By the way; Despite a posting that looks more acceptable than my typical average, nowaadays I tend to look like a grumnpy idiot !
Must bbe those woodland critters !
By the way; any information on the parasites to get once consuming woodland fish ? I read somewhere about some old reports of parasitic infestation in immediate vicinity to Abitibi lake (in Quebec)
To get back to basics ; once bush wacking in what appears as uncharted territory it is wise to check out any information evailable on the area (obviously)which may reveal some noteworthy surprises with regards to the wildlife. In that regard after reading an old account of travels within the northern wilderness (or was it the eastern..) of Quebec I fell on a description of what is deemed as the large bear of the sterile lands. Up to this day there is no account to give further credance to the description of a creature that has the size and behaviour associated with a grizzly...
WoundedKnee - Jan 15, 2009 11:22 am - Hasn't voted
Love the B1 and B2, hate the B4 and B5
We have slightly different variations here in the southeast. No Devil's Club, but a good amount of awful Devil's Walking Stick (he must have moved down here when he got older). On higher summits we have 10' spruce pines that grow so closely together that you have to pry them apart to make headway.
I may be a wimp, but after some of the harder bushwhacking the sight of a trail is an absolute delight to me!
Here in the Rockies, mosquitos are not a problem. But a lot of Canada supports swarms of them, and black flies too. Well you might not think it's a real barrier to travel, but I think it's serious.
I used to live in Northern Ontario. I have been in sheltered, swampy lowlands where all I could do is get out. Even if I washed myself in bug-juice I felt desperate enough that I'd refuse to travel that route.
To me, any bushwhack route, with mosquitos and black-flies, degrades by at least 2 BW grades, or even 3 if it's a hot day.
I think we're into a whole new subject here Dan. Of course there's always the option to introduce mixed bush/bug grades in the same way that there are grades for mixed alpine climbing :)
I've lived in ON too and can tell you that they don't have a monopoly on mozzies etc. June-August on the Island can be miserable in the bush and even in the alpine. A head net is pretty well obligatory if you want to keep your sanity. BIG biting deer flies too.
The worst mosquitoes I've ever come across were in southern Oregon. See the Mt McLoughlin section of this TR.
chris_goulet - Jan 17, 2009 12:30 am - Voted 10/10
A tribute to bushwhacking
Brilliant and hilarious article! I relate to that 'sport' totally. I've made up a scale from 1 to 10, and use it in my journals. My level 10 is when my feet are rarely actually on some sort of ground. It's more like swimming over a tangle of pines bushes near the tree line. For example, the upper Swiftcurrent Valley in Mount Robson Park.
Severe bushwhacking vastly adds to the sense of accomplishment of getting to the alpine. Down with helicopters! What a bunch of wimps. They're too busy working to pay for the helicopter, and end up having no time for bushwhacking. So they lose out on bragging rights.
Even worse than helicopters are gondolas. There was a TR on here a few months ago in which the author described a near disaster - missing the last lift down the mountain. Give me a break....
One of the finest articles I've seen on SP. We have plenty of hostile flora in the Appalachians including poison ivy, stinging nettles, and greenbrier, which is my personal nemesis. Greenbrier is also known as "blasphemy vine" because of all the things that people say when they try to go through a brier patch. Even a winter bushwhack on Oventop Mountain in Shenandoah National Park left me looking like I had wrestled with a bobcat!
BTW, the term "bushwhacker" has been part of the American vocabulary since at least the 1860s. It was a Civil War term applied to soldiers engaged in guerrilla warfare. These individuals had to be well versed in the Australian definition of the term "bushwhack" in order to be effective at the American definition of the word "bushwhack".
Many thanks for the kind comments as well as the etymological background. I'll modify the text to incorporate the historical perspective when I'm back home on my own system. Right now I'm in NZ.
I smiled as I read this as we've had a few of those moments while hiking on the Island! Usually there is prize at the end of the bushwhack that makes me soon forget how we actually got there. Thanks for a fun read!
I've done some bushwacks in scrub oak so thick that my feet were literally suspended off the ground for a full 1/2 hour or more with hard, poking branches above head-height. A trip or a misjudged collapse or springing of the branches would result in flipping upside down, suspended in the air.
What do you think? B4, or B5?
The discovery of a wasp nest or rattlesnake in this terrain makes it even more fun.
Also, would you say brush that requires you to bore a hole through it (e.g. breaking down or pressing aside vegetation with trekking poles or ice axe) is B4 or B5 :-)
Love the article!! I couldn't agree more that bushwhacking is where it's at. There's just so much more once ya get off the established trail and explore. Discovery is why we do all this stuff anyway!
I remember cornering myself into a narrow ravine hiking up Snowmass Creek looking for the entry to Pierre Lakes Basin. By the time I climbed the damn slope back to the trail, I was covered in spiderwebs, leaves, pine needles and I believe I still had some ants on me from stepping into a rotted log. Ohhhh the F-bombs that were let loose on that trip. :o)
Enjoyed the article!!
My wife is still berating me about the B4+ dates that I took her on early in our romance... Thanks for defining all of this in a clear and logical manner! Needless to say we haven't done more than B1 together recently and she is much happier.
I tend to avoid summer, but when they're forested to the summit, like where I go, bushwhacking is all year 'round. (And I only said "tend to." Oh I do it.)
Nobody ever talked to me about it. I just looked up from the trail to a summit one day; saw on my map there was "no way" up; and asked myself what was up there.
Only one way to find out. Cheers.
P.S. Some of the worst I ever did was catclaw acacia, in New Mexico's Black Range. ON A TRAIL.
Great Article! I'm not too far from your neck of the woods and certainly appreciate "devils club". Lots of that up here. I find there is not all that much deadfall here in Alaska, purhaps because everything is growing so well. But the undergrowth can be crazy thick. The climbing approaches I was accustomed to in the lower 48 are only a dream now. I do appreciate the remote areas here and the effort required to reach them. Bushwhacking heaven!
suddendescent - Jan 13, 2009 2:43 pm - Hasn't voted
Re: Woodland bugs...Check out this picture of a bug I encountered on some woodland trail...
http://www.mbpost.com/image/269267//the-great-outdoors.html
By the way; Despite a posting that looks more acceptable than my typical average, nowaadays I tend to look like a grumnpy idiot !
Must bbe those woodland critters !
By the way; any information on the parasites to get once consuming woodland fish ? I read somewhere about some old reports of parasitic infestation in immediate vicinity to Abitibi lake (in Quebec)
To get back to basics ; once bush wacking in what appears as uncharted territory it is wise to check out any information evailable on the area (obviously)which may reveal some noteworthy surprises with regards to the wildlife. In that regard after reading an old account of travels within the northern wilderness (or was it the eastern..) of Quebec I fell on a description of what is deemed as the large bear of the sterile lands. Up to this day there is no account to give further credance to the description of a creature that has the size and behaviour associated with a grizzly...
WoundedKnee - Jan 15, 2009 11:22 am - Hasn't voted
Love the B1 and B2, hate the B4 and B5We have slightly different variations here in the southeast. No Devil's Club, but a good amount of awful Devil's Walking Stick (he must have moved down here when he got older). On higher summits we have 10' spruce pines that grow so closely together that you have to pry them apart to make headway.
I may be a wimp, but after some of the harder bushwhacking the sight of a trail is an absolute delight to me!
fossana - Jan 15, 2009 3:03 pm - Voted 10/10
entertaining readYou're ready for Barkley: http://www.mattmahoney.net/barkley/
vancouver islander - Jan 15, 2009 5:11 pm - Hasn't voted
Re: entertaining readThanks fossana.
All that and done as fast as you can!! And I thought I was a masochist!! :)
dan2see - Jan 16, 2009 1:54 pm - Voted 9/10
MosquitosHere in the Rockies, mosquitos are not a problem. But a lot of Canada supports swarms of them, and black flies too. Well you might not think it's a real barrier to travel, but I think it's serious.
I used to live in Northern Ontario. I have been in sheltered, swampy lowlands where all I could do is get out. Even if I washed myself in bug-juice I felt desperate enough that I'd refuse to travel that route.
To me, any bushwhack route, with mosquitos and black-flies, degrades by at least 2 BW grades, or even 3 if it's a hot day.
So BW-3 can be pretty well impassable at BW-5!
vancouver islander - Jan 16, 2009 2:45 pm - Hasn't voted
Re: MosquitosI think we're into a whole new subject here Dan. Of course there's always the option to introduce mixed bush/bug grades in the same way that there are grades for mixed alpine climbing :)
I've lived in ON too and can tell you that they don't have a monopoly on mozzies etc. June-August on the Island can be miserable in the bush and even in the alpine. A head net is pretty well obligatory if you want to keep your sanity. BIG biting deer flies too.
The worst mosquitoes I've ever come across were in southern Oregon. See the Mt McLoughlin section of this TR.
chris_goulet - Jan 17, 2009 12:30 am - Voted 10/10
A tribute to bushwhackingBrilliant and hilarious article! I relate to that 'sport' totally. I've made up a scale from 1 to 10, and use it in my journals. My level 10 is when my feet are rarely actually on some sort of ground. It's more like swimming over a tangle of pines bushes near the tree line. For example, the upper Swiftcurrent Valley in Mount Robson Park.
Severe bushwhacking vastly adds to the sense of accomplishment of getting to the alpine. Down with helicopters! What a bunch of wimps. They're too busy working to pay for the helicopter, and end up having no time for bushwhacking. So they lose out on bragging rights.
vancouver islander - Jan 17, 2009 2:23 am - Hasn't voted
Re: A tribute to bushwhackingThanks Chris.
Even worse than helicopters are gondolas. There was a TR on here a few months ago in which the author described a near disaster - missing the last lift down the mountain. Give me a break....
CheesySciFi - Feb 8, 2009 8:32 pm - Voted 10/10
Very well writtenOne of the finest articles I've seen on SP. We have plenty of hostile flora in the Appalachians including poison ivy, stinging nettles, and greenbrier, which is my personal nemesis. Greenbrier is also known as "blasphemy vine" because of all the things that people say when they try to go through a brier patch. Even a winter bushwhack on Oventop Mountain in Shenandoah National Park left me looking like I had wrestled with a bobcat!
BTW, the term "bushwhacker" has been part of the American vocabulary since at least the 1860s. It was a Civil War term applied to soldiers engaged in guerrilla warfare. These individuals had to be well versed in the Australian definition of the term "bushwhack" in order to be effective at the American definition of the word "bushwhack".
vancouver islander - Feb 15, 2009 9:16 pm - Hasn't voted
Re: Very well writtenMany thanks for the kind comments as well as the etymological background. I'll modify the text to incorporate the historical perspective when I'm back home on my own system. Right now I'm in NZ.
Cheers,
Martin
KingL - May 9, 2009 7:59 pm - Voted 10/10
Wonderful ReadI smiled as I read this as we've had a few of those moments while hiking on the Island! Usually there is prize at the end of the bushwhack that makes me soon forget how we actually got there. Thanks for a fun read!
Laura
PellucidWombat - Sep 17, 2009 5:52 pm - Voted 10/10
Rating?I've done some bushwacks in scrub oak so thick that my feet were literally suspended off the ground for a full 1/2 hour or more with hard, poking branches above head-height. A trip or a misjudged collapse or springing of the branches would result in flipping upside down, suspended in the air.
What do you think? B4, or B5?
The discovery of a wasp nest or rattlesnake in this terrain makes it even more fun.
Also, would you say brush that requires you to bore a hole through it (e.g. breaking down or pressing aside vegetation with trekking poles or ice axe) is B4 or B5 :-)
splattski - Apr 6, 2013 10:34 am - Voted 10/10
Winter bushwackingYou simply haven't LIVED until you try all of the above while wearing snowshoes.
cowtree - Apr 8, 2013 4:18 am - Hasn't voted
is what it isbushwhacking through manzanitas out here in cali can be a major pain
Kiefer - Apr 10, 2013 8:40 pm - Voted 10/10
Beauty!Love the article!! I couldn't agree more that bushwhacking is where it's at. There's just so much more once ya get off the established trail and explore. Discovery is why we do all this stuff anyway!
I remember cornering myself into a narrow ravine hiking up Snowmass Creek looking for the entry to Pierre Lakes Basin. By the time I climbed the damn slope back to the trail, I was covered in spiderwebs, leaves, pine needles and I believe I still had some ants on me from stepping into a rotted log. Ohhhh the F-bombs that were let loose on that trip. :o)
Enjoyed the article!!
vancouver islander - Apr 10, 2013 9:44 pm - Hasn't voted
Re: Beauty!The criterion is to check your underwear. If you've got forest debris in the crotch of your knickers, you've been bushwhacking :-)
RobSC - Apr 10, 2013 9:45 pm - Voted 10/10
Nice Article!My wife is still berating me about the B4+ dates that I took her on early in our romance... Thanks for defining all of this in a clear and logical manner! Needless to say we haven't done more than B1 together recently and she is much happier.
Donn - Aug 12, 2014 4:15 pm - Voted 10/10
Re: Nice Article!How I certified mine too. Waist-deep torrents, snowing to beat the band, and B4 are the real ways to identify "a keeper." It worked!
Donn - Aug 12, 2014 4:14 pm - Voted 10/10
Everyone should try it.I tend to avoid summer, but when they're forested to the summit, like where I go, bushwhacking is all year 'round. (And I only said "tend to." Oh I do it.)
Nobody ever talked to me about it. I just looked up from the trail to a summit one day; saw on my map there was "no way" up; and asked myself what was up there.
Only one way to find out. Cheers.
P.S. Some of the worst I ever did was catclaw acacia, in New Mexico's Black Range. ON A TRAIL.
dfrancom - Aug 21, 2014 6:19 pm - Hasn't voted
Alaska BushGreat Article! I'm not too far from your neck of the woods and certainly appreciate "devils club". Lots of that up here. I find there is not all that much deadfall here in Alaska, purhaps because everything is growing so well. But the undergrowth can be crazy thick. The climbing approaches I was accustomed to in the lower 48 are only a dream now. I do appreciate the remote areas here and the effort required to reach them. Bushwhacking heaven!