I wrote this up and sent it to a friend at about twice this length so you guys are being spared the long version. 
This was a solo trip on a gorgeous day.
The first .7 miles I followed in a path of someone who had been out three days ago so there was only 6 inches of fresh snow in the trail on top of their tracks which made for fairly easy snowshoeing. But then they had turned around and with the first step I knew this was going to be a lot of work.
The woods were crystal clear with lots of neat stuff to see. Nuthatches, woodpeckers, a life and death drama which was lost by a blue jay, tracks to follow, tracks to ponder. Tunnels used by little creatures. And on I trudged. When I thought it was pretty fatiguing to break trail I thought about those guys in the High Peaks who do it in four feet of snow and I thought man they're crazy. In the summer it takes me 1 hour and 20 minutes to do this hike and today it ended up taking 2 hours 15 minutes.
The woods were stunning with all the fresh snow this past week. I looked down at the trail and found the most perfect 1 1/2 inch long beech leaf, so delicate and beautiful I had to pick it up. I'm a sucker for beech leaves. That and those real tiny red maple leaves that shine like little red jewels on the forest floor in August. I managed to get over all the streams without mishap in contrast to the return trip.
When I got to the lake and you have to pass the house size boulders I decided to go right along the boulder. Down I went in snow up to my waist. Blown there from off the lake. And down my snowshoes went. Caught! Both of them. So here I was standing in snow waist deep with both snowshoes wedged under a fallen tree at the bottom. So I wiggled and wormed and finally got them out. The inlet is only twenty feet wide there but it took me a full five minutes to get across since I got caught. I was literally sweating and hot from the effort.
I walked along the shore for a real short way and stopped for my hot honey and lemon water break. It was so bright I couldn't see looking into the sun to take the photos. I decided not to go over to the lean-to because I didn't feel like breaking more trail for another twenty minutes (10 minutes in the summer) and I didn't want to cross the lake by myself. But I had been looking at the strangest trail in the snow out on the inlet area. Obviously made by an animal, not a bird and about twenty feet long with absolutely no path getting to one end or leaving from the other. Just like an animal had been dropped from the sky and it ran for twenty feet and disappeared. So I finally said that I had to go out and find out what I could see. And what I did see was pretty cool. Two holes in the ice. Breathing holes. Tracks and scat. I took some photos. See the tracks thread for those photos.
The return trip I thought was going to be easier because I had the trail broken out so beautifully. And on the way back I tried to step on the alternate side so the whole trail is now nice and flat! Yeah, crazy I know.
I didn't watch my step and did a face plant into the embankment of a little stream. But.... my feet were down in the stream and the right boot and snowshoe was caught under a root or branch under water. So I rolled over, wiggled my soggy foot free and brought up this incredibly heavy boot and snowshoe covered in thick icy slush. Checked my camera and rolled again to get up. Decided against changing out of my socks there since I figured I was about half an hour from the car. But now that darn boot and snowshoe was so heavy from ice that it dragged behind as I walked. Now I was dragging so much weight that it took me just as long to get out with a broken trail as it did to get in when I was breaking trail.
But here's the clincher about leaving the boot and snowshoe on. When I got to the car I couldn't get the right one off. And I couldn't get my foot out of the boot. I did finally loosen one buckle so I could get my boot out of the frozen snowshoe but I couldn't budge the boot. I decided to just drive and let them thaw out. By the time I got to Utica my feet were warm so I just kept driving anyway. Those socks were sopping wet when I took them off at home.
Link to photos
This was a solo trip on a gorgeous day. The first .7 miles I followed in a path of someone who had been out three days ago so there was only 6 inches of fresh snow in the trail on top of their tracks which made for fairly easy snowshoeing. But then they had turned around and with the first step I knew this was going to be a lot of work.
The woods were crystal clear with lots of neat stuff to see. Nuthatches, woodpeckers, a life and death drama which was lost by a blue jay, tracks to follow, tracks to ponder. Tunnels used by little creatures. And on I trudged. When I thought it was pretty fatiguing to break trail I thought about those guys in the High Peaks who do it in four feet of snow and I thought man they're crazy. In the summer it takes me 1 hour and 20 minutes to do this hike and today it ended up taking 2 hours 15 minutes.
The woods were stunning with all the fresh snow this past week. I looked down at the trail and found the most perfect 1 1/2 inch long beech leaf, so delicate and beautiful I had to pick it up. I'm a sucker for beech leaves. That and those real tiny red maple leaves that shine like little red jewels on the forest floor in August. I managed to get over all the streams without mishap in contrast to the return trip.
When I got to the lake and you have to pass the house size boulders I decided to go right along the boulder. Down I went in snow up to my waist. Blown there from off the lake. And down my snowshoes went. Caught! Both of them. So here I was standing in snow waist deep with both snowshoes wedged under a fallen tree at the bottom. So I wiggled and wormed and finally got them out. The inlet is only twenty feet wide there but it took me a full five minutes to get across since I got caught. I was literally sweating and hot from the effort.
I walked along the shore for a real short way and stopped for my hot honey and lemon water break. It was so bright I couldn't see looking into the sun to take the photos. I decided not to go over to the lean-to because I didn't feel like breaking more trail for another twenty minutes (10 minutes in the summer) and I didn't want to cross the lake by myself. But I had been looking at the strangest trail in the snow out on the inlet area. Obviously made by an animal, not a bird and about twenty feet long with absolutely no path getting to one end or leaving from the other. Just like an animal had been dropped from the sky and it ran for twenty feet and disappeared. So I finally said that I had to go out and find out what I could see. And what I did see was pretty cool. Two holes in the ice. Breathing holes. Tracks and scat. I took some photos. See the tracks thread for those photos.
The return trip I thought was going to be easier because I had the trail broken out so beautifully. And on the way back I tried to step on the alternate side so the whole trail is now nice and flat! Yeah, crazy I know.
I didn't watch my step and did a face plant into the embankment of a little stream. But.... my feet were down in the stream and the right boot and snowshoe was caught under a root or branch under water. So I rolled over, wiggled my soggy foot free and brought up this incredibly heavy boot and snowshoe covered in thick icy slush. Checked my camera and rolled again to get up. Decided against changing out of my socks there since I figured I was about half an hour from the car. But now that darn boot and snowshoe was so heavy from ice that it dragged behind as I walked. Now I was dragging so much weight that it took me just as long to get out with a broken trail as it did to get in when I was breaking trail.
But here's the clincher about leaving the boot and snowshoe on. When I got to the car I couldn't get the right one off. And I couldn't get my foot out of the boot. I did finally loosen one buckle so I could get my boot out of the frozen snowshoe but I couldn't budge the boot. I decided to just drive and let them thaw out. By the time I got to Utica my feet were warm so I just kept driving anyway. Those socks were sopping wet when I took them off at home.
Link to photos
Comment