Tipi Walter
02-07-2013, 11:20
I figure I might as well post this trip in the BMT forum as I was on the BMT for most of the trip.
TRIP 141 January 2--19 2013
http://tipiwalter.smugmug.com/Backpacking2013-1/18-Days-in-the-Big-Frog/i-KPxV4Rw/0/L/TRIP%20141%20019-L.jpg
The BMT passes thru Thunder Rock (Thunder Truck) campground and it's where I'm dropped off so I don't have a car sitting around for 18 days.
http://tipiwalter.smugmug.com/Backpacking2013-1/18-Days-in-the-Big-Frog/i-psFnhnJ/0/L/TRIP%20141%20010-L.jpg
There are 3 different local trail names when leaving Thunder Rock---305, 330(poplar hollow) and West Fork 303. There are confusing but just follow the white blazes and no problemo.
http://tipiwalter.smugmug.com/Backpacking2013-1/18-Days-in-the-Big-Frog/i-xG3vhdn/0/L/TRIP%20141%20012-L.jpg
Before reaching the Big Frog Wilderness the trail passes this mysterious gravesite which Sgt Rock has often wondered about. Is it for a human? A dog? A bicyclist?
http://tipiwalter.smugmug.com/Backpacking2013-1/18-Days-in-the-Big-Frog/i-t6LWwsm/0/L/TRIP%20141%20017-L.jpg
I spend my first night 4.4 miles in on the West Fork of Rough Creek. The BMT here is inside the wilderness. This creek must be crossed 3 times and it's usually no problem but sometimes it's impossible, like the Slickrock crossing many miles north.
http://tipiwalter.smugmug.com/Backpacking2013-1/18-Days-in-the-Big-Frog/i-TX9rfr9/0/L/TRIP%20141%20024-L.jpg
This is what Rough Creek can do in high water---wash away a steel culvert in concrete moorings. Not good. In hard rains a detour is possible if you turn right at the FS road 221 crossing and jct with the Big Frog trail up to Frog Mt, etc.
http://tipiwalter.smugmug.com/Backpacking2013-1/18-Days-in-the-Big-Frog/i-3vhQT9V/0/L/TRIP%20141%20038-L.jpg
19F Morning---I'm up and ready to leave my Fork Ridge spring camp and climb to the next spring which Sgt Rock mentions in his BMT trail guide. I get to the gap and go for water and when I come back I meet legendary backpacker Christine Thuermer---the German Tourist.
I got an email before the trip from Bert Wildcat Emmerson who told me she is backpacking the AT and the BMT and wanted to get in touch with me and so I planned my trip to be on the BMT in Big Frog about the same time she was to hike thru and as luck would have it she passed by on the Fork Ridge trail.
She's done the triple crown, kayaked the Mississippi, paddled the Everglades and the Yukon River, backpacked the Bibbulmun Track and Florida Trail and Arizona Trail, cycled thru Australia and New Zealand and Japan, etc. Check her out at http://www.christine-on-big-trip.blogspot.com/
http://tipiwalter.smugmug.com/Backpacking2013-1/18-Days-in-the-Big-Frog/i-q5Dtbks/0/L/TRIP%20141%20050-L.jpg
The BMT left Rough Creek a while back and here's where it jcts with the Big Frog trail at the end of the Fork Ridge trail. A good place to rest cuz the climb up from Thunder Rock is around 2,500 feet.
http://tipiwalter.smugmug.com/Backpacking2013-1/18-Days-in-the-Big-Frog/i-BZ97L5j/0/L/TRIP%20141%20056-L.jpg
I make it to Big Frog Mt and go to the spring which is the highest I've ever seen it. Gotta load up on water here, boys, if you want to camp.
http://tipiwalter.smugmug.com/Backpacking2013-1/18-Days-in-the-Big-Frog/i-zJgnBjp/0/L/TRIP%20141%20075-L.jpg
I stay atop the Frog and by morning it's cold enough for some ice. Not much but ya take what you can get.
http://tipiwalter.smugmug.com/Backpacking2013-1/18-Days-in-the-Big-Frog/i-ZZBMP3x/0/L/TRIP%20141%20085-L.jpg
I get off the Frog and the BMT for several days and head down the Wolf Ridge trail which is probably the toughest trail in the Big Frog and find this old trailsign on the ground in Nut Jct (Chestnut Mt jct with Wolf).
http://tipiwalter.smugmug.com/Backpacking2013-1/18-Days-in-the-Big-Frog/i-ZkMNknF/0/L/TRIP%20141%20092-L.jpg
I make it to the end of Wolf Ridge trail at Pace Gap and pull this 2 mile roadwalk to the Big Creek/Yellow Stand Lead trailheads to loop back into the Frog.
http://tipiwalter.smugmug.com/Backpacking2013-1/18-Days-in-the-Big-Frog/i-72MrjjX/0/L/TRIP%20141%20126-L.jpg
I take the Yellow Stand Lead trail to Low Gap and spend the night and in the morning get geared up for a hike on the Grassy Gap trail back to Wolf Ridge. It's a good loop to return me to the top of Frog Mt and the BMT. Here I am in my Icebreaker merino tops and bottoms with the turtle fur tuque.
http://tipiwalter.smugmug.com/Backpacking2013-1/18-Days-in-the-Big-Frog/i-SnWr8zh/0/L/TRIP%20141%20117-L.jpg
Grassy Gap wipes me out for some reason, probably because I ended up carrying too much water way before I needed and ended up at Nut Jct where I crapped out for the night.
http://tipiwalter.smugmug.com/Backpacking2013-1/18-Days-in-the-Big-Frog/i-DqW8wGg/0/L/TRIP%20141%20223-L.jpg
On Day 8 I climb back up to the Frog and get caught in a nonstop rainstorm so I sit put for 4 nights here and the rain never stops except for a few hours on Saturday.
TRIP 141 January 2--19 2013
http://tipiwalter.smugmug.com/Backpacking2013-1/18-Days-in-the-Big-Frog/i-KPxV4Rw/0/L/TRIP%20141%20019-L.jpg
The BMT passes thru Thunder Rock (Thunder Truck) campground and it's where I'm dropped off so I don't have a car sitting around for 18 days.
http://tipiwalter.smugmug.com/Backpacking2013-1/18-Days-in-the-Big-Frog/i-psFnhnJ/0/L/TRIP%20141%20010-L.jpg
There are 3 different local trail names when leaving Thunder Rock---305, 330(poplar hollow) and West Fork 303. There are confusing but just follow the white blazes and no problemo.
http://tipiwalter.smugmug.com/Backpacking2013-1/18-Days-in-the-Big-Frog/i-xG3vhdn/0/L/TRIP%20141%20012-L.jpg
Before reaching the Big Frog Wilderness the trail passes this mysterious gravesite which Sgt Rock has often wondered about. Is it for a human? A dog? A bicyclist?
http://tipiwalter.smugmug.com/Backpacking2013-1/18-Days-in-the-Big-Frog/i-t6LWwsm/0/L/TRIP%20141%20017-L.jpg
I spend my first night 4.4 miles in on the West Fork of Rough Creek. The BMT here is inside the wilderness. This creek must be crossed 3 times and it's usually no problem but sometimes it's impossible, like the Slickrock crossing many miles north.
http://tipiwalter.smugmug.com/Backpacking2013-1/18-Days-in-the-Big-Frog/i-TX9rfr9/0/L/TRIP%20141%20024-L.jpg
This is what Rough Creek can do in high water---wash away a steel culvert in concrete moorings. Not good. In hard rains a detour is possible if you turn right at the FS road 221 crossing and jct with the Big Frog trail up to Frog Mt, etc.
http://tipiwalter.smugmug.com/Backpacking2013-1/18-Days-in-the-Big-Frog/i-3vhQT9V/0/L/TRIP%20141%20038-L.jpg
19F Morning---I'm up and ready to leave my Fork Ridge spring camp and climb to the next spring which Sgt Rock mentions in his BMT trail guide. I get to the gap and go for water and when I come back I meet legendary backpacker Christine Thuermer---the German Tourist.
I got an email before the trip from Bert Wildcat Emmerson who told me she is backpacking the AT and the BMT and wanted to get in touch with me and so I planned my trip to be on the BMT in Big Frog about the same time she was to hike thru and as luck would have it she passed by on the Fork Ridge trail.
She's done the triple crown, kayaked the Mississippi, paddled the Everglades and the Yukon River, backpacked the Bibbulmun Track and Florida Trail and Arizona Trail, cycled thru Australia and New Zealand and Japan, etc. Check her out at http://www.christine-on-big-trip.blogspot.com/
http://tipiwalter.smugmug.com/Backpacking2013-1/18-Days-in-the-Big-Frog/i-q5Dtbks/0/L/TRIP%20141%20050-L.jpg
The BMT left Rough Creek a while back and here's where it jcts with the Big Frog trail at the end of the Fork Ridge trail. A good place to rest cuz the climb up from Thunder Rock is around 2,500 feet.
http://tipiwalter.smugmug.com/Backpacking2013-1/18-Days-in-the-Big-Frog/i-BZ97L5j/0/L/TRIP%20141%20056-L.jpg
I make it to Big Frog Mt and go to the spring which is the highest I've ever seen it. Gotta load up on water here, boys, if you want to camp.
http://tipiwalter.smugmug.com/Backpacking2013-1/18-Days-in-the-Big-Frog/i-zJgnBjp/0/L/TRIP%20141%20075-L.jpg
I stay atop the Frog and by morning it's cold enough for some ice. Not much but ya take what you can get.
http://tipiwalter.smugmug.com/Backpacking2013-1/18-Days-in-the-Big-Frog/i-ZZBMP3x/0/L/TRIP%20141%20085-L.jpg
I get off the Frog and the BMT for several days and head down the Wolf Ridge trail which is probably the toughest trail in the Big Frog and find this old trailsign on the ground in Nut Jct (Chestnut Mt jct with Wolf).
http://tipiwalter.smugmug.com/Backpacking2013-1/18-Days-in-the-Big-Frog/i-ZkMNknF/0/L/TRIP%20141%20092-L.jpg
I make it to the end of Wolf Ridge trail at Pace Gap and pull this 2 mile roadwalk to the Big Creek/Yellow Stand Lead trailheads to loop back into the Frog.
http://tipiwalter.smugmug.com/Backpacking2013-1/18-Days-in-the-Big-Frog/i-72MrjjX/0/L/TRIP%20141%20126-L.jpg
I take the Yellow Stand Lead trail to Low Gap and spend the night and in the morning get geared up for a hike on the Grassy Gap trail back to Wolf Ridge. It's a good loop to return me to the top of Frog Mt and the BMT. Here I am in my Icebreaker merino tops and bottoms with the turtle fur tuque.
http://tipiwalter.smugmug.com/Backpacking2013-1/18-Days-in-the-Big-Frog/i-SnWr8zh/0/L/TRIP%20141%20117-L.jpg
Grassy Gap wipes me out for some reason, probably because I ended up carrying too much water way before I needed and ended up at Nut Jct where I crapped out for the night.
http://tipiwalter.smugmug.com/Backpacking2013-1/18-Days-in-the-Big-Frog/i-DqW8wGg/0/L/TRIP%20141%20223-L.jpg
On Day 8 I climb back up to the Frog and get caught in a nonstop rainstorm so I sit put for 4 nights here and the rain never stops except for a few hours on Saturday.