Little Sister
New member
Meb and I meet Andy at Sawyer Rd at 9am. Shortly after, Cold Mountain pulled in and to our great surprise was joining us for our hike! We were all so happy to see an old hiking friend.
We started up the road a little after 9 and made it to the trailhead right around 10. Right away we saw the trail was not broken out and there was about 2 feet of fresh snow. Of course Meb was thrilled to do some trail breaking, Andy started complaining about how difficult this hike was going to be, I ate fig newtons and Pete, I think he just quietly wondered what he'd gotten himself into!
Following the river we saw what we concluded to be otter tracks. This was very cool, it looked like whatever the animal, it was having a very fun time playing in the snow. The river crossings were all manageable.
The initial few miles are fairly flat and the going was good. However, we came to the up part quite soon, and this is where the real work started. We all took turns breaking trail and flinging snow off branches. Andy continued to worry that we couldn't possibly make it to the top in these conditions....but Meb just told him to adjust his attitude and he'd be fine. She had made this summit a few years earlier on what was an epic day bagging Skimoms 48th. If the summit was reached on that day, then there was no way we couldn't get it today!
Eventually we made it to the switchbacks, through a bazillion branches, we walked like we were all hunchbacks. Even bending forward, none of us escaped getting a face whack at some point. Finally on the ridge, we used Mebs jacket as a beacon to guide us over the open area, and safely made it into the woods. Some of us dropped packs on the ridge, others made cell phone calls...but we all just kept moving along. We reached the summit right around 3. We called in an order for 2 large pizzas from the summit, then made our way back to our cars.
I have never been more happy to see a road, and as much as I complain about "roadwalks", I finally was able to appreciate the branch free and packed outness that they offer! We were back at the cars a bit after 6.
An excellent adventure! Ended with a warm home thanks to Cath and some yummy pizza thanks to Steven for delivering and Andy for buying!
We started up the road a little after 9 and made it to the trailhead right around 10. Right away we saw the trail was not broken out and there was about 2 feet of fresh snow. Of course Meb was thrilled to do some trail breaking, Andy started complaining about how difficult this hike was going to be, I ate fig newtons and Pete, I think he just quietly wondered what he'd gotten himself into!
Following the river we saw what we concluded to be otter tracks. This was very cool, it looked like whatever the animal, it was having a very fun time playing in the snow. The river crossings were all manageable.
The initial few miles are fairly flat and the going was good. However, we came to the up part quite soon, and this is where the real work started. We all took turns breaking trail and flinging snow off branches. Andy continued to worry that we couldn't possibly make it to the top in these conditions....but Meb just told him to adjust his attitude and he'd be fine. She had made this summit a few years earlier on what was an epic day bagging Skimoms 48th. If the summit was reached on that day, then there was no way we couldn't get it today!
Eventually we made it to the switchbacks, through a bazillion branches, we walked like we were all hunchbacks. Even bending forward, none of us escaped getting a face whack at some point. Finally on the ridge, we used Mebs jacket as a beacon to guide us over the open area, and safely made it into the woods. Some of us dropped packs on the ridge, others made cell phone calls...but we all just kept moving along. We reached the summit right around 3. We called in an order for 2 large pizzas from the summit, then made our way back to our cars.
I have never been more happy to see a road, and as much as I complain about "roadwalks", I finally was able to appreciate the branch free and packed outness that they offer! We were back at the cars a bit after 6.
An excellent adventure! Ended with a warm home thanks to Cath and some yummy pizza thanks to Steven for delivering and Andy for buying!
