a picture perfect outing! Four of us – Valerie, peakbagr, Edelweiss, and I, along with four-legged hikers Bookah and Gerard (love at first sight!), spent a leisurely day hiking Halcott and NE Halcott. I learned that the locals pronounce the name of the mountain “Hawkut.” Starting at Deep Notch, we enjoyed the waterfall by the road for a minute or two, then headed into the very open woods. We took lots of breaks on the way up, as none of us was in tip-top shape that day. I regarded this mountain as a very easy bushwack – probably a 1 on a difficulty scale of 1-10 (not that I’ve experienced a 10 yet!). I don’t think I was whacked by a single branch on the way up! The ground, at least on the surface, was surprisingly dry considering the recent heavy rains. We did try to take advantage of a few sketchy herd paths (man or animal created?) at times. Patches of snow half-way up turned to a mostly full covering at the summit of about an inch, much of which is probably gone after today’s (Tuesday’s) warm temperatures. We took a fairly long lunch break at the summit, and signed in at the canister. As we headed down toward NE Halcott, we realized that our pace couldn’t be quite so leisurely or we’d lose daylight. The hike over to NE Halcott was beautiful, somewhat less open, and a fair amount of annoying raspberry prickers and nettles, which seemed still to have some sting left in them. The climb to NE from the col was mostly gentle. We had some uncertainty as to the exact location of the summit, as two GPS units didn’t match. A brief search around showed nothing higher in any direction, and so an executive decision was made that we had reached the summit. The way down to the car was a little more steep and rugged, with a little thicker woods, a few slips and slides on unstable rocks and leaves hiding the mud below (maybe a ‘2’ on that difficulty scale?). The general guiding principle was to stay far enough south and west of the cliffs of Deep Notch, which we managed to do quite successfully. We lost the sun behind the ridge, but still had more than enough light to get down. Sounds of the road told us we were near. Finally we found ourselves about 50 feet above the road, but with a fairly steep descent. Each of us found our own way down, and Alan’s superb guidance brought us about 100 feet from our car (he’s going to have to work for more accuracy! This trip did nothing but whet my appetite for more!
Pictures to follow.
Dick
Pictures to follow.
Dick