After three days of rain, I was finally able to get back on the trail on Saturday morning. I chose to start out at the Seager Trail Head that runs along the Dry Brook, which was anything but dry. All creeks, streams and tributaries were running over their banks and for the first two miles, the trail and the stream were "one." It was a level walk for the first couple of miles, gaining almost no elevation. It would have been beautiful if not for all the treacherous stream crossings.
What would have been dry stream beds all last week, were now waterfalls coming down off the mountain. At the point where the trail crosses the main brook to finally start up towards the summit, the large rocks normally used for the traverse were under fast moving water. I tried for a while to find a better crossing point, but there just wasn't one. I finally took off my shoes and socks and unzipped the bottom leggings on my hiking pants and tried to walk across. The ice cold mountain water was bad enough but there was one part of stream that was just too deep and moving too fast. Each time I tried to plant my foot, it was washed out from underneath me and I just didn't feel like going all the way in, especially since I was only two miles into an eight mile hike. The only option at that point was to put my shoes and socks back on my numb feet and
back track about a half a mile to a bridge that we had passed earlier that was on private property. This required a somewhat "bushwhack" up the other side of the brook where Sarge decided to get lost for about 20 minutes chasing pheasants. Once we met back up with the trail, it finally started up towards the summit. If it wasn't for all the water crossings, this would not have been a tough mountain to get to the top of. There are no views from the top of Eagle Mountain and all in all, it really had the least interesting summit of all 22 mountains that I've been to so far. Graham still has the ugliest, but it was at least interesting.
What would have been dry stream beds all last week, were now waterfalls coming down off the mountain. At the point where the trail crosses the main brook to finally start up towards the summit, the large rocks normally used for the traverse were under fast moving water. I tried for a while to find a better crossing point, but there just wasn't one. I finally took off my shoes and socks and unzipped the bottom leggings on my hiking pants and tried to walk across. The ice cold mountain water was bad enough but there was one part of stream that was just too deep and moving too fast. Each time I tried to plant my foot, it was washed out from underneath me and I just didn't feel like going all the way in, especially since I was only two miles into an eight mile hike. The only option at that point was to put my shoes and socks back on my numb feet and
back track about a half a mile to a bridge that we had passed earlier that was on private property. This required a somewhat "bushwhack" up the other side of the brook where Sarge decided to get lost for about 20 minutes chasing pheasants. Once we met back up with the trail, it finally started up towards the summit. If it wasn't for all the water crossings, this would not have been a tough mountain to get to the top of. There are no views from the top of Eagle Mountain and all in all, it really had the least interesting summit of all 22 mountains that I've been to so far. Graham still has the ugliest, but it was at least interesting.
A trick we use for stream crossings is to take off your socks, remove the insoles from your boots, and then put the boots on. On the other side, you can put your insoles and socks back on and your feet will stay relatively dry.
ReplyDeleteThanks Jeff, That's a great suggestion since it never seems to stop raining around here. Keep reading, only a week left to go.
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