12 peaks on Easter weekend

[sherbi]

Friday

We left Montréal at 5:15 and at 12:30 we were eating our lunch at the Panther's TH on road 47. On a very relax beat, we took 3 hours to get to GL and Panther, getting a nice view of Slide. We then went forward on road 47 up to Denning road and the small patch of Willowemoc wild forest where we installed our camp for the night.

Saturday

At 7, we started hiking towards the Neverskink river, it wasn't too long before we arrived at the cairn marking the start of the FP. It was really easy to follow up to two different designated campsites. Afterward, we lost and found a more-or-less defined path many times, spoting along the way a lot of unnonficial campsites. At first, we aimed for the col between Friday and Balsam Cap, but as we gained evelation, we went more directly towards the first. Just before reaching the top, we saw some huge bear tracks , we then spent a couple minutes to find the canister that was moved recently (if I remember correctly from reading the notebook). Getting down into the col and up to Balsam Cap was easier than we expected (that 5-Hitchcocks-in-a-day last week may have something to do about it ). Getting to the col between BC and Rocky was probably the hardest part of the day, but "climbing" Rocky was a lot of fun. For both of these, we got straight to the canisters, losing no time. Going up Lone, we realized how lucky we were to do it at this time of the year; it must really be a pain in the summer months. When going down Lone, we made a small navigation error, following a direct bearing to the col instead of going for the ridge; we got into some painful side slopping in return. Getting up to the trail between Peekamoose and Table we followed some tracks in the snow. The trail going down Table is really nice, but it takes many turns before finally get back to the Neverskink. At 5:30 we were at the car, giving us just enough time to setup camp at Allaben before dark.

Sunday

From Allaben, it took us more than an hour to get to the TH at the end of Beaver kill road, thus at 8 we started our hike towards the wilderness, where the stream goes toward DT and Graham and the trail goes down towards Black bear road. We followed the stream on its right up to the fork that goes up to Douple Top. We followed that fork to the left, then we hit a very steep slope that we "crawled" up near the true summit. The canister was easy to find following some tracks in the snow. Going down in the col towards Graham wasn't as bad, that col is really V-shaped. We took our lunch break there, around 12:30. We encountered some cliffs and steep slopes on Graham too, but nothing as difficult as DT. Following the ridge up to the old tower must be hellish in summer. The hard work of the day was done at that point . The old road was easy to follow to the trail that goes up to BLM firetower, which btw is still locked (the cabin). We got back at the car before 4, so we had the time to get back to get some really good ice cream at the Mama's Boy (Phoenicia) . We camped at Allaben again.

Monday

We were thinking of doing Bearpen & Vly, but we noticed that road 37 is closed to thru traffic, so we decided to do North Dome and Sherrill instead. We started from the fishing access parking at 7:30. Going up, we followed the right marked public-private line. At 3000', we kept our evelation trying to reach the col, we had to go up and down a couple time to avoid nasty side sloping. From the col, we got to Sherrill, mostly following a herdpath that brought us to the canister. Going down, we lose it most of the time, just following the path of least resistance. Going up to the plateau of North Dome was uneventful, but we were feeling the efforts of the last days in our legs. On the plateau, we hit some dense conifers, but soon enough we found a path that lead us to the canister. To go down, we aimed directly to the head of the brook, an easy way to stay on public land, but it was slow at first because the slope was steep and covered in snow. After following the brook for a little while, we found another marked "trail", which we followed back to the car that we reached at 12:30. On the road towards Montréal, we saw some really bad damage from Irene in Mapplecrest's area .

7 "summer" peaks to go, next trip probably in May.

[catdacker]

Hi Sherbi, That's a great weekend. It's always interesting to see how someone from out of the area does the hikes. The col between DT and Graham is a big jump from one mountain to the other. Let me know if you need a car spot in May. Mike D.

[sherbi]

Originally Posted by catdacker

Let me know if you need a car spot in May.

We are looking to do a Fir-Big Indian-Balsam-Eagle traverse, I'll send you a PM.

[Jay H]

Sounds like a fantastic trip, I think you got a great weekend weatherwise too, not too hot, not too cold!

The Fir-Big Indian trip would not be too bad with a bike spot, if you can't find a car spot.. Just a heads up.

Jay