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Henderson and the Santanonis - 7/21/2012

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  • Henderson and the Santanonis - 7/21/2012

    Earlier in the week, Skatterbone (Ben), Tag (Tracy) and I decided to do the Santanoni range, preceded by a bushwhack to Henderson Mtn, on Friday. This would be my 3rd time to the Santanonis, Tag and I are working on our ADK100HH, and Skatterbone needed the Santas for his ADK46 (Tag and I are 46'rs). We picked just about the perfect day for what I knew would be a very long day.

    Starting at the trailhead for the south end of the Bradley Pond trail at around 7:15, we made good time to the Bradley Pond (Santanoni) lean-to. The trail was a bit muddy in parts but not a big mess; muddy parts easily negotiable. We came across the trailwork that Pete Hickey and other 46r's did easily - or I should say we were the beneficiaries of their hard work So I give a big "thumbs up!" to the 46r crew for the work you did

    Having studied a number of maps of the area around the lean-to for Henderson, including Morrissey's "The Other 54" book, I took a bearing of 106-degrees and we started our bushwhack keeping the brook that was near the lean-to (actually, just before the lean-to) to our right, in ear-shot as the book recommended. Right off the bat, the trees were very thick, and there would be much of this for most of the bushwhack up. We bulldozed through the thick swaths of spruce and fir; I knew damn well my forearms and neck were getting scratched up along the way! Ah, grin and bear it, and carry on. The climb itself was not very steep, but the areas where the trees were sparse and easy to go through were, alas, short lived. The trees acted like thieves of the forest, grabbing onto any loops exposed in your clothing or on your pack. For example, I had my car keys (I drove up) in my sternum-belts side pocket, which I knew was zipped up beforehand; taking a pause, I saw it opened. Damn, this is NOT a good place to lose car keys, esp. when your everyone's drive back to civilization! Along the way, Skatterbone used his GPS to do spot checks, ensuring we were on the way to the correct summit of Henderson; it got to the point where my bearing matched where the sun was, so I told Tag and Skatterbone just to follow the sun. After an hour, we arrived at the summit, where we noticed the treed-in area was tamped down some (hmm, not sure how many visitors Henderson gets). With a check of the GPS and eyeballing the area around us, we did indeed arrive at our destination! We could make out Panther, Santanoni, and Bradley Pond some from a sparse part of the summit.

    With a back-bearing, we started our way down Henderson. Still thick-going, tho we tried to make our way through any sparse parts we came across. I felt like I was getting molested/groped by firs (which I took NO pleasure from) as I'd get big clumps of branches going between my legs Getting closer to the Bradley Pond trail, I was a short distance ahead of Tag and Skatterbone when I heard Tag yell out, "Ooh!" I turned around and saw her and Skats coughing, rubbing their eyes, and visibly irritated. Well, it turned out that the trigger on the can of bear spray Skatterbone was carrying on his pack got pulled by a branch, which let out a brief mist of the spray. They got caught in it. They were OK but, well, I couldn't help it - with the sight of these two and knowing what happened, I just started laughing hard Ah, so the bear spray even works on these two! This was, indeed, finding humor through the misfortunes of others. They had a laugh about it, too. Tag and I would not let Skatterbone live this down

    In less than an hour we made it back to the trail, just before the lean-to. We then proceeded to the point with the sign on the tree "unmaintained path to Times Square". Turning at this junction, going down, crossing the old muddy path, we arrived at the beaver pond. We went left along the pond, carefully crossing the beaver dam to the other side. Easy peasy!

    The remainder of the hike was pretty much textbook, so I won't bore the audience with the details. The herdpath for the entire range was pretty easy to follow. Panther had great views, but the traverse to Couch and back to Times Square was a work-out. Aside from the big mud-bog near the beginning, the herdpath to Couch was not bad at all. The herdpath to Santanoni was even more pleasant, and we arrived at the summit of Santanoni around 6:30pm. A++ views from Santanoni, a great way to top off the long day. We headed back down to the Bradley Pond trail via the New-Old (Express) trail. By time we hit the gravel road it was starting to turn dark. We got back to the parking lot after 9:15.

    Whooped. Tired. But very satisfied with what we were able to accomplish
    We are closer now than we were five minutes ago

  • #2
    Thanks John for writing up the report, you summed it up nicely. On the way up Henderson I coined the new term "Bushmirage" on this hike, which is when bushwackers see an area of forest that appears to be more open, but turns out to be just as thicknNasty. I learned that Bear Spray + Bushwack = Bad News, I'll leave it in my pack for the next bushwack for sure! I'm also convinced there is a time vortex between Couch and Times Square, where you hike outside the boundaries of time for a while! Thanks John for joining me on that timeless? trek to Couch. It really was a perfect day to be in the mountains and the late afternoon views from Santanoni were the highlight of the trip for me!

    PS Thanks to the folks who did the reroutes around the mud!
    ADK 46/46 4W CATS 39/39 8W ADK100 63/102 VT35 26/29 FT's 25/29 VT FT's 9/15

    ScAtTeRbOnE's Adventures

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    "We are now in the mountains and they are in us, kindling enthusiasm, making every nerve quiver, filling every pore and cell of us. Our flesh and bone tabernacle seems transparent as glass to the beauty about us, as if truly an inseparable part of it, thrilling with the air and trees, streams and rocks, in the waves of the sun, a part of all nature, neither old nor young, sick nor well, but immortal." John Muir from My First Summer in The Sierra

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    • #3
      John,
      I climbed Henderson a few years back, leaving the trail well south of the lean-to, mostly because the trail was a mud-wallow and I was sick of it. I ended up reaching the knob on the south end of the ridge before going to the summit. That route was fairly open. I have been out with people using The Other 54 before and, from what I have seen, they would have had just as good luck picking their own routes at random.

      Ben,
      Bushmirage—nice coinage. Yes, one often has the temptation to go toward the light, but often the light means a blowdown field in which thickets of saplings are struggling to make a new canopy.

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      • #4
        Originally posted by Gregory Karl View Post
        John,
        I climbed Henderson a few years back, leaving the trail well south of the lean-to, mostly because the trail was a mud-wallow and I was sick of it. I ended up reaching the knob on the south end of the ridge before going to the summit. That route was fairly open. I have been out with people using The Other 54 before and, from what I have seen, they would have had just as good luck picking their own routes at random.
        Yep, I agree. I should note that we only followed the brook up for about 100 yds then chose to steer away from it; I was confident in the bearing I took. Spot checks w/ Ben's GPS also told us we were on the right track.

        BTW, Greg, do you ever use Google Earth at all for figuring out a bushwhack route?
        We are closer now than we were five minutes ago

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        • #5
          John,
          I often use Acme Mapper, which has satellite imagery and topo maps, among other features. When I am planning a hike, especially one involving open rock, waterfalls, or so on, I sometimes toggle back and forth between satellite and topo, marking low and high elevation points for features in which I'm interested. Then I might draw them in with Photoshop (screen shot in as tif, out in pdf) when I make up my detailed map for the hike. Since I use an altimeter as a primary navigation tool, I will then know, for example, at what elevation on an ascent or descent to traverse to reach one of those points. I also study the imagery or my photo archives (autumn or winter shots preferred) to determine where the fir and spruce are hanging out and where I might expect bands of open hardwood, though this information can sometimes be inferred from the topography. Some folks I know hike with a print out of the satellite imagery as well.

          I think I used that brook as a descent route on Henderson, ended up quite near the lean-to.
          Last edited by Gregory Karl; 07-22-2012, 10:24 PM.

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