Paugus Hell hike

The hike started out nicely.  Just before I got to the trailhead a baby moose startled and began running alongside my car.  I didn’t know what it was at first. It was the size of a deer but it was brown, running clumsily, tripping as it ran.  Suddenly I realized it was a very young moose.  I watched it as it darted frantically into the woods.

I parked at the trailhead, checked my gear and headed up the trail.  My intention was to hike the loop starting with Big Rock Cave trail toward the Old Paugus trail.  The trail was not well maintained, not much more than a deer run, overgrown with easy to miss blue blazes.  I spent most of the hike looking at my map and gps making sure I was still on a trail.  I put the dog on top of the pack as I crossed the Whitin brook and continued to Big Rock Cave.  The Big Rock cave was beautiful!  I was unable to a capture its magnitude with my point and shoot.  I hung out taking a break to feed the dog and grab a granola bar.   The trail continued to be difficult to follow.  I prefer trails where I don’t have to constantly keep my head glued to a map/gps.  I had to be hyper-focused to stay on track. 

The narrow trail was dark, long and boring except for the numerous toads hopping past, which helped break up the monotony.   When I got to a steep section of the trail and looked at all of the debris left behind by the spring thaw, I wasn’t sure I was still on the trail.  I continued on, climbing over twigs, brush, branches, rocks and was relieved to see a cairn.  I continued and saw another cairn. I wondered if someone had placed them as a joke, thinking this can’t possibly be the trail.  But, I continued on and noticed a third cairn. This one was a little more intricate. I didn’t know it was pointing me to a small trail that veered off to the right …. (Sidenote:  when I got home I looked up cairns.  I didn’t find anything that said, if a rock juts out to the side of a cairn look for a side trail, but I found an interesting book: http://geologywriter.com/books/cairns-messengers-in-stone/ ).   

So I continued the unnecessary ascent to hell. The rock scrambles on this trail were so intense in one spot that I had to lean into a tree, place one foot against the 8 foot high massive boulder, fold forward, reach and grab a small tree, and pull myself up.  You think I would have realized at this point I hadn’t seen another cairn, and that most sane people wouldn’t have attempted to climb this area of the trail. 

I finally get to the top and I am surrounded by fallen trees, large and small, old and new.  The ground was unstable, like a tiger trap, branches over hidden drops.  I tested each step with my pole before moving.  I knew at this point I had missed a turn but thought the trail couldn’t be far so I continued. Slowly, methodically, looking at my map and gps, with each step I said to myself  I can’t be far from the trail.  After 30 minutes I sat down and sent my husband a text.  It read, “I’m in hell right now…bushwhacking on unstable ground.  Dog is miserable.  Looking for a maintained trail.  Taking a break.”  After I sent it I thought to myself, how many women send those kinds of texts to their husbands? 

I looked at my map and my gps and saw that the trailhead was about a ½ mile bushwhack.  I decided to make an attempt to reach it.  The bushwhack couldn’t get any worse…right? Wrong.   Each step got worse and there were unexpected ledges everywhere.  Then every fallen tree looked the same and I became disoriented.  There were only two things I could do, 1) panic and go running through the maze of fallen trees screaming or 2) sit down, eat some lunch and listen to an Agatha Christie novel on my MP3 player.  I chose #2.   I sat down on the nearest stable fallen tree. It was covered in carpenter ants and I didn’t care.  As I sat a pileated woodpecker screeched loudly, clearly annoyed that I was in its territory sitting on its lunch. I decided it wasn’t worth the risk to continue and began a careful descent.  The ERD was done and wanted nothing to do with hiking in this tangle of branches and I had to go back for him twice.   

I finally got back to the tricky cairn and saw the trail I missed.  I took the trail and maneuvered over  more blow-downs and more debris. I went under and over trees, broke branches with my feet and hands.  I looked over to the right and saw Chocorua.  I looked at my map and gps and realized there was still another 1.7 miles to the summit and made the decision to turn back.  I had had enough. It was 82 degrees, I looked like someone threw me into Peter Rabbit’s briar patch and I was covered with black fly bites.  I will hike Chocorua next and come back to Paugus another time.

annoyed toad :) 

The ERD and the toad

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Big Rock Cave

Massive glacial erratics

 Cairn number 2

Cairn #3 with the rock directing me to the untaken right

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Trail? Yes...

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scramble

 trail

not the trail, unstable ground, hidden holes

trail

 

trail 

red banded polypore

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Chocorua

me looking far less annoyed than I actually was....