My wife and I were on the trail crossing Wakley Dam at 8am on Sunday. Perfect weather and a nice breeze. We hiked about 2 miles on the trail that goes north along the Cedar Brook until we took a right and started whacking eastward toward Brown Pond.
Took just under 3 hours to get to the summit of The un-named Brown Pond peak. There was an american flag zip-tied to the summit tree. From there we dropped way down to the notch between Panther and Brown Pond, where we crossed a jeep trail. Then it was about a 2000' slog up Panther from the notch.
We followed the ridge from Panther to South Panther. South Panther had a steep summit cone, but was pretty straight forward. We kept on the ridge which maintained a fairly consistent elevation heading in a southerly direction until we reached Buell at 4pm. Buell had no markings on the summit, except a POSTED sign several yards from the summit which I think may mark a private Hunting Club boundary to the east.
Descending Buell took FOREVER because there is no straight forward way from Buell westward back to the Wakley Dam. You have to go down and around through two notches which was a huge pain in the ass. Lots of cutting around on the cusp of sub peaks following contour lines which is difficult navigating, but by 7:30 we were back at the Wakley Dam. We immediately jumped in the lake behind the dam which felt amazing to rinse off nearly 12 hours of sweat and dirt.
This was a very long, but awesome hike. Approximately 12-13 miles to do the horseshoe route and cover all 4 peaks. There were no biting bugs and the forests were quite open. Never once did the forests even come close to being thick like the McDonnel hellish onslaught I was assaulted with a few weeks earlier. Easy to moderate bushwhacking (in terms of forest thickness) the entire time.
Summit of Buell. If you look closely you can see the yellow POSTED sign in the background on the left side in the distance behind the dead tree.
Took just under 3 hours to get to the summit of The un-named Brown Pond peak. There was an american flag zip-tied to the summit tree. From there we dropped way down to the notch between Panther and Brown Pond, where we crossed a jeep trail. Then it was about a 2000' slog up Panther from the notch.
We followed the ridge from Panther to South Panther. South Panther had a steep summit cone, but was pretty straight forward. We kept on the ridge which maintained a fairly consistent elevation heading in a southerly direction until we reached Buell at 4pm. Buell had no markings on the summit, except a POSTED sign several yards from the summit which I think may mark a private Hunting Club boundary to the east.
Descending Buell took FOREVER because there is no straight forward way from Buell westward back to the Wakley Dam. You have to go down and around through two notches which was a huge pain in the ass. Lots of cutting around on the cusp of sub peaks following contour lines which is difficult navigating, but by 7:30 we were back at the Wakley Dam. We immediately jumped in the lake behind the dam which felt amazing to rinse off nearly 12 hours of sweat and dirt.
This was a very long, but awesome hike. Approximately 12-13 miles to do the horseshoe route and cover all 4 peaks. There were no biting bugs and the forests were quite open. Never once did the forests even come close to being thick like the McDonnel hellish onslaught I was assaulted with a few weeks earlier. Easy to moderate bushwhacking (in terms of forest thickness) the entire time.
Summit of Buell. If you look closely you can see the yellow POSTED sign in the background on the left side in the distance behind the dead tree.
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