Tweet
Ok here is our Sunday trip. Kevin, Val, Doug, feel free to add.
The afformentioned as well as myself, my buddy Eric and his two pals Shawn and Larry met at the Garden just before 7am. Doug (Hillman) had been there for a bit but the rest of us pulled in together. After collecting ourselves and gearing up we headed out at 7am.
We all wore snowshoes from the start but at least one other hiker was in bareboots without much trouble. It was fairly mild out and the sun was trying to shine between the clouds. The clouds were moving fast and we knew we would be in some wind later in the day. We made good time into JBL and took a short break. Another break at Bushnell lean-to. The trail was nicely packed up to Slant Rock. It began snowing lightly and the wind caused minor drifting in the trail. Doug considered turning back at one point but in the end I think he was glad he kept hiking. We often saw a solo hiker (Steve I think) who was headed to Basin. He planned to take the Shorey trail as did a group of 3 we met right at the junction with the Shorey. They were aiming for Haystack as well and seemed puzzled by our choice to continue up the Phelps trail. Our group had split into two smaller groups with Eric, Shawn, Larry and I in one and Kevin, Val, and Doug in another. At tree line we bundled up and the consensus was to go over Little Haystack staying on the path from cairn to cairn. By this time the winds had to be over 50mph(I'm not good a guessing these things but it was strong). Snow was blowing sideways and the ice crystals, described in a previous thread by Skyclimber, were pelting us. Our first group made summit at about 12:10 and turned right around as there were no views and still work to be done. We met the second group on Little Haystack where they decided to turn back. We regrouped down in the trees and made a plan to head towards Basin. Kevin and Val decided to head over the Shorey while the five remaining pushed on to Basin. The start of the Shorey was blown in but had been tracked out earlier. There was quite a bit of snow between Haystack and Basin. There were windblown tracks going up Basin as well and we soon ran into Steve again coming down from Basin. He said conditions on the summit were pretty wild. I think he headed over the Shorey and caught up with Kevin and Val. We made slow progress up Basin and I didn't check the time when we summitted. Again it was extremely windy and snowing. We had planned to descend the other side of Basin and whack down Chicken Coop Brook but in such harsh conditions with almost no visibility we decided it best to follow our tracks back to the Shorey. Everyones tracks from earlier were blown in when we got there. We climbed the hill on the Shorey trail and now I know why people complain about it as it did feel like a lot of work to get "down" off the mountains. The butt sliding on the opposite side made it worth the work. When we got back to the Phelps trail there was a couple inches of snow covering our tracks from earlier. At Slant Rock we regrouped again and then took short breaks at Bushnell and JBL on the way out. Saw several people with sleds coming in to camp as we walked the last few miles. Also caught up with one from the group of three we met early in the day at the Phelps/Shorey junction. He was looking very tired and needed to lean on a tree while he asked us how much further. He was just before the junction with the Southside trail so just over a half mile to go. He was moving pretty slow and Eric walked with him a bit while three of us went to the Garden and told his party that he was almost there. Doug was a little ways back at this point. We got to the register at 5:55pm. Larry and Shawn head to the Noonmark while Eric and I changed our cloths and made sure Doug made it out. We stopped at the Noonmark where we saw Kevin and Val getting ready to leave and Larry and Shawn stuffing their faces.
Great day out with everyone. This was #43 and 44 for Eric in his first round of the 46. He has just Cliff and Seward to finish.
The afformentioned as well as myself, my buddy Eric and his two pals Shawn and Larry met at the Garden just before 7am. Doug (Hillman) had been there for a bit but the rest of us pulled in together. After collecting ourselves and gearing up we headed out at 7am.
We all wore snowshoes from the start but at least one other hiker was in bareboots without much trouble. It was fairly mild out and the sun was trying to shine between the clouds. The clouds were moving fast and we knew we would be in some wind later in the day. We made good time into JBL and took a short break. Another break at Bushnell lean-to. The trail was nicely packed up to Slant Rock. It began snowing lightly and the wind caused minor drifting in the trail. Doug considered turning back at one point but in the end I think he was glad he kept hiking. We often saw a solo hiker (Steve I think) who was headed to Basin. He planned to take the Shorey trail as did a group of 3 we met right at the junction with the Shorey. They were aiming for Haystack as well and seemed puzzled by our choice to continue up the Phelps trail. Our group had split into two smaller groups with Eric, Shawn, Larry and I in one and Kevin, Val, and Doug in another. At tree line we bundled up and the consensus was to go over Little Haystack staying on the path from cairn to cairn. By this time the winds had to be over 50mph(I'm not good a guessing these things but it was strong). Snow was blowing sideways and the ice crystals, described in a previous thread by Skyclimber, were pelting us. Our first group made summit at about 12:10 and turned right around as there were no views and still work to be done. We met the second group on Little Haystack where they decided to turn back. We regrouped down in the trees and made a plan to head towards Basin. Kevin and Val decided to head over the Shorey while the five remaining pushed on to Basin. The start of the Shorey was blown in but had been tracked out earlier. There was quite a bit of snow between Haystack and Basin. There were windblown tracks going up Basin as well and we soon ran into Steve again coming down from Basin. He said conditions on the summit were pretty wild. I think he headed over the Shorey and caught up with Kevin and Val. We made slow progress up Basin and I didn't check the time when we summitted. Again it was extremely windy and snowing. We had planned to descend the other side of Basin and whack down Chicken Coop Brook but in such harsh conditions with almost no visibility we decided it best to follow our tracks back to the Shorey. Everyones tracks from earlier were blown in when we got there. We climbed the hill on the Shorey trail and now I know why people complain about it as it did feel like a lot of work to get "down" off the mountains. The butt sliding on the opposite side made it worth the work. When we got back to the Phelps trail there was a couple inches of snow covering our tracks from earlier. At Slant Rock we regrouped again and then took short breaks at Bushnell and JBL on the way out. Saw several people with sleds coming in to camp as we walked the last few miles. Also caught up with one from the group of three we met early in the day at the Phelps/Shorey junction. He was looking very tired and needed to lean on a tree while he asked us how much further. He was just before the junction with the Southside trail so just over a half mile to go. He was moving pretty slow and Eric walked with him a bit while three of us went to the Garden and told his party that he was almost there. Doug was a little ways back at this point. We got to the register at 5:55pm. Larry and Shawn head to the Noonmark while Eric and I changed our cloths and made sure Doug made it out. We stopped at the Noonmark where we saw Kevin and Val getting ready to leave and Larry and Shawn stuffing their faces.
Great day out with everyone. This was #43 and 44 for Eric in his first round of the 46. He has just Cliff and Seward to finish.
Comment