Trails Used
Dorset Peak Trail, logging roads, bushwhack
Trail Conditions
Notes
A very interesting day traversing the Dorset massif in the footsteps of David Darby and some others (see their reports for West Dorset on peakbagger.com). A late April storm had dropped 1-2 inches of snow above 2,500 feet and it was a completely different world up there from the greening up lowlands. Roads to the trailhead in Dorset Hollow are in excellent shape - dry, recently graded. Watch out for the speed bumps! I first went up South Dorset, using the logging road shown on the topo that switchbacks up the NE slope. The map's depiction is pretty accurate - don't mistake this road for a newer road that is the first road forking left off the Dorset Peak Trail about a half mile in - it makes a much sharper turn left. The correct road is about 100 yards further on and isn't too tough to follow, though it's a bit overgrown and has a few small blowdowns. I left the road at about 2,700' to go directly up South Dorset. There is a canister there. From South Dorset, the ridge is pretty average for about a mile, then ascends up to the plateau of West Dorset. It was a winter wonderland up there, and once you enter you can't see anything off in the distance - it's so wide and nondescript. Orienteering skills needed - I had to use my phone GPS once to verify the correct approach to the summit. Fortunately it's not too hard in general to find decent routes across the plateau - but the summit bump itself is thicker with lots of new balsam growth. The red canister and orange tape are at the edge of a pretty thick area - it looked very different from the pictures I've seen online before (are these little balsams growing fast?). With the snow covering everything, that section was a nuisance - but thankfully relatively short. Good thing it was only 1-2 inches deep - I saw no trace of any old winter snow, so when this melts the peaks will be fully clear for summer travel. I navigated the rest of the plateau nearly to the eastern tip (where I think I saw bear tracks), then dropped off the NE side - pretty steep for a few hundred feet, then I picked up an old logging road that led to the col between West Dorset and Dorset (this logging road is higher on the slope than the northern approach to Dorset from Danby). From there I followed the standard route to Middle Dorset thence to the main peak of Dorset. The muddy area in between these two peaks was half frozen and not too bad to traverse, but I expect it'll be pretty bad over the next few weeks. On the way down Dorset, I took the old road/path that forks off just east of the ancient "North Dorset" sign in the sag between West Dorset and Dorset. It becomes pretty obscure due to blowdown after a few hundred yards but takes a relatively straight path E across the flank of Dorset, roughly paralleling the National Forest Boundary (this path does not appear on the USGS map). Eventually it hits the N-S snowmobile trail that does appear on the topo map at about 3,400. I turned south on that trail and it was easy trekking to the Dorset/Netop col. I didn't plan to do Netop, so dropped west off the col onto a very old logging road descending steeply into the Mettawee River valley. That road initially zags north from the col, then zags back south and drops down to the river. It's overgrown and is best used when there's no leaves on the trees, but provides decent footing. Once you reach the major tributary entering the Mettawee from the north, the road becomes much better and can be generally followed to Grouse Lane near the trailhead for the new mountain bike paths. I then followed the roads back to the main Dorset trailhead. The Mettawee option is interesting, but more difficult than the regular trail due to the higher route finding needed. This is a neat loop, and the presence of snow certainly adds a cool flavor to it all. No special equipment besides sturdy snow boots was needed.
Parking
There is parking for a few vehicles at the end of Tower Road. The road has just been nicely graded and it's clear where the public maintenance ends.
Water Crossings
The Mettawee River (on the return) was running a bit on the high side, had to hunt a bit for crossings a couple times
Wildlife
Picked off a few ticks in the Mettawee River valley.