Started our trip on the AT at the junction of Highway 7 & 112 in Connecticut on Friday morning. It was beautiful but crisp weather. This part of the hike (we were hiking north) included Great Falls, and boy was that waterfall just gushing!! It was incredible and the snow around it and the hoar on the river trees were beautiful. We plowed along, hitting Rand’s View. Rand’s View was such a surprise to me…I wasn’t expecting such an opening on the trail -- we stood on the edge of a field of snow and saw the mountains to the north of us. It was breathtaking. There was some snow on the trail, making it a bit slippery, but not too bad. We stayed at Plateau Campsite that night, but no fires were allowed. It was 16* at 9 pm….not sure how cold it ended up dropping to that night.
We awoke to snow falling, which was quite a surprise since the forecast had called for 0 precipitation. Got our tents and backpacks together by 9:30 am (it was tough to get out of our warm sleeping bags!) and hit the trail. Went up Lion’s Head but weren’t able to see anything due to the snow and being so socked in. After hiking past Giant’s Thumb (that was pretty cool) we hit some crazy trail conditions. The laurels were hanging over the trail, heavy w/ snow and the trail itself had about 6 inches of snow on it. It almost looked as though no one had been through there in weeks….it was a winter wonderland but very exhausting, I was glad I wasn‘t the trail blazer.
We finished our hike up by heading off the AT on the Undermountain Trail. That trail was well used so we almost sprinted the last 2 miles since it seemed so easy.
Great first overnight winter trip! Can’t wait to hit Bear Mountain next (trying to section hike the northeastern AT).
Pics (wished I'd gotten more):
Lion's Head/AT pics
We awoke to snow falling, which was quite a surprise since the forecast had called for 0 precipitation. Got our tents and backpacks together by 9:30 am (it was tough to get out of our warm sleeping bags!) and hit the trail. Went up Lion’s Head but weren’t able to see anything due to the snow and being so socked in. After hiking past Giant’s Thumb (that was pretty cool) we hit some crazy trail conditions. The laurels were hanging over the trail, heavy w/ snow and the trail itself had about 6 inches of snow on it. It almost looked as though no one had been through there in weeks….it was a winter wonderland but very exhausting, I was glad I wasn‘t the trail blazer.
We finished our hike up by heading off the AT on the Undermountain Trail. That trail was well used so we almost sprinted the last 2 miles since it seemed so easy.
Great first overnight winter trip! Can’t wait to hit Bear Mountain next (trying to section hike the northeastern AT).
Pics (wished I'd gotten more):
Lion's Head/AT pics
