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What a weekend!
Left Pennsylvania around 7a.m. Friday morning with my brother-in-law(BIL) and his friend from Washington D.C., a total Adirondack and backpacking newbie. Found out on the way to Elk Lake that he actually had a torn meniscus in his knee! I thought, "oh boy, this is going to be interesting!" He swore it was no big deal, that he wouldn't slow us down or change our plans, etc, etc......but he did mention surgery was scheduled for the end of this month.
We arrived at Elk Lake around noon and made final adjustments and hit the trail by 12:30. No one signed in for Panther Gorge ahead of us so I left the tent in the car. Only one other person had signed in for the Gorge last weekend and all other entries were last fall. Two guys came out of the Dixes, and I asked about snow. The one guys said no snow, you won't even need your snowshoes which were on our packs. We took them anyways which was a smart move.
The Elk Lake trail is just beautiful! So much to see along the way, ponds, streams, nice views through the trees, wildflower starting to pop up. It was great! It was neat to watch the forest change along the way. From Elk Lake to the Boreas/Colvin Ridge leaves were pretty much in full bloom. Once going over that ridge there was an obvious change in the environment, the trees were just buds for the most part and spring growth was a little slower than what we had encountered. The trail was muddy here and there, and there was some blowdown to deal with, but nothing out of the ordinary. My BIL and Chris (torn meniscus boy) lagged behing catching up on old times. Fine by me, I got to enjoy the peace and quiet and have the trail to myself. Things went smoothly, Chris was suprised at the rugged conditions and his knee was starting to bother him. He pushed on and was deteremined to enjoy himself, really a pleasant guy and you could tell he was truly enjoying himself depsite the knee. We encountered our first snow about a half mile before the the lean-to, it was pretty exciting. This was my first time hiking this time of year and it was really neat to see spring with winter still holding on! The snow continued to the lean-to, but didn't warrant use of the snowshoes. We made it to the lean-to in 5.5 hours. What a beautiful area, but I was extremely disappointed to find the lean-to trashed. There was a hard hat (?) in the corner, a tarp shoved behing the lean-to, old batteries & playing card on the shelf and to top it all off, a garbage stuffed under the lean-to containing clothes, propane bottle, old food wrappers, etc. Why would people want to trash such a remote area? I was pretty disappointed! We settled in for the night and Chris decided he would hang at the lean-to on Saturday to rest his knee. We felt bad, but he didn't want to be a burden and insisted he was just happy to be there.
My BIL and I woke up early on Saturday to prepare for our day, our plans were for Skylight, Gray, Marcy and Haystack. We hit the trail at 7 a.m. Snowshoes were put on pretty soon after we left the lean-to. We tried bare boots, while we weren't postholing, snowshoes proved to be the best mode of transportation. It was pretty cold Friday night so the snow was nice and firm and we cruised right over the top. We dropped our packs at 4 Corners and head up Skylight. Did I mention the weather was just perfect? High cloud, but some sun provided perfect views. The trail up Skylight was well packed and snow shoes were necessary to right before the start of the summit rock where we removed them and made it to the top. There were sizable postholes up the trail which was pretty much the theme of the day. I kept looking at those postholes, knee deep-thigh deep, and wonder how that could be fun! Skylight is just an absolutely beautiful mountain! Very windy on top and quite cool! We checked out the summit for a while, snapped lots of pictures and then headed down. We picked up our snowshoes and strapped them on and made it back to 4 corners in about ten minutes!
There we had our first weird people encounter. 2 guys and a girl, all dressed in jeans and tee shirts. The girl looked most prepared with a backpack and gaitors, fleece, etc. The strange part was the one guy was packing heat right on his waist belt, not just any gun, but a sizable 45 caliber I'm guessing. My BIL, said, "UH, I hope you don't have to use that today.", and the guys response was, "Well, I'm a cop and we're supposed to always be on duty so I figured I'd carry it with me."
Interesting, we quickly head the other direction towards Gray. Lake Tear was just great and we found the herd path for Gray. We kept our snowshoes on, but the snow was much more patchy and the trail could have been maneuvered with bare boots. At one point there was a rock scramble where we took them off and then summited without them. Gray was fun, this was my BIL's first designated herd path and he couldn't believe the difference between it and the maintained trails. I'm not so sure he enjoyed it. If he didn't enjoy that he certainly wasn't going to enjoy what we were about to embark upon next! We were going to wack our way to Marcy! I had been looking at and researching this route for a while. I figured now would be as good a time as any with all the snow. We left our snowshoes off simply because I thought they would be more of a hassle than they were worth getting all tangled up in spruce. We seemed to start off on the faint herd path, but I'm guessing we were really only on that route less than 5% of the time. I picked out what looked like a good route up Marcy and bee lined for it. It was thick, the snow was deep, and it was a blast! This way my first time doing anything like this. It was a struggle, we reached the end of Gray at a small cliff and made the plunge into the snow below. We finally reached the headwall on Marcy and made our way to the right of it where we made our way up a ledge to the bare rock of Marcy and slowly made our way up. I had read a report on VFTT that someone had gone from Marcy to Gray and back to Marcy the weekend before. We saw no evidence of those tracks. It was truly an adventure! We summited Marcy and there were only two other people up there. Soon two summit stewards arrived and then about ten other people. This was my second time on Marcy, which was my first High Peak. It was nice to have views this time since I was in the clouds last time and saw nothing. We decided we were to beat to attempt Haystack and headed back to the lean-to. The snow conditions had really changed since morning, the snow was much softer and our snowshoes didn't even do much for us. We were either sliding all over the place or punching through even with them on. We passed a group of seven who looked so miserable as they postholed with every step. We arrived back to the lean-to around 2:30. It was nice to be back so early and just relax and enjoy the environment around us. Chris had a great day napping, resting his knee and exploring the area around the lean-to. He was really appreciative of the opportunity to just be there. A young couple from Middlebury College shared the lean-to with us that night. It sprinkled some the rest of the afternoon and evening. What a great day in the mountains and one I won't forget! Hiking this time of year certainly has its challenges, but it is very rewarding. It's amazing how spring has arrived in the valleys, but winter isn't ready to let go just yet.
The hike out Sunday was grueling! This was probablly the first time I felt I was on a death march. Spring was definitely in the air and it was a gorgeous morning. The woods had changed in just a days time, more flower, more leaves. Amazing! Toads everywhere, snakes, newts, and a thunderous noise in the woods that startled us all. We wondered what the heck it could have been and then it happened again. A roughed grouse took off right next to us.
Somehow we made it out in 4.5 hours. I don't know how, I felt like I was taking a break every 5 minutes. Good to see the car, but I always hate walking out of those woods no matter how beat I am!
Oh yeah, I guess you want to know about the black flies. They're coming! On Friday the were in the parking area, but not biting. That was all I saw. By Sunday they started at Marcy Swamp and got continually worse to the parking area where I got my first bite.....but only one!
21/46
Left Pennsylvania around 7a.m. Friday morning with my brother-in-law(BIL) and his friend from Washington D.C., a total Adirondack and backpacking newbie. Found out on the way to Elk Lake that he actually had a torn meniscus in his knee! I thought, "oh boy, this is going to be interesting!" He swore it was no big deal, that he wouldn't slow us down or change our plans, etc, etc......but he did mention surgery was scheduled for the end of this month.
We arrived at Elk Lake around noon and made final adjustments and hit the trail by 12:30. No one signed in for Panther Gorge ahead of us so I left the tent in the car. Only one other person had signed in for the Gorge last weekend and all other entries were last fall. Two guys came out of the Dixes, and I asked about snow. The one guys said no snow, you won't even need your snowshoes which were on our packs. We took them anyways which was a smart move.
The Elk Lake trail is just beautiful! So much to see along the way, ponds, streams, nice views through the trees, wildflower starting to pop up. It was great! It was neat to watch the forest change along the way. From Elk Lake to the Boreas/Colvin Ridge leaves were pretty much in full bloom. Once going over that ridge there was an obvious change in the environment, the trees were just buds for the most part and spring growth was a little slower than what we had encountered. The trail was muddy here and there, and there was some blowdown to deal with, but nothing out of the ordinary. My BIL and Chris (torn meniscus boy) lagged behing catching up on old times. Fine by me, I got to enjoy the peace and quiet and have the trail to myself. Things went smoothly, Chris was suprised at the rugged conditions and his knee was starting to bother him. He pushed on and was deteremined to enjoy himself, really a pleasant guy and you could tell he was truly enjoying himself depsite the knee. We encountered our first snow about a half mile before the the lean-to, it was pretty exciting. This was my first time hiking this time of year and it was really neat to see spring with winter still holding on! The snow continued to the lean-to, but didn't warrant use of the snowshoes. We made it to the lean-to in 5.5 hours. What a beautiful area, but I was extremely disappointed to find the lean-to trashed. There was a hard hat (?) in the corner, a tarp shoved behing the lean-to, old batteries & playing card on the shelf and to top it all off, a garbage stuffed under the lean-to containing clothes, propane bottle, old food wrappers, etc. Why would people want to trash such a remote area? I was pretty disappointed! We settled in for the night and Chris decided he would hang at the lean-to on Saturday to rest his knee. We felt bad, but he didn't want to be a burden and insisted he was just happy to be there.
My BIL and I woke up early on Saturday to prepare for our day, our plans were for Skylight, Gray, Marcy and Haystack. We hit the trail at 7 a.m. Snowshoes were put on pretty soon after we left the lean-to. We tried bare boots, while we weren't postholing, snowshoes proved to be the best mode of transportation. It was pretty cold Friday night so the snow was nice and firm and we cruised right over the top. We dropped our packs at 4 Corners and head up Skylight. Did I mention the weather was just perfect? High cloud, but some sun provided perfect views. The trail up Skylight was well packed and snow shoes were necessary to right before the start of the summit rock where we removed them and made it to the top. There were sizable postholes up the trail which was pretty much the theme of the day. I kept looking at those postholes, knee deep-thigh deep, and wonder how that could be fun! Skylight is just an absolutely beautiful mountain! Very windy on top and quite cool! We checked out the summit for a while, snapped lots of pictures and then headed down. We picked up our snowshoes and strapped them on and made it back to 4 corners in about ten minutes!
There we had our first weird people encounter. 2 guys and a girl, all dressed in jeans and tee shirts. The girl looked most prepared with a backpack and gaitors, fleece, etc. The strange part was the one guy was packing heat right on his waist belt, not just any gun, but a sizable 45 caliber I'm guessing. My BIL, said, "UH, I hope you don't have to use that today.", and the guys response was, "Well, I'm a cop and we're supposed to always be on duty so I figured I'd carry it with me."
Interesting, we quickly head the other direction towards Gray. Lake Tear was just great and we found the herd path for Gray. We kept our snowshoes on, but the snow was much more patchy and the trail could have been maneuvered with bare boots. At one point there was a rock scramble where we took them off and then summited without them. Gray was fun, this was my BIL's first designated herd path and he couldn't believe the difference between it and the maintained trails. I'm not so sure he enjoyed it. If he didn't enjoy that he certainly wasn't going to enjoy what we were about to embark upon next! We were going to wack our way to Marcy! I had been looking at and researching this route for a while. I figured now would be as good a time as any with all the snow. We left our snowshoes off simply because I thought they would be more of a hassle than they were worth getting all tangled up in spruce. We seemed to start off on the faint herd path, but I'm guessing we were really only on that route less than 5% of the time. I picked out what looked like a good route up Marcy and bee lined for it. It was thick, the snow was deep, and it was a blast! This way my first time doing anything like this. It was a struggle, we reached the end of Gray at a small cliff and made the plunge into the snow below. We finally reached the headwall on Marcy and made our way to the right of it where we made our way up a ledge to the bare rock of Marcy and slowly made our way up. I had read a report on VFTT that someone had gone from Marcy to Gray and back to Marcy the weekend before. We saw no evidence of those tracks. It was truly an adventure! We summited Marcy and there were only two other people up there. Soon two summit stewards arrived and then about ten other people. This was my second time on Marcy, which was my first High Peak. It was nice to have views this time since I was in the clouds last time and saw nothing. We decided we were to beat to attempt Haystack and headed back to the lean-to. The snow conditions had really changed since morning, the snow was much softer and our snowshoes didn't even do much for us. We were either sliding all over the place or punching through even with them on. We passed a group of seven who looked so miserable as they postholed with every step. We arrived back to the lean-to around 2:30. It was nice to be back so early and just relax and enjoy the environment around us. Chris had a great day napping, resting his knee and exploring the area around the lean-to. He was really appreciative of the opportunity to just be there. A young couple from Middlebury College shared the lean-to with us that night. It sprinkled some the rest of the afternoon and evening. What a great day in the mountains and one I won't forget! Hiking this time of year certainly has its challenges, but it is very rewarding. It's amazing how spring has arrived in the valleys, but winter isn't ready to let go just yet.
The hike out Sunday was grueling! This was probablly the first time I felt I was on a death march. Spring was definitely in the air and it was a gorgeous morning. The woods had changed in just a days time, more flower, more leaves. Amazing! Toads everywhere, snakes, newts, and a thunderous noise in the woods that startled us all. We wondered what the heck it could have been and then it happened again. A roughed grouse took off right next to us.
Somehow we made it out in 4.5 hours. I don't know how, I felt like I was taking a break every 5 minutes. Good to see the car, but I always hate walking out of those woods no matter how beat I am!
Oh yeah, I guess you want to know about the black flies. They're coming! On Friday the were in the parking area, but not biting. That was all I saw. By Sunday they started at Marcy Swamp and got continually worse to the parking area where I got my first bite.....but only one!
21/46
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