Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1903-09-24
ALONG BED OF DRY" RIVER
adventures ana Experiences of n Party
or Five Explorers in the wild ana
Mandy ('husru.

Woody Chnsm.
AS one stands on the summit of Mount
Washington and looks into the wford
Notch the eye follows deep chasm
stretching from Bigelows lawn to the
fTahkenstein trestlc on the Maine Cen
tral railroad. This is one of the widest
ana most inaccessible ravines that pene-
trate the sides of Mount Washington
ana has been seldom traversed it's whole
length by any of the hundreds of tourists
VINO visit the White mountains for pleas
ure. ii has been the scene of large lum-
Derlng operations in past years, but the
territory has been thoroughly skinned Of
'Tees, and now scrub. underbrush and
rotting logs and bridges cover the ground.
Looking down or up along this chasm,
in which Oakes's Gulf debouches, the
task of exploring it seems quite FEAST
Die. for u half-day's tramp, but the
enthusiast should not be deceived: he
should take a camping outfit for at least
two days, and be prepared for one of the
toughest Notwithstanding Jobs of his
experience.
Five well-seasoned mountaneers, whose
names are familiar to most Of our read
ers, arrived on the summit on recent
evening after n two days exploring ex-
petition through the tangles of this re-
gion Mr. and Mrs. George A. I'lagg
and Charles NJ Cox OF Maiden, Mass,
story Is an interesting one:
we have been stopping at the Cave
Mountain house, Bartlett. for the past
month. Started Wednesday morning to
go up on the train. Left the train at
Wiley station and went around to the
right Of Mount Webster. and as soon
as We struck the old abandoned railroad
we followed that up. We found all the
bridges that used to stand there washed
out and most Of the bed of the railroad
overgrown with brush, except where the
fishermen have kept "A path open. This
brought us along pretty well until we had
gone two miles or So when we struck a
gorge which was almost impossible to
cross on account of the water being so
high 1t took us an hour and three
quarters TO proceed perhaps not more
than fifty feet. 1t is called the Dry
River but we thought it should be called
Wet River One or two of the party fell
crossovcrs. We reached the end of the
railroad just at nightfall and pitched
camp. Showers came on. causing quite
IA little bother. 1t was about S o'clock
before we got properly settled down for
tn" night.
I'VE left camp early Thursday morn
ing. about $50, still following the shore
of the river. The logging road was
pretty good for about a mile but after
that it was filled with windfalls. tops
of trees, rottng logs. and every kind
Of debris under the sun-Sinply impos-
sble to stick to it part of the time.
We passed a most magnificent water
fan, which is not on any map. 1t has
fan Of about thirty feet. Looked very
nearly as good as the waterfall in Tuck
erman's.
AT about II o'clock we reached where
the cuttings ended We then made pref
~ good progress until we got into Oakess
Gulf Coming up the floor of the gulf
wasn't bad but when we struck up to-
wards the Refuge the fun began. Where
We came out the headwall was practically
vertical, in fact we We're afraid that we
would start a slide at any time. The
underhrush was SO thick that we had to
cut our way through with axes For
about fifty feet we were obliged to pull
ourselves M by means of little twigs.
Finally we got up where we could look
across and see the rocks and lodges
protruding above US. With not more than
500 feet of that scrub to get through,
it took us an hour and a half to reach
the end In some places we had to walk
on top of the dwarf trees and under
brush. while in other places we cut our
way through.
I'VE reached the Appalachian Refuge
at about quarter of six whore we rested
for some time. and then came to the
summit by an air line route. which
Irnurht rs RIGHT nv tho orrnsbcc man
unont.
"Tbo pcnoro1 oenect about tho ,,,.o, is
ovcodinpIv wild FAR moro on tba, mo
Gro,t Cur If is nIIe1 With r,,;,e of ,ho
| logging operations, the rotted and over
turned bridges adding to the general dis
ordor Wo frIIv ,preo uitb Cr.oot,o,.,
Guide that il is , two da,.s. io,,rno,. IRON,
the railroad to tbe summit
From tho mace where we camrod
during tho first nirht a ra,II,. enIan1i,t
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