Damselfly
New member
Great day today. Steve and I, Karen & Ken Robichaud (KRobi), Bill Magyar, Tom Caldwell, Tom Cedrone and Heather Herman (Umsaskis) met up to hike PaN.
From the end of Little River Road, we took the standard route N to S route along the spine of the ridge (versus taking the steep rocky route that comes up from the east).
As has been well described in other posts: cross the bridge; go straight, following the snomo trail; after 15 minutes emerge on Haystack Rd and turn R; immediately on L is a Fire Road blocked by 3 large boulders; after 5 minutes, take first R onto an overgrown logging road; this leads to an old clear cut now overgrown with hobble bush and saplings; follow the herd path through the middle of this mess coming out to the edge of the woods; aim uphill but slightly to the R to avoid hitting the rocky bands; follow the spine of the ridge.
The woods were open and beautiful. We hit two small spruce bands (finding the lower portion of Tom's hiking pole that he lost in October!); but on the way down we skirted around one of them. At about 3400' you can see evidence of the route that descends down the steep rocky cliffs to the east.
I hadn't been up there in years, and I forgot that the rest of the journey followed a herd path / roughly maintained trail.
It was easy hiking today. We weren't sure how much rain versus snow they had received up there... and we found consolidated / crusty snow. We used snowshoes climbing, but switched to microspikes or bare-booted partway down.
But the day was not over when the hike ended. It turns out that Tom Cedrone is neighbors with Ray and Joan Chaput! I asked Tom if he would introduce us! And so we ended the afternoon with a real nice visit at the Chaput home. Ray regaled us with hiking tales... and we talked at length about the Cohos Trail. And Joan showed us some wildlife photos taken from their deck.
What a great day
Heather, Tom, Ken, Beth, Karen, Tom, Steve, Bill
Beth Zimmer
btzimr at gmail dot com
From the end of Little River Road, we took the standard route N to S route along the spine of the ridge (versus taking the steep rocky route that comes up from the east).
As has been well described in other posts: cross the bridge; go straight, following the snomo trail; after 15 minutes emerge on Haystack Rd and turn R; immediately on L is a Fire Road blocked by 3 large boulders; after 5 minutes, take first R onto an overgrown logging road; this leads to an old clear cut now overgrown with hobble bush and saplings; follow the herd path through the middle of this mess coming out to the edge of the woods; aim uphill but slightly to the R to avoid hitting the rocky bands; follow the spine of the ridge.
The woods were open and beautiful. We hit two small spruce bands (finding the lower portion of Tom's hiking pole that he lost in October!); but on the way down we skirted around one of them. At about 3400' you can see evidence of the route that descends down the steep rocky cliffs to the east.
I hadn't been up there in years, and I forgot that the rest of the journey followed a herd path / roughly maintained trail.
It was easy hiking today. We weren't sure how much rain versus snow they had received up there... and we found consolidated / crusty snow. We used snowshoes climbing, but switched to microspikes or bare-booted partway down.
But the day was not over when the hike ended. It turns out that Tom Cedrone is neighbors with Ray and Joan Chaput! I asked Tom if he would introduce us! And so we ended the afternoon with a real nice visit at the Chaput home. Ray regaled us with hiking tales... and we talked at length about the Cohos Trail. And Joan showed us some wildlife photos taken from their deck.
What a great day
Heather, Tom, Ken, Beth, Karen, Tom, Steve, Bill
Beth Zimmer
btzimr at gmail dot com
