Buskwacking Basic's

[maverick]

For those of you who have dealt with some or a lot of bushwacking, what are you some of your personal tips or recommendations to those planning to do their first trip into an such area involving these challenging terrains (Goddard Creek, Muro Blanco, or Kendrick Creek).

Here is one: a pair of work gloves

[tweederjohnson]

Trekking poles with baskets help to push lighter branches/limbs out of the way. Though trekking poles would probably only get in the way in really thick and gnarly stuff. A tough nylon pack cover helps protect your pack from snags and abrasion.

[dave54]

Frequently check your bearing. Make sure you are still headed in the right direction, looking behind you also (so you will recognize your route when backtracking). Do not parallel a creek too closely. The vegetation is thicker and terrain is rougher. Instead, keep a short distance uphill from the creek. The vegetation will be less dense, particularly on the south or west facing slopes.

[AlmostThere]

If you're actually in bushes, full length gaiters, long pants, long sleeves, and making sure everything is inside the pack, not dangling or sticking out of a pocket.

Eye protection -- substantial sunglasses or the plastic eye shields you get for operating machinery. Leather gloves.

[balzaccom]

Dave and At have already mentioned my main tips: keep your navigation focuses...know where you are, where you are going, and where you came from.

And AT's advice is unnecessary. You don't have to worry about anything tied to the outside of your pack. By the time you are done, it will be gone!

And I will add one more. It's easy to fall into a rhythm on the trail, drinking every two miles, snacking every four miles, or whatever. But when you go off trail. sometimes you get so focused on the immediate challenges ahead that you forget all that stuff. And that's not smart.

[Jimr]

Stay in bed until the idea goes away.

If you must plan for a bushwhack, I prefer a sturdy pair of boots. Often easier to walk over than through. Today's light weight clothing is no match for the bush, if you are planning, maybe a bit heavier pair of pants than the uber light weight nylon that is so comfortable. They're expensive and almost guaranteed to be shredded. Probably get away with light long sleeve. Heavy duty gaiters are a must.

Poles can also be used in a few ways. One useful way is to put them together, hold below the handles with one hand and above the basket with the other. You can use it to push down or push against bush that otherwise would not hold your weight. It is very effective if you end up losing balance and knee deep. You can gain a lot of leverage pushing against a larger area of otherwise flimsy brush to help extract yourself. Done it many times.

When with a partner, be mindful of how you let go of branches. Been hit in the face by my partner letting a branch fly.

[AlmostThere]

Manzanita is tough, but grabbing branches where they fork and bending it low enough to "surf" uphill helps. going downhill through head high manzanita is easier than going up. Eye pro keeps you sane.

Walking on white thorn is best done with leather boots and full gaiters. Walking through it -- wtf you thinking? You don't do that.

Most of my time in the bushes was with SAR - wore the 9.11 heavy duty ripstop pants, kept everything tied up to me after that one time the manzanita yanked the GPS out of my chest harness. I was so busy trying to extricate myself from very grabby branches that I didn't even feel it go and had to grid search my way back to it.

[SSSdave]

Did a lot of bushwhacking in my twenties to mid thirties fishing days and have continued to occasionally do so since. Worst brush areas tend to be mid to lower Sierra elevations, especially more sunny aspects. If someone tells me they have circumnavigated Kibbie Lake, or reached places like Edith, Spotted Fawn, or Bearup, then I know they understand the challenge. There is brush and then there is ugly brush and then there is really awful brush and I've been in it all.

Route challenges are often different than usual off trail compass and topographic map analysis because it is far more about near visual path selections. The difference in selecting routes through brush just a few feet this way or that can make a huge difference in how strenuous an effort becomes. Always always avoid big manzanita unless you brought lots of bandages. And often one won't know until getting into wherever 20 feet whence turning around is no longer an option so luck has a lot to do with it. In ugly brush one may also be talking about willow thickets. Sometimes one is monekeying through branches well above the ground where one fights through every inch to push through while not getting snagged. It helps to be a small lighter person like this guy but with a backpack on one's back the effort is much worse. And that branch you just stepped on or pushed up to get through, as soon as one releases it, watch out or WHACK! How about making it even more interesting with brush and willows sticking up through talus like along the west side of the Tuolumne River below Glen Aulin against the Falls Ridge cliffs?

Lower to mid elevation west Sierra slope brush also tends to hold a lot of dust, bug webs, and pollen because those regions are well away from summer crest thunderstorms. So as one pushes through lots of dust can be disturbed shaken up into the air getting all over one's skin and especially your hair, eyes, and even down that loose shirt Billy. Want to make it worse Buddy? Well try it in early season when mosquitoes are peaking. Of course all this is certain to be quite sweaty so yeah you gonna be itchy, scratchy, sweaty, grubby, smelly, while not being able to run away from the bloodsuckers cuz your a skewered up shish-ka-bob. Oh dummy use say you forgot to bring the DEET?

Last June I backpacked a week up Kibbie Ridge down to Cherry Creek and got a good fill of this fun. Here read about how I fell upsidedown into whitethorn:

http://www.davidsenesac.com/2017_Trip_C ... html#jun14

Battle clothing basics? Blue jeans, manly hiking boots, no hat, robust garden gloves, no hiking poles or sticking out of pack fishing rod.

It does help to be stupid and stubborn because otherwise...YOU WOULND'T BE THERE.

[Wandering Daisy]

Do not get too obsessed with any particular route. Decide early on when the thicket just gets too hard to continue and retreat before you get really stuck. Sometimes you can avoid the brush if willing to wade waist deep in an adjacent lake or stream.

If you find an old tennis shoe in the brush on the way to Edith Lake, it is mine. Tied wading shoes to my pack and it only took half an hour and they were gone. Stupidly did this again, this time a crock. Never seem to learn.

[wildhiker]

Don’t do it in the coastal range chapparal - too much poison oak mixed in with all the other brush. I say this from painful experience.
-Phil