Blog: How Did You Do This Bushwhack?

How Did You Find This Mountain?
People ask me how I find new obscure mountains to hike. In this case I had heard rumors from other bushwhackers that Green Hill used to have a trail and a fabulous view. I checked on an AMC trail map of this area and saw that Green Hill is within the White Mountain National Forest, so I would not be trespassing on private property to go there. I also saw from Google Maps satellite view that there are open ledges near the sub-peak that seemed worth exploring.

How Did You Know Where to Start?
I had hiked nearby Iron Mountain a couple times so knew there was an access road close by Green Hill. On one of these hikes we had even considered bushwhacking from the summit of Iron over to Green; but the woods looked uninviting. So I looked for a shorter route, and thought going directly from the road (bypassing Iron altogether) would be both shorter and less uphill. Then I checked on Google satellite again and saw a small clearing just about where I wanted to leave the road and put its coordinates in my car GPS and drove there.

How Did You Navigate in the Woods?
My hiking friend Dick Widhu showed me how to prepare a contour map ahead of time with a compass direction to each objective (main peak, sub-peak and car), using magnetic north (rather than true north). I did this and then in the woods set my compass to the desired direction and kept checking to stay on course. And, of course (smile), I skirted bad stuff along the way and went off course for views. When bushwhacking I like to have a back-up plan, so I also carried my hiking GPS and checked it occasionally to make sure the whack was working well.