Old Mountain Rd. Bouldering
Elevation: | 252 ft |
GPS: |
41.53766, -71.64166 Google Map · Climbing Area Map |
Page Views: | 4,272 total · 29/month |
Shared By: | M Sprague on Feb 19, 2012 |
Admins: | M Sprague, Jamie Re, Joe M |
Description
This is the north western part of the DeCoppet land, with two groupings with separate parking. The first and most obvious from the road is next to and within a few minutes walk of the parking at the gated old dirt road at the bottom of the hill. There is one boulder right next to the gate, on the left, then if you walk up the old dirt road a minute or two to where it makes sort of an 'S" curve, the main cluster is off to the right ~400m on a little hill. If the leaves are down they should be obvious as the tallest bunch, if not you may have to walk in a little before you see them (as you head off the dirt road there will be a closer small hill with a pointy boulder on it to the left. stay down to the right of that, roughly following a stone wall)
The hilltop cluster consists of a pair that have split apart, the taller OM Boulder with a finger crack seen as you approach. One side is covered with good holds, making a reasonable spot to warm up before getting on its sister Snap Your Fingers boulder. With recent tree fall, just before you get to the OM boulder, to its left, you pass under a little partially cleaned ledge with another easy traverse and a couple 1 star shorties. To the right and below OM boulder is a short overhanging prow recently called the Bean Boulder. In this same cluster are a couple more boulders with some gritty lip traverses. Heading up the ridge line west you will find a few more scattered boulders, that are mostly short and meh, but with some more discovery and scrubbing you may find something to do..
Grouped with the hilltop cluster, there are a few more boulders back along the paved road as it runs up the hill from the parking spot, including the Schism Boulder which is directly across the street from a house. Please keep the noise down while at the Schism boulder. To get to them, to avoid getting run over or annoying the locals, walk through the woods paralleling the road rather than along the street, or better yet, if at the hilltop cluster, start walking up the hill a little and arch off to the right across the valley (small stream crossing, stay further up to the left if wet season), aiming for the house across the street. It is just a few minutes from Snap Your Fingers to the Schism boulder this way. Heading back to the right towards the parking a little is a boulder with with a slabby face away from the road and then a big but disappointing boulder you probably noticed driving in.
There is a second cluster, The Acorn Boulders, further west on Old Mountain Rd, about 500 feet in directly across the street from Oak Hill Drive. Parking at the road junction is problematic, so park completely off the road a few hundred yards west where there is a gate to a now almost completely overgrown forest road (watch for poison ivy around your car before the gate, heaviest on the left) Walk in 20-30 feet past the gate and turn off left paralleling the road a minute to get past a frog pond then angling more away from the road (currently some cairns) It is just a few minutes to the main cluster with a few more scattered further afield east It may be worth poking around in the rock down the hill to your right before you reach the main Acorns
Though rarely crowded, since parking space is pretty limited, if you want to carpool the Richmond Town Hall on Rt 138 is a good spot to leave a car if coming from the south, back at the intersection of 3 and 165 if coming from the north.
Getting There
Located off Old Mountain Road/Trail (both names are used) between Carolina Nooseneck Rd and Hillsdale Rd. in the town of Richmond. Driving east from Carolina Nooseneck Rd, at the bottom of a curvy hill, there will be a gated pulloff into an old dirt road on your right. There is another gated pulloff further west, past Oak Hill Drive.
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