peak_bgr
New member
This was quite a nice hike, and a very fast one as well-I had forgotten just how easy this 14+ mile hike is. Nancy (highonlife) and I started out from Upper Works pretty early under the dim light of a pair of headlamps-it was about 6am. We had the entire parking lot to our selves, so we opted to use the VIP parking right nest to the gate. It was a little cold at the start but as usual it wasn't long before a layer came off. We had to don our snowshoes right off for stability and most of all traction. We set a decent pace, nothing to fast, it really hard to talk and walk at the same time. ;-)
At just under 8am we were at Flowed Lands and Nancy brought up the fact we could easily walk over Flowed Lands and skip the ups and down of the next section of trail (looked to be barely touched). GREAT IDEA! We could see a little of where people had been in spots but the other 99% of the time we had to break trail across. It was uneventful all the way past the cliff face-which by the way has pretty amazing ice formations. Just past that we entered the inlet and had to battle 3-4 inches of slush under 3-5 inches of snow. Needless to say the snowshoes got pretty heavy for about 20-30 feet. Then before we knew it we were at the bridge.
The climb was a piece of cake-hard pack under a couple inches of powder, most of the broken path was right in the stream which is totally frozen with no issues. The higher we got the tall I got, at least that’s how it felt as my pack grabbed every tree that was hanging over the trail, and in the same motion dumping numerous giant marshmallow shaped balls of snow on my head.
The summit was socked in but the silhouette of Iroquois and Shepherd’s Tooth was all that was to be seen. A few summit shots and down out of the wind we glissaded. It was very fast back out; we followed our same route, even through the slush. Back at the car at 1:45 pm. Great hike and a real pleasure meeting Nancy and hiking with her for the first time. MacIntyre’s are next.
At just under 8am we were at Flowed Lands and Nancy brought up the fact we could easily walk over Flowed Lands and skip the ups and down of the next section of trail (looked to be barely touched). GREAT IDEA! We could see a little of where people had been in spots but the other 99% of the time we had to break trail across. It was uneventful all the way past the cliff face-which by the way has pretty amazing ice formations. Just past that we entered the inlet and had to battle 3-4 inches of slush under 3-5 inches of snow. Needless to say the snowshoes got pretty heavy for about 20-30 feet. Then before we knew it we were at the bridge.
The climb was a piece of cake-hard pack under a couple inches of powder, most of the broken path was right in the stream which is totally frozen with no issues. The higher we got the tall I got, at least that’s how it felt as my pack grabbed every tree that was hanging over the trail, and in the same motion dumping numerous giant marshmallow shaped balls of snow on my head.
The summit was socked in but the silhouette of Iroquois and Shepherd’s Tooth was all that was to be seen. A few summit shots and down out of the wind we glissaded. It was very fast back out; we followed our same route, even through the slush. Back at the car at 1:45 pm. Great hike and a real pleasure meeting Nancy and hiking with her for the first time. MacIntyre’s are next.
