August 22, 2004

Scar Ridge

Scar Ridge is on the NEHH (New England Hundred Highest) list and is by far the toughest hike we have ever competed. It was only a 7 mile hike, of which 4 miles was on an easy trail , but the remaining 3 miles was a bushwack through incrediably thick forest with numerous blow downs. This one hike may be the single largest reason why only 549 people have compelted the NEHH as of the end of 2003. (this number is from the AMC 4000 footer Web page who maintains the list of people have completed this and other lists)

The red line is our route up too the canister. The blue is the route from the canister over to the true peak and then down.

Geri, Julie, and I joined Robert and Jonny who had posted on VFTT that they were thinking of doing this hike. Fun to meet others that we have read postings from.

Here is a blow up of our route to/from Little East Pond. From Little East Pond we headed to the col to the west of Middle Peak as suggested by several other trip reports. From there we followed the ridge over to the peak. This was very tough going most of the way. From the canister we headed over to the true peak marked on the maps with an elevation of 3774 feet, before returning to the canister and begining our descent. You can see that in the final descent to the pond we were west of our ascent. We found a tricky water runoff (dry) that we followed Although it was covered with blowdowns, at least we didn't have to force our way through the thick spruce trees.

The 3 1/2 mile round trip bushwack took us 7+ hours to complete. This hike is one reason that so few people complete the New England Hundred Highest. True to it's name (Scar Ridge) we all came home with scars. We are glad to have completed this one, but all agreeded that we will never do this hike again!

This is the profile of our hike from our GPS for our ascent to the canister. You can see at the two mile mark where we hiked around the pond.

This is the profile of our hike from our GPS for our trip to the other summit and our descent.

The gentle start of the hike give no clue to what awaits.

Here is a view of Little East Pond with Scar Ridge in the background. The distance from here to the col between the peaks and Middle Peak is only 1/2 miles, but it took us close to two hours to get there.

Katahdin banged her legged and started an old injury bleeding, so we administered first aid to her.

She did a great job on the hike - much better that we did - must have been that she could crawl under obstacles while we had to go over or through them.

Robert at the well earned canister.

We are all tired and hungry, but elated to have made it.

After eating lunch we headed over to the true summit, which took @ 1 hour round trip. While we again encountered dense forest, the true summit was a bit more open.

Robert and Jonny performing their summit ritual with dance and song. Geri is wondering where they get their energy from.

A shot of Little East Pond on our descent.

Middle Peak on the left.

One last look at where we spent the last 7 hours.

All of us happy to be back. Rather than saying "cheese" for the camera, we are all shouting "Never Again!"

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