A beautiful sunny Sunday afternoon. It was very cold this morning (14 degrees) but it warmed up into the low 30s. I drove up to the Chestnut Road trailhead with little expectations. Pat had said that everything that had melted over the past few days was now frozen solid and hard to walk on without slipping.
I parked in the ice covered parking lot, wondering why the 2 other cars had parked on the street. After I shut off the car and put it in park, I found out why. Even with my foot on the brake, the car was sliding backwards toward the road. So I decided to back it up to speed up the process and leave the back wheels on the dry pavement.
There were only 2 cars at the trailhead before us and one drove up right in front of us. Sadie had barked at them while they were putting on their snowshoes and I finally gave up and we started off. As I started up the trail I quickly determined that I could walk on top of the snow because the trampled path had melted during the warm week and froze solid. When I had to step on the path, the frozen footprints acted as toe holds going uphill or you could dig your heels into the deeper snow.
My intention was to go on the Green trail until the Y/G Crossover past the Red Circle trail and then up the Y/G Crossover, still looking in frozen footprints for the rubber grip that I lost a couple weeks ago. Once I got to where I had come up to before, I was free to hike where I wanted.
So I went back up a little way to the Orange trail and took it up to where it crosses the White trail. Even though it had been cold all day, the sun was warm out on the rocks of the White trail and had melted the snow enough to where the rocks were dry and not ice covered.
I stupidly went past the end of the Green trail, which is what I was looking for, even though I saw the markings on the rocks. I think that I didn't believe it was that close to where I had gotten onto the White trail. After going a little farther and realizing that we were heading downhill and remembering that the Green trail ended on the high section, I called for Sadie and turned back.
Coming down the Green trail was a little scarier in places because you sometimes were forced to step on the frozen path and the risk of falling was greater. But the ease of walking on top of the snow made me want to go farther than I expected to go.
We got back to the Y/G Crossover so we completed the entire Green trail! I went back up the Y/G Crossover but then turned left onto Orange to complete the Orange from the Red Triangle to Chestnut.
Besides the ease of hiking on the top of the snow, you were going by trees with your head a couple of feet higher than it would be without the snow. There weren't many places but sometimes you had to duck under a branch that normally would be well over your head. And every once in a great while, maybe 10 times the whole hike, one foot would crash through the frozen crust and my leg would be in snow sometimes as high as my mid-thigh.
Besides the 3 snowshoers at the start of the hike, we only passed one older lady hiking by herself on the Green trail. At the large map when we arrived back at the trailhead, I saw that the Green trail is 2 miles long so we had hiked at least 4 miles! I was a little tired but very warm and took off my hooded sweatshirt when I got in the car to drive home.
Another great day of hiking on the Giant!
Sunday, February 20, 2011
Sunday, February 6, 2011
Super Hike
Super Bowl Sunday - big deal. But my second post of the day!
Decided to take a late afternoon hike with Sadie. After this morning's depressing outlook that the ice-covered snow was too treacherous, a very warm day changed things more than I could have anticipated.
Thinking it was going to be too hard to hike far, we started from Chestnut. I thought I'd just go Green to the Y/G Crossover and loop back to Chestnut on Yellow. But I realized pretty soon that it wasn't going to be that bad. We got to the Y/G Crossover pretty quickly so we kept going. My plan was either to loop on Red Square to Orange or continue on Green and take the Red Circle home.
The snow was a little annoying and I soon discovered that I should have worn the snowshoes. Not often but every once in awhile one foot would crash through up to your knee or sometimes as deep as your thigh. When we got to the Red Square, it was not very travelled. As much as I generally take the path less taken, the more trampling on a trail, the easier the hiking. And Sadie seemed to want to continue on the Green.
As we rounded the corner, still crashing through the snow surface, perhaps a little more frequently, we came to the area I call "Little Italy" where the Red Square and White come almost tangent with Green so we still had the option of hopping over to the Red Square. But there were no tracks to be seen so we kept going on Green.
The sun was still about a fist at arms length above the horizon so we had plenty of daylight left. But things were soon to get beyond our control. When we reached the Red Circle, only one set of prints went up the steps which were buried under feet of snow. Sadie usually is the one who wants to keep going but she seemed pretty intent on going the way she knew was toward home. But I was concerned about the lack of tracks, so we kept going on Green.
Along the Green trail through the upper valley I started to feel bad for Sadie. She was crashing through the snow almost as much as I was where she had been mostly walking on the surface before. The plan now was to go to the Red Triangle but when we arrived at the Y/G Crossover, there were no tracks ahead.
I was getting pretty tired by now and had fallen a number of times. As I worked my way up the Y/G Crossover, I remembered the time that Sadie had run away from me around there. At some point in here I was thinking that someday my luck is going to run out and they're going to find me up there. When I reached the high point on the crossover, I called home because I was afraid they might be wondering where I was. They weren't concerned and I said I would be home soon, now that it was all downhill.
The trip down was harder than I expected but we got to the Yellow lookout and I took in the view for a bit. As we started off, I hit the only spot all day that the ice coating was impenetrable and it caught me off guard. I went down like a few other times, with my bare hands into deep snow. It had been so warm when we started out and I was pretty well heated up after the workout, but I only had a light sweatshirt on.
A little way down the trail, Sadie started wagging her tail and running ahead. I thought she was just excited to be in familiar territory but then I saw a head cresting the next rise. It was a lone hiker, I later realized it was the guy who always parks near our house. We talked for some time and then Sadie and I headed home.
I think the whole hike took us over an hour and a half. The conditions were better than expected in that it wasn't as impassable as I expected in my earlier post but the unpredictable one foot punching through the snow had me off-balance a lot of the time. Also, all the deep snow stepping had filled both boots with snow which was now water. When I got inside, I poured the water out of the boots.
It had been tiring but it was a super hike.
Decided to take a late afternoon hike with Sadie. After this morning's depressing outlook that the ice-covered snow was too treacherous, a very warm day changed things more than I could have anticipated.
Thinking it was going to be too hard to hike far, we started from Chestnut. I thought I'd just go Green to the Y/G Crossover and loop back to Chestnut on Yellow. But I realized pretty soon that it wasn't going to be that bad. We got to the Y/G Crossover pretty quickly so we kept going. My plan was either to loop on Red Square to Orange or continue on Green and take the Red Circle home.
The snow was a little annoying and I soon discovered that I should have worn the snowshoes. Not often but every once in awhile one foot would crash through up to your knee or sometimes as deep as your thigh. When we got to the Red Square, it was not very travelled. As much as I generally take the path less taken, the more trampling on a trail, the easier the hiking. And Sadie seemed to want to continue on the Green.
As we rounded the corner, still crashing through the snow surface, perhaps a little more frequently, we came to the area I call "Little Italy" where the Red Square and White come almost tangent with Green so we still had the option of hopping over to the Red Square. But there were no tracks to be seen so we kept going on Green.
The sun was still about a fist at arms length above the horizon so we had plenty of daylight left. But things were soon to get beyond our control. When we reached the Red Circle, only one set of prints went up the steps which were buried under feet of snow. Sadie usually is the one who wants to keep going but she seemed pretty intent on going the way she knew was toward home. But I was concerned about the lack of tracks, so we kept going on Green.
Along the Green trail through the upper valley I started to feel bad for Sadie. She was crashing through the snow almost as much as I was where she had been mostly walking on the surface before. The plan now was to go to the Red Triangle but when we arrived at the Y/G Crossover, there were no tracks ahead.
I was getting pretty tired by now and had fallen a number of times. As I worked my way up the Y/G Crossover, I remembered the time that Sadie had run away from me around there. At some point in here I was thinking that someday my luck is going to run out and they're going to find me up there. When I reached the high point on the crossover, I called home because I was afraid they might be wondering where I was. They weren't concerned and I said I would be home soon, now that it was all downhill.
The trip down was harder than I expected but we got to the Yellow lookout and I took in the view for a bit. As we started off, I hit the only spot all day that the ice coating was impenetrable and it caught me off guard. I went down like a few other times, with my bare hands into deep snow. It had been so warm when we started out and I was pretty well heated up after the workout, but I only had a light sweatshirt on.
A little way down the trail, Sadie started wagging her tail and running ahead. I thought she was just excited to be in familiar territory but then I saw a head cresting the next rise. It was a lone hiker, I later realized it was the guy who always parks near our house. We talked for some time and then Sadie and I headed home.
I think the whole hike took us over an hour and a half. The conditions were better than expected in that it wasn't as impassable as I expected in my earlier post but the unpredictable one foot punching through the snow had me off-balance a lot of the time. Also, all the deep snow stepping had filled both boots with snow which was now water. When I got inside, I poured the water out of the boots.
It had been tiring but it was a super hike.
Tough Time for Hikes
This has been a brutal winter. We've had more snow than ever and also very low temperatures. The trails have become packed snow paths surrounded by deep snow that is impossible to walk through. And now we've had some warmer precipitation which has frozen on top of the snow so snowshoeing won't work either.
On Saturday, February 5th, I managed to get up to the trail from the house following my own frozen footsteps with the aid of grips attached to the bottom of my boots. It was very still and quiet up there except for the sound of ice breaking off of the trees as the sun melted it. Farther up the sounds got louder as the ice fell all around us, sometimes very close to where we were walking. It would crash to the icy surface of the snow and then slide down the frozen hillside with a roaring noise.
We made it up to the Yellow lookout but there was a light rain so we couldn't see far from up there before the trees and houses below were erased by the fog and low clouds. I thought about hiking from there out to Chestnut but was dissuaded from doing so by a phone call home.
So we worked our way back down, possibly for the last time in days. Today when I attempted our simple morning walk, the warmer weather had melted the icy footprints enough that sometimes you would crash through into the deeper snow below and sometimes you would be unable to make a dent of any kind, leaving you no traction at all. By the time I made it to the main path, I could see that it would be no use to try to go farther. Sadie has her claws to grip the path and was up ahead, wondering why I wasn't following her. I looked at the frozen path and could see that the more consistently packed trail had been frozen solid. Without some kind of serious crampons or something more substantial than what I had on my boots, I was not going anywhere.
So I may be signing off for awhile. Spring can't come soon enough - although I'm a little concerned about where all this frozen water is going to go.
On Saturday, February 5th, I managed to get up to the trail from the house following my own frozen footsteps with the aid of grips attached to the bottom of my boots. It was very still and quiet up there except for the sound of ice breaking off of the trees as the sun melted it. Farther up the sounds got louder as the ice fell all around us, sometimes very close to where we were walking. It would crash to the icy surface of the snow and then slide down the frozen hillside with a roaring noise.
We made it up to the Yellow lookout but there was a light rain so we couldn't see far from up there before the trees and houses below were erased by the fog and low clouds. I thought about hiking from there out to Chestnut but was dissuaded from doing so by a phone call home.
So we worked our way back down, possibly for the last time in days. Today when I attempted our simple morning walk, the warmer weather had melted the icy footprints enough that sometimes you would crash through into the deeper snow below and sometimes you would be unable to make a dent of any kind, leaving you no traction at all. By the time I made it to the main path, I could see that it would be no use to try to go farther. Sadie has her claws to grip the path and was up ahead, wondering why I wasn't following her. I looked at the frozen path and could see that the more consistently packed trail had been frozen solid. Without some kind of serious crampons or something more substantial than what I had on my boots, I was not going anywhere.
So I may be signing off for awhile. Spring can't come soon enough - although I'm a little concerned about where all this frozen water is going to go.
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