gaiagirl
New member
Jim Frati, his 12 year old daughter Nicole and I had planned to backpack this past weekend, possibly doing part of Franconia Ridge heading up Falling Waters and staying at campsites and/or shelters along the way. We met in North Conway around 10AM Saturday amid pouring rain but decided to drive a bit and think about something that might be doable considering the weather and the upcoming forecast for rapidly dropping temperatures and howling wind the following day. We settled on the idea that we could head up to bag Cannon and plan to go over to Lonesome Lake so we could avoid taking all of our gear by staying at the hut.
Driving over to Franconia Notch things did not look inspiring. It was raining harder and the wind was pushing it sideways in addition. Jim left it up to us what we wanted to do, so we went inside the Lodge at the Cannon Tramway and waited until 1PM to see if the weather would clear a bit. At 1 oclock nothing much had changed and we were ready to go and all decided we would try to bag Cannon as a day hike at the very least the wet messy weather be damned. So, we drove over to the far lot at the Kinsman Ridge Trail and began our hike around 1:25PM.
For the first 20 minutes of our hike, the trail was simply packed snow, though somewhat soft on top. As we began to hit the slope in the trail, however, the trail became slushy brook for the most part
!!! Water was simply gushing from the slopes, it looked for all the world like spring thaw in the mountains and I marvelled to think that this was mid-January!! What challenging winter conditions. I am getting more and more experience with winter hiking as every week passes, but I still consider myself a novice --- But here is something I have known for a while, borne out by this past weekend's experience ---- cold = GOOD, warm = BAD .... and snow = GOOD, rain = BAD when it comes to winter hiking!!! ....LOL
Not much more to report so far as our ascent goes, except to say that my boots were nice and waterproof .... for the first 40 minutes or so of hiking in those slushy streams .... and then they saturated and just weren't anymore!!! LOL .... I'm not sure anything outside of a double plastic would have been so i'm not too upset, but i'm gonna NIkwax the hell out of these things today, for certain! We made it up to the top in about 2.5 hours ... Nicole wasn't feeling perfect but she soldiered on like the tough little trooper she is, not even batting an eye when we got to the Tram on top and found the snack bar (and everything else) closed .... No chicken fingers on the top on this day, sadly .
We decided to come down the fastest, easiest and most fun way we possibly could. Yes, for a good part of the way we SLID on our backsides down the deserted ski slopes. Speaking for myself, it was the most fun I have had in quite some time. I would say it took us not much more than a half hour to get down. The fast part was good but the fun part was better; I haven't giggled uncontrollably in a long time, but that was the feeling, and I hope I get to have it again soon.
The next day I was feeling utterly miserable, so opted not to try for Willey, Field and Tom. The temp had dipped and wind had picked up in N. Conway but it wasn't terrible yet. As I drove the Kanc though, the summits looked awful .... wind-whipped snow and freezing fog, or so it appeared. Jim went out and bagged Willey and reported that the wind was like a freight train. I woke yesterday thinking I might try to Join Poison Ivy and friends for the Tripyramids, but I wasn't sure I was over this sinus infection, so I decided to try to bag something small alone instead. I went out Tecumseh with my pathetic thinly-lined Sorrels since my new Montrails were STILL damp .... I hiked about an hour in perfect blue sky but very COLD beauty before I turned around. I'm praying to the weather gods now that the coming weekend will bring more blue skies and cold temperatures so I can venture out there for more fun and views and peace soon .
Driving over to Franconia Notch things did not look inspiring. It was raining harder and the wind was pushing it sideways in addition. Jim left it up to us what we wanted to do, so we went inside the Lodge at the Cannon Tramway and waited until 1PM to see if the weather would clear a bit. At 1 oclock nothing much had changed and we were ready to go and all decided we would try to bag Cannon as a day hike at the very least the wet messy weather be damned. So, we drove over to the far lot at the Kinsman Ridge Trail and began our hike around 1:25PM.
For the first 20 minutes of our hike, the trail was simply packed snow, though somewhat soft on top. As we began to hit the slope in the trail, however, the trail became slushy brook for the most part
!!! Water was simply gushing from the slopes, it looked for all the world like spring thaw in the mountains and I marvelled to think that this was mid-January!! What challenging winter conditions. I am getting more and more experience with winter hiking as every week passes, but I still consider myself a novice --- But here is something I have known for a while, borne out by this past weekend's experience ---- cold = GOOD, warm = BAD .... and snow = GOOD, rain = BAD when it comes to winter hiking!!! ....LOL Not much more to report so far as our ascent goes, except to say that my boots were nice and waterproof .... for the first 40 minutes or so of hiking in those slushy streams .... and then they saturated and just weren't anymore!!! LOL .... I'm not sure anything outside of a double plastic would have been so i'm not too upset, but i'm gonna NIkwax the hell out of these things today, for certain! We made it up to the top in about 2.5 hours ... Nicole wasn't feeling perfect but she soldiered on like the tough little trooper she is, not even batting an eye when we got to the Tram on top and found the snack bar (and everything else) closed .... No chicken fingers on the top on this day, sadly
. We decided to come down the fastest, easiest and most fun way we possibly could. Yes, for a good part of the way we SLID on our backsides down the deserted ski slopes. Speaking for myself, it was the most fun I have had in quite some time. I would say it took us not much more than a half hour to get down. The fast part was good but the fun part was better; I haven't giggled uncontrollably in a long time, but that was the feeling, and I hope I get to have it again soon.
The next day I was feeling utterly miserable, so opted not to try for Willey, Field and Tom. The temp had dipped and wind had picked up in N. Conway but it wasn't terrible yet. As I drove the Kanc though, the summits looked awful .... wind-whipped snow and freezing fog, or so it appeared. Jim went out and bagged Willey and reported that the wind was like a freight train. I woke yesterday thinking I might try to Join Poison Ivy and friends for the Tripyramids, but I wasn't sure I was over this sinus infection, so I decided to try to bag something small alone instead. I went out Tecumseh with my pathetic thinly-lined Sorrels since my new Montrails were STILL damp .... I hiked about an hour in perfect blue sky but very COLD beauty before I turned around. I'm praying to the weather gods now that the coming weekend will bring more blue skies and cold temperatures so I can venture out there for more fun and views and peace soon
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