I have come to realize that I could spend a lot of time doing bushwhack hikes in the eastern portion of the Dix Mountain Wilderness Area. Last month I did Saunders Mountain and Wyman Mountain, and today Spotted Mountain turned out to be a great place to hike also.
Back in June when I had climbed East Dix, I had noticed from a distance that Spotted Mountain looked nice. I made a mental note of it. Today Leesa and I decided to give it a go from Route 73. It looked to be about an 8 to 10 mile trip, depending on how we went.
We got started about 9:30 following the South Fork of the Boquet River. I had heard that there was a herd path along the river, but for some reason, we couldn't find it until about 1.5 miles in. At 2 miles in we came to a nice designated camping spot, just prior to the split in the river.
Once at the split we left the river, and went in-between the two river branches heading due west towards the first bump on the ridge. The forest was mostly beech trees and walking was pretty easy. As we began to reach the spline of the ridge, spruce trees and rock began to take over.
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| Giant Mountain and Rocky Peak Ridge, frosty white in the distance |
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| I look at this stump and wonder about what kind of life that tree had! |
Each succeeding plateau offered great views in all directions. It's nice to have so many viewpoints along the way. Creeping up the spine was a little more difficult than I thought it would be. Leesa had some difficulty negotiating a few spots. The thickly forested areas didn't last for long though.
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| This plateau is two false peaks below Spotted Mtn. Nice just the same. |
The open rock was prevalent. Some of the rock was wet, but there was no ice yet. As we made the final push to the summit, we encountered a dusting of snow on the ground.
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| Good size boulders left behind |
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| Just Rev wondering where she can go next! |
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| Lots of open rock on this ridge |
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| Spotted Mountain ahead. Hough and Dix in the distance. |
The Dix range looked quite frosty in the distance.
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| Hough and Dix |
We reached the summit about 1:45 PM. I wished I had the time to go all the way to East Dix and back out, but not enough daylight this time of year.
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| View SW from the summit of Spotted Mountain to East Dix with Hough in the back right |
I decided we would go back by way of the north fork Boquet River. I set a bearing to 30 degrees and we headed to Lilypad Pond. Beyond the pond, we picked up the north fork Boquet River and followed a nice herd path past a couple of nice designated camp spots and came out at Route 73 about a mile from the car and our initial starting point.
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| Giant and Rocky Peak Ridge in the distance |
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| A little blue sky made its' way in |
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| Hough and Dix |
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| Looking back at Spotted Mountain on the way out |
Hike Stats:
Hike Distance: 9.2 miles + 1 mile on Route 73
Hike Time: 7 hrs, 45 minutes
Total Vertical Gain: 2650'
The unmarked trail along the south side of the South Fork wanders up above, away from the stream and back to the edge but is very narrow and is much easier to follow when the leaves are on the trees. Elizabethtown no. 4 and I think Spotted too were burned in the 1903 fire. Those driftwood like tree stumps were killed then and many still have blackened burned areas and haven't rotted away in the last 110 years although people burned many of them in campfires over the years.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the info. I have since been back and have used the unmarked herd path you refer too. It's a beautiful area. I'll be back for sure this year.
DeleteThanks for reading.
i know this article is 8 years old but lol... thanks for this write up . i ventured up this route this past friday 10-1-21 .... what a fantastic bushwhack... steep and scrambly in sections. HUGE views once on the small summits/ridge line. only thing i did different was bushwhacking down to the Boquet from the cull between spotted and grace.... i saw only 3 things that showed any humans came thru this area ... 2 rock cairns and a very old fire ring...this ring was so old that moss had retaken it completely. i thought it was a cool discovery
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