Ok, I will be the first to confess that we are extremely spoiled in Colorado when it comes to bushwacking. We have few of the prickly, skin-ripping stuff you deal with in Arizona, we don't "enjoy" the tangled mess of jungle "enjoyed" in the PacNW, and...unlike you folks in the southeast, we don't deal with finding snakes behind every log.

At any rate, in honor of my Alabama born-and-bred husband, I wish to suggest an edit to the below Aid Ratings:

Aid Ratings

When artificial means are used to penetrate brush, then an aid rating should be used to describe the device required. These ratings range from BA1 to BA5, where BA stands for "brush aid": BA1 Machete or sickle
BA2 Gas-powered weed-eater
BA2.2: SNAKEBOOTS
BA3 Chainsaw
BA4 Agent orange
BA5 Bulldozer

You folks have a fun/safe weekend,

Sarah

I've done some BW5 here in Maine, although it was more like "Oh dear God it hurts!" Not fun, blood flowed, lost things and my mind. 4 hours to do less than a mile.

So for the world travelers: what's the worst kind of vegetation to try to 'whack through?

Separate grades for density (how much it slows you down), thorniness/urtication (how much it makes you bleed or itch), and major hazard (chance of *serious* injury, like falling onto a widowmaker from atop a blowdown).

For example, an Alaskan slope covered in dense alders is probably an 8 or 9 out of 10 on the density scale: there are so many little trunks you can't get good footing, you can't push more than one of them aside at a time, you can't break them without a chainsaw. The result is a kind of slow-motion swimming, where you negotiate center of gravity slowly through the brush while never actually having freedom of movement. But it's a 1 on the other two scales. (9,1,1)

There's a species of fern that's no obstacle at all (0 density - heck you can see over them most of the time), except that they'll slice like knives if you're not wearing thick clothing. 7 or 8 on the blood/rash scale. (0,7,0)

In the Northeastern U.S., a good spruce thicket is almost as impossible to move through (7 or 8 density), but it's got a lot more pointy branches, so maybe a 5 on the blood/rash scale. Throw in some blowdowns and the effective density barely changes, but now you've got big spiky fragments pointing every which way, with a likelihood of above-the-ground travel, so the hazard rating goes up. (8,5,5)

I think my least favorite brush so far, though, is furze (a.k.a. gorse). Dense and woody, enough to force some climbing, with the added fun of really big thorns. (8,8,2).

The first half mile (or less) of the trail up to Persis is currently a BW2. With the access road now closed, it will be a BW3 next year. Within two years, I expect it to be a BW4. It's already a pain to navigate with a full pack, with no traffic, it's going to close up quickly.

My favorite bushwhacking is through devil's club. A close second is bushwhacking through terrain so steep and covered in 20 years of compacted pine needles that crampons are really necessary for serious positive gain.

Devil's club. Good times.

Definitely not loving the devils club I've been encountering lately. The later in the season, the worse it seems...

We did some bushwhacking in the Enchanted Gorge and wrote a trip report. Here is an excerpt:

"The much-enduring brothers Harry and George set off down the Enchanted Gorge. In the fiery heat they bushwhacked through barb-wire thickets of manzanita that shredded skin and clothing alike. Hordes of mosquitos joined in the blood letting.

"Along the river's edge they threaded through lush greenery that ran riot with nettle, a tall plant that imparts a brutal sting and produces a lasting red wheal as a painful reminder.

"They fought through dry brush that tangled their hair with twigs and crisscrossed their limbs with bloody lacerations. A voluminous brine poured from their brows, stinging their eyes and wounds alike.

"In time, the brothers traversed the Enchanted Gorge and descended into Goddard Canyon. There, at the confluence of Disappearing and Goddard creeks, they discovered an idyllic wilderness park that was girdled by resplendent granite cliffs. It was a paradise of waterfalls and lodgepole pines.

"Disrobing, the travellers shook the twigs, leaves, and insects from their clothes and soothed their tattered and welted flesh in the cold water of Goddard Creek. Renewed but weary, the much-enduring travellers succumbed to beckoning berths of soft grass and warm sand."

A Journey of a Very Different Kind
http://www.summitpost.org/trip-report/420736/A-Journey-of-a-Very-Different-Kind.html

Squamish to Pitt River Bushwhack

Attempt #1 June:
http://picasaweb.google.com/ebistrisky/SquamishToPittRiverBushwhack#

Attempt #2 August:
http://picasaweb.google.com/ebistrisky/SquamishToPittRiverRound2#

On Mt. Baring, devil's club was growing straight out of half an inch of wet, loose soil on slippery rocks. The only way to keep from falling down was by using the devil's club. I used a small stick, which if it had broken, would have sent me on a long and painful journey.

The only reason I rated it BW3 instead of BW4 was because I didn't lose much blood.

Snakes and ticks are the worst though- I'm glad we don't have many of them in the Pacific NW.

-Mark

The normal approach to the Northern Pickets and Luna Peak. BW3 to BW5. Devils club, slide alder and about 5 other kinds of brush, tunneling under, over, 50 deg slopes, wet, and with the invariable yellow jackets that build their nests on the ground waiting for you to step on them.

And these aren't wimpy city yellow-jackets, these are the wild variety. They don't let you hit them, they sting, avoid your swat and land to sting again. Luckily it was BW3 where I got stung and could manage to run away. Needless to say I was watching for nests after that.

The West side approaches to the Index peaks. BW4 in places, plenty of devils club and so hot was stripped down to shorts. Thick brush where you can't see the ground over talus so the footing is very uneven.

Mt Rainier if you get off trail in certain places BW5. Some canyon's gullies have huge amounts of blowdown to where it's almost impossible to make progress.

One of the keys to successful bushwacking is to have everything very secure on your pack with nothing sticking up to hang up on branches.

I've done lots of heinous bushwacks, yum, yum, my favourite. Especially when you are all wrapped up in some alder with devils club intertwined. Oh and on some vertical thing where you have to grab it sometime. My personal favourite was a devil's club tunnel, you had crawl on your hands and knees for about 100 m and hope you didn't get forever tangled into the club. Coast off of Prince Rupert I bet it took me over an hour an inch when I got off the boardwalk of Port Essington. (PE has been deserted for probably 50 years and the boardwalks are all decayed and falling into the everlasting swamp of despair, if you do go in, you are so totally immersed in alder that you will never come back. Coast range, gotta love it.

Seconding the Alder for grievous mental harm, definite B6+ going through 3 m high dense stretches of Alder shrubs on Augustine. Estimate 1 mile would take 8 hours. Would have taken a photo if I could've managed to take my bag off. Really need a compass just to orientate yourself because you are so immersed in it, all you can see is Alder. Bulldozer definitely not enough, you really need a bomb or pyroclastic flow to take that stuff out.

I've done some bushwacks in scrub oak on Grandeur Pk and Mt Olympus in Utah's Wasatch Range that were absolutely horrendous. The brush was 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. Like chaparral, you had to bore through the brush, and there was always something poking you somewhere. A trip or a misjudged collapse or springing of the branches would result in flipping upside down, suspended in the air. I definitely shed some blood on these!

What do you think? B4, or B5?

The discovery of a wasp nest or rattlesnake in this terrain makes it even more fun.

Swimming through krumholz with large boulder gaps is always interesting.
In Ohio we have this invasive species: Lonicera Maackii- Amur honeysuckle- spreads with horizontal canes-can be impenetrable.

Did anybody mention kudzu?- looks pretty overwhelming from the road.

I don't think I've beaten the BW3 level, but have done that with dead fall, hidden cliff bands and 30+ degree slopes which certainly makes it more interesting!

Hi guys, if you'd like to see more bushwhacking hilarity, check out www.facebook.com/brushandbog.